‘I agree and I’ve also contacted a friend of mine who creates backdrop screens for plays and theatres. She’s going to create one for us to put up in front of those houses near the castle entrance. There’s no point really doing up those houses when no one’s ever going to live in them, so I took your advice and decided to cover them up. Morgan is going to paint a screen with a medieval castle on the front, similar to Harmony Castle, with knights and jousting going on in the foreground. I thought the visitors to the castle would enjoy that.’
‘That sounds like a lovely idea,’ Willow agreed, getting up to give the pasta a quick stir.
‘I’m feeling positive about this project for the first time since I got here,’ Andrew said. ‘Thank you for that.’
‘Ah, I’m glad I could help.’ Willow sat back down again.
‘So are you going to tell me more about your bright idea that involves Dorothy and the cake?’ Andrew said, taking a sip of wine.
‘Well, I’ve been thinking about this a lot today and there was so much excitement over who had left Dorothy the cake.’
‘I have to say that was the most excitement I’ve seen from the villagers for the last three months.’
‘Exactly. They seemed so happy. From what Dorothy and a few others have told me, nothing has happened here for years and everyone seems to have withdrawn from the community. But yesterday they were all out on the street talking to one another.’
‘I haven’t ever seen that from them.’
‘I wonder about trying to give that back to the village. Bring happiness back to Happiness.’
‘OK, what do you have in mind?’
‘Well if one mystery cake could bring so much happiness, I was thinking about maybe giving a few more people a mystery present.’
‘Really? How many more?’
‘All of them,’ Willow said, quietly, suddenly realising that was a big project in itself.
‘That’s a lot of cake,’ Andrew teased.
‘It won’t all be cake,’ Willow laughed.
‘In all seriousness, getting forty-seven presents, well forty-six since you don’t need to include me, could be quite costly.’
‘Forty-five now, Dorothy has already had her gift. And it doesn’t necessarily need to be bought gifts – and if I do buy presents, they only need to be cheap. But maybe I can make some of the gifts or do nice things for the villagers. Like Elsie’s house, have you seen that she’s only painted the bottom half?’
Andrew rolled his eyes. ‘Yes, she’s been on at me to paint it for her and I promised her I would, but it just wasn’t a priority. Getting the houses ready for the new people was more important. She clearly decided to take matters into her own hands and now it looks even worse than it did before.’
‘I could do the rest for her.’
‘How do you intend to do that without being seen? I’m presuming the secrecy of the gifts is going to be a big part of this plan.’
‘I could do it at night,’ Willow said.
He cocked his head. ‘Have you really thought this through?’
‘Probably not. I always rush into things without thinking about it first.’
He smiled. ‘You’ll need a ladder to reach the apex of the house, and probably the eaves. I know it’s a bungalow but you’re not going to reach much higher than she did without a ladder or some kind of extendable roller. And you’ll need lights if you’re going to paint in the dark. It’s really a two-man job during the day, let alone at night.’
‘Well fortunately for me, I’m on quite good terms with the sexy estate manager,’ Willow said and immediately regretted using the word sexy.
‘Oh no, you’re not getting me involved in this madness and…’ he paused.
Good, he hadn’t noticed the compliment.
‘Did you just say I was sexy?’
Crap.
‘Well flattery goes a long way,’ Willow tried to brazen it out. ‘I could think of lots of lovely things to say about you if you agree to help me.’
He leaned his head back as if looking to a higher being for strength. He let out a theatrical groan.
She waited patiently but knew he was going to say yes.
‘I’ll even throw in a present for you to sweeten the deal.’
He looked back at her and shook his head with amusement. ‘Fine, but it better be a bloody good present.’
She laughed. ‘It will be, I promise.’
‘Very well.’
‘I thought we could come up with a list of everyone in the village and maybe you could tell me a little about each person, what they like and dislike, so I can start to come up with some ideas for their presents.’
‘Another list.’
‘I love a list,’ Willow said, not taking his complaints remotely seriously.
‘Clearly.’
‘But as I’m nice, I’ll let you eat first.’
‘So kind.’
She got up to dish up the dinner. She glanced over her shoulder to see if he was still cursing his decision to come here tonight and found he was watching her with a huge smile on his face, which he quickly swapped for a scowl when he realised she had spotted him. She turned back to the oven with a smile. This project was going to be fun and working with Andrew was going to be a huge part of that.
Eleven
Andrew drained the last mouthful of wine from his glass.
‘I think we have a good list there,’ he gestured to the piece of paper between them.
‘I think it stopped being a good list about half hour or so ago.’ Willow picked up the empty bottle of wine and held it up to him as proof. They’d also started on a second bottle.
‘You might be right there, but I think we came up with some good stuff at the beginning of the evening.’
‘Let’s hope so.’
It had been a good night. In between coming up with ideas to surprise the villagers, they had chatted and laughed like old friends. He really bloody liked this girl.
‘Well, I better go,’ Andrew said.
‘No driving home, you’ll probably drive straight off the cliff.’
‘I’m not that drunk, it’ll take a bit more than a few glasses of wine to get me in that state, but to be on the safe side, I’ll walk. I’ve got a torch on the quad bike.’
‘Just don’t drop this one,’ Willow said. ‘I don’t like the thought of you stumbling around in the dark again.’
‘Anyone would think you cared about me,’ he said, standing up.
‘I do.’
Andrew hesitated for a moment as he stared at her, his eyes locked on hers. He was in trouble here. He felt like he needed to walk away, clear his head, before he said or did something he would likely regret.
He moved to the door and she followed him.
‘Thanks for dinner.’
She opened the door for him. ‘Thanks for the help with the list.’
He stepped outside feeling like he should say something but he didn’t know what. Something sparked in the air between them.
‘Goodnight Willow.’ He bent his head to kiss her on the cheek but as she moved towards him he caught her on the very edge of her mouth. He saw desire flicker in her eyes as he pulled back. He turned towards the gate, his heart thudding in his chest. It was a beautiful night, the sea was mirror calm, the stars twinkling in the inky sky. The chill of the night seemed to wipe away any fuzziness in his head and he suddenly had this moment of clarity. He looked back to see Willow was still standing there watching him and he had never felt so sure about anything in his entire life. He walked back towards her, cupped her face and kissed her.
She immediately kissed him back, wrapping her arms around his neck. The taste of her slammed into his gut. Her lips were so soft. He moved his hands down to her waist, feeling her warmth against him. When she slid her tongue into his mouth it was the single most sexy thing he’d ever experienced. The kiss turned urgent and desperate and he knew he should stop. He pulled back slightly and she moved her lips to his throat,
her hot mouth there sending all clarity and sense from his brain.
He picked her up and she wrapped her legs around his waist. He kicked the door closed behind them as he carried her back inside.
* * *
Willow landed with a thud on the sofa with Andrew on top of her. They barely stopped kissing for a second as they caught their breath at the sudden jolt on their bodies. The weight of him pinning her to the sofa was divine. This kiss was everything, this was what had been missing from her life for the last four years.
She hadn’t planned for this tonight, in fact she hadn’t planned for this when she came to Happiness, but right now there wasn’t a single part of her that didn’t want it.
She ran her hands down his back, feeling the strength in his shoulders. He was there, surrounding her with his scent, his kiss, his touch, his warmth, it was almost too much all at once.
He must have felt the same as he pulled back slightly to look at her, his breath heavy as he took her in.
She stroked his face. ‘That was one hell of a goodnight kiss.’
‘It’s important to do these things right.’
‘Well you did that.’
‘I should go,’ Andrew said.
She frowned slightly at this sudden about-turn.
‘Not because I want to go,’ he was quick to reassure her. ‘But because I really don’t want to.’
‘I’m glad we cleared that up,’ Willow said.
He smiled and leaned his forehead against hers for a second before standing up. He held out a hand for her and helped her to her feet as well.
‘Let’s try this again,’ he said, still holding her hand as he walked to the door and opened it. ‘Goodnight Willow.’ He bent his head and this time gave her a brief kiss on the lips.
He walked to his quad bike and pulled a torch from the compartment under the seat. He gave her a wave and disappeared into the darkness.
Willow went back inside and closed the door. She ran her fingers over her lips, still tasting his kiss. What the hell had just happened? And more importantly, what was she going to do about it?
* * *
Willow got up the next morning, poured herself a bowl of Cheerios, made a cup of tea and took it outside to sit on the bench so she could enjoy the spectacular view.
She hadn’t been able to stop thinking about that kiss all night. She couldn’t say she regretted it, because it had been incredible, but she also stood by what she’d told Ruby a few days before. It was way too soon to be getting involved with someone, she wanted time to find herself first.
She had no idea what she was going to say to Andrew either. She didn’t want it to be awkward between them and she certainly didn’t want to hurt him. She wondered how he felt about it this morning and whether he was now plucking up the courage to face her.
She looked down at the notepad that she and Andrew had been working on the night before. After one or two glasses of wine, they had decided to call themselves ‘The Secret Society of Happiness’. She liked that. He had a wonderful silly sense of humour that was very attractive.
She picked up the pad. Andrew had drawn her a very detailed map, showing where everyone lived in the village, which was going to be a big help in delivering the presents to the right people and ticking everyone off. She looked at the list. There were some silly suggestions there, clearly they had come in the latter part of the night. She decided to circle the ones she could do now as that seemed like a good place to start.
Mary, from the pink cottage near to the pub, had recently lost her watch and had scoured the whole village looking for it. Though Willow couldn’t do anything about returning the lost watch to her, she did have a replacement. She had a thing for buying things at car boot sales and she was like a magpie for anything antique-looking, unique and sparkly. Generally she bought things and then sold them on eBay for a small profit, although she hadn’t got round to selling the last lot before she moved. She had been going to donate them to a charity shop rather than bring them with her but she hadn’t got round to that either. Upstairs, in her bedroom, she had a small box filled with jewellery and watches. She knew just the watch she wanted to give Mary. She would put it in a gift box and deliver it under the veil of darkness later that evening.
Then there was Ginny, who constantly had fresh flowers delivered every few weeks, so Andrew had told her. Ginny would display the flowers in a big vase in her front window. There were tons of wild flowers growing alongside the track leading from the village down to Sunrise Cottage; roses, violets, sunflowers, poppies and cornflowers seemed to be growing in abundance and there was even a big forsythia bush which she could cut a few stems off. Willow was sure the bouquet that she planned to pick and arrange for Ginny wouldn’t be anywhere near as good as the professional shop-bought bouquets but she hoped, as a flower lover, Ginny would still appreciate the gesture.
And she and Andrew had planned to try to paint the rest of Elsie’s house that night so, with Ginny and Mary too, that felt like a really good start to the Secret Society of Happiness List.
She placed the pad down and wrapped her hands around her mug for warmth.
‘Hi.’
She looked round to see Andrew hovering awkwardly at her gate and her heart went out to him.
‘Hello.’
‘I… just came to collect the quad bike.’
She smiled and patted the bench next to her. He sighed in relief and came and sat down next to her.
They sat in silence for a while, before eventually Andrew spoke.
‘You think last night was a mistake, don’t you?’
‘No, I think last night was lovely. Actually it was incredible. I’ve never been kissed like that and there is a huge part of me that wants to explore this wonderful connection between us and say to hell with it and take you straight up to my bedroom now and test the springs on my brand-new mattress.’
He laughed. ‘That sounds like a plan.’
‘But I think what happened last night was too soon. At least for me. I came down here for a fresh start. I was in a relationship with my last boyfriend for four years and I kind of lost sight of who I was, of what I wanted. I drifted along in this mundane relationship and it sucked the life out of me. Since it ended, in let’s say a fairly embarrassing way, six months ago, it has been such a relief to be on my own again. But I couldn’t get away from feeling like a laughing stock and the looks of pity I was getting from everyone, and I needed a break from all of that. I’ve been part of Garry and Willow for so long that I need to find out what it’s like to just be me for a while.’
‘I understand,’ Andrew said.
‘You do?’ Willow was surprised by this as she wasn’t sure she totally understood it herself.
‘Yeah.’ He squeezed her hand and placed a kiss on her cheek. ‘I’ve had a string of bad relationships and I swore I wasn’t interested in having another, at least not for a while. And I’m not sure what came over me last night, I don’t think I can even blame the alcohol. The only thing I can say in my defence is that you’re really bloody lovely and I just got carried away. You have my word, it won’t happen again.’
She smiled and leaned her head against his shoulder. ‘I think you’re pretty wonderful too.’
Which made her wonder, why was she so intent on holding back?
‘How about a pact?’ Willow said, suddenly feeling like she didn’t want to draw a line under her relationship with Andrew completely. ‘Six months from now, if I haven’t annoyed you too much with all the lists I’m going to make you write, and you’re still single and not married with babies on the way, we revisit that kiss and see where the night takes us when you don’t have to rush off.’
He smiled. ‘Have you just booked a date for us to have sex six months from now? That’s a bit too organised if you ask me.’
‘Is that a no?’
‘Hell no.’ Andrew got out his phone and she laughed as she watched him enter a new event into his calendar. Hot sex with Willow. ‘I’ll look
forward to it.’
She smiled. She liked the sound of that plan.
Twelve
Willow had decided that she needed to do some more painting in the village that day. With only two weeks now until the open day, she wanted everything to be perfect. She had spent a good deal of time the day before updating her website so that was done and until any new orders came in she had some hours to spare. It was hot already and it was still early in the morning; it promised to be another sweltering day so she didn’t want to waste the good weather sitting inside her shop.
She wandered down to the far end of the village, thinking about Andrew. She just hoped that, after their kiss and their agreement that nothing should happen between them, it wouldn’t be awkward for them to work in such close proximity to each other.
As she got closer she was surprised how much had changed in just a day of Jack and his team working here. But a quick head count revealed that Jack’s team included at least twelve people so it was no surprise they had got so much done already. She counted at least four more houses that had been painted since she had last been down here, although she hadn’t been down this end for a few days as she had been focussing her attention on painting the shops in the main part of the village.
She headed for the shed and grabbed some tins of paint and brushes. She looked around. She wanted to make sure she wouldn’t be in the way of any of the work that was going on and she didn’t want to start painting on a house that might still have wet paint. There was no sign of Andrew, though there was clearly work going on inside one or two of the houses.
She saw a man who looked like he might be in charge as he gave directions to two other men and she heard one of them call him Jack. He had stripped down to his shorts, as many of the men had. He had the body of someone who did a lot of manual labour. As he finished talking, she walked over to speak to him.
The Little Village of Happiness: A gorgeous uplifting romantic comedy to escape with this summer Page 9