Page 20 of You Had Me At Pumpkin Patch
‘Don’t get him started on the bats,’ Agnes whispered to her chicken.
Zain spun to face the older woman. ‘You’ve employed her to look after your wild swimmers and set up some kind of great outdoors swim retreats, and she knows nothing about nature. And as for her swimming...’ He shot Rosie a glance. ‘Have you even checked her references?’
Agnes cleared her throat and looked at her watch. ‘Anyway, I ought to dash. I’ll leave you to it.’
‘No!’
Rosie and Zain shouted the word at the same time. At least they were agreed on something. Rosie did not feel good about pushing her luck with her new boss, so soon after losing her last job. Everything still felt so fragile here. But she was not putting up with Agnes scurrying off again and leaving her to fight this out with Zain.
‘I do not need to spend any more time with this woman.’
Zain looked at Rosie, holding her gaze just long enough for her to feel another fizz of something pass between them. It had happened in his cabin, although this time it could only be his wrath. She felt herself flush.
‘Likewise,’ she confirmed, even though a small part of her relished feeling vexed, after worrying that life events had numbed her. At least notallof her emotions were dormant.
‘And we don’t need these retreats,’ Zain added, still watching Rosie, like his words were a dare.
Agnes shifted awkwardly in her frog-eyed footwear. ‘We could do with the extra money,’ she said, more quietly than her usual no-nonsense tone.
Zain stiffened. ‘Money. That’s all anyone ever cares about, isn’t it?’ Then he exhaled sharply, his shoulders dropping. ‘I’ve got work to do.’ He turned and began walking in the direction of his pumpkin fields, his stride becoming more purposeful.
Rosie couldn’t help watching him for a moment, his body silhouetted by the rising sun. His dark, messy hair dragged into a bun, his lumberjack-style coat pulling tight across his broad shoulders, which suddenly looked as though they were carrying the weight of something.
Agnes cleared her throat, which was totally unnecessary, as Rosie had not beencompletelytransfixed.
‘Money’s a touchy subject with him,’ Agnes explained. ‘Something happened in his past, I think. But you can see why I find it impossible to tell him anything. He’s like an undetonated bomb.’
‘That’s the undetonated version?’ Rosie whistled. ‘But if you just told him the house needs a new roof, and you can’t go on like this...’
‘He’d be up there himself trying to fix it, with precisely no health and safety. Then I’d have no decent roofandan obstinate oaf falling through it and breaking half of his limbs. Or worse still, he’d order me to get out of there and go and stay somewhere safer.’ She shuddered. ‘I don’t want to do that. And who would have me, with all my waifs and strays?’ She hugged her latest fowl in closer, two cats now circling figures of eight around her feet. Onions barked from somewhere in the distance.
‘And the threat of Cyber Purrz wanting to buy this place?’ Rosie asked, though she already sensed it was hopeless.
Agnes sucked in her breath. ‘Zain belongs to this land. Whatever has gone on for him before, this farm is his stability now. I can’t stand to mention the risk of selling it, unless we absolutely have to.’ She grabbed one of Rosie’s hands and squeezed it with a strength that was almost scary. ‘He’s like a son to me, even if I’d never dare say that to him. I know you can find a way of making this work without us having to threatenconcrete.You’ll respect an old lady’s wishes, won’t you?’
Rosie sighed. Agnes knew how to lay it on thick, with her puppy dog eyes, housed in the determined body of a Rottweiler. But Agnes was her boss, and Rosie did not want to go losing her job, home and chance at writing her best romantic novel by disobeying her wishes, however far-fetched they seemed.
‘The key will be compromise,’ said Agnes, like such a thing would be a breeze with the guy she’d just likened to a weapon of war. ‘And baby steps. If you can get him to accept the idea of the swim retreats and all that extra footfall, it will come as less of a stretch when you mention bringing the odd pumpkin patch into your retreat plans.’
‘Let’s hope so.’ Rosie could hear the deflation in her own voice.
‘I have faith in you, girl.’ Agnes gave her a hearty clap on the arm. ‘How do you eat a pumpkin farmer? One bite at a time.’ She laughed at her own joke.
Rosie rolled her eyes. She was sure the saying was about eating an elephant, not a pumpkin farmer. Although right then, she was fed up at having quite so many elephants in the room.
Rosie looked at the notebook in her hand, which now hung limply at her side. It had been filled with ideas about shiny new shower blocks and enhanced lighting. It had been full of her first wave of hope. But even though it stung to admit it, Zain had a point. Perhaps they should be trying to attract the sort of retreat goers who would respect the land, rather than demand somewhere to plug in their gadgets. People who wanted to get away from it all, much like Rosie had.
She would just have to magic up new ways to make the farmland retreat-worthy, without the mod cons and upheaval. That was the only chance she had of winning Zain around.
15
‘So, let me get this right. You’re going to fix your problems of denial... with a bit more denial?’ asked Vix, her voice sounding sceptical through the phone’s tiny speaker.
Rosie had just fully charged her mobile and walked for miles to find a half-decent signal. Forthis.The fact that she was back at the spot where she’d parked her broken-down car, which she still hadn’t arranged to be towed, wasnotanother sign of denial. Life admin was just boring. And if she sat on a bench with her back to the car, she barely had to think about it.
She’d been putting off making contact with the outside world, though after yesterday’s doomed planning meeting with Agnes, she’d beensolooking forward to chatting through her struggles with her best friend. Vix was usually the voice of reason, but now Rosie had filled her in on everything, she almost wished she hadn’t.
‘Rosie, I’m worried about you,’ her friend said gently. ‘Could the reason that your life keeps going off track be because you put your blinkers on and ignore the inconvenient stuff?’
