Page 63 of The Little Flower Shop By the Sea
‘Where did you live before?’ I ask as I sip on a very strong, but good cup of tea.
‘We lived in East Anglia when the children were very young – Bedfordshire, to be precise, not far from Milton Keynes.’
‘What did you do there – grow flowers?’
‘No, nothing like that. I worked at the safari park at Woburn.’
I open my eyes wide. This I was not expecting. ‘Really? How fabulous. What did you do there – look after the tigers?’ I say jokingly, thinking he’ll say he worked in admin or something equally boring.
‘Not quite – apes, primates and monkeys.’
Of course he did. Now Miley makes more sense.
‘Wow, that’s a bit different than growing flowers in a Cornish nursery, isn’t it – why did you change?’
‘My father fell ill,’ Jake says sadly. ‘He desperately needed someone to take over the family business – only child, see. There was no one else.’
‘I know that feeling well,’ I tell him. ‘The only child and the family business part.’
Jake nods. ‘I resisted at first. I liked my job, and I knew it would mean uprooting the family, but the children were still small, and Felicity’s family had originally come from St Felix – one of those strange coincidences life often throws at you – so she was very keen to move here.’
Jake falls silent as he’s lost in his memories for a few moments.
‘Do you ever regret it?’ I ask gently. ‘The move?’
Jake thinks. ‘No. The kids have had a much better life growing up here by the sea, I’m sure of it, and Felicity was always happy here as part of the community.’
‘But what about you?’ I press. ‘Are you happier here growing flowers than you were working with the animals?’
Jake looks at me. ‘Poppy, if you’re asking me this to try and justify what you’ve done by moving here, then I can’t answer that question for you.’
‘Sure, I understand.’ I look down into my mug.
‘But if you really want to know,’ Jake says gently, ‘I’ve always been happy here in St Felix, and that can’t be wrong, can it? Being happy.’
I shake my head. ‘You’re right. The place does seem to have that effect on people.’
‘It surely does.’ Jake leans forward and picks up a book from the table. ‘You seem a lot happier than when you first arrived. Calmer.’
I think about this while Jake flicks through the book.
‘Yes, I suppose I am. Do you think we’ve discovered a sort of Cornish Lourdes?’ I ask, thinking about the French town renowned for the healing powers of its waters.
‘If we have, it will be great for the town,’ Jake says, smiling, ‘Imagine all the tourists we’d attract if we could heal everyone that visited of all their woes. What’s this?’ he asks, holding up the book. ‘It’s full of names and flowers and problems and stuff.’
I hadn’t realised he’d been looking at one of the flower notebooks Amber and I had discovered.
‘Oh, it’s nothing. We found a bunch of these notebooks in the shop, listing past clients. Amber’s been reading up on them.’
Amber was spending every night engrossed in the flower books. She was still adamant we could use them in some way.
‘It makes interesting reading,’ Jake says, flicking through the pages. ‘Did your grandmother really think she was healing people with her flowers?’
‘It would seem so,’ I say, a tad embarrassed to be admitting this to Jake. I tell him about the other books we’d discovered, and how Amber thought she could turn our fortunes around if we began using them.
Jake nods. ‘I guess it wouldn’t hurt to try,’ he says, much to my surprise.
‘Are you winding me up?’ I look at him with suspicion. ‘You can’t be serious?’
