Chapter 14

“You never told me what was wrong with your weekend?” Annette remarked over breakfast on Monday.

Josie was puzzled. “There was nothing wrong with my weekend.”

“You didn’t seem so enthusiastic when you came back yesterday. I thought you might have fallen out with Jack or something?”

“Oh!” The weekend with Jack seemed a long time ago. After the fun collecting couches, she’d forgotten all about it. “Yeah. Jack was pretty busy so I didn’t really see much of him. It’s hard figuring out how to have a long-distance relationship. I’m sure it’ll be fine when we get used to it.”

“I’m sure it will.”

“I’m going to walk the dogs,” Josie said. “Then I’m going to figure out how to get us some customers. Maybe I should start approaching dog-walkers and offering them flyers with a ten percent discount or something.”

“Stop worrying. Before you know it, the kennels will all be full and you’ll be wishing for the day you only had our dogs to walk.”

“I just feel bad that we haven’t had any bookings yet.”

“I forgot to tell you – Graham asked us to have his two dogs next weekend while he’s away.”

“That’s good.” Her smile faded and she looked at Annette questioningly. “Is this a paid booking or a favour for a friend?”

“A favour,” Annette said. “But it’s good. Like a trial run for you. Except it’s over the weekend so you’ll be at home, won’t you? Never mind.”

“Maybe I can stay,” Josie mused.

“Don’t be silly. I can manage a couple of dogs on my own.”

“Let’s pretend it’s a proper booking anyway and put it in the calendar.”

“I already did,” Annette said.

“Really? I thought I’d have to show you how to use the calendar.”

“I’ve been taking bookings for fifty-odd years. I think I know how to write them in the diary.” They stared at each other for a moment. “Don’t tell me – you’ve got some new-fangled thing you want me to use.”

“The online bookings go straight to the calendar on the computer, so we’ll just have to add phone bookings to that.”

“That doesn’t make sense. What happens when you go home on the weekends and take your laptop with you?”

“I set it up on your computer too,” Josie said. “It’s all linked.”

“We never really used that computer. It’s another thing Max insisted on, but I never saw the point.”

“I’ll show you how to use it,” Josie said. “You’ll soon get the hang of it.”

“Maybe we can just put my diary next to the computer and you can transfer the online bookings into that. Things don’t go wrong when you write them down.”

“That’ll just be confusing,” Josie argued.

“It must be your system that doesn’t work then, because I’ve been writing the bookings in the diary for fifty years and there’s never been any confusion.”

With a deep breath, Josie smiled tightly. It didn’t seem like she was going to win this battle today, and since they didn’t have any proper bookings yet, it didn’t seem worth the headache.

“I’ll write them in the diary until you get the hang of the online calendar.”

Annette looked dubious but set about tidying the breakfast things away and didn’t comment further.

“It rained in the night,” she said, as Josie slipped her shoes on. “Take my wellies. Your feet will end up soaking wet otherwise.”

“I’m fine,” she said brightly, remembering Sam’s comment.

Annette tutted and Josie called for the dogs and set off to walk them. She ambled over the hills for a couple of hours, and when the damp seeped from the grass through her trainers, an image of Sam came to mind again. She still wasn’t about to start wearing wellies. 

Back at the house, she wrote a few posts on the social media accounts for the kennels. She really thought they’d start getting bookings immediately and was disappointed by the silence. In the afternoon, she took the dogs out for another walk and was down by the barn when she saw a familiar face at the gate. Amber, the woman with the little boy she’d met when she first arrived. He was fast asleep in the buggy.

“Thought I’d call in for a cuppa while he sleeps.” Amber gave Josie a warm hug. “How are you settling in?”

“Good,” Josie said. “Come and see what I got for the kennels.”

She proudly showed off her reclaimed furniture. Amber was suitably impressed. They had a good giggle when Josie explained how she’d come to get them.

“Sam’s such a good guy,” Amber said, as they wandered back out into the sunshine. “It’s nice that he helped you out.”

“It cheered me up after a crappy weekend anyway.”

“What was wrong with your weekend?”

“Oh, nothing,” Josie said. She had a tendency to talk too much and would generally tell her life story to anyone who asked. But there was something about Amber as well; she was very easy to chat to. “My boyfriend was driving me up the wall, but it’s not really anything new.”

“I didn’t realise you had a boyfriend.” Amber stopped, then opened her mouth to say something a couple of times before she finally spoke. “I thought you liked Sam.”

Josie frowned. “He told you I kissed him?”

She shook her head before she started laughing. “No. He didn’t tell me that!”

“Oh, God!” Josie headed to the house. “It never happened! I’ll make coffee and we’ll pretend I didn’t say anything.”

“Or you could make coffee and then tell me everything,” Amber suggested.

After Annette said a quick hello, she left them alone and they sat out on the patio.

“So what happened with you and Sam?” Amber said, glancing inside to check Annette wasn’t around.

“Not much. I kissed him at Lizzie’s wedding. I’d split up with my boyfriend. Sam and I were dancing together for most of the evening … And then we ended up kissing on the beach. It was just a kiss.” Albeit a kiss she couldn’t think about without her stomach going into a sudden gymnastics routine.

“What happened with your boyfriend then?”

“We decided to give it another go. Sam and I are just friends.”

“That’s a shame,” Amber said. “I thought you and Sam seemed perfect for each other. He didn’t say anything about the kiss, but when he was telling me about you …”

“What?”

“I don’t know. He just seemed quite taken with you. Somehow I presumed it would be mutual.”

Josie forced herself not to dwell on the comment. “We’re definitely just friends.” She paused, wondering if she and Jack really could survive the long distance. “I told Jack we’d give things another try. Although, I think long-distance will be hard. The drive back to Oxford is long when I just go for a weekend.” She’d already been toying with the idea of going back every fortnight instead of every week.

The thing that was really niggling her regarding her relationship with Jack was that instead of absence making the heart grow fonder, she had the feeling that for them it was more a case of out of sight, out of mind. Making an effort for their relationship really shouldn’t be so much work, should it? They should want to see each other. And shouldn’t they be on the phone every day? She could go days without even thinking of him, and she was sure it was the same for him.

“I’m sure it will work if you really want it to,” Amber said positively. “And the drive will probably seem shorter once you’ve done it a few times.”

“Maybe.” Josie was unconvinced. Part of her thought that when they broke up last time, they should have stayed that way. She pushed the thoughts aside.

Kieron’s eyes flickered open and he immediately demanded to be taken out of the buggy. He spent a few minutes groggily cuddled up to Amber before he caught sight of the dogs. Tilly and Charlie lay sprawled under the patio table and barely moved when Kieron reached down to pat them. Macy darted around him, wanting to play, and Kieron happily toddled around the garden with her.

It was half an hour later when Amber made a move to leave.

“If you’re ever around on the weekend, give me a shout. I’m usually in the pub on Friday evenings with my friend, Tara. You should come with us.”

“I might be here this weekend,” Josie said. Even though they only had the neighbour’s dogs staying, Josie felt she should stay around and help Annette.

“Great.” Amber reached for her phone and they swapped numbers. “You should definitely come out with us.”