Page 77 of A Forever Home at Honey Bee Croft

I nodded. ‘I never thought I’d find someone like you and, now that I have, I don’t want to let you go. If your home needs to be in Scotland, then so does mine.’

30

JOEL

I stared at Poppy, my heart racing. ‘You mean that?’

‘Every word.’

‘But you love it here.’

‘I do, but there are other places, other houses, other farms. Are there other Joels? Other Imogens?’ She shook her head. ‘I think the pair of you are unique.’

She’d included Imogen. She’d unconditionally accepted that we came as a two-for-one deal and that my future had to be where my daughter was. I already knew I was falling in love with Poppy, but those feelings switched up a gear.

‘You’re pretty unique yourself,’ I said, drawing her into a kiss.

How amazing was she to be willing to give up on her dreams to be with me? I didn’t want her to have to do that. I wanted her to have Whisperwood Farmhouse, to be the Bumblebee Barn beekeeper, to spend time with my friends who’d welcomed her into the fold. It gave me renewed strength for my solicitor’s appointment. For Poppy and for Imogen, I was going to fight Tilly so hard. Imogenwouldget to stay with her friends and Poppywouldfulfil her dreams.

We lay cuddled up on the sofa for a while. I gazed into the flames flickering in the log burner thinking how homely Whisperwood Farmhouse felt. I’d had my place decorated after Tilly moved in but hadn’t done anything with it since. She’d made it all cosy with pictures, candles, cushions and throws which she’d taken with her and I’d never replaced. Nineteen Conifer Close was a house but it wasn’t a home, and I hadn’t realised that until now. It wasn’t right that a holiday cottage could feel more like a home than my own place. No wonder Poppy had fallen in love with the farmhouse.

‘Any update on Chez?’ Poppy asked after a while.

‘Not yet. I tried ringing Mum on the way here but there was no answer.’

‘Why don’t you call her now for a quick check-in? I bought some hot chocolate in Bloomsberry’s earlier. I can make us some while you’re doing that.’

Mum answered this time and said they’d spent most of the day with Chez and he was embarrassed by the way he’d spoken to me and extremely sorry about throwing the bottle.

‘He doesn’t know what possessed him and he promises he wasn’t aiming at you.’

I wasn’t going to contradict her. The more I replayed it in my head, the more convinced I was that hehadmeant for the bottle to hit me. I put that down to his drunken state as I couldn’t imagine him doing that sober, no matter how angry he was, but I wasn’t going to make an issue of it. I also wasn’t going to make an issue of the fact that he could have phoned or messaged me to say sorry himself. Sending a message via Mum hardly smacked of sincerity – it was simply another sign of how immature my brother really was.

Mum said they looked forward to spending the day with me on Wednesday. Chez had agreed to join us and they’d mediate if necessary. If he didn’t take the opportunity to apologise tome in person then, the mediation would definitely be needed as I wasn’t going to let him get away with it. Drunk or not, his behaviour had been completely unacceptable, and I was sick of people walking all over me just because I was the nice bloke. It didn’t mean I was also a pushover. I wasn’t accepting any more crap from him, and I wasn’t accepting it from Tilly either.

‘Your dad’s spoken to him about Portugal but it’s still a no,’ Mum said. ‘He’s convinced he’ll get back with Lorna once she calms down and accepts his apology.’

‘Seriously? I know I keep saying this, but how many times can you keep breaking up before you accept it doesn’t work?’

‘We’ve said the same thing, but he’s convinced he knows best.’

‘Didn’t she say it was for good this time?’ I vividly remembered him hurling that at me as though it was my fault.

‘Apparently she’s said that before.’ Mum sighed. ‘We’ll just have to see what happens.’

As we finished the call, Poppy appeared with the drinks and I filled her in on the conversation with Mum.

‘It sounds like you get on well with your parents,’ she said. ‘The problems from the restaurant didn’t cause any lasting damage?’

‘I left before they could. There were a couple of tricky months but then it was back to normal. They’re both great and I really miss them, but we speak regularly and have lots of video calls.’ I sipped on my hot chocolate and smiled approvingly. ‘You said something about your parents at the wedding – about them not wanting children – but then you changed the subject. If you want to talk about it…’

She held my gaze for a few moments before nodding. ‘You know what? I think I do. The woman I call Mum – Joy Wells – was really my great-aunt. The woman who gave birth to me was called Evie Miller and she was Mum’s niece, daughter of herolder brother. Evie discovered she was pregnant when she was sixteen but she’d already split up with my birth dad by then. She was an only child and her parents were incredibly protective and strict with her. Despite that, they had a good relationship but she knew they’d hit the roof when they found out. She tried to keep it secret, but horrendous sickness put paid to that and, as predicted, they went berserk. They forced her to tell them who the father was and marched her round to his house demanding hedo the right thingand marry her. His parents were really strict too so they were of the same mind, but Evie refused to marry someone she didn’t love. Her parents gave her an ultimatum – marry him before I was born and they might play a small role in her life, or leave home and never see them again. Evie couldn’t believe they were so prehistoric in their attitudes or that they’d be so willing to cut her out of their lives, so she packed a bag and ran away. My parents were disgusted when they heard what had happened and they managed to find Evie and take her in.

‘A couple of weeks sleeping rough had taken its toll on her. Mum said she’d always been a vivacious child, full of fire, and it was as though somebody had blown out her spark. After I was born, Evie had severe post-natal depression. She’d managed to convince herself that her parents would forgive her and want to see their only grandchild and she asked Mum and Dad to invite them round, but they wanted nothing to do with her or me.’

‘That’s awful. She must have been devastated.’

‘She was. She slid further into depression and overdosed on her meds three times. Mum and Dad had made a choice not to have children but they became parents to her and to me.’

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