Aria stared at her in shock.
‘No, you can’t leave, you’ve always been here,’ she said, desperately. Why did everyone always leave?
‘And my grandkids are getting older every day and I never see them. I could buy a little place near them and enjoy my retirement.’
‘But what about the flower shop?’
‘Maybe someone who loves flowers as much as me will buy it,’ Mira said, giving Aria a meaningful look.
Aria smiled and shook her head. ‘As lovely as that would be, I have a hotel to run and I’m not exactly making a success out of that. The island needs you and your magic touch, no one else could compete with that. Look, don’t make any decisions just yet. I’m sure we can think of something to help you.’
God, what was she promising? The hotel had no money and Aria was already spending money they didn’t have in Mira’s shop every week. She couldn’t afford to pay her any more. But she couldn’t help feeling a little bit responsible for the fact that so many shops were closing.
‘You’ve done plenty,’ Mira said. ‘You don’t need to worry about me. You have enough to worry about.’
And the list was getting bigger every day.
‘I better go, we’ll have some of these tulips in our next order,’ Aria said.
Mira nodded and Aria walked on.
Aria spotted Delilah Quinn and her fourteen-year-old daughter, Izzy. Delilah had been the most popular girl in school; pretty, funny, clever. Aria had always admired her even though she was two years younger than Aria. And of course Delilah had dated Blake Jackson, the most popular boy in school. But when Delilah had fallen pregnant when she was only fifteen and Blake had done a runner and left her to raise her daughter alone, Aria found herself admiring Delilah for completely different reasons.
Recently, Delilah had been diagnosed with cancer, and although the doctors were confident she would make a full recovery, the treatment was seemingly taking its toll. She’d had surgery and chemotherapy and was now undertaking radiotherapy just to be completely thorough.
Aria walked over to her. It had been a few weeks since she’d seen her and the brightly coloured headscarf she was wearing made her skin look paler. She had also lost a lot of weight, the chemotherapy she’d recently finished obviously not agreeing with her, but she always had a smile on her face.
‘Delilah, how you doing?’ Aria said, giving Izzy a warm smile as she made a fuss of Snowflake.
‘I’m doing good,’ Delilah said. ‘I have one more week of radiotherapy, then I’m done. I cannot wait not to have to make that journey every day. The doctors are pleased though, they believe they removed all the cancer cells in surgery, and the chemotherapy and radiotherapy is to make sure it hasn’t spread,’ she added, glancing over her shoulder at Izzy who was putting her headphones in her ears and fiddling around with her iPod. The mask fell briefly from Delilah’s face. ‘I lost my job,’ she said, quietly.
‘What?’
‘I get it, I’ve had so much time off recently.’
‘Because you’ve been sick,’ Aria said, incredulously.
‘They can’t hold my job open indefinitely.’
‘Why not, you’ve worked for that shop for years.’
Delilah shrugged. ‘It’s fine, well, it’s not. I have no idea how I’ll pay the bills now but I’m sure something will come up.’
‘If you need a job, you’ve got one,’ Aria said. The hotel had no money but she would find a way to pay her somehow.
‘That’s very kind. And I may take you up on that in a few weeks. I just need to get this radiotherapy finished first and then sleep for a year but, after that, I may come and see you.’
‘Anytime, the door is always open. I need a new receptionist anyway. Tilly will be going off on maternity leave soon so I need someone to take over from her. I have Xena and Katy who work part time right now and they’re great. But you know what these kids are like – the first chance they get they’ll leave the island.’
Delilah grinned. ‘They all do.’
‘It’d be nice to have someone more permanent,’ Aria said.
‘I have no experience when it comes to something like that, I’m rubbish with computers.’
Aria shook her head. ‘We can train you. If you want it, the job is yours.’
‘Thank you.’
Delilah looked around and Aria realised that Izzy might have been listening after all, as she was staring at the two of them.
‘The weather is glorious, don’t you think,’ Delilah said, trying to change the subject. Aria hoped that Izzy was suitably convinced. ‘Anyway, must dash, I promised Izzy she could choose some Easter chocolate from the chocolate shop in the village. She’s got her eye on one of the white chocolate ducks that are in the sale.’
‘Ah Izzy, you must try the praline eggs, they are little bites of heaven,’ Aria said.
‘Oh, I saw them, they looked good.’ Izzy looked at her mum hopefully.
‘Let’s go and see what we can get for our money,’ Delilah said and then waved at Aria. ‘See you around.’
Delilah linked arms with her daughter and they walked off down the street.
Aria tied Snowflake up and stepped inside the cosy warmth of The Vanilla Bean, her godmother’s bakery. The smell of bread mingled with the sweet scent of custard and cake was comforting and achingly familiar. Kendra was standing in the little kitchen area at the back of the shop and, by the look of it, she was making another batch of cookies. She glanced up as the bell rung above the door and her face lit up to see Aria.
Aria walked into the kitchen and placed a kiss on her godmother’s cheek.
‘How are you feeling?’ Aria asked, stealing a chocolate chip from the countertop. Kendra suffered from terrible hay fever in the spring but her eyes weren’t as red as they had been in the last few weeks.
‘I’m all good, my lovely,’ Kendra said, kneading the dough, ‘I’m over the worst of it now. How are you?’
Aria suppressed a smile as Kendra’s eyes swept over her, assessing everything with an expert eye. If she had so much as a sniffle, her godmother would know about it and whip out some kind of ancient cure for Aria to take. But Kendra also knew her moods from a very quick glance. Aria could hide nothing from her.
‘Ah, Noah Campbell is coming today, isn’t he? I forgot,’ Kendra said.
How she managed to glean that from just looking at her, Aria would never know.
‘Yes, he’ll be here this afternoon,’ Aria said. She wondered if the whole island was aware of his impending arrival. God, she really hoped she was more discreet than that.
‘How are you feeling about it?’ Kendra said, spooning out the mixture onto the baking tray in little dollops.
Kendra knew all about Noah’s last visit, as did Skye and Clover. Aria had told her dad too, and he had apologised profusely, saying it was all his fault, although Aria didn’t understand that.
Aria shrugged. ‘I honestly don’t know. I’m still angry and hurt, even after all this time, but…’
‘Those feelings you had for him don’t just disappear because the man was an ass.’
Aria sighed and nodded. She was so confused.