Page 25 of Falling in Love at Pennycress Inn

‘Okay. Catch you later.’ Jill knelt back down.

‘Yes, we’ve got that staff meeting at the pub this lunchtime, remember?’

Jill looked up at her, the trowel mid-air. ‘Ah, yes, it had completely slipped my mind.’

Nicola frowned before turning to the door. Wasn’t Jill as worried as she was? Once inside, she closed the door and walked across to the reception desk. She was no doubt overthinking things. Laura probably just thought it would be nice for them to have their meeting at the pub – a good excuse to get away for an hour or so and treat themselves to lunch, too. She’d have said if she was thinking of selling. And even if she hadn’t, then Nicola would surely have picked up on something, but, if anything, Laura had been happier than ever recently. Things were going well. Or they seemed to be.

‘Hi, Nic, you’ll never guess what happened this morning!’ Laura placed two mugs on the counter and pushed one across to Nicola.

‘Thanks.’ Picking up the mug, she inhaled the strong fragrance of coffee as her stomach grumbled. Thanks to Trixie pulling one of her middle-of-the-night hunting sessions and dragging a petrified bird through the cat flap at half-past three in the morning, Nicola hadn’t had time for her morning coffee, let alone any breakfast, after missing her alarm. Thankfully, with a little coaxing from Nicola, the bird had escaped unscathed bar a few tail feathers, but Trixie was still in her bad books nonetheless for disturbing her much-needed sleep. ‘What happened?’

‘I had another mouse incident, only this time it was a laptop charger which had got tangled in the bedsheets.’ Laura laughed. ‘I thought it was a snake at first.’

‘Haha. You would have thought someone would know they were missing a laptop charger when they packed up.’

‘Exactly! As soon as I found it, I rang Mr Tresend who had stayed last night and, luckily, he was only ten minutes away so managed to pop back and not be late for his meeting or wherever he was going.’ Laura sipped her coffee.

‘He must have left early then?’

‘Quarter to seven. I couldn’t even entice him with some of Jackson’s famous French toast!’

Nicola pulled a face before taking a drink of her coffee. How anyone could pass on Jackson’s French toast, she’d never know. Even the smell of the cinnamon and egg toast was enough to make her stomach rumble whether she’d eaten breakfast at home or not.

‘Remember, we’ve got the staff meeting at the pub this lunchtime? You’ll come, won’t you?’ Laura looked at her, her eyes flickering with an emotion Nicola couldn’t pinpoint.

She swallowed. ‘Yes, of course. I’ll be there.’

‘Good, good. Thanks.’ Laura picked up her mug again, cradling it in her hands. ‘I’m going to go and try to bake that fruitcake your mum gave me the recipe for. I say try, so I’ll apologise for the inevitable burning smell which will no doubt be coming from the kitchen in the next hour or so.’

Nicola smiled. ‘I’m sure you’ll do just fine.’

‘I doubt it, but I’m determined to learn.’ Grimacing, she turned and disappeared into the kitchen.

Bringing her mug to her lips, Nicola took a long sip. Laura wouldn’t be trying to learn how to bake if she was just going to sell Pennycress Inn, would she? But if she wasn’t going to sell, then what else could the staff meeting be about?

13

‘Here we go. A selection of picky bits from our menu.’ Jackson unloaded the tray he was holding and placed four plates brimming with sandwiches, mozzarella sticks, delicately decorated slices of a variety of cakes and small cookies in the middle of the table.

‘Ooh yum. Thanks.’ Nicola picked up the stack of plates at the end of the pub table and passed one each to Laura and Jill.

The pub was busy. Her mum’s book club occupied three tables at the back of the pub, whilst the other tables were seated by groups of people either enjoying their lunch or chatting over an early pint or two. Nicola looked across at Laura, who was loading her plate with sandwiches and mozzarella sticks and Jill, who had bypassed the plate and was instead sinking her teeth into a chargrilled vegetable and hummus sandwich. She laughed as a courgette slice slipped from between the bread towards the table, only to be rescued deftly by Jill.

‘Nowyouhave quick reflexes.’

Jill grinned and popped the courgette slice in her mouth. ‘That’s thanks to years of trying to stop the kids from dropping spaghetti hoops on the mother-in-law’s cream sofa.’

Laughing, Laura shook her head. ‘I can just picture you doing that.’

‘I still have no idea why she insists on not only feeding them something messy, like spaghetti hoops, but also letting them sit on the sofa while they eat it.’ Jill shook her head in disbelief. ‘I often wonder if she’s itching for one of them to spill something so she can make a claim on the house insurance.’

‘Oh, maybe.’ Laura took a sip of her orange juice.

‘Yes, it’s literally every single time we go round there. I mean, it’s not always spaghetti hoops. Last time, it was sticky chocolate cake; the time before, tomato soup.’ Jill rolled her eyes. ‘And the crazy thing is, the kids are happy sitting at the table. It’s not as though she’s giving in to a tantrum or anything.’

‘You’ll have to give them all bibs to wear.’ Laura laughed.

‘Good idea!’ Jill looked at Nicola, then nodded to the bar. ‘Isn’t that your farmer, Charlie?’

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