Summer Season (30 page)

Joel was astonished to get back at 11.30 to find several people patiently waiting to see the garden, even though the official opening wasn’t until 12. The first in the queue was the RHS judge, who expressed a passion for knot gardens. ‘I can’t wait to see what you’ve done,’ she said, ‘I’d read about Edward Handford’s garden, and am thrilled it’s been restored.’ The rest were a motley crew: there were the obvious elderly RHS members who were clearly obsessed with gardens and started asking him awkward questions about plant names, but there was also a young couple with a baby, who professed to just love plants, and a middle-aged mum who told him she was doing a course in gardening history and her tutor had told her to come. He let them all in and took them down to the garden and started his spiel about Edward and Lily, and explained how Kezzie had restored the garden to its former glory, the film crew following him all the while. It was going to be strange seeing his house and gardens on TV. Joel’s mum, in the meantime, stayed at the top of the house, keeping an eye on Sam and directing people to the knot garden.

The threatened storm held off, but it was a hot and sultry day, so Joel’s mum was also doing a roaring trade with the drinks Joel was selling for a small fee. The visitors seemed to enjoy sitting around on the patio admiring the view and talking about what they had seen in the garden.

‘If you’d like to know more about Edward, do have a look at our exhibition on the way out,’ Joel was explaining to one visitor, who had somehow missed it, when he was conscious of a tall, lanky, blond guy hovering in the background. There had been a considerable amount of press interest, so Joel assumed he was another journalist.

‘So was it you who did the redesign?’ the bloke said. ‘It is very impressive.’

‘No, I hired a local garden designer, called Kezzie Andrews. It’s her first big commission, but I think she’s done a great job.’

‘I should say so,’ said the man. ‘Is she here? I’d like to congratulate her in person.’

‘No, she’s in the village. She’ll be at the Memorial Gardens, which she’s also helped to restore.’

‘Ah, yes, the Memorial Gardens,’ said the stranger knowledgeably and Joel, who’d been thinking the man was incredibly nosy, suddenly twigged who he was talking to.

‘I know who you are!’ he said, with certain conviction. ‘It’s Richard isn’t it?’ Kezzie had confided in him that Richard had threatened to turn up, and it seemed he had.

‘I’m sorry?’ The bloke looked confused.

‘Kezzie’s ex? She’s told me all about you.’

‘Has she now?’ said Richard. ‘Do I take it that you’re the reason she’s been avoiding me?’

He looked so blatantly hostile and jealous, Joel nearly laughed out loud. This was clearly the second case of mistaken love rivalry that day.

‘It’s all right, I’m not your competition,’ he said. ‘Kezzie and I are just friends, nothing more.’

Richard didn’t look totally convinced.

‘She never talks about anyone else but you,’ Joel said.

For the first time Richard looked a little hopeful.

‘I know this sounds a bit presumptuous, but do you mind me asking why you came?’ said Joel. ‘From what Kezzie said, you never wanted to see her again.’

Richard looked a trifle embarrassed.

‘Ah, yes, that,’ he said. ‘Let’s just say I’ve got some unfinished business.’

‘If she’s not at the Memorial Gardens,’ said Joel, ‘I expect she’ll turn up in the Pimms tent sooner or later.’

‘Sounds like Kezzie,’ said Richard. ‘Thanks, mate.’

‘Good luck,’ said Joel.

Lauren was frantically busy on the cake stall, which was doing a roaring trade. Her mum had taken the girls round to the field to take part in some of the activities there, so she was able to get on with the job in hand with no distractions. But she hadn’t figured on quite how busy it was going to be. Nor how greedy people were. There was one woman who pushed her way to the front of the queue and purchased twenty cupcakes for the three piglet-eyed children by her side. Honestly, you’d think they’d never been fed by the way she was grabbing at the cakes. And two elderly women nearly came to blows over the purchase of the Dundee cake.

‘Need a hand?’ Kezzie pitched up out of the blue. ‘This looks manic.’

Despite her resolve to avoid Kezzie for the day, Lauren couldn’t help but be pleased to see her. She was regretting having offered to manage the cake stall alone, and it was at least half an hour till someone was going to relieve her.

They were so busy for the next twenty minutes Lauren was able to avoid any awkward conversation, so it wasn’t till there was a lull in proceedings that Kezzie suddenly said, ‘Lauren, you’ve got it all wrong.’

‘What have I got all wrong?’ said Lauren, who was taking advantage of the pause to sort the notes into a cash box, and putting more change into her petty cash tin. She really didn’t want to have this conversation.

‘About Joel and me of course,’ said Kezzie.

‘What do you mean I’ve got it wrong?’ said Lauren. ‘I can see how good you are together.’

‘That’s the point, Lauren,’ Kezzie said in exasperation. ‘We’re not together.’

‘What do you mean, you’re not together? I thought—’

‘—wrong,’ said Kezzie. ‘Honestly, we are not and never have been an item. The guy’s obsessed with you, and if you hadn’t wasted so much time with that loser Troy, you’d have been tripping the light fantastic with him weeks ago.’

‘Say it like it is why don’t you?’ Lauren said, wincing at Kezzie’s directness. She was right of course, but it was quite painful to have your mistakes held up to you
quite
so baldly.

‘Yeah, well, we all make mistakes,’ Kezzie looked rueful. ‘Look, I didn’t know how to tell you this at the time, but you were right about my party.’

‘What about it?’ Now Lauren was really confused.

‘I did end up snogging someone,’ said Kezzie, who seemed increasingly awkward. ‘And I’m really, really sorry. It was a huge mistake.’

‘Joel?’ said Lauren.

‘No, not Joel, you dope,’ said Kezzie. ‘Although we did accidentally smooch and realize we’d made a mistake. I’m sorry, I was really drunk and stoned, and I ended up snogging Troy. I wanted to tell you, but the next thing I knew he’d moved back in with you and I couldn’t. It’s why I was so down on Troy the whole time you were with him. Nothing else happened, and at the time I didn’t know you were going to get back together. Can you forgive me?’

Lauren sat down on the camping stool she’d brought in
deep shock. Kezzie wasn’t in love with Joel but
had
snogged Troy? She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

‘Can I have one of those lovely muffins?’ A middle-aged woman was standing over the stall, proffering money. As if in slow motion, Lauren handed over the muffin and took the money, still unable to take in Kezzie’s revelation.

‘I am so sorry, Lauren,’ she said. ‘It was before you got back together with him, otherwise I’d never have done it, and nothing happened afterwards I swear.’

Lauren let out a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding. It wasn’t Kezzie’s fault that Troy was a useless bastard, and if anything it made her feel better that someone else had been stupid enough to fall for his charms too. Suddenly she began to laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation.

‘God, what an idiot I’ve been,’ she said. ‘To think I let that lousy two-timer back into my bed,
again
. I tell you what, I have really learnt my lesson as far as Troy is concerned. Never ever again.’

‘Good,’ said Kezzie. ‘So now you need to find Joel, and tell him how you feel.’

‘I do, don’t I?’ said Lauren, with a grin.

Kezzie was practically crowing with excitement after she left Lauren. At last, Joel and Lauren were going to sort things out properly. It was a huge relief to have finally got the truth out about Troy, too. She was grateful to Lauren for taking it so well. She’d been worried Lauren might never speak to her again.

Kezzie went back to her post at the Memorial Gardens with a lighter heart, and she spent a couple of happy hours talking people through the work they had done to restore the gardens. There was no sign of Richard yet, and she’d had no word from him, so she began to relax. Let’s face it,
she thought, he wasn’t going to come; he’d made the way he felt about her perfectly clear. Now it was time she moved on. At least she could enjoy herself today and bask in the glory of all the compliments people were giving her. As Flick and the others had arrived midway through the afternoon, she soon found she was having fun.

There was a reasonable amount of press interest; a freelance reporter who’d been up at Lovelace Cottage to see Joel had come down specially to interview Kezzie, too, and take pictures of her and the others in front of the empty war memorial.

‘I’m hoping to sell the article to one of the weekend sections in the broadsheets, as a summer garden feature,’ he explained. ‘If you’ve got a website, I can put that in.’

‘That would be great, thanks,’ said Kezzie, who’d already had several enquiries about work, which was good. There was nothing left to do at Joel’s now.

When the hubbub died down a bit, she took a break from her presenting duties, and wandered over to the Pimms tent. She saw to her amusement that the vicar had imbibed too much Pimms, and was earnestly extolling the virtues of moving to the Church of Rome, to a very unimpressed Cynthia.

‘Ah, Pimms. The perfect accompaniment to summer,’ she said, to no one in particular.

‘That’s what I always thought,’ said a familiar voice.

Kezzie nearly dropped her glass in shock.

‘Richard,’ she squeaked. ‘You came.’

Kezzie stood in disbelief. Richard was actually standing before her, it was only the second time she’d seen him in months. Richard, her lovely Richard, as charming and gorgeous as ever, had come to find her. Maybe she could hope after all. It took all her restraint not to throw her arms around him.

‘I told you I was coming,’ said Richard.

‘And I told you not to,’ said Kezzie.

‘Since when have I ever listened to anything you’ve had to say?’ said Richard, with a grin. This was true; it had been an annoying feature of their relationship.

‘Look,’ said Kezzie, ‘I know I stuffed up and I’m really sorry. But you don’t have to chase me down here to rub my nose in it any more. I came here to get away from all that.’

‘Kezzie, will you just shut up for one minute?’ said Richard.

‘Why? You made it quite plain last time we saw each other properly how little you wanted me. I’m over you. Why do you have to come down here and ruin everything?’ Kezzie tried to brazen it out, but her heart was pumping and she felt weak at the knees.

‘Because I did get your letter – eventually – and I’m the one who should say sorry,’ said Richard.

‘
What?
’ Kezzie was reeling with shock now. Richard,
apologize to her? In all the time she’d known him, he’d only ever said sorry to her once, when they’d had a stupid argument about politics.

‘Really,’ said Richard. ‘I was so cross with you, I did overreact. I couldn’t believe you could have been so irresponsible as to leave the muffins where Emily could get them, and I knew her mother would make my life hell. Which she did, incidentally. It took Emily two months to pluck up courage to tell me that she knew what those muffins were made of, and tried them out of curiosity.’

‘She knew? How?’

‘She overheard you chatting on the phone to someone. Look, Kezzie. It was daft of you, but it wasn’t entirely your fault. Emily’s nearly sixteen now. She knows her own mind. And she confessed to me she wanted to split us up, which is why she drank your vodka as well. I was livid when she told me, I can tell you. She is really sorry.’

Kezzie sat down in shock. She couldn’t take in what Richard was saying. He was sorry? Emily had done it on purpose? She felt as if her world had just shifted crazily to one side. All these months blaming herself and it wasn’t her fault. Or at least, not entirely.

‘So I’m sorry,’ she tuned back in to what Richard was saying, ‘I said some unforgivable things to you. Can you forgive me?’

‘You did say some terrible things,’ she said.

‘And I regretted them quite quickly,’ he said. ‘But you’d disappeared, and no one seemed to know where you were. I’ve spent the last few months trying to find you.’

‘But when I emailed you, you said you didn’t want any contact,’ said Kezzie.

‘I was still angry then,’ said Richard. ‘It took me far too long to get over that. And by that time it was too late. I tried to email you again and it bounced back.’

‘I changed my email address,’ admitted Kezzie, ‘so you couldn’t get in touch.’

‘Why?’ said Richard.

‘Self-preservation,’ said Kezzie. ‘I didn’t like the clingy pathetic person I’d become. I thought if I just cut all ties with you I would get over you quicker.’

‘And did you?’

Kezzie didn’t answer, so Richard continued, ‘I couldn’t believe it when I saw you at Wimbledon. I did try to talk to you, but you ran off again. If I hadn’t pestered Flick to death, I’d have never got your number off her.’

All these months, she’d been so sure Richard was never going to forgive her, and now it appeared he’d been trying to find her the whole time.

‘Nice garden, by the way.’

‘What?’

‘Your knot garden. I went there first, hoping to find you, and your client said you’d be here.’

‘Did he now?’ said Kezzie, not sure whether she should thump Joel or kiss him next time she saw him.

‘Only there’s something missing,’ said Richard.

‘Which is?’

‘An arch designed by me,’ said Richard. ‘I think we should recreate it and enter it for next year’s Chelsea Flower Show. What do you think?’

‘Sounds … amazing,’ said Kezzie.

‘Good,’ said Richard. ‘And I’ve been waiting to do this all day.’

And he took her hands, pulled her close to him, leant over and gently kissed her on the mouth.

Lauren finished her stint on the cake stall, found her mum and the girls and they all went to have a burger. She was desperate to go and find Joel at the first opportunity but
she knew he’d still be busy with his visitors, and the girls were still keen to go on some of the attractions: there was a small fairground in the market square with a merry go round and teacups. She was standing waving at the girls as they had a go on the merry go round when Troy wandered up to her. He had the girls once or twice a week, but he and Lauren had had little or no other contact since the day she’d thrown him out.

‘Hi,’ he said.

‘Hi,’ said Lauren.

‘They look like they’re having fun,’ said Troy, nodding to the children.

‘They are,’ said Lauren, feeling very thankful that her mum had called it a day and gone home. Her views on Troy had become even more entrenched since she’d found out how he’d let her beloved granddaughter down.

‘Loz,’ Troy seemed a little hesitant. ‘I don’t suppose—’

‘What?’

‘That we have any chance of getting back together? Only you know I’ve got a proper job now, don’t you? I’m going to be the Youth Leader at the new teen drop-in centre, which Tony’s persuaded the Parish Council Heartsease needs. And I’m moving out of that grotty bedsit into a flat above the café.’

‘I didn’t know, no,’ said Lauren. ‘But that doesn’t change anything.’

‘Loz, I know I let you down, but I want to prove to you I can change.’

‘Troy, I’m sorry,’ said Lauren, and she was genuinely surprised to realize she was sorry, ‘but it’s over. We gave it another go, but I don’t think it will work. We have too much history. Too much baggage. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to trust you properly.’

‘Is there nothing I can do to make it up to you?’ Troy
looked genuinely heartbroken, and for the first time Lauren felt sorry for him.

‘No,’ she gently touched him on the arm, ‘or rather, yes. You can be the best possible dad to them,’ she said, nodding at the girls, ‘and you can learn from the mistakes you made with me. Make sure the next girl you meet is one you stay with and commit yourself to properly.’

‘I’ll try,’ said Troy, his voice thick with tears. The girls came running over to him, excitedly telling him about their day, and he pulled himself together and gave them both a hug. ‘I guess I’ll see you around,’ he said to Lauren.

‘I guess you will,’ she said, and gave him a hug. She watched him go and felt a lightening of her heart.

‘Can we go and see Sam and Joel?’ the girls wanted to know.

‘Yes,’ said Lauren, ‘I think we can.’

The film crew had finally departed, the RHS judge had been back to let Joel know the knot garden had won, and there would be a presentation in the field later that evening, and the last guests were making their way up the garden at Lovelace Cottage. It had been a wonderful and satisfying day. Joel’s mum had done a grand job pouring tea and telling anecdotes about Edward; some from memory, some he suspected, embellished somewhat, and Sam had enjoyed toddling around beside her.

Eileen and Tony were busy taking down the exhibition, and Joel thanked them for their hard work. Then he went back and sat down on Edward and Lily’s bench in the knot garden for a while to take stock of everything that had happened. It really was the most beautiful spot. No wonder Edward had created the garden here. Joel’s heart ached for a bit, thinking of Claire and what they could have had, but sitting here, looking at what Kezzie had achieved, he felt he was coming
to terms with losing Claire. The garden would be a fitting memorial to her. Kezzie had blasted in like a breath of fresh air and shaken his life up. She had made him see that he could find love again, with Lauren, if Lauren would let him.

‘Mind if I join you?’

Lauren was standing by the garden gate, her golden hair wreathed in sunlight, her light summer dress shimmering in the breeze. He swallowed hard. She looked absolutely stunning.

‘No, of course not,’ he said. ‘Come and sit down.’

‘I’ve left the girls with your mum,’ she said. ‘Is that OK?’

‘Sure, whatever,’ Joel swallowed again. He felt absurdly nervous, like a sixteen-year-old on a first date.

Lauren came and sat down.

‘So,’ she said. ‘This is Edward’s garden.’

‘And Kezzie’s,’ said Joel.

‘She’s done a great job.’

‘Hasn’t she?’

They paused, looking at one another uncertainly.

‘Joel—’

‘Lauren—’

‘You first—’

They both laughed.

‘I think I’ve been mistaken about you,’ said Lauren. ‘For a long time I was angry with you for the way you treated Claire.’

‘And deservedly so,’ said Joel. ‘I know now I really let her down.’

‘I could never understand the way she was so forgiving towards you. Even the night before she died she texted me to say you’d had a row.’

‘I know, I really didn’t deserve her,’ said Joel. He put his head in his hands. ‘I’ve never forgiven myself for that row, I had no idea she’d told you about it.’

‘Well, you should,’ said Lauren, ‘because Claire did. And I never understood why till recently. Now I know what she saw in you.’

‘What do you mean?’ Joel was stunned. ‘How can you possibly know that?’

‘I rang her to see if she was OK,’ said Lauren, ‘and she was very cross with you. But then she laughed and said you were drunk and being stupid, and she’d gone to bed to punish you, but she knew you’d make it up in the morning.’

Joel’s eyes welled up.

‘And there wasn’t another morning,’ he whispered. ‘She really said that? I never knew.’

‘I’m sorry,’ Lauren touched his hand. ‘I know you felt bad about Claire, but it never occurred to me that you were beating yourself up so much. All those women … I thought you didn’t care.’

‘They never made me feel better,’ said Joel. ‘They were a way of numbing the pain, and trying to fill the black emptiness Claire left. And all the time I was with them, I didn’t see what was right under my nose. Namely you.’

He leant over and looked at her deep and hard.

‘Lauren,’ he said, ‘can we start again?’

‘I’d like that,’ she said shyly.

He leant towards her, and gently cupping her face in his hands, he kissed her. All the pain and heartache fell away, and something new and vibrant took its place. And Joel really understood for the first time that though Claire had gone, he didn’t have to stop living, and that she wouldn’t have wanted him to. He held Lauren close to him, as if he couldn’t bear to let her go.

They walked back up the hill hand in hand as the sun set, and the children ran towards them, a symbol of their bright and shining future.