Page 50 of Love and Lattes at Pumpkin Hollow
I gazed at Pumpkin Hollow and I felt proud of myself. I was grateful to everyone who had helped me make it happen too.
I knew it was silly but I looked up at the stars again. There wasn’t any harm in making a little wish tonight that all our hard work would pay off. It was 1 October tomorrow. It had always been a month I loved. The month I was born. And my mum had loved it too. I hoped she was looking down and giving her support to it all.
I made a wish on the stars that the pumpkin patch would be a success. I knew though we had done as much as we possibly could so if it wasn’t then I wouldn’t have any regrets. But I really hoped it would.
After getting up off the bench, I made my way towards the farmhouse. I knew I needed to try to get a good night’s sleep. I looked over at the cottages before I walked inside. It was hard to resist. Dylan was in there. My body and heart wanted to return to the night we’d spent together. I longed to know if his did too.
Maple met me at the door. ‘Hey, girl, ready to sell pumpkins tomorrow?’ I asked as she bounded around my feet. I closed the door behind me and went into the kitchen, hoping that the stars had heard my wish and would grant it. Butterflies danced in my stomach at the thought of it being opening day tomorrow. It felt like the first day of school all over again. I had no idea what to expect. I didn’t have a clue really about what I was doing.
But I was excited too. I wished I could take a peek into the future to see what was going to happen but life didn’t let you do that. And maybe that was a good thing because it meant we had possibility. Tomorrow could change everything.
I just needed it to be a good change for us.
38
I woke up before my alarm on Monday morning. It was 1 October. I had slept surprisingly well, exhausted from the weekend, so I leapt out of bed, keen to get on with the day. I grabbed my phone to check the website and see the number of tickets sold. It had edged up to three hundred overnight. A great improvement from the ten we had started with, but we still had a long way to go.
After I got ready for the day, I fed Maple and had a coffee with two slices of toast smothered in peanut butter then I took her out with me for a walk so I could do what was needed on the farm away from the pumpkin patch. I was relieved to see it looked like it was going to be a dry day. We’d clearly get more visitors if the weather stayed crisp and sunny, even if most of the patch was protected from the weather. They would likely spend more time on the farm too. And, let’s be honest about it, spend more money.
Once my chores were completed, I headed over to where Dad was getting the card machine set up ready to take payments. Dylan was there too, on his laptop sending emails.
‘I just have to do a couple of things for my brother before I can work on generating some more publicity for Pumpkin Hollow,’ Dylan said. ‘The local newspaper will be here in twenty minutes.’
‘My sister just messaged me,’ Steve said, strolling over from the cottages to join us. Like me and Dylan, he wore jeans, a thick jumper and wellies. ‘She’ll be here in an hour with four of her friends. They are really excited.’
‘Great.’ I bit my lip, wondering if their expectations would turn out to be too high or not. ‘I really hope they all like it.’
‘It looks right up their street,’ Steve reassured me.
‘The tractor all ready to go?’ Dad asked him.
‘Yeah, I’ll get it and the trailer from the barn now and set up it over there by the sign Sabrina made. I think if I offer one every two hours, that allows most people to have one if they want to, and I can still help you guys manage everything else.’
‘Okay then,’ I said when Steve had walked off. ‘Now we wait for everyone to get here. Maybe I should check everything again…’ I started to walk off, feeling too restless to stand still. I had nervous energy running through my body.
‘My old friend, Amy, who emailed you about coming to the farm, just messaged me,’ Dylan said, falling into stride with me. ‘She’s on her way. Hopefully, she’ll share on her channels. She’s pretty big on TikTok and Instagram, it’s her full-time job now, so I think she can get us on the social media radar.’
‘An old friend?’ I couldn’t stop myself from asking as I looked over to the gate and was relieved to see the Pumpkin Hollow sign was exactly where it should be, and the farm gate was open and ready to welcome people to it.
‘We went to school together,’ Dylan replied. He looked across at me. ‘There was nothing romantic; she dated my brother for a bit when we were younger, but that’s it.’
I shrugged. ‘It’s none of my business,’ I mumbled as relief washed over me. I knew I shouldn’t care, but I did.
‘Of course it is.’ Dylan touched my arm but I shook his hand off. ‘You’ve got to stop this,’ he said then.
‘What do you mean?’
‘I know you’re pushing me away, trying to act like we are nothing to each other, but you know that isn’t the case.’
‘How can you say that after what I overheard you saying to your brother?’ I asked, incredulous that he seemed frustrated with me. I was the one that should have been pissed off, not him!
‘I told you, I didn’t mean what I said. The pressure Nate has me under…’
I shook my head. ‘I can’t talk about this now, Dylan. It’s opening day. Give me a break.’ I stomped off but even though I heard him call my name, I ignored it. I couldn’t believe he wanted to talk about that phone call when I was this nervous. I watched as a car drove through the gate and I took a deep breath.
It was time.
The morning rushed by. I greeted the local press and Steve’s sister and her friends, and Dylan took his old friend Amy around the pumpkin patch. The journalist and photographer seemed impressed but it was Steve’s sister and her friends who put a big smile on my face when I heard them squealing with excitement and saw how many videos and photos they were taking with the pumpkins.
