The Grand Reopening of Dandelion Café Read online

  She looked at the sycamore lying, huge and sprawling, across the carpet of the flat. It was the tree that they’d spread her dad’s ashes under. The tree she’d climbed as a kid and hidden behind in hide and seek. She knew her mum would say it was her dad, watching, making his presence known. But that didn’t align with why he’d destroyed her roof.

  ‘This is stupid, just let me give you the money,’ Matt said, wiping rain water from his face.

  What was it her mum had said, Your dad wouldn’t have wanted you to sell it. Ever. He loved this place. That’s why he left it to you

  ‘I have the money,’ she said after a moment’s pause.

  ‘You do?’ he asked.

  She nodded. She thought about how she’d felt since getting the cafe. How included, how part of something, how herself. Rather than worrying what they all thought about her all the time, desperately trying to prove who she could become, maybe now she could just be who she was, and she could sit back and think about them. She could serve cherry pie and talk to Martha about the WWII letter, she could find out about Ludo’s daughter that she’d never even asked about, she could watch River and Matt as they got to know each other, she could help Holly with the baby she was hiding ‒ the one she’d seen her protect the second the tree had fallen. She could sell her flat and use the money to fix the roof and the windows and whatever else needed doing. She could preserve her father’s legacy and start a new one of her own.

  ‘Yeah, I have the money,’ Annie said again, with a bit more certainty. ‘And I have a flat to sell.’

  ‘You’re going to sell your flat?’ he repeated, slowly, a grin starting to spread on his lips.

  ‘Yes, I’m going to sell my flat.’ Annie nodded.

  ‘So that probably means that you’re gonna stay?’ he said.

  The rain was pummelling the carpet in front of them and they could hear Winifred and Co. getting restless downstairs.

  ‘It probably does,’ Annie said, turning to look at the tree so he couldn’t see her smile.

  ‘Well if you’re gonna stay,’ he said, taking a step closer, ‘how about, maybe, you let me invest anyway. But as a partner.’

  She glanced at him, shining the torch up to his face. ‘Why would you want to do that? I just said I have the money.’ Matt held up one hand to block the beam of the torch from his eyes. ‘So I have something that feels like mine again?’ he said. ‘Although right at this minute you’re not being very partner like.’

  Annie lowered the torch. ‘You actually want to be a partner? That would mean you’ll have to work here, you know that?’

  ‘Yes, Annie.’

  ‘Well I’ll think about it.’

  ‘Not too long. Because we’re going to have to get this sorted and a loan while your flat’s on the market might help.’ When he said this he pointed to the giant tree as if she might have forgotten it was there. ‘But it means you’ll have to stay. You know that, yeah? You can’t just remortgage and cover it that way. I want to partner with you,’ he said, the corners of his lips quirking up into a smile. ‘I want to be your partner.’

  Annie looked at his T-shirt. ‘I think we all know that I’m going to stay,’ she said, before glancing up to meet his laughing eyes. ‘But what about you? What if you decide to leave? What if you just want to take off again? Be a nomad.’

  ‘I wasn’t a nomad.’

  ‘You know what I mean,’ Annie said.

  ‘I won’t.’

  ‘Yeah but what if you do?’

  ‘I won’t.’

  ‘How do you know?’

  Matt took his hand from where it had been resting on her back and rubbed his lips. The space felt bereft.

  ‘Because I’ve found what I was looking for,’ he said.

  ‘Oh.’

  There was a pause.

  The rain started to slow, listening for what would happen next.

  They both stood together in the darkness.

  She put his hand back where it had been in the small of her back.

  The rain stopped.

  She felt Matt’s lips smile under her kiss.

  Then, after a second, she pulled back, brows knitted together.

  Annie: ‘When you said you’d found what you were looking for, did you mean River?’

  Matt: ‘Yes, to an extent.’

  Annie: ‘Oh, OK. I just wanted to clarify that.’

  Matt: ‘Annie?’

  Annie: ‘Mmm hmm.’

  Matt: ‘I meant the dog as well.’

  Annie: ‘Well that’s ruined the moment.’

  Matt: ‘Annie?’

  Annie: ‘Yes?’

  Matt: ‘I also meant you.’

  Annie: ‘You did?’

  Matt: ‘Yes. Just to clarify.’

  CARINA

  ISBN: 978 1 474 03079 3

  The Grand Reopening of Dandelion Café

  Copyright © 2015 Jenny Oliver

  Published in Great Britain (2015)

  by Carina, an imprint of Harlequin (UK) Limited, Eton House, 18-24 Paradise Road, Richmond, Surrey TW9 1SR

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