Page 77 of Sunrise over Strawberry Hill Farm

But even as she thought it, she knew why. Because she liked him.

She knew that he was entirely unsuitable for her and that he didn’t think of her that way. She knew that he was leaving after the summer.

And yet she did like him.

She liked his ridiculous flirty comments. She liked his dark brown eyes which would grow soft when looking at her sometimes. She liked his Italian accent and the way he had gone above and beyond to help out her and Grams.

Was it possible that he liked her too? And then she decided, of course not. A full-blooded Italian stallion would have kissed her on the dance floor that evening. He hadn’t kissed her all those weeks ago when she had asked him to either.

They were just friends and that was that. A dull ache came over her and she felt desperately lonely.

She had a sudden thought and brought out her mobile.

‘Hi,’ she said, when Tyler finally picked up. ‘How are you?’

‘Long time, no hear,’ he replied. ‘I’m good, thanks.’

She took a deep breath and said, ‘You know, we never got round to having that second drink, did we?’

‘No. We didn’t. I’m at a farm show this weekend, so how about the following Saturday night?’ he asked, sounding pleased.

‘Sounds good,’ she replied. ‘Seven o’clock in the Black Swan?’

‘I’ll see you there.’

After she had hung up, Flora waited for the thrill of anticipation of a date with Tyler. And yet it never came.

It didn’t matter, she reminded herself.

She heard her grandmother’s words describing him as dull. She gulped. Tyler was steady, like her. That was all.

But she needed to date and move on with her life. She had missed out on so much because of the sacrifices she had made. She was bored. Frustrated even.

And Nico? He only thought of her as a friend. Perhaps he even thought that she was a bit dull, a tiny bit boring?

But suddenly she decided that she didn’t want to be dull Flora any more. She liked Flora who stripped off and went into the lake and propositioned entirely unsuitable men when she’d had too much to drink.

The trouble was that the only unsuitable man she really wanted was Nico.

46

July arrived and brought with it a heatwave.

‘It’s perfect weather for the lavender,’ said Harriet with a happy sigh as she sank into a chair underneath the gazebo on one side of the lavender fields. ‘They don’t like too much rain.’

‘Neither do I,’ said Katy, leaning against the table. ‘Wow, you sold a lot of tickets today,’ she added, checking the receipts.

Harriet nodded and yawned at the same time. ‘If this keeps up, we’re going to have a record summer,’ she told her friends. ‘Joe’s had to rush out and buy some more till receipts because we didn’t order enough. There’ll be no time this weekend with even more visitors.’ She held up her crossed fingers.

‘They’ll come,’ said Libby in a confident tone. ‘Why wouldn’t they? Look at it!’

Flora joined her friends in looking up at the long rows of lavender plants. They had bloomed just in time for the opening of the lavender fields for public visitors. The whole field was alive with bees and butterflies and the scent was incredibly beautiful and relaxing.

Flora glanced down at Paddington, who was lying underneath the table, exhausted from his role as top greeter to all the children who had visited that day.

‘There were definitely more people here than I remember last year,’ said Libby.

Flora had to agree, as the empty field which she gave to Harriet to use as a car park had been full by the afternoon.