‘Plus, Ewan added that lovely armchair in there for me,’ said Connie. ‘All I have to do is sit and knit, gossip and occasionally take some money.’
‘Okay, I know when I’m beaten,’ said Matt.
‘Good,’ said Connie with a nod. ‘Otherwise, I’m giving you a name change from Dr Pepper to Old Mother Hen.’
Will smiled. As lovely as it was to see this extended Pepper-family chaos in action, he couldn’t help but thank his lucky stars that he’d stuck to his guns about not staying at Seabury House. He loved his brothers dearly, and Connie and Rosie were wonderful… but there wasn’t a moment’s peace when they were all together like this.
‘Well, as long as Ewan’s pulling his weight?’ said Will.
‘Of course,’ said Connie, with a dopey smile. ‘Try keeping that man out of the shop for more than five minutes! I might be pregnant, butAll Things Woollyis his one true love and firstborn, all rolled into one.’
Will laughed. ‘Where is my little brother anyway?’
‘Off on a buying trip,’ said Connie. ‘There’s this woman with the most amazing Border Leicester flock. It’s really interesting, actually. They?—’
Matt and Rosie interrupted her with identical, loud groans. Will turned to them in surprise.
‘Please, don’t get her started!’ said Matt.
‘But—’ said Will.
‘But nothing,’ said Rosie. ‘If you think Ewan’s wool obsessed, let’s just say he met his match with this one!’
Connie promptly stuck her tongue out at Rosie. ‘All the best people have a passion,’ she huffed. ‘Like Will and his music.’
Will smiled at her, but it felt forced. He really didn’t want to talk about his music right now.
‘Right, I’ll love you all and leave you,’ said Connie, coming to Will’s rescue. She leaned up and kissed his cheek. ‘It’s good to have you here, but I’m off to hang out with people who actually want to talk about wool!’
Connie kissed both Matt and Rosie on the cheek too, before heading off towards the end of North Beach. Their pithy banter was clearly all for show.
‘So… what time’s Ewan back?’ said Will, as he led the way across the road towards New York Froth.
‘Later this afternoon,’ said Matt. ‘He’ll be back in time to join us at the hotel for our meal. You haven’t forgotten about that, have you?’
‘Of course not!’ said Will, rolling his eyes.
Yep, he totally had!
‘Great,’ said Matt, not sounding convinced. ‘Anyway, Ewan left first thing this morning. I did suggest he travelled up yesterday and stayed the night to break his journey, but you can’t keep that pair apart for more than a few hours. In fact, I don’t think they’ve spent a night apart since they got together.’
Will nodded. A strange pang of longing hit him in the chest as he held open the café door and watched Rosie troop inside, followed by Stanley and Matt. The nearest Will had ever come to that kind of closeness was with Leah… and sadly, she didn’t really count because he paid her for the privilege of her company.
No, not her company. He paid her for her skills.
‘Earth to William?!’
‘Huh?’ Will blinked, only to find Rosie and Matt watching him with amusement from beside the counter. He was stillholding the door of the café open, and various bemused tourists were filing past him with nods of thanks.
‘You make a great doorman,’ laughed Rosie. ‘But you need to come and choose a cake.’
‘Right, erm… right!’ said Will, feeling the tingle of heat creep up his neck.
What a plonker.
He really needed to stop zoning out when he was in company! The last thing he wanted was for Matt to start insisting that he needed a medical, or for Rosie to decide that he should talk about his feelings.
Will didn’t have feelings for anything much at the moment. There was the music, of course, but right now, silence had descended. He was between tours, and he’d asked Leah not to take any more bookings until he’d figured out what was next.
