‘Give him a couple of days,’ Nell said. ‘I’ll talk to him when I see him again, if that helps.’
‘Thanks.’ Emma gave Nell a grateful smile. Then she looked at Aidan. Their buoyant mood had disappeared and maybe it was time to call it a night; she could see in his face that he felt it too.
‘Do you mind if we give the giant willy man a miss tonight?’ she asked. ‘I ought to go and find the rest of these posters before I turn in, and we’ve got an early start in the morning again.’
‘I’ll help you—’ he began, but she stopped him.
‘I’ve already dragged you in and pitted you against your neighbour.’
‘What – Sid? He’s had a bee in his bonnet about one thing or another for as long as I can remember; I wouldn’t worry about him.’
‘Even so… I can manage. I’ll see you tomorrow?’
‘Of course you will,’ he said. ‘Now that I know Sid really hates me working on the hotel I’ll enjoy it twice as much.’
Emma tried to smile at his joke, but it was hard to find the energy. The evening had started full of promise but had ended like a deflated balloon. And Sid was just one obstacle. Even if they won him round there was a mountain of other worries, and she was beginning to wonder if they’d ever conquer it.
Chapter Twenty
The following morning the skies were low and grey, and rain poured steadily in heavy sheets, but Emma didn’t take much notice, and there was no change in the plans to start work on the hotel as usual. Tia had woken late and so they’d decided Emma would go ahead to meet Aidan and Blake on site. While she grabbed a quick breakfast and filled Tia in on her encounter with Sid, she tried not to show her impatience. She was annoyed that she’d had to deal with it on her own (or at least without the one other person it affected as greatly as her), and she was equally vexed by the fact that if Tia had got home from the pub at a decent hour she wouldn’t have been running late now. At least Tia had taken on board Emma’s plea for less noise; if she’d brought Blake home after the pub, Emma hadn’t heard anything.
When she got to the station, Aidan and Blake were already there, deep in conversation. Aidan turned to her with a worried look as she bid them good morning.
‘I think we had a fair bit of rain overnight,’ he said.
Emma immediately saw what he meant. Everywhere they’d worked, digging to shore up foundations or lay pipes or terraces, was now waterlogged, swirling with mud and pools of filthy water.
‘Normally the vegetation would catch most of it,’ Blake said. ‘But of course we’ve pulled a lot up and this soil must be a lot less porous than we thought, so the water is just sitting on the surface and not going anywhere.’
‘It’s going to make it difficult to do a lot today. Equipment is going to get soaked or start sinking into the mud.’
Emma stared at him. ‘But we can’t waste a whole day! And what if it’s still not dry tomorrow?’
‘We could perhaps do a few jobs inside the building,’ Aidan said doubtfully, ‘but with the roof still incomplete even that’s going to be difficult. Whatever we do might end up wet and that means we’d just have to do it all over again at some point.’
‘I’d say take a day off,’ Blake put in. ‘We could always do an extra few hours at the weekend to make up the time.’
‘Take a day off?’ Emma said. ‘For rain? We’ve worked in rain before.’
‘Not this heavy,’ Blake said.
Emma shook her head. ‘I can’t just stand around.’
‘You could use the time to go and see Sid,’ Aidan said.
‘I’ll bet this is his doing,’ she said darkly. ‘Bloody rain spell or something.’
‘I don’t think he’s that clever,’ Blake said.
Emma turned to Aidan. ‘After yesterday’s run-in I don’t think it’s wise to see him today. I think it needs a bit of breathing space.’
He shrugged. ‘It was just a thought.’
‘A sensible one but I’d rather stay here and see what I can get done, rain or not. Every day is too precious to waste. We’re already running behind – every day we add to that is way more stress than I need.’
‘There were always going to be days when the elements were against us,’ Blake said. ‘That’s the thing about working outside.’
Emma looked at the swirling vortex of mud that currently occupied the space where their terrace would eventually be. ‘It’s an absolute mess.’
‘It looks worse than it is – it’ll dry out soon enough. A good day of sun and it will be gone. We’ll work to put something back in the ground as soon as we can so it doesn’t happen again. Even a bit of grass and a few shrubs will help. We were probably a bit too efficient at clearing it in the first place.’
‘You mean I was,’ Emma said miserably. ‘You can say it – I was responsible for most of the ripping out.’
‘I’m just as much to blame,’ Aidan said. ‘If I’d foreseen problems I would have stopped you.’
Blake glanced up at the leaden sky. ‘I don’t think you’re getting any sun today.’
‘The forecast isn’t too bad for the rest of the week though,’ Aidan said. He gave Emma a reassuring smile, though she was finding it very hard to be reassured. ‘I vote we head to the café for now. We might not be able to do much here but we could put our heads together over a coffee and try to come up with a workaround that would enable us to do at least something with the rest of the day.’
‘What sort of workaround?’ Emma asked.
He shrugged. ‘There must be something. And even if we don’t come up with something, it might be a good opportunity to discuss concerns, things you want to change, things you want to implement later on in the build that we might need to know about now. At least it won’t feel like a total waste of the day either way.’
‘You mean like the wood panelling?’ Emma asked, coming round to the idea now. Aidan’s suggestion didn’t exactly make her happy but she didn’t have anything better. ‘We were going to discuss hiring that specialist. I suppose we might be close enough now to that stage to figure out whether we’re going to – we could do that at the café. Tia could meet us there as soon as she’s ready.’
Blake frowned slightly. ‘You mean Hank?’
‘Yes,’ Emma said. ‘That’s his name, isn’t it?’
‘But Hank’s already booked… I did it last week.’
‘What?’
‘Tia told me to get him. She said it was all sorted.’
‘But we never… Ugh!’
Emma spun round and began to march back through the clearing in the direction of the village.
‘What’s wrong?’ Blake called after her.
‘What do you think?’
A moment later Aidan was walking alongside her. ‘I’m guessing you didn’t agree on Hank.’
‘No,’ Emma said through gritted teeth, ‘we didn’t.’
‘And Tia took it upon herself to get him anyway?’
‘It looks that way.’
‘That’s not good. Want me to put him on hold until you sort it?’
‘I want…’ Emma fumed, ‘I want for my business partner to start treating me like one!’ She drew a sharp breath. ‘Look, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be taking this out on you. It’s not your fault, and I realise it makes things awkward for you and Blake.’
‘I doubt she’s doing it on purpose.’
‘I know. I know Tia and I’m sure she’s not. She probably thinks she’s being super efficient and saving me the stress. She’ll be used to making that sort of decision too, from when she ran the gym. She won’t realise it’s different for me – scarier. I can’t just snap my fingers and say yes or no.’
She sighed, all the anger draining from her to be replaced by a sense of defeated frustration. ‘I’m beginning to wonder if I’ve made a huge mistake. I’ve been feeling like that for a while but I kept going… But Sid doesn’t want us here – probably others too who are too scared to say. Tia’s missing half the time, and when she’s around she’s
making decisions on my behalf, and even this rain today… I don’t know, call me melodramatic but it feels like the universe is trying to tell me to go home.’
‘Melodramatic.’
She glanced across to see Aidan smiling slightly. Not to mock, but to encourage.
‘It’s just rain,’ he said. ‘It’s really as simple as that. As for Sid, he’ll come round. Tia just needs to understand your point of view and get used to being part of a team. The bit about going home… well, I thought this was home for you now.’
‘I did too,’ she said. ‘Maybe I was mistaken.’
He pulled out his phone and tapped a brief message.
‘Come on,’ he said, putting it away again, ‘let’s go to the café. I’ve asked Blake to go and get Tia. If you feel we’ve achieved nothing there when we’re done then you don’t have to pay us for today. How’s that sound?’
She couldn’t help but smile, though she felt far from certain about anything he’d said.
‘Alright then,’ she said. ‘I don’t suppose I can argue with that.’
‘I wasn’t expecting you at this time of the day,’ Darcie said as they walked in. ‘Not that I mind one bit. What can I do for you? Fancied a takeaway coffee, did you?’
‘Actually we’re hoping to make you our office today,’ Aidan said. ‘We promise to order lots of tea and sandwiches.’
‘Of course!’ Darcie beamed at him. ‘It’ll make us look full – nothing wrong with a bit of positive publicity! I hate it when the place is empty; it stresses me out. I get scared we’ll never have another customer again. Tariq says I’m daft but I can’t help it.’
‘Right now I can totally understand where you’re coming from,’ Emma said. ‘I’m stressed we’ll never even have a finished hotel to be empty at all.’
‘Oh dear,’ Darcie said as they made their way to a table. ‘That bad?’
‘It’s just the weather messing us around,’ Aidan said. He pulled out a chair for Emma to sit. ‘As soon as everything dries out we can crack on again.’
‘At least we never had that to contend with,’ Darcie said. ‘Oh, Emma, I do feel for you.’
‘Don’t,’ Aidan said. ‘She’s being melodramatic—’ He shushed her objection. ‘You said I could call you that – remember?’
‘Hmm.’ Emma took a menu from Darcie. ‘I said you could call me that but it’s a one-time only deal.’
He laughed. ‘OK. I’ll owe you one in return then.’ He shook his head at the menu Darcie offered him. ‘I know exactly what I’m having.’ He threw an impish look at Emma. ‘We’re here and not in any particular rush until it stops raining… we might as well treat ourselves to a full English.’
Emma narrowed her eyes. ‘I think you’re enjoying this.’
‘Of course I’m not!’ he said with mock offence. ‘I’m just making the best of a bad job. And you can’t complain because if we don’t get any work done today you won’t pay us. That’s not going to happen though. We’re going to get loads done and it’ll be a nice break from being on site for you.’
‘I suppose in that case I could have breakfast,’ she replied, being persuaded against her better judgement. ‘I expect Tia will want one when she gets here too; soak up last night’s booze.’
‘Probably.’ Aidan looked up at Darcie and she nodded.
‘Don’t worry – I got it. And you want teas too?’
‘Thanks, Darcie.’
Emma watched her go to the kitchen and then turned back to Aidan. ‘At least one of us has slotted right into village life without a fuss.’
‘Darcie?’
‘No, Tia. I’ll bet she spends more time in your local than your locals do.’
He was thoughtful for a moment. ‘You know, in her own way I think she’s struggling to adapt and fit in just like you are. The difference is she goes to the pub to try and find that connection.’
‘Maybe I should start going to the pub then.’
‘Maybe you should. Come tonight with me. And before you turn me down, I’m asking you as a friend, just to meet a few more of the villagers.’
At that moment the café door burst open.
‘Guess who I found on our doorstep!’ Tia cried. ‘They say they’re your aunt and uncle but I have no clue!’
Emma frowned. ‘Tia, are you still drunk?’ But then she leapt up from her chair with a squeal as Patricia and Dominic followed Tia into the café. She rushed to embrace them both. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘It’s a long story,’ Patricia said. ‘But the gist is we decided it was high time we had a holiday, and where better to go than Dorset where our favourite niece is.’
‘It’s lucky they caught me,’ Tia said. ‘I was just on my way out. A minute later and I’d have left.’
‘We would have phoned ahead,’ Patricia said to Emma, ‘but we wanted to surprise you. And before you start fussing about where we’re going to stay, we’re passing through on our way to Bournemouth so you don’t have to worry about looking after us. We just thought we’d take a quick detour to see how you’re doing, but we’ll be on our way in an hour or so and you can get on with your work.’
Emma smiled. ‘Well you picked a good bad day. The ground at the site is pretty waterlogged so I don’t think we’ll be doing much there anyway.’
‘That’s a shame,’ Dominic said. ‘Must be frustrating.’
Emma shrugged. ‘These things happen – it’s just rain.’
Aidan shot her a knowing look and she smiled at him. Then he got up.
‘Listen, I’ll clear off for a bit and let you talk to your family.’
‘Oh no,’ Patricia said, ‘you don’t have to go on our account—’
‘I’m sure you’d like to catch up.’ Aidan looked at Emma. ‘I’ll be back later – say about twelve? We’ll see what the weather’s doing then and decide if it’s worth trying to get anything done on site or if we’ll have to leave it for today.’
‘What about breakfast? Darcie will have started it…’
‘I’ll go and ask her to put it in a takeout box.’ He grinned. ‘And if you don’t want yours now I can absolutely eat two.’
Emma laughed. ‘Take them both – give one to Blake or something. I was only having it because you were and it’s really very bad for me so you’re doing me a favour.’
‘That’s exactly what I’m doing,’ he said, his grin spreading.
‘I can take that off your hands,’ Tia said. She looked at Aidan. ‘You and Blake can come back to the cottage for a while and we’ll eat there.’
They disappeared into the back to find Darcie, and Emma barely had time to smile at her aunt and uncle and ask them about their drive down when they emerged again with their food.
‘She’d nearly finished cooking it,’ Aidan said in reply to Emma’s silent query.
‘Ah,’ Emma said. ‘Well enjoy.’
‘We will,’ Tia said. She shifted her attention to Patricia and Dominic. ‘It was lovely to meet you.’
‘You too,’ Patricia said. ‘Thank you for bringing us here, and we look forward to staying in your hotel one day.’
‘We look forward to having you,’ Tia replied. She turned to Aidan. ‘Let’s go and find your brother.’
He nodded before bidding farewell to Patricia and Dominic. ‘Nice to meet you, Emma’s aunt and uncle.’ He glanced at Emma. ‘See you later?’
‘You will; I’ll call you.’
They watched Aidan and Tia leave.
‘They both seem very nice,’ Patricia said. ‘Who’s the man?’
‘Aidan… one of our contractors.’
‘Oh?’ Patricia asked with interest. ‘Is that the one she’s dating?’
‘No, Tia’s going out with his brother.’
‘He’s very friendly… You have quite an informal working relationship then?’
‘It’s kind of how things are round here,’ Emma said.
Darcie came through from the kitchen, drying her hands.
‘Hello,’ she
said, sounding suddenly shy. Emma had noticed she was always like that when confronted with an unfamiliar face, and often wondered what had possessed her to take on an occupation that required a far more outgoing personality. If they did get the increase in custom from hotel guests they were hoping for, Darcie would be in a permanent state of stress from dealing with all the new faces. ‘Aidan said…’
‘This is my aunt and uncle,’ Emma said. ‘Patricia, Dominic… this is Darcie, who makes the best coffee and walnut cake in Dorset.’
Darcie blushed. ‘Actually my cousin makes it but thank you. Can I get you anything?’
‘I wouldn’t mind a slice of that famed cake,’ Dominic said cheerfully.
‘Me too,’ Patricia said. ‘A pot of tea wouldn’t go amiss either.’
‘Make that three teas and three cakes,’ Emma said. ‘Not exactly a full breakfast but just as nice.’
‘Coming up,’ Darcie said before going to the counter to get their order.
‘Now then,’ Patricia said to Emma, ‘I know you’ll be fretting about everyone at home so let’s get that out of the way. They’re all fine, including me and your uncle. Your dad says you call him almost every day and you’re to stop because he’s not totally useless and he can fend for himself. Of course, I wasn’t supposed to tell you that. That said, I do check on him most days myself anyway and I can confirm he’s quite useless – but we’ll let that slide because he’s managing to survive quite nicely in his own rubbish way.’
Emma gave a broad smile. ‘It’s so good to see you – such a lovely surprise.’
‘We couldn’t be in this corner of the world and not come to see you. Although, you took a bit of finding this morning. We went to your cottage first but there was no reply. Then we went to the post office to see if we could find out where the station is, thinking you might be there, but it hadn’t opened yet. So then we were going to text you – which would have ruined the surprise, of course – but we saw your friend coming out of your house. She said she must have been in the shower when we knocked, and she brought us here. She is so lovely, by the way. Not a bit spoilt like we expected her to be.’
‘She’s very sweet, although she’s more of a handful than I remember her being at school.’
The Hotel at Honeymoon Station : A totally heartwarming romance about new beginnings Page 20