Page 60 of Falling in Love at Pennycress Inn

‘Argh, I can’t believe I’ve just said that out loud. I mean, why does he have to be the one who moves here? Yes, he has the farm. He could just stay on at Little Mead, quit his job in London, sell his apartment, and he’d be sorted. But I could do the same, couldn’t I? I could move to London. I can get another job, another place to rent. I’m just being selfish to even think it.’ She slumped her back against the bench.

‘No, you’re not being selfish. Please don’t ever think that. You’re the least selfish person I know.’ Laura pulled a tissue from her pocket and passed it across to Nicola.

‘Thanks.’ Taking the tissue, she unfolded it and dabbed at her eyes. ‘I am selfish, though. Nathan would agree with me there. He turned up the other day asking – no, demanding, half the furniture in the cottage.’

Laura raised her eyebrow. ‘Oh yes, because he’s the one that cheated and ran off with your ex-best friend and you’re the selfish one.’

Nicola laughed, a small, tinny laugh. ‘Now, when you put it like that…’

‘Exactly. And as for Charlie, it’s normal to think like this. You want him close? You want to give the relationship you have with him the best chance possible. You’re just thinking of solutions, you’re not being selfish.’

‘Thanks.’ Straightening her back, Nicola folded the damp tissue. ‘You won’t say anything to him, will you?’

‘No, of course I won’t. You know you can trust me.’

‘I know.’ She turned to Laura and indicated her face. ‘Do I look like I’ve been crying?’

Taking the tissue from Nicola’s hand, Laura dabbed at a spot beneath her left eye before shaking her head. ‘You’re all good. Shall we head back inside?’

‘Yes, okay.’ Standing up, Nicola linked arms with Laura as they walked back inside. Maybe she should give some serious thought to moving to London with Charlie?

31

‘Are you sure you don’t want me to stay on to give you a hand? I feel awful leaving you like this.’ Standing in the middle of the Pennycress kitchen, Nicola looked around her. Crammed onto every tabletop and inch of work surface were strewn the contents of the cupboards: crockery, spices, tins, packets of food. Everything you could imagine should be stored in a kitchen filled every available space.

‘Nope, you go. Escape while you can.’ Laura laughed as she leaned against the work surface, a large saucepan in one hand and a packet of pasta in the other. ‘And I’d run before you find the doorway blocked by packets of cereal.’

Nicola looked from Laura to Jackson, who was busy cleaning out the cupboard nearest the kitchen door.

‘Honestly go. We’ve got this under control.’ Jackson smiled at her, a cloth in one hand and a jar of salt in the other.

‘Okay.’ Grimacing, Nicola backed away, however guilty she felt in leaving them, she was also grateful to be spared an evening of overtime, cleaning out cupboards. Ever since Jackson had moved in, he’d been itching to rearrange the kitchen, but she hadn’t realised his idea of rearranging would be quite so intense and she didn’t think Laura had either. Maybe it was a chef thing?

‘If we don’t answer the door in the morning, send a sniffer dog, Nic. We’ll likely have been crushed by the baked beans or trapped in the spaghetti or something,’ Laura called after her.

Jackson chuckled. ‘Give me an hour and it’ll all be sorted.’

Nicola laughed as she closed the front door behind her. For some reason, today had been a long day. It wasn’t as though she’d had any extra work to do or anything pressing to deal with. In fact, now the Landownes’ wedding was over and the carnival too, things had gone back to normal. All she could think was it was because she hadn’t been sleeping that well, tossing and turning until late. Part of the reason being that she and Charlie had slipped into the comfortable routine of spending time together every evening, and the other part was simply the fact she was taking longer to actually get to sleep than she normally did.

Up until recently, she used to be able to fall asleep within minutes of her head hitting the pillow – even during her break-up from Nathan she’d been able to sleep – but now, every time she closed her eyes, her dreams were empty. She was struggling to picture a future with Charlie. A future where a long-distance relationship could work out.

Each time she convinced herself, his voice would echo in the back of her mind, reminding her that his previous relationship had ended due to both of them working too many hours, due to lack of time together. How was their relationship supposed to overcome that same issue when they were over a hundred miles apart?

And when she did eventually fall into a deep slumber, she’d wake up hours later, not quite being able to recall why, but deep down knowing she must have been dreaming about her and Charlie’s relationship failing.

Clicking the wrought-iron gate at the end of the front garden closed, Nicola snapped her head up as she heard her name being called. It was Jill pushing a sleepy Kasey in his buggy. Holding her hand up in a wave, she waited until she’d caught up with her. ‘Hi, Jill.’

‘Hi, I was hoping I’d catch you.’ Peering over the handle and hood of the buggy to the child inside, Jill sighed and carried on pushing it back and forth. ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you. I’m trying to get this horror off to sleep. Willow has some friends over for a sleepover and so he’s refusing to settle, knowing there’s more exciting things such as eating popcorn and painting each other’s nails going on downstairs, so I’ve left Gerald at home and we’re off on a long walk. Isn’t that right, Kasey?’

Kasey turned, burying his face in the knitted dog toy he was holding.

‘Aw, good luck with that.’

‘Haha, I think I’ll need it. I’ve already lapped the village twice.’

Nicola smiled. She didn’t know how Jill did it. She was always so calm despite juggling a million things.

‘Anyway, I’m glad I’ve caught you. One, because now I don’t have to walk on my own, and two, because I was going to check with you if you think Charlie will be happy for me to come and collect all the carnival paraphernalia sometime this week.’

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