Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 117740 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 589(@200wpm)___ 471(@250wpm)___ 392(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117740 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 589(@200wpm)___ 471(@250wpm)___ 392(@300wpm)
“Nah, you can’t afford his hourly rate.”
“You’re the expert. What—” He sighed. “I have to go. Luke just broke in.”
I wrinkled my face up. “You aren’t bringing it back with you, are you?”
“Bringing what back?”
“The trespasser who investigated me.”
Oliver paused. “I really have to go. Talk to you later.”
“Hey!”
The line went dead, and I frowned at my phone as if it was the one that’d ended the call and not Oliver himself.
Great.
That meant he was coming back with that swine.
Well, that might not be the worst thing in the world. Oliver was far too free when Luke wasn’t there to keep him in line, and that was how we’d ended up in so many compromising positions.
On the other hand, there would be less compromising positions, which wasn’t actually a good thing for me.
Hmm.
“Agh, Rose! George knocked over his box with his seeds in, the packets went everywhere, and the crows are attacking him for them!”
I jumped to my feet, completely forgetting about my coffee, and sent it splattering all over the ground. “Oh, shit,” I cried, bending down quickly to pick up the now-empty cup and its lid. I tossed them in the bin nearest to me and chased after Lisa. “I told him to put that box with the spares away! Why doesn’t he ever listen to me?”
She half-sighed, half-laughed as we dodged through people. “Well, if marigolds start blooming through the cracks in the pavement, we know to thank him for it.”
Thank him.
Yeah.
“George!” I shouted, watching him wave a roll of kitchen towel in the direction of a particularly large crow. “To the gallows! You’re getting the water balloon punishment!”
“Noooo,” he groaned, stabbing the roll like a sword. “Make it stop, Rose! It wants me sunflower seeds!”
I rubbed my hand down my face.
There was never a dull day.
26
* * *
OLIVER
The Green-Eyed Duke
ISADORA: (video attachment)
ISADORA: If you tell her I sent you this, I will print out 100 pictures of various animal testicles and superglue them around your McMansion.
That was a threat I’d never heard before.
Where did she and Rose get them from? Did they have a notebook full of them or something?
I clicked on the video she’d sent just in time to hear Rose shouting about kitchen towel not being a good sword and burst out laughing. George appeared to be being besieged by several crows, and his weapon of choice was a full roll of kitchen paper that he was enthusiastically waving and stabbing through the air. Rose, for her part, was on the floor with a dustpan and brush, occasionally scaring a crow off with the brush between her guffaws. Others joined forces to protect her, and a few seconds later, she shoved the dustpan under the tablecloth and sat back, laughing her ass off.
The video was loud with all the people, but I could hear her laugh as if she were right next to me.
I knew that laugh.
It was the one she let out when she was truly happy.
Despite her shouting just a minute before, she was in her element, and I smiled ruefully.
God, how I wished I was there instead of here.
The video finished, and another message from Isa came, this time with several pictures attached. They were all of Rose—of her smiling, of her laughing. Her covered in dirt, potting up some small plants with children. Her carrying a pygmy goat in strawberry-patterned pyjamas in her arms while grinning at the camera. Her on Shaun’s back directing him somewhere while he looked exhausted.
Her modelling Susan’s crochet hats.
Her in a hot pink feather boa welcoming people to the petting zoo.
Her sitting on a bench in the park, her phone to her ear, looking up at the sky. Smiling… at me. Because that’s when we were on the phone.
Damn it.
ISADORA: She’s having the time of her life.
ME: She said that if I were there, she’d shove me with the teachers and have everyone throw water balloons at me.
ISADORA: She just had the librarian print out two giant pictures of your face. They’re either for water balloons or darts.
Of course, she would never make a threat she wasn’t fully prepared to follow through with.
Rose always found a way.
ME: She really is the heartbeat of that place, isn’t she?
ISADORA: Thankfully only the heartbeat and not the brain, or God only knows what would happen to Hanbury.
ISADORA: Can I ask you something?
ME: You can ask.
ISADORA: Are you really still going to sell the allotments? I know something is going on between you.
I paused, my thumbs hovering over the screen, and another message quickly came through.
ISADORA: I know this isn’t my business. You can tell me to fuck off. I won’t be offended.
I chuckled. Of course, she wouldn’t be. Her and Rose were one and the same.
But I couldn’t answer her question.
ME: It’s complicated.
ISADORA: Is it? You’re either selling it or you aren’t. From where I’m standing, it’s not complicated.