Although that probably wasn’t true. Hearing Flick’s offer to accompany him to his mum’s grave, or to give him a hug if he needed it, had made him fall for her that little bit more.
The woman looked at him as if she didn’t believe that. ‘When you know, you know. Did you tell her?’
‘I… didn’t really get a chance.’
‘You tell her you love her and that will mean more to her than a bunch of flowers.’
Luke didn’t think he’d ever be brave enough for that. Martine, the last woman he’d saidI love you to, had laughed and promptly dumped him. In fact, that had happened with the last two women he’d dated, although Sophie had at least been a lot kinder about not loving him before she’d dumped him. ‘Thanks for the advice. You have a good day.’
‘I will now,’ she waved the flowers at him. ‘Thank you.’
He smiled and drove off. Maybe if there were some kind of universal points system for being good and bad, making an elderly lady smile with flowers might help counteract the lie he’d told Flick.
Flick was sitting in her empty gift shop busily making her little wish jars later that morning. It was a delicate operation, she didn’t want to lose any of the little fluffy seed heads. She was very carefully threading the wire through a dandelion stem to make it stand up when Aidan walked in.
‘There’s a massive delivery downstairs. Someone needs to come and deal with it.’
That someone clearly was her.
‘OK, thanks. I’ll be down in two seconds.’
She pushed the wire carefully into the head.
‘There are fifty boxes stacked up inside the entrance. It’s causing a fire hazard.’
‘I don’t think there’ll be a fire in the next few minutes.’
‘You don’t know that. A fire can start at any time.’
‘From Ethel sewing too fast perhaps? Or the sun coming through the windows and hitting Katherine’s glass mosaics in the wrong way?’
‘I don’t think there is any need to be sarcastic,’ Aidan said. ‘I’m merely asking you to come and deal with the delivery that is causing an obstruction.’
‘And I’ve said I’ll be there in a minute.’
‘I guess faffing around with weeds is more important than the health and safety of your staff.’
Flick sighed and stuck the end of the wire in a lump of Blu Tack so it didn’t fall over. ‘I’ll come and deal with it now. I’d never forgive myself if everyone died in a towering inferno.’
Aidan grunted his displeasure at her sarcasm and stomped off back down the stairs, muttering to himself.
Flick had kind of hoped that with the suggestion of running the workshops for those people with brain injuries, the artists would rally behind her. That was what her grandad had been passionate about and he’d instilled a passion about it with the artists too. But there had been a total mixed response. Katherine had been really enthusiastic about it, Rose had agreed to do it although she was worried whether she was capable enough to be trusted with something so important. Ethel and Aidan hadn’t wanted to do it at all but hadreluctantly agreed with lots of moaning and huffing about it under their breaths. What would it take to make them care?
She went downstairs and glanced into Luke’s studio as she approached the front door. It was empty and in darkness. She couldn’t help wondering if he was avoiding her.
She got to the front door and Aidan was clearly not exaggerating, there were at least fifty boxes stacked up in the hall. Although all the boxes were addressed to Luke she recognised the names of the suppliers – this must be the stuff she had asked Luke to order for her. She started taking the boxes upstairs. While most of them were quite light, a few were heavy and the gift shop was two floors up. It would be nice if some of the other artists helped her but she didn’t feel she had the kind of relationship with them that would allow her to ask them.
After getting the final box upstairs, she started to unpack and felt like a kid on Christmas morning opening all the boxes and finding homes for the products around the empty gift shop. She decided to have all the craft paraphernalia and kits on the bottom floor of the gift shop as that was what she was most passionate about. All the rest of the gifts were going to be upstairs on the mezzanine. A lot of the shelving and tables for the middle of the shop hadn’t arrived yet so she couldn’t find homes for everything but it was a great start.
She felt so happy that she was finally doing this. Opening a craft supplies shop had always been herdream and, thanks to Luke persuading her to do it, it was finally coming true. She was going to give it her all. If it all came crashing down in six months, no one could say she hadn’t given it her best shot.
Although she still felt like she needed to clear the air with him after the night before. She took a few pictures of her beautifully presented shelves and sent them to Luke with the message: ‘I’m so happy right now, thank you for pushing me to do this.’
He texted straight back. ‘I’m glad I can make you happy.’ Then he sent another text. ‘Sorry I wasn’t there to help you with the boxes.’
She smiled. That was Luke all over. She really hoped he would be back soon and she could make things right between them.
Luke climbed up the steps to the roof and sighed when he realised it was already occupied. He’d been successfully avoiding Flick all day, although he knew he couldn’t do that long term. He’d have to face her at some point.
