Page 108 of Best Summer Ever

‘Dinner,’ said Dad. ‘You won’t have time to stop for lunch today.’

‘I might if you stay and help me,’ I suggested, then a thought occurred. ‘Please don’t tell me Mum’s cooking a roast today – it’s sweltering.’

‘No,’ Dad said, with a wry smile. ‘She’s not.’

‘Thank goodness for that.’

‘Algy is.’

‘What?’ I squawked.

‘He and Josh are cooking a Sunday roast together. Algy reckons it’s high time his grandson was reacquainted with a proper Sunday dinner like he would have eaten here when he was little.’

I rather liked the thought of Josh and Algy cooking together, but not in the middle of a boiling August day.

‘I’ll have sweet peas in my posy, please,’ said the Austen fan, who had now exhausted the Colonel Brandon topic. ‘And some Alchemilla too.’

‘I better get on,’ I said to Dad. ‘Otherwise my dinner will turn into supper.’

‘And I will help,’ said Dad, who always had his secateurs somewhere about him. ‘Just until we’ve cleared this queue.’

I was exhausted by the end of the afternoon and especially relieved that Wynbrook Blooms was going to be closed for the next couple of days, because by the time I locked the garden gate, there was barely a flower left. Hopefully, between then and Wednesday, there would be enough coming through for me to crop again.

‘All right?’ said Dad, who had been inspecting the greenhouses and checking the watering system was correctly set up to cope with the extra hot weather.

‘Knackered,’ I declared, as I swigged down the last of the water from one of the bottles I’d filled earlier. ‘And ready for my dinner, even though I said earlier it would be too hot to eat it. Who else has been invited?’

‘Me and your mum, obviously,’ said Dad. ‘And Nick and Penny.’

‘A select gathering,’ I mused.

I realised then that the meal would doubtless be the moment that Algy and Josh told everyone else what Josh had told me.

‘You’re doing such a good job here, my love,’ Dad then thrilled me by saying as he looked around.

‘Do you really think so?’ I swallowed.

‘Yes,’ he said with feeling. ‘I really do.’

‘Thank you.’ I nodded, feeling choked. ‘I can’t tell you how much I’m loving it, Dad. I’d been looking for something to fulfil me for so long and I found it right on our doorstep.’

‘Where it had always been,’ said Dad, sounding upset. ‘I never should have blocked your way before, Daisy. I’m so sorry.’

‘All water under the bridge,’ I insisted, because it was time for us to move on. ‘All I’m interested in now is making this project a success.’

It was on the tip of my tongue to share the ideas I had come up with, but just like Josh had said about his, they needed further thought and running past Algy first.

‘I think it already is a success,’ said Dad, looking around again. ‘But I hope there’ll be more to offer your customers by Wednesday.’

‘Me too,’ I laughed.

‘I should have known you were destined to have your hands in the soil when I picked your name, shouldn’t I?’ Dad carried on contentedly, as he led the way towards the path that would take me back to the summerhouse and a cool shower.

‘You picked my name?’

‘I did,’ Dad chuckled. ‘A portent if ever there was one.’

‘A bit like yours,’ I laughed. ‘There’s always a Robin somewhere about the garden.’

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