little brother, but from the adoration that Joel was amused to see in his eyes, he was evidently besotted with her.
They might have been a motley crew, but Joel quickly realized they worked well as a team. Kezzie and Flick concentrated on hacking down bushes and carrying rubbish away, while Tom and Gavin put their not inconsiderable muscles to use, digging over the ground. Flo and June dug in the compost, or where there was already space for them, put in some bedding plants which the Parish Council had supplied. And as more people slowly joined in, Kezzie, Flick and Gavin soon got them helping out in the most efficient ways. Before his eyes, the gardens were being slowly transformed.
Joel helped with the digging in between attending to Sam, who fortunately seemed quite happy gurgling in his buggy and watching proceedings.
By mid morning one complete bed had been cleared and Flo and June were readying themselves to fill it with buzy lizzies, verbena, pansies and geraniums.
They spent most of the time in raucous fits of laughter, and Joel soon found it was infectious. It was impossible not to laugh with them, and Joel felt a sudden zestful feeling about the glory of being alive on such a wonderful day, doing something so useful. He looked over to where Sam was chewing contentedly on his buggy book, and was filled with an overwhelming joy of being with his son, shot through with sadness that Claire wasn’t here to share the moment. But for once the joy seemed stronger than the sadness. He’d lost Sam’s mother, but Sam gave him a lot to live for. And over the last few months he’d really begun to feel life was worth living again.
In the end Sam started getting fractious, so Joel said to Kezzie, ‘Sorry, I think that’s my lot. I’ll come down again tomorrow if you like.’
‘Not to worry, we’ve got reinforcements coming,’ said Kezzie, as Lauren and Troy approached, with the twins dancing between them. ‘Do you fancy coming back to mine later and having a drink with us all? We usually crack open a bottle when we’ve been working together. I’ll ask Lauren too. You can bring Sam if you like. I should think we’ll all be too knackered to be too raucous.’
‘Sounds great,’ said Joel. ‘I’ll see you there.’
‘Hi Lauren, Troy.’ He felt forced to acknowledge Troy’s presence, but felt like punching the guy on the nose. He had such a self-satisfied air about him, and seemed to be almost proprietorial about Lauren, touching her arm constantly, as if he somehow had some claim over her. Why couldn’t she see it?
‘So how’s it going?’ Flick said, as she and Kezzie transported another load of branches to the skip the council had provided.
‘The garden?’ said Kezzie. ‘It’s fantastic. I’ll ask Joel if we can go and look at it later, if you like.’
‘Durr!’ said Flick. ‘Not the garden, dummy. I’m talking about Richard. Have you heard from him at all?’
‘Oh,’ said Kezzie, heaving a particularly heavy branch into the skip. ‘Richard.’
‘Well?’
‘Well, nothing,’ said Kezzie. ‘I emailed him to ask for some advice about contacting gardening celebrities, which he did, but he also made it clear he doesn’t want any more contact. End of story. It’s over.’
‘Oh, Kez, I’m so sorry.’ Flick came over and gave Kezzie a huge hug.
‘Don’t,’ said Kezzie, her lip wobbling, ‘otherwise, I’m going to be a puddle.’
‘OK, OK,’ said Flick, backing off. ‘Did you at least get any contacts out of it?’
‘I’m working on it,’ said Kezzie, as they wandered back to pick up more garden rubbish. ‘Couldn’t find anyone to help us with the Memorial Gardens, but I have been talking to Anthony Grantham’s agent – you know the guy who presents Dig It! – and he may do a piece on Edward’s garden at the Summer Fest.’
‘See,’ Flick dug Kezzie in the ribs, ‘there’s always a silver lining.’
‘I suppose,’ said Kezzie, dragging a massive branch back to the skip. ‘I just need to work out a way of getting over Richard permanently.’
‘What you need is to get out there again,’ said Flick. ‘Surely there must be someone interesting here.’
‘In Heartsease? I don’t think so!’ said Kezzie.
‘What about Joel?’ argued Flick. ‘He seems nice.’
Kezzie sighed, ‘Been there, done that, realized it wouldn’t work. Joel’s great, but we’re friends, nothing more.’
‘What about him?’ Flick pointed over to Troy, who was helping Gavin dig up a flowerbed. He’d taken his top off to reveal a sixpack which was both toned and tanned to perfection.
‘Troy? Puh-lease!’ snorted Kezzie. ‘He’s Lauren’s ex, and very very bad news. Wouldn’t touch him with a barge pole.’
‘So what are you going to do?’
‘Nothing,’ said Kezzie. ‘I’m just going to wait till I’m over Richard. It has to happen sometime.’
Lauren had had a great day. To begin with she’d been helping Flo and June planting the bedding plants with the twins. The girls had enjoyed digging and got thoroughly muddy. Flo and June had been immensely patient with them, and let them help plant the bedding plants, while not appearing to mind too much that a lot of the flowers had been decapitated by the time they went in.
‘Oh well, saves us dead-heading them,’ Flo had twinkled. ‘And they’re so enthusiastic, the pets, I wouldn’t like to stop them helping.’
Enthusiastic. That was one way to describe the way both girls threw themselves wholeheartedly into every activity, whatever their ability.
Later on Lauren had worked with Kezzie and Flick cutting down bushes, and enjoyed some rare girlie chat, most of which centred around Flick and Gavin’s athletic sex life.
‘You did what?’ giggled Lauren. ‘How on earth did you manage that?’ as Flick described one particularly gymnastic kind of manoeuvre.
‘Well, what can I say?’ grinned Flick. ‘That man is an animal.’
‘Grrr, tiger, watch him roar,’ said Kezzie, and they all collapsed in fits of laughter.
‘What’s so funny?’ Gavin wanted to know.
‘Oh, nothing,’ Flick said innocently.
‘Grr,’ said Kezzie, and the three of them laughed some more.
‘Honestly,’ said Lauren, tears streaming down her face, as Gavin walked away puzzled. ‘I don’t know when I last laughed like that.’
She wiped the tears away.
‘You’ve got a smudge now,’ said Kezzie. ‘Really, Lauren, you need to get out more.’
‘Well it’s not that easy,’ said Lauren.
‘I know,’ said Kezzie. ‘But now he’s here, why don’t you make more use of Troy? If he means what he
