Page 51 of The Pop-Up Cake Shop

At last, the final piece of crockery wrapped up and placed in a box, we were ready to transport them all across to Bogg House.

Knowing Ellie would be late back, Zak had apparently taken Maisie out for pizza at the local Italian, so we were planning to dine in on Rosie’s two portions of Thai curry.

‘I’m sure it’ll be good,’ said Ellie, on the drive over. ‘But if not, I’ve got half a large cottage pie in the fridge from last night and I could steam some vegetables to go with it?’

‘Lovely.’

She fished out her phone. ‘Plenty of time,’ she murmured.

‘For what?’

‘Oh, sorry, didn’t I say? Caleb’s coming over to look at the house tonight.’

‘Tonight?’ I flashed her a wary look. If I’d known that, maybe I wouldn’t have been quite so keen to go over to Bogg House for curry. But I was committed now.

Hopefully we’d be able to have dinner before Caleb arrived...

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Maisie-Moo, the family collie, gave us a rapturous greeting as we unloaded the boxes and took them into the new house. Patting her and giving her head a good old scratch, I thought again how lovely it would be to have a dog.

Rosie’s food turned out to be a revelation.

‘This is definitely restaurant standard,’ said Ellie, as we demolished the fragrant Thai curry with a portion of basmati rice each, sitting at the table in her gorgeous new kitchen diner.

My mouth was full so I could only nod in firm agreement.

It really was delicious.

‘I don’t know what she did before she had Amelie,’ said Ellie, ‘but I’m sure she could make a living out of cooking.’

‘She definitely could.’

When we finished, I ordered Ellie into the living room to relax, and I was clearing up in the kitchen when the doorbell rang.

My heart sank.

Caleb!

‘I’ll go,’ I called, not wanting to disturb Ellie, and I could already feel the awkward heat rising into my cheeks as I went to the door.

If this was Ivan, I’d be totally relaxed and expecting some silly banter. But joking like that with Caleb wasn’t possible somehow.

Why did he make me feel souncomfortable?

Maybe it wasn’t Caleb at all. A neighbour delivering a parcel, perhaps? Except Ellie’s nearest neighbour was the farmer a mile or so up the road...

All these thoughts flashed through my brain as I opened the door.

ItwasCaleb.

I pasted on a smile. ‘Hi, there. Come in. I’ll get Ellie for you.’

Leaving him there, I called out in an overly cheery voice, ‘Ellie, it’s Caleb!’ I made a dash for the living room and almost knocked Ellie flying as she was coming out.

‘Oops, sorry.’ I steadied her.

She chuckled. ‘It’s fine.’ Over my shoulder, she smiled at her visitor. ‘Caleb. Thanks so much for coming over.’

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