Spring at The Cosy Cottage Cafe: A heart-warming story of friendship and new beginnings

by Rachel Griffiths

  Pizza!

  Pizza would help her to think of something else. She’d picked up a sundried tomato and mozzarella pizza when she’d done her weekly shop, so she’d pop that in the oven, throw together a green salad and maybe even open a bottle of wine. It was Saturday, after all.

  An hour later, Honey sat cross-legged on her big squishy dark-green sofa, a plate of pizza balanced on her knees and a glass of ice-cold sauvignon blanc on the side table, the droplets of condensation on its surface glowing in the warm lamplight. Honey took a bite of pizza then washed it down with a sip of cool wine, savouring the aroma of apricots and the crisp dry finish. And as the opening music of her new favourite show Peaky Blinders filled her lounge, she smiled to herself.

  “See Honey, who needs Dane Ackerman when you have Thomas Shelby, pizza and wine? Not you, that’s for sure.”

  As she took another bite of pizza, she almost believed it.

  3

  The next morning, Honey was pottering around in her kitchen when her mobile buzzed on the counter. She took a deep breath before picking up her mobile, steeling herself in case it was Dane cancelling their lunch date, but when she swiped the screen, she found a brief message from Camilla.

  Hey Honey,

  Hope you’re okay this morning. Saw Dane running past my cottage earlier. He’s a hottie! Get in there, girl! Nothing to lose…

  Speak soon, C x

  Honey sighed as she placed her mobile back on the counter. Camilla was right; Dane was a hottie but he certainly wasn’t warming Honey up at the moment. However, that was fine… she could settle for friendship.

  Friendship was good, right?

  She filled the kettle and switched it on, then slid her feet into the wellies that she kept by the back door and headed out into the slightly misty morning to check on her chickens. She let herself into the enclosure then did a quick clean around, picking up any mess she’d missed last night and disposing of it.

  After refreshing their water dispensers, she filled the feeders with pellets, before lifting the wooden hatch that led into the chicken coop. One by one, her girls made their way out into the daylight, and she watched them carefully to ensure that each one looked fit and healthy. As they bobbed around her ankles, she scanned the enclosure for stray eggs then did a check of the nesting boxes, where she found five fresh eggs that she deposited into the basket she’d brought with her.

  The eight Bantam Welsummer chickens always made Honey smile. With their beautiful golden brown feathers – that glowed amber in the sunlight – and their easy-going natures, they laid enough eggs for her, as well as some for the café, and their unique personalities meant that she had named each one accordingly. She ran through their names as she watched them enjoying their breakfast: Princess Lay-a, Hen-solo, Cluck Rogers, Albert Eggstein, Mary Poopins, Maid Marihen, Henifer Aniston and Tyrannosaurus Pecks.

  “Looks like it’s eggs for breakfast then,” Honey said, as she let herself out of the wire enclosure and made her way back to the cottage.

  She left her wellies just outside the backdoor, where she could wash them off later with the garden hose, and took the basket of eggs inside. Initially, she’d decided to get some chickens as a kind of hobby, but their egg laying had been a bonus. She’d done her research and knew that Bantams weren’t always the friendliest breed and that they didn’t always lay the most eggs, but her girls (as she liked to think of them) were as good a reason as any for getting out of bed in the morning. She had time to run through a yoga routine before taking a shower and eating some scrambled eggs, then she could spend the morning reading a good book and looking forward to her lunch at the local pub with Dane.

  Honey walked through the village at just after one o’clock and was surprised to find that her stomach was full of butterflies. And why? She’d been out with Dane on several occasions, been to his house and he’d been to hers, but for some reason this felt like a first date all over again. If dating was what they’d been doing… Otherwise, she might have got the wrong end of the stick and would need to adjust her mindset about the handsome teacher. It was possible that she had been wrong about him, wasn’t it?

  A sudden gust of wind brought goosebumps to her skin, so she pulled her coat together over her chest. She’d dressed simply in a grey long-sleeved top, black skinny jeans and knee-high suede black boots. She’d wound her long blue and pink hair up into a bun that she’d pinned high on her head and her makeup was minimal – tinted moisturizer, mascara and a pale pink lip gloss. Having thought long and hard about Dane and where their relationship was headed, the last thing Honey wanted to do was to seem as if she was making a huge effort to attract him when he could well see her as just a friend.

  Honey soon reached The Red Fox and went through the side door. The delicious aroma of cooked dinner made her mouth water. She scanned the bar and smiled at a few locals before spotting Dane at a corner table. He waved her over, so she pointed at the bar, but he held up a bottle of wine.

  “Hi Honey, I hope this is okay? I know you like white wine, so I thought seeing as how we’re having lunch, we could share a bottle. Probably shouldn’t, you know, as I still have marking to do but I can get back to that later.”

  “That’s lovely, thanks.” Honey removed her coat then sat down and Dane poured two glasses of wine.

  “How has your morning been?” Dane asked as he smiled at her.

  Honey looked at him, taking in how broad his shoulders were in a fitted black t-shirt and how slim his waist was in his low-slung indigo jeans. His bright blue eyes gazed back at her, framed with thick dark lashes, and his black hair was short but stylishly messy, as if he’d just got out of bed. Even the scar on his full upper lip – from a collision with another rugby player’s knee – and the widened bridge of his nose, from where he’d broken it in another rugby game, added to his allure. As much as she wanted to deny it, Honey found Dane incredibly attractive and the fantasy of wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing his beautiful mouth played through her mind as it always did whenever she was near him.

  “Honey?” A quizzical expression passed over Dane’s face. “I asked how your morning was.”

  “Oh! Uh… very relaxing, thanks.” She lifted her wine and took a sip, keen to hide her embarrassment at being caught out staring at him, while thinking about what she’d like to do to him if she ever had the chance. “I fed the girls, did some yoga, had a nice warm shower… you know…” Why had she told him about her shower? “And I read some of my book.”

  “Sounds good to me. I went for a run then tried to settle to marking again but I must be a bit tired today because I struggled to focus.”

  “Well you have been working really hard, Dane.” Honey thought of the numerous times he’d told her he had marking and planning to do and she’d wondered if he did, or if it was just an excuse not to see her. But then teachers did work hard and he probably did have a heavy workload.

  “I know.” He nodded. “It’s just that with this being a supply post, I feel… that I have to make a good impression.”

  “I’m sure you have done. Dawn said that you’ve got a fabulous reputation at the school already.”

  “That’s good to hear but it doesn’t make the position permanent, does it?”

  “I guess not.”

  Dane was currently covering at the local primary school for a teacher who’d been on long-term sick leave. He was renting a cottage in the village and had told Honey that he wanted to move to Heatherlea permanently, but it depended on the work situation.

  “I wanted to tell you actually, that I found out on Friday that Mr Brown, the teacher I’m covering for, isn’t coming back, so I want the school to know I’m good enough to employ permanently. Not that I want to steal anyone’s job, but… well… they’re advertising the post externally.”

  “That’s brilliant news… for you, not for him.”

  “Initially, the head teacher told me there would be supply work until the end of the summer term but now there will
be a full-time and permanent position. She said there will be a very short turn around, as they want to know they have a teacher in the post for the summer term, and they were just waiting on finalising some figures before advertising it.”

  “When are the interviews?”

  “Next week.”

  “Wow! That is fast.”

  “I’m going to apply for it but, of course, I have to face that fact that I might not get it.”

  Honey’s stomach lurched. “I’m sure you will.”

  “There’s no guarantee, is there?”

  “I guess not but you deserve it. But… if the worst happened, then you could always commute to another job.” She scanned his face, hoping that her words wouldn’t hurt him. She wanted him to get the job and believed he should, but it depended on other factors that they had no control over.

  “I could.” Dane sipped his wine. “But the main reason I rented instead of buying was because the position was temporary, and – aside from the fact that I might not have got a mortgage as a supply teacher – I didn’t want to put down roots until I knew how things were looking.”

  “Well you have to do what’s right for you.”

  Dane gazed at her and she felt a flush rising up her chest into her neck.

  “Is that how you feel then, Honey?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well… oh it doesn’t matter. Let’s just have a good meal and some wine and enjoy the afternoon. We could even go for a long walk afterwards and blow the cobwebs off.”

  “Sounds good to me.”

  But as she perused the Sunday lunch menu, she wondered what he was going to say. He’d asked how she felt. Did he mean about him moving on if he didn’t get the job, or something else? Would he consider staying if she told him she wanted him to? And she did want him to, but she just couldn’t get the words out, because if she was wrong about his feelings for her, she could make an enormous fool of herself and then their friendship would be ruined.

  So she swallowed her doubts and her questions and her desire for the man sitting opposite her, and focused instead on making light conversation about films and books and good places to holiday. Safe subjects, as Camilla would describe them.

  But deep down, her heart ached, her desire fluttered and her confusion grew. Honey knew that she’d have to decide what to do about Dane one way or the other, and soon, but for this afternoon, she would go with the flow.

  Tomorrow would be another day; tomorrow could be when she plucked up the courage to make or break whatever it was that they had between them.

  4

  The following Tuesday, Honey opened the gate to The Cosy Cottage Café, and some of the tension that had settled in her shoulders since the weekend loosened. She loved the evenings she spent at the café with Allie, Camilla and Dawn. The three women were her closest friends in Heatherlea and the closest thing she had to a family.

  The sky above the café garden glowed in shades of gold and orange. The air smelt fresh and new, delicately fragranced with spring flowers. In the borders surrounding the green lawn, daffodils, crocuses and tulips waved their colourful heads in the gentle breeze, a beautiful sea of yellow, white, red, purple and pink. The plants that climbed the front of the café were green and strong, and would soon be awash with colourful flowers, bringing a beautiful summer vibrancy to the old stone cottage.

  Honey reached the café steps and admired the purple shutters that surrounded the windows, realising that they’d had a recent lick of paint, as had the white front door. Not only was the café a very pretty place, it was also warm and friendly, and the exterior conveyed this, from the garden to the warm glow that emanated from the windows.

  A sound off to her right made Honey turn and she spotted Luna, one of Allie’s cats, stretching out on the path just behind the wooden specials board. Honey knew that the cats weren’t meant to be at the café since Allie had moved in with Chris, but she also knew that Luna, in particular, sneaked back some days to check on her old haunts.

  Honey pushed open the door to the café and entered, immediately appreciating the warm interior, as well as savouring the delicious aromas of baking and coffee that always greeted her here.

  “Honey!” Allie smiled from behind the counter. “We thought you’d never get here. Dawn is starving.”

  Honey smiled in return. “Sorry. I don’t know what happened. I went out to put the chickens in the coop for the night and got distracted by a few weeds growing in one of my raised beds and when I next checked the clock, it was gone five and I still needed to shower.”

  “Well you’re here now and didn’t make me wait any longer so I’ll forgive you,” Dawn said from the table near the log burner. “But I’m not sure about this little one.” She rubbed her swollen belly that stretched the navy and white striped material of her maternity dress.

  “How’re you feeling?” Honey asked Dawn as she approached the table and took a seat next to Camilla.

  “About to pop. Full yet ravenous. Uncomfortable. In need of a good night’s sleep yet I can’t sleep, because if I stay in one position for more than twenty minutes I get leg cramps. My boobs have already started leaking and don’t get me started on how many times I have to get up to pee.” Dawn shook her head.

  “Did you have to ask her?” Camilla frowned at Honey then laughed. “My poor baby sister is SO ready to get this baby out.”

  “It’s true.” Dawn nodded. “I can’t wait and then I’m keeping my legs crossed forever.”

  “I’m not sure that’ll work, Dawn,” Allie said as she set a plate of fresh bread rolls down on the table along with a jug of dark red liquid.

  “What’re we drinking?” Honey asked, wondering if Allie had made them cocktails to have instead of wine.

  “This is cranberry juice for Dawn, but you can have some if you want.”

  “I do like cranberry juice but I also like—”

  “Wine?” Camilla asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Wine is on its way.” Allie gestured behind her at the kitchen.

  “I cannot wait to have some wine,” Dawn said. “I also can’t wait to be able to see my feet, to paint my toenails and to do a lot of other things.”

  “I am never going through that.” Camilla sniffed. “How you can do it three times I have no idea.”

  “Well I didn’t exactly choose to go through it this time did I, Camilla?” Dawn filled a glass with cranberry juice.

  “I know the pregnancy was an accident but you don’t regret it now, do you?” Honey asked.

  “Not at all,” Dawn replied. “And one day, Camilla Dix, you might change your mind. Especially when you see the beautiful baby at the end of all this.”

  Camilla shuddered dramatically and Dawn laughed.

  “You wait, big sister!”

  “Perhaps Tom doesn’t want babies.” Camilla leant forwards, resting her arms on the table.

  “Have you asked him?”

  “We’ve talked about children.” Camilla looked around the table at her friends. “Not as something we were planning but just… you know… discussed other people who have children and how they always seem so tired, and about how we’re both lucky that we don’t have that drain on our energy and resources.”

  “Give them a year.” Allie held up a finger. “And we’ll see what they’re saying then.”

  Camilla sighed. “I doubt it very much. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… not everyone wants to be a mother. Besides, Dawn’s done enough procreating for both of us.”

  “Honey, could you give me a hand bringing the food through?” Allie asked.

  “Of course.”

  Honey followed Allie into the kitchen.

  “Thought we better give the Dix sisters a chance to get that subject out of their systems. I’m not sure that Camilla will change her mind about children; she’s always been so set against it.”

  “But then she was set against relationships until Tom came along.” Honey picked up a serving plate
of miniature roasted vegetable quiches that sat on a bed of dark green spinach.

  “True.”

  “Not that everyone has to have children, of course,” Honey added, thinking not just of Camilla but also of herself. “It doesn’t happen for everyone.”

  “It certainly doesn’t and as long as she and Tom are happy then that’s all that matters.”

  “And they have HP.”

  “That they do.” Allie giggled. “And he’s a handful all right.”

  “Speaking of animals, I think I saw Luna outside.”

  “Darn her!” Allie tutted. “She keeps coming back, but then she wanders the village all the time. She always finds her way home but I do worry sometimes that she might go too far, or be picked up by someone.”

  “All the villagers know she’s yours.”

  “They do but Luna does keep pestering poor Mrs Burnley. I think that she encourages Luna by feeding her to be honest, but when Luna takes her a gift… she comes in here to complain.”

  “Is Luna still taking mice to Mrs Burnley then?”

  “Not just mice, Honey, but anything she can get her jaws around. She took her poor old dead Wallace, and since then she’s taken her a squashed frog, a squirrel and a pair of boxer shorts that she must have pulled off someone’s washing line.”

  “Really? I mean, I knew about Wallace but not about the boxers!”