The Little Bakery on Rosemary Lane by Ellen Berry

Author:Ellen Berry
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780008157159
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2017-07-31T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

And from then on, of course, it was excruciating sitting with Michael. He was no longer just the man from the bakery down the road; he was a potential set-up. Perhaps that was why Della had suggested dinner at the Red Lion in the first place – as an opportunity to engineer the two of them spending some time together. As Michael himself had suggested, she seemed to have forgotten that Roxanne was in a relationship – a rare situation, perhaps, and maybe Sean fell short of Frank’s exemplary standards, but still, she was going out with someone, to use an inappropriately teenage phrase. Roxanne had a boyfriend, even if that made her sound nineteen years old. Lately, the word ‘partner’ had slipped from favour in her circles, the b-word having been reclaimed (Roxanne liked the breezy playfulness of it, even if it did sound rather juvenile; she was certain she would never be anyone’s ‘other half’).

The conversation around the table had turned to everyone’s offspring, and Roxanne tried to fix on an expression of rapt interest. Normally, she didn’t mind child-related talk; after all, Sophie was her niece, and Roxanne had always been keenly interested in what she was up to. She had eleven-year-old twin nephews too – her brother Jeff’s children – and she tried to be an attentive auntie, as much as distance allowed. However, now she just felt rattled. She glanced at Frank, whose nine-year-old, Eddie, was with his mother tonight. Naturally, Frank would be party to Della’s little matchmaking project too.

‘How old are your kids, Michael?’ Roxanne felt uncomfortable sitting there mutely, even though she was hardly in the mood for small talk now.

‘Elsa’s sixteen and Jude’s nineteen,’ he replied.

‘Would it have been Jude who made me a coffee just before closing time today?’

Michael smiled. ‘Yep, that was my boy …’

‘Your kids must be a big help to you,’ she added.

‘Well, yes – Jude seems to have no plans for any sort of alternative career at the moment, so it’s kind of convenient that there’s a ready-made job for him.’

‘What an obliging dad you are,’ Della said with a smile.

Amusement glinted in Michael’s eyes. ‘Yeah. Funnily enough, most days he forgets to thank me.’ He turned back to Roxanne. ‘I’m kidding. They’re both pretty good really. The sourdough workshop was Elsa’s idea, so please try to come, won’t you?’

‘Oh, um – I’ll do my best …’ As if her schedule here was jam-packed.

‘Elsa thinks we need to give things a big push,’ Michael went on. ‘She’s always on at me to put on events in the shop, be more active on social media, anything we can do to drum up publicity …’ He broke off. ‘She’s just about stopping short of finding a giant loaf costume and making me dance down Rosemary Lane in it.’

‘Maybe that could work,’ Roxanne remarked, chuckling.

‘You think Burley Bridge could handle that?’

‘I mean the publicity side,’ she said, feeling more relaxed again now. As Michael clearly wasn’t making a big issue of Della’s matchmaking endeavour, so Roxanne felt able to shrug it off too.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.