Page 50 of Meet me at the Seaside Cottages

‘Who put you in charge?’

‘What were you going to do?’

‘Slap some paint on.’

‘There’s six layers of wallpaper on there! And you have to plaster. Oh, and I have boiler news.’

‘What boiler news?’

‘There isn’t one. Did you checkanythingabout these properties before you took them on?’

‘There’s no boiler?’

‘Nope. An immersion heater, and a kettle.’

Dwight sucks his teeth in. ‘This sounds expensive.’

‘Yes, not costing things is very expensive.’

‘I think we’ll start with wallpaper.’

‘Urgks,’ says Wee Jim.

‘We’ve just been to the bakers, Jim,’ says Dwight, looking weary.

‘URGKS!’

‘Be right back,’ says Dwight, looking rather haunted.

Essie hears a noise at the bottom of the stairs and realises that Janey is coming up. ‘Hey?’ she says, scrambling to her feet. She is still holding Bute.

‘Don’t you get too attached to . . . ah,’ says Janey. ‘Am I thinking it’s too late?’

‘How’s Johnson?’ says Essie.

‘Ach, it’s a long road,’ says Janey. ‘But thanks for asking. And we have all had to promise to give up salt in everything, and it’s making me cranky.’ She looks down. ‘Goodness, the pups have their eyes open!’

Indeed, her arrival has stirred them up and they have hopped out of their cardboard box and are pootling around her as close as they could get. Smokey even nips the toe of her sandal.

‘Ow! Oh, lord.’

‘What?’

‘Well, look at them. We can’t keep them in a cardboard box any more.’

Essie shrugs. ‘No. And the boys will need to get in here to work anyway. The dogs can’t be here while they’re sanding.’

‘Are you working here too?’ says Janey with a grin, but Essie immediately takes it as a slight that she isn’t working at all.

‘No,’ she says fiercely.

‘Okay, just wondered. Goodness,’ she says, as one of the pups does a massive pee on the floor.

‘Oh, yeah,’ says Essie, ‘and the guys will have to strip that floor.’ She pats Bute. ‘It might be time to get Daddy involved.’

‘Custody disputes,’ says Janey. ‘Great. Love ’em.’

‘He’s got a big garden,’ says Essie.

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