Second Chances at Hollyhock Farm (Hollyhock Farm #2)

Chapter 27

27

ZAC

It had been a long and tiring day, Zac thought as he and Melody helped tidy the larger barn, making it ready for the following morning. He was still seething about Rhys and what he had done to Melody, but she had insisted several times that she was fine and Zac didn’t want to keep going on at her. He thought how relieved he was that the first day had gone so well. Lettie still had to wait for Kathleen to calculate the takings but even he had seen how many cars had come and gone over the course of the day.

‘I know you were busy,’ he said to Melody as she stood on a stepladder straightening one of the banners by the door. ‘And I could tell how much others enjoyed your yoga demonstration and then the class you took.’

‘I’m glad you think so,’ she said, retying the corner of the banner. ‘Quite a few of them took the time to speak to me about classes and were sad that I wasn’t staying on the island to set up my own yoga studio.’

Hope coursed through him. ‘You could do, you know.’

She didn’t turn around and he wondered if he had said something he shouldn’t.

‘Did you manage to enjoy any part of the day?’ he asked.

She stopped what she was doing and turned to him, smiling. ‘I loved it.’ She sighed, looking happy, which was a huge relief after her nasty encounter with Rhys earlier. ‘Although my debit card did more work than I had intended it to.’

Confused, Zac frowned. ‘What do you mean?’

‘I gave myself a daily budget for this trip but today I spent over three times what I had promised myself I would.’

He helped her down from the stepladder. ‘But do you like everything you bought?’

‘What an odd question. Of course I do.’

He shrugged. ‘Then don’t worry about what you’ve spent. I mean, you don’t have to cover bed and board here and you’ve been working hard so can’t have been anywhere much to spend any money recently.’

She gave what he said some thought and slowly smiled. ‘I hadn’t thought of it that way.’

Zac folded the metal ladder. ‘Come on. I think we’ve finished in here. Let’s go and chill somewhere while we can. We’ll have another early start in the morning but we can still go and do something for the next couple of hours.’

‘Sounds good. Can we go and see the huge willow puffins at…? Where are they?’

‘Plemont. Yes, we can go there, it’s not far away from here and,’ he said, realising that it was later than he had expected and that it would soon be sunset, ‘if we hurry we’ll be able to watch the sun setting. The light is beautiful there at sunset and you should get some great photos.’

She beamed at him. ‘That’s a perfect idea. I’ve only seen them from a distance one day as Lettie drove us somewhere near the racecourse. I’ve been dying to see them up close.’

He took her by the hand and went to shout out to his sister to let her know they were leaving.

After a brief exchange, he watched Patsy wink at Melody before giving her a hug and whispering something in her ear leaving Melody with a smile on her face. He wondered what had been said but didn’t like to pry about something private.

Patsy waved at Zac. ‘Thank you for the invitation, Zac,’ she called. ‘But I think the two of you deserve a lovely evening by yourself for once.’

Realising Patsy was conspiring for him and Melody to spend time alone, he was glad for her encouragement and struggled to hide his delight. ‘Thanks, Patsy. You must come with us another time though. It’s well worth visiting Plemont and I think you’ll like it. Lots of photo opportunities.’

‘We’ll make a plan to do it another time then.’ She shooed them away. ‘Go on then, you two, before I change my mind and decide I do want to come with you.’

Zac took Melody’s hand and they quickly left, laughing as they hurried to his mother’s car. ‘Wait there,’ he said. ‘I won’t be a sec. I need to ask if it’s OK for me to take it and get the keys.’ As he hurried into the kitchen to find the keys and Lindy, he decided that now he was back on the island full-time it really would be a good idea to buy a car of his own. It was one thing using his mother’s when he was over for the weekend or a longer holiday but how bad must it look to someone, Melody particularly, that a man in his mid-twenties had to ask to borrow his mother’s car?

A few minutes after they set off they neared Plemont and Zac saw the sculpture of the two puffins, beak to beak in the distance. He pointed at them for Melody to see.

She leant forward and peered past him out of the window. ‘They look big.’

He laughed. They were. ‘I seem to recall they’re about four metres high.’

She gasped. ‘I can’t wait to see them up close.’

As much as he would have liked to go faster, Zac didn’t dare. The road to the headland where the puffins stood was narrow with room for one car and drivers coming across each other having to pull over and wait in one of the few passing areas along the way. He was eager to be there too, he realised as he drove carefully along the walled road.

Concerned that Melody hadn’t spoken about Rhys and what he had done to her, Zac decided to check she was all right. ‘Melody,’ he began.

‘Yes?’

She sounded so happy but he needed to check she was fine and not dwelling on what had happened. ‘About earlier.’

‘Earlier?’

‘In the car park.’ He had to pull to the side of the narrow road to let another car go past and looked at her to try and gauge her thoughts.

‘Oh, that.’ Her smile disappeared and she turned to look back out of her window. ‘Please don’t ruin our evening talking about him, Zac.’ Looking back at him, she reached out and rested her hand on his. ‘I just want this evening to be about you and me,’ she added softly. ‘Nothing else.’

Happy to do as she had asked, he nodded. ‘Whatever you want.’

‘Thank you.’

Shortly after, they arrived and parked the car. ‘Look at that sunset,’ he said, taking her hand.

Melody was too busy staring at the enormous steel and willow puffin instalments and didn’t seem to hear him. Deciding they needed to go and walk up to the puffins first, he led her there, not wishing them to miss the spectacular sunset either.

Leaving her there, he retraced his steps.

‘Where are you going?’ she shouted, starting to walk after him.

Zac raised his hand, wanting her to stop. ‘I’m only going back far enough to be able to take photos of you standing with them,’ he explained. ‘I presume you’ll want some.’

‘I do, thanks. I’ll take some of you afterwards.’

He nodded, loving how easy it felt to be with her. ‘We can take some selfies when we’re further away.’ He noticed the sun was going down quicky, but turned back to face her again. Seeing how the golden light glowed on her and the statues, he sighed. ‘These are going to be amazing photos,’ he insisted. ‘You’re going to love them.’

His assurances made her laugh and he quickly took more photos of her, enjoying seeing her so happy. ‘There,’ he said, checking he had enough good photos for her to choose from. ‘I think that’ll do.’

She ran towards him and checked the screen. ‘Brilliant work. Right, your turn now. We need to hurry if we’re not going to miss the sun setting.’

He ran to stand in front of the puffins and smiled for a few seconds, then hurried back to her, taking her hand closer to the cliffside. ‘Look at that,’ he said, slipping his arm around her shoulders, then remembered he hadn’t yet taken their selfies. He quickly took a few photos, struck by the golden hue on Melody’s beautiful face as she stared in awe at the spectacular sunset.

Then, pushing his phone into his back pocket, he stared in silence at the scene in front of them. It didn’t matter how many times he watched a sunset on the island or how many places he had visited, nothing ever compared to a sunset over the Channel from the coastline in St Ouen as far as he was concerned.

He felt her arm slip around his waist and wished he could capture this moment and never have it end. Standing here with the woman he was falling in love with in his arms, enjoying one of his favourite things meant an enormous amount to him.

‘There,’ she said quietly as the sun disappeared behind the horizon in the distance. She turned to him.

Zac smiled down at her. ‘What did you think? As good as I said it would be?’

‘Perfect,’ she said quietly, slipping her arms around his neck and pulling his head down so that their lips met in a kiss.

Zac held her tightly, kissing her and relishing every second. He couldn’t imagine ever experiencing another evening as perfect as this one.