‘Jacob, wait up, where are you headed?’ Ellie raced out of the farmhouse to waylay Jacob as he crossed the farmyard.
‘The lumber yard, near Gratesbury. Art needs me to pick up some extra wood for the shelving in the condiments section.’ Jacob tugged open the truck door, the smile on his face weary and forced.
Ellie’s sympathy spiked. According to Maddy, Jacob’s passionate defender while she and Dee had been busy every evening making jams and preserves to stock the shop, Art had been a monster in the last week. They were now three weeks into the fit-out and it was on schedule. But Ellie knew Art and his crew, which included Jacob and Mike, had been putting in a lot of extra hours to keep it that way. And Art wasn’t the most tactful person at the best of times. She also knew that Jacob wasn’t getting a lot of sleep at night, because neither was she.
She’d tried pointing out to Maddy that maybe less sex and more sleep would make everyone less grumpy, but Maddy hadn’t taken the hint.
‘Perfect. I need a lift into Gratesbury,’ she said. ‘I’ve got some paperwork to go through with Rick Chastain at the Rural Enterprise Office about the grant.’
‘Climb aboard.’ Jacob gripped her elbow to help her into the cab, then got in on the driver’s side. ‘How’s the grant looking?’
‘Very positive. Rick thinks we’ll get it no problem. It’s going to cover the cost of all the second-hand equipment we’ve ordered for the kitchen and café, which is great.’ She’d spent hours last week with Dee and Annie scouring a second-hand catering equipment barn in Andover and had managed to buy everything they needed for a lot less than they’d budgeted for, leaving enough to buy some extras, including a state-of-the-art espresso machine. ‘And the cost of the signage for the A30 and the A303.’
‘That’s cool.’ Jacob pulled off the sweat-soaked bandana covering his forehead and wiped the back of his neck. He really did look shattered. She had to have another word with Maddy. Young love was all well and good, but she didn’t want one of their crew having a heart attack from too much sex, especially not before the shop was ready. That the rhythmic thuds and occasional moans from Jacob’s room every night were also keeping her on edge when she really did not need to be was another consideration.
‘Who’s doing the signs?’ Jacob asked.
He reversed out of the car park and drove along the farm track, the truck coasting down the newly laid asphalt without a single bump.
‘We’re going to use Helena Jacobs again.’ The gorgeous hammered bronze sign she’d done for the co-op five years ago would be replicated in neon for the hoardings which Ellie was having put up two weeks from now.
Ellie’s insides twitched and quivered at the thought of everything that still needed to be done before the grand opening on Saturday the fifth of August. Even without the noise coming from Jacob’s room every night, sleep would probably still have eluded her – the many to-do lists she had on the go bouncing in her mind’s eye like malevolent hyperactive sheep.
Maybe she should consider pushing the launch back? To give them all a chance to relax and take stock before they started welcoming their customers. When she and Tess and Dee had attended the Setting Up a Farm Shop course a week ago run by FARMA at Wellhaven Farm, the instructor had pointed out that great customer service was key to making any farm shop a success. Customers would be looking for personal, friendly, upbeat service. It was difficult for anyone to do friendly and upbeat when they were exhausted. If they didn’t take a breather, they could all end up breathing fire like Art over their new clientele.
They needed to be on their best game when the shop opened, especially her, Dee and Tess, who would be doing the bulk of the shopkeeping.
Why not put back the launch for a week? They could organise a little social event for everyone to celebrate finishing the shop, and then take a leisurely week to get ready? She’d have to reorganise some of the social media campaigns she’d been working on, talk to the team and check nothing else would be affected, but otherwise she couldn’t see a problem.
Ellie added the thought to the to-do list in her head marked: ‘Brilliant ideas you don’t have time to think about until it’s too late to do anything about them’. Her stress kicked up another notch.
Jacob grunted a reply as they sped down the A30 towards Gratesbury. Ellie noticed his fingers white-knuckling on the wheel. Had Art been more of a dragon than usual today? Even when tired, Jacob usually had a joke or a cheeky smile on hand to cheer up the biggest grump.
‘Is everything going OK on the build?’ she asked.
‘Yeah, sure, give or take the odd screw up,’ Jacob said, but she noticed his fingers bunch at the fairly innocuous question. He was wound tighter than a ball of high-tension wire. ‘Most of which are mine,’ he murmured under his breath. But she heard the comment as he switched on the radio.
The cab filled with the sound of Rihanna Finding Love in a Hopeless Place. For some reason Ellie had a flashback to Art and that kiss three weeks ago now.
She’d seen very little of him since. Except the day he’d turned up to help with the second day of the barn clear-out, and told her he would take over the project management. She’d been so surprised, and so grateful, she hadn’t questioned him about his sudden change of heart. And avoiding each other had been easy after that day, because she was mostly locked in her office – or rather his office – or in the kitchen helping Dee with the food prep and rotas, or on her course. While Art had been supervising the construction crew and then organising the fit-out. And doing a spectacular job despite all the gripes from Maddy about his arsey behaviour.
Art’s arsey tendencies were beginning to look totally under-appreciated when it came to getting this project in on time. She’d wandered past the barn a few times in the last fortnight, usually to track down Toto and Josh and drag them home for supper, and every time she had, she’d spied him up a ladder, or contorted under a counter busy hammering, or screwing or sanding in the lamplight.
Art was the last to leave most nights and the first to arrive every morning and also living proof that men in toolbelts had a hunk factor off the charts.
So if Jacob was having a tough time with him, while Ellie sympathised, she would feel like a hypocrite if she sympathised too much. But maybe finding out what exactly was putting that tension into Jacob’s voice, and making this project so miserable for him, was something she could do. As much as she didn’t want to intervene between Art and his crew, he wasn’t always the most empathetic of people. Perhaps he could do with some help from her, behind the scenes, to smooth things over.
She switched off the radio. ‘Are you sure everything’s OK, Jacob?’
He gave her a quizzical look that didn’t quite convince. ‘Sure.’
‘Maddy said you and Art have been having a few run-ins…’ She gave him a lead in.
He shrugged. ‘It’s nothing major. Maddy was exaggerating.’
From the totally defeated look on Jacob’s face, Ellie didn’t think Maddy was exaggerating.
‘I know everyone’s tired,’ she persevered, determined to get to the bottom of the problem, ‘and this has been a tough schedule, but if Art’s being unreasonable, I can have a word with him.’ Even though she’d rather saw off an arm than have to talk to him face to face, especially in that toolbelt.
Jacob shook his head. ‘He’s not being unreasonable. I’ve been screwing up. He’s entitled to jump on me when that happens.’
‘How bad are the screw ups?’ Ellie asked.
Jacob tapped his thumb on the steering wheel, looking more miserable by the second. ‘Pretty bad. I misread the plans and cut the wood to the wrong length yesterday for the shelves, which is why we’re having to get in a new batch now. And I left the drill charging overnight, and blew out the battery.’
That didn’t sound great, especially the bit about buying new lumber, as the budget was tight. She could see why Art would be unhappy, but making Jacob more stressed wasn’t going to help.
‘I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I’ve worked on tons of construction projects before I came here,’ Jacob said. ‘None of which mean as much to me as this one. But I just can’t seem to get my head in the game. Art’s right to be mad with me. I’ve been behaving like a twat.’
Ellie patted his knee. ‘First of all, you have to stop beating yourself up, or you’re just going to get more stressed and make more mistakes.’
‘I suppose.’
‘Perhaps you should also consider suggesting to Maddy that she stay in her own room for the next couple of nights.’
Jacob turned to her, his face colouring – which meant he had to be exhausted, because she’d never seen him embarrassed before. ‘You can hear us?’
‘I’m not deaf. And those walls are not sound-proofed either.’ She remembered what it had been like between her and Dan when they’d first got together at the summer camp, and even after their wedding. The sex had been constant. A terrific way to avoid all the stuff that they didn’t have in common, like constancy and trust and maturity. Then the sex had become like a chore, Dan had been distracted, uninterested and she had quickly become uninterested too. There had really been no way back from that, once she’d discovered why Dan wasn’t that interested in making her feel desired any more, because he was too busy servicing loads of other women.
‘I’m sorry,’ Jacob said. ‘That’s pretty mortifying.’
‘It’s not that bad,’ she said, cutting Jacob some slack. ‘But really it might be in your best interests too to give yourselves a bit of a rest. Particularly you. You’re doing hard physical labour during the day so you need your sleep at night.’ They all did.
Jacob nodded. ‘I just… I don’t know how to tell Maddy no. I don’t want her to feel rejected on top of everything else.’
‘On top of what else?’
Unlike her and Dan, it was obvious Jacob and Maddy had a great deal more going on in their relationship. You just had to see them together to know that, chatting and grinning at each other like idiots. Surely a little sleep break wouldn’t kill their relationship.
‘I’ve messed up with our place, too.’
‘What place?’
‘We’re building our own place, in the back pasture near the stream. We got the main frame up in May. I was supposed to be finishing it. But what with one thing and another I haven’t made any progress on it for months.’ He thumped his palm against the steering wheel. ‘We’ve been together now over a year…’ He hesitated, then sent Ellie a look so full of yearning, her pulse thickened. She’d never seen this side to Jacob before. Not jokey and teasing, but serious and intense. She felt honoured that he would confide in her. ‘I want to ask Maddy to marry me, but I can’t ask her until I finish the cabin. I don’t want to risk her saying no.’
No way would Maddy say no. But the thought of having to survive a wedding night with the two of them in the room next door focused Ellie’s mind.
‘How much is there still to do on your place?’ Maybe there was a better way to solve this problem. And give them all a decent night’s sleep.
‘Not a lot. The floor needs tiling. The walls need painting. And the bathroom needs to be plumbed in. It’s all there. It’s like a month’s worth tops of evening and weekend work, but I haven’t got it done. We’ve been trying to do it in the spare hours we have. I’m not a trained plumber so it means reading the manual, but Maddy usually comes over to help and…’ He cleared his throat. ‘We don’t always get a lot done.’
Yes, Ellie could well imagine.
‘Isn’t Art a certified plumber? Couldn’t he show you how? It would probably be quicker?’ And if he was there to act as a gooseberry, maybe Maddy would keep her hands off Jacob long enough for him to actually read the manual.
‘I don’t feel right asking him.’
‘Why not?’
He huffed out a laugh. ‘I’m not Art’s favourite person at the moment. And he’s already super busy.’
Art obviously slept like a rock. Or he would be a lot more incentivised to help Jacob and Maddy out. And get them the hell out of the room between his and Ellie’s. ‘I tell you what, Jacob, why don’t you leave it with me? I’ll see if I can persuade him.’
‘Really? You’ll talk to Art?’
‘Why not?’ She could think of one reason why not – that insane kiss. But that had been over three weeks ago now. Heck, Art might even have forgotten it. And getting a decent night’s sleep would surely be worth it. ‘Pick me up on Candlestick Hill once you’ve finished at the lumber yard. I’ll have a chat to him when we get back.’
All she had to do was beard the dragon in his den and not get fixated on his lips. Or his toolbelt. Easy-peasy.
*
They arrived back at the farmyard an hour later, Ellie buoyed by her chat with Rick who said the grant application was just a rubber-stamping exercise now. She’d also managed to nip into Helena’s workshop on Candlestick Hill to see the signs in progress. Two more things to tick off two of her to-do lists. Jacob too seemed a little less downtrodden as he began unloading the lumber. Probably hoping she was going to work a miracle with Art.
‘Do you want some help taking this in?’ Ellie asked, psyching herself up for a quiet chat with their project manager. It wasn’t as if they hadn’t spoken to each other since the kiss. And confronting him in a work environment would make it easy to keep things on a professional level.
Jacob threw her a pair of work gloves. ‘That would be great, but don’t take anything too heavy. I can get one of the lads to help bring in the rest.’
With a load of lumber under her arm, Ellie followed Jacob past the farmhouse and across the yard. The sounds of hammering and drilling greeted them, floating on a breeze perfumed by the apples in the orchard. Ellie’s spirits soared as she rounded the blasted stone of the barn’s back wall.
It had been over a week since she’d had a chance to look in on the build in the daylight and the changes were amazing. Huge bricked arches led into the cavernous interior of the barn, its high ceilings suspended by oak beams. The darkly stained wood looked elegant and yet earthy against the recently plastered walls. Light flooded in from the domed glass Art had suggested adding at the construction stage in the cavity that had once been the old barn doors.
With the cabinets and shelving being built at one end, while the kitchen equipment was being installed at the other, the space was a hive of men – and one woman – busy doing everything from sanding wood to laying ceramic tiles. She spotted Mike in one corner painting the plasterwork in the fresh lime green Dee had suggested. She knew from the financials that Art had hired a bunch of workers from Gratesbury to steamroll through the final week of construction, so Dee and Tess could get in next weekend to start putting in the finishing design touches and arrange the produce for the opening.
Once that happened, it was going to look incredible. It looked incredible already. How had Art managed to get all this done in only three weeks? Her admiration for him increased.
She scanned the interior, and then she spotted him, standing at the main kitchen counter. The faded tattoo flexed on his biceps as he shuffled and rearranged the plans and then began to explain something on them to Rob. His thick wavy hair was sheened with sweat and a fine layer of dust. The toolbelt lay low on his hips like a western gunslinger’s bullet belt.
His head came up as she and Jacob picked their way through the melee to pile the lumber on a workbench. Her gaze connected with Art’s and the lick of sensation crossed her lips.
Pushing a pencil behind his ear, he walked towards them. He gave her a cursory nod of greeting then addressed Jacob. ‘The carpenter’s arriving tomorrow at eight and I need this stuff re-cut by then so he can get started. Don’t fuck it up.’
Colour slashed across Jacob’s cheeks, the hopeful smile from moments ago gone. ‘No problem,’ he said.
The banging and hammering had stopped as everyone observed the exchange. Who knew construction workers were nosier than the housewives of Orchard Habor? Poor Jacob.
‘Have you rechecked the plans? Made sure you’ve got the right sizing this time?’ Art said, the tone harsh.
‘I’ll do it now,’ Jacob murmured and ducked his head, making the long walk towards Rob as all the workers watched him.
Art went to walk off and Ellie touched his arm. The skin burned under her fingertips as his gaze slanted down to where she grazed the tattoo.
Her hand dropped. ‘Do you have to be so arsey with him?’ she said, beneath her breath, so as not to clue in their audience. ‘He hero-worships you, and he’s exhausted.’
‘Yeah, but his exhaustion is of his own making,’ Art fired back. ‘I didn’t get a wink of sleep last night either, but, unlike Jacob, my sleepless night was a lot less fun.’
So Art didn’t sleep like a rock. No wonder he was so arsey. He was getting as little sleep as she was. Why the thought of them both lying in their separate beds on either side of Jacob’s room listening to the young couple having sex should seem arousing she had no idea.
‘I know what you mean,’ she said. Art’s eyes narrowed and what was supposed to be a simple confidence suddenly felt far too intimate. ‘But there is a solution,’ she said, trying to keep her mind on business and off the strange current that arced between her and Art like a blowtorch.
‘What solution?’
‘You could help Jacob finish off the house he’s building,’ she said, a little breathless as another solution tried to butt into her brain.
Jumping Art is not and will never be a solution.
Art dragged a hand through his hair, the frown on his face an odd combination of relief and frustration. ‘I haven’t got time for that. I’m up to my tits doing this.’
Fair point.
‘I was thinking of putting the launch back a week. So we could take more time to plan it. But that would give us an extra weekend once the build’s completed. We could all chip in. Get their place finished together, turn it into a social event. Like in Witness.’
‘Like in what?’
‘Witness, the old Harrison Ford movie,’ she explained. ‘He joins the Amish, dances to Sam Cooke with the female lead, who’s Amish and has never danced before,’ she added. ‘In just about the most romantic movie scene ever.’ So not the point. ‘Then they all build a barn, in an afternoon.’ She was babbling and Art’s expression had merely shifted from clueless to completely unimpressed. So Art wasn’t a classic eighties movie fan. Figured. ‘Jacob says they only have a bit to do.’ Forget about Harrison dancing in a barn, it wasn’t helping. ‘If we got it done, they could have their own place. And we’d all get a decent night’s sleep again.’
Art tucked his thumbs into the toolbelt. ‘You want me to pay the crew to work an extra weekend after the build’s finished, just so Jacob and Maddy can carrying on banging like rabbits?’
‘And we don’t have to hear it,’ she said. Why was he being deliberately obtuse, and putting more X-rated pictures in her head that she so did not need to be there? ‘We won’t need to pay the crew, the co-op residents can do it. Even Toto and Josh know how to slap on a bit of paint. We can put everyone to work. Dee will do food. It can be another great community event.’
‘Because I love those so much,’ he said, but the rigid tic in his jaw had softened.
‘You’ll love this one,’ she said, ignoring the sarcasm. ‘Just think, there’ll be no more midnight moaning and groaning and shouts of “I’m coming, Jay,” for us all to enjoy.’ OK, maybe that was a bit too much information, because Art’s eyes had darkened again, and heat was spreading up her neck like a wildfire.
‘Have you got time to organise this?’ he asked.
‘I’ll fit it in.’ She’d just start a new to-do list titled: ‘Operation Porn No More’.
‘I’ll think about it,’ he said.
She let the air slip out of her lungs – was that relief, or regret?
‘But just to be clear,’ he added. ‘I’m no Harrison Ford.’
As he strolled back across the work area, her gaze slipped over the muscles of his back under the sweat-stained T-shirt and landed on his butt, displayed in battered jeans, the low-slung toolbelt bumping against his hip.
Ellie would have to agree with him. Art Dalton was a whole lot more dangerous than Harrison Ford.