‘What if he’s not?’ Joy immediately regretted saying that. If Casey didn’t want to tell his mum, it certainly wasn’t her place to say something.
Rose frowned. ‘Has he said something?’
‘No, just… I think he feels it’s all moving very quickly.’
‘That’s Arielle, she can’t wait to get her hands on our money. Oh I must admit, I’ve been helping a bit with all the arrangements. I love a good wedding and I never thought I’d see the day when either of my boys got married. Zach has been with more women than I could possibly count and for a long time I thought Casey might be gay.’
Joy nearly choked on her drink. ‘You did? How funny. Would that have been a problem?’
‘No of course not, I want him to be happy, to spend the rest of his life with the person he loves, man or woman, but he never said anything, or showed any inclination towards men. He does seem genuinely happy now with Arielle so I must have got it wrong.’
Joy bit her lip as she stared at the bubbles in her cider. How could Rose have got it so wrong now? How could she not see how unhappy Casey was? She had to tell Rose the truth and that would let Casey off the hook in marrying Arielle. Casey would hate her for spilling his secret though. But that was a small price to pay for his happiness.
‘I thought he was gay too,’ said the large brown haired lady from behind the bar as she collected Rose’s empty glass. ‘I thought he was in love with my son.’
‘They would have made a cute couple,’ Rose smiled wistfully. ‘I think Casey would have been good for him too, better than that horrid ex-wife of his.’
Oh dear Lord, Joy had to tell her.
‘Oh where are my manners, this is Sally, this is Joy, a friend of Casey,’ Rose said.
Sally shook Joy’s hand hard, she was surprisingly strong. She struck Joy as a no nonsense sort of woman. Whilst Rose was clearly fantasising about Casey and Sally’s son living happily ever after, Sally seemed to have something important to get off her very ample chest. She took the seat opposite Joy.
‘I couldn’t help overhearing, you used to own Blueberry Farm?’
Joy didn’t want to get distracted from Casey’s problem. She just had to form the right words to out her friend. She nodded vaguely.
‘My son owns it now. I presume you’re the one who has been trying to buy him out for the last year.’
Sally suddenly had Joy’s fullest attention.
‘When the house came up for sale, I wanted to buy it, but your son got there first. I’ve been very generous trying to buy him out but he won’t budge.’
‘I’m telling you now Mac won’t sell it, so you might as well stop trying.’
Joy opened her mouth to protest but Sally wasn’t finished.
‘When he bought it, it was a bit of a project for him, something to keep him occupied after his wife left him. You probably know that the previous owner left it in a right state.’
‘Yes I’d heard that, part of the reason I was so keen to get my hands on it.’
Joy had heard rumours of broken guttering which left mould growing up the entire front of the house, that the garden had been left to grow wild, that the window frames were broken and chipped, roof tiles had come off and not been replaced. Inside was apparently worse.
‘Mac said he wanted to complete the project before he sold it on. But what started off as neutral, impersonal decorating and renovating, slowly started to get personal. There’s so much of him in that house now, you can see his personality in every room. Every time he’s there he’s so happy and animated. It makes me smile just to see it. He’s done all the work himself and he’s become really proud of it. He’s even started to find pieces of art or blown up photos to decorate it. The bedrooms look wonderful, he’s created a gorgeous nursery right next to the master bedroom, a little boy’s room decorated with space ships and rockets and the little girl’s room is hand painted with unicorns and fairies. He built a tree house in the garden. He said, he’d never had a tree house growing up and he wanted his kids to have one. That was when I realised this wasn’t an investment any longer, he was building a home, somewhere to raise his kids. If he’s refusing to sell it, it’s because he’s fallen in love with it.’
Joy stared down at her glass, watching the condensation trickle onto the table. She didn’t know what to do with this information. That was her home; she didn’t want anyone else to be in love with it. Though if it was being looked after that was slightly easier to deal with.
Sally took her hand. ‘I don’t mean to speak out of turn, you clearly have a lot of happy memories of the place, but I think it’s time you let go of the past and let someone else have a chance to make their own memories there. Mac will take care of it, I promise you that, and when he has children of his own, they will love it too.’
Rose nodded. ‘I think your parents would want you to move on too.’
Sally perhaps realised that she had overstepped some mark. ‘Come on Rose, let’s leave the girl to her drink. I want to talk to you about what I should wear to the wedding this weekend.’
Rose’s face lit up with talk of the wedding. “Maybe, if you’re interested, some other time I could show you some photos of your mum, when she was younger.”
‘I’d really like that.’
Rose smiled and then followed Sally back to the bar, chatting excitedly about the wedding.
What Sally had said was at odds with what Finn had told her about the man that owned it. Finn had said the man was an arse. Maybe she would go round and see the farm for herself.
She dug out her book, sat back in the booth and started to read with Darcy slumbering peacefully at her feet. The book was good and as the pub stayed relatively empty apart from the old men that continued to play dominoes in silence, she devoured three chapters before she was disturbed by the pub door creaking open.
Finn came in, temporarily blocking out the light with his enormous frame, before he walked up to the bar. He didn’t notice Joy sitting in the corner, something she was thankful for. That delicious feeling of lust shot through her. How could he affect her so much? She couldn’t take her eyes off him.
Sally finished on the phone and came round to him, embracing him in a big hug. She obviously knew him. He bent his head down to kiss her fondly on the cheek, pulling her into a great bear hug.
‘Hi Mum,’ Finn said.
Joy smiled. Finn’s mum and he obviously adored her. Then the smile slid from her face. Finn Mackenzie. Mac.
Chapter Six
Sally obviously said something to him about her because he suddenly looked over, his smile falling from his face.
Suddenly furious at his deception, Joy threw her book back in her bag, and stalked over to him. Darcy, sensing she was going, scrabbled to her feet behind her.
She jabbed a finger into his chest. ‘You treacherous, low life, scum. You lied to me.’
‘No I didn’t.’ He held up his hands in defence.
‘You let me sit there bawling my heart out about my farm and never once mentioned that you owned it. I bet you were sitting there thinking, “She’s desperate to live there, I can fleece her for so much more than the farm is worth.”’
She was vaguely aware that the old men had dragged their attention from their riveting game of dominoes and were staring at her with their mouths open.
‘Do you two know each other?’ asked Sally, clearly hoping to calm down the situation.
‘Well enough to know that your son is an absolute wan….’
‘Now just a minute, I will not have bad language in my pub…’
‘Well that’s fine because I was just leaving.’
Joy grabbed Darcy’s lead and stormed out, though by the heavy footsteps behind her she knew that Finn was following her. She managed to make it to the picket fence before he grabbed her arm and pulled her back.
‘Wait. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, I really am. You didn’t exactly make it easy for me. You were sitting there saying the bloke that owned it was an
arsehole and an idiot. I didn’t feel like I could say, “Hi, I’m the arsehole, pleased to meet you.”’
She yanked her arm out of his grip, but didn’t walk away. He had a point.
‘And no, fleecing you was not part of my agenda either. I made a fortune on my films, do you think a couple hundred thousand is going to make any difference to that? If I choose to sell it, it will be at a fair price but at the moment I’m not sure if I want to sell it. I know you’re attached to it, but I am too and I didn’t want to be pressured in to selling it just because…’ he trailed off.
She felt her temper slowly ebb away at his words. ‘Because?’
He sighed. ‘Because a beautiful woman with sad eyes and a very sad story wants to buy it.’
‘I don’t need your pity,’ she said. A beautiful woman?
‘Exactly. That wasn’t the right reason to sell it, not when I’ve spent so much time and effort restoring it. Not when for me it represents a fresh start, a new home and future. For you, by your own admittance, it was a step back. If I was going to sell it, it had to be the right thing for me and until I made that decision I thought it best to keep my ownership to myself. I’m sorry if that seemed selfish, I never meant to hurt you.’
She stroked Darcy’s great head, embarrassed by her earlier outburst.
‘I’m sorry for… poking you in the chest,’ she said. She still felt angry that he hadn’t told her, but she could at least apologise for the poking.
He smiled, rubbing his chest. ‘You have quite the strong finger there. Would you like to see it?’
His chest? Mmm yes please. Damn it what was wrong with her, she really did have a one track mind.
‘The farm?’ he prompted.
‘Oh.’
After all this time, and with the sentimental attachment she still had for the place, she had to see it.
‘We can go in my truck, if you like?’
They were going to see the farm now?
Finn was already striding across the road towards the beaten up old pick-up truck. He opened the back door for Darcy and then held the passenger door open for Joy. Darcy leapt in without any preamble, though Joy was slightly more hesitant, her nerves getting the better of her. What would it be like, how would she feel after all this time?
She got in and he drove off.
Feeling hot with nerves, she wound down the window, letting the cool breeze pull at her hair.
‘I do have air con, if you’d prefer.’ Finn indicated the dashboard.
‘No, I prefer fresh air, the breeze on my face, it’s such a nice feeling.’ Small talk was good, anything to distract her from the sudden butterflies in her stomach. After all this time she was going home.
‘Pippa always preferred the air conditioning,’ Finn said, more to himself than to her.
‘Oh I don’t mind, it’s your car.’ She started doing the window up.
‘No leave it. I like it.’
She watched him as he put his hand out the window, letting the wind race across his fingers. The beginnings of a smile touched his mouth. She liked it, he didn’t smile often enough. It was kind of him to take her, especially after she had called him scum. Her gaze wandered from his huge strong hand, playing in the breeze to his slightly stubbly jaw, his large, strong shoulders, his full lips… she wanted to kiss those lips. He suddenly turned to look at her and embarrassed that she had been caught staring, she quickly found something to say. ‘Your mum says you’ve fallen in love with the place?’
His whole face lit up and she felt a sudden pang of jealousy.
‘It’s a beautiful place. I love going there. Bramble Hill has bad memories now.’
Finn pulled into the driveway that led down to the farm and she knew she had to keep talking.
‘Why haven’t you moved in then?’
‘It was only ever supposed to be a project for me; I had no intention of living there, but now…’
Joy got the feeling that he had wanted to move in, but now with her stamping her feet over some sentimental attachment to her home he was feeling guilty about staying there. She didn’t want him to feel guilty enough to sell it to her.
‘I’ve spent a lot of time doing the garden, that being my forte. The downstairs and the bedrooms are done but the bathroom still needs some work, the shower doesn’t work at all at the moment. Maybe when that’s done… I want it to be finished before I move in… if I move in.’
And suddenly there it was, the farmhouse, her home suddenly came into view and the longing, the sentimentality for it all came rushing back. Finn stopped the truck. The fields either side of the farm no longer belonged to it, as Alex had sold them off years before – it was just the farm, two nearby barns and the back garden that belonged to Finn now.
Finn came round to open her door for her, though she was reticent to get out. He opened the back door for Darcy, who scrabbled out, excited about being somewhere new and Joy reluctantly followed.
‘Look what I found the other day.’ He took her hand and gently pulled her over to the larger of the two barns. She knew he was trying to make it easier for her. He pointed at the side wall that was still painted white, as she remembered it, but Finn traced his fingers over letters that had been scratched into the side. JC and DS carved inside a tiny heart.
Joy laughed. ‘My first boyfriend, Dave Sampson, I was five. We held hands for a week and I thought we were going to get married. Then he stuck his tongue in my mouth and left his chewing gum in there. I dumped him after that.’
‘French kissing at the age of five, I’m shocked.’
‘Hardly. It wasn’t a kiss. He told me to open my mouth like I was at the dentist and then he just poked his tongue inside. He didn’t even move it around. He said he’d seen his brother do it. I’m hoping his brother had more skill than that.’
If they were going to rehash old memories, she could do that, she had a tonne.
‘You know this barn was where I’d always go when I was in a bad mood. There were lots of big machines in here and I could hide behind them and no one would know I was there. I ran away from home once when I was seven, and I came here. Alex brought me food so I wouldn’t starve.’
‘How long did you stay here?’
‘I left after breakfast and was back in time for dinner. My parents knew where I was as well, so as runaway attempts go it wasn’t that successful. But it was my refuge, when things got rough, I’d always come here. There was something about the smell, I’m not sure what it was but it was… comforting. It was my secret place, I’d spend hours drawing in here, and later Alex made it into a bit of a studio for me.’
She moved round the front to the door and lifted one of the big plant pots. Underneath there was a key and she laughed. ‘The spare key is still there, after all this time.’ She took it out and slotted it into the lock, it turned easily. Finn stared at her with his mouth open. She pushed the door open and looked inside. This was easy, she could do this. The barn hadn’t changed at all. The big machines were gone and there were now tins of paint, a step ladder and a lawn mower, but other than that it was exactly how she remembered it. The comforting, musty smell was still present. Smiling at the memories, she closed the door again, locked it and handed him the key.
‘You might want to put that somewhere safe.’
He stared at the key for a moment and then slid it back under the pot. ‘It’s been safe there for eleven years, so I imagine it’s still safe there now.’
He hesitated then turned towards the house. ‘Shall we?’
She nodded and followed him.
‘So… you’re an artist?’ She knew he was trying to distract her. Although she was willing to grasp any subject now that wasn’t about the farm, what she did for a living was a tricky subject.
‘Sort of,’ she answered deliberately being vague.
They were heading towards the front door. She had always used the back door, so it felt weird to be entering the house this way. The front door was now painted red, which was differe
nt to the green door she remembered. Red did look smart though. The wooden windows had recently been replaced with PVC ones but in a similar style to the windows that had been there before. Other than that, the outside looked the same.
He opened the front door and let her walk in ahead of him. But if she was waiting for all those childhood memories to come flooding back, she would have been disappointed. Standing in the hall, there was no semblance at all of the home she remembered. Her heart started pounding. The staircase was the first thing she noticed, that had changed completely. Instead of straight up at the side of the hall, it now curved outwards from the top floor so the bottom stairs were much wider than the top. It had been made into a feature of the room and the curvy black wrought iron rail was much more interesting than the plain wooden one. The stone floor, where she had fallen and broken her arm at the age of six had been replaced by soft, cream carpets. There was a large window half way up the stairs that had not been there before, it made the whole room lighter.
‘Would you like to do downstairs first?’ he asked quietly, his eyes filled with concern. He knew how hard this was for her and she felt touched by his compassion.
She nodded, unable to speak, a slow feeling of panic starting to clutch at her gut.
‘There’s just two rooms now.’ He opened the nearest door to his left.
Two rooms? There had been a lounge, dining room, study, kitchen and conservatory downstairs, how could there only be two rooms now? She followed him into what used to be the lounge and felt her mouth fall open.
‘This is the family room.’
It was the lounge, dining room and study all knocked into one great big room. The chimney was the first thing she noticed. In her time it had been in the middle of the joining wall between the lounge and dining room, but as that wall was now gone it stood alone in the middle of the room, so you could walk all the way round it. It was a beautiful stone column tapering to a smaller circumference near the ceiling.
There was a large brown leather sofa that took up the entire end of the room, stretching out in a horse shoe shape round the three sides and facing a huge widescreen TV, fixed to one side of the chimney.
Beneath the Moon and the Stars Page 8
