Josh shook his head. ‘No. It’s an actual tractor.’
Belle looked at Amber and then back at Josh. ‘You two aren’t high on the fumes, are you?’
‘I wish,’ groaned Josh.
Belle picked up her pint of milk and placed her money on the counter. ‘Well, you’ve got to admit. It’s going to be the talk of the village! See you later.’
As she left, Josh turned to raise his eyebrows at Amber. ‘Was that the reaction you were expecting?’
To his amazement, Amber shrugged her shoulders. ‘Didn’t you get the most important bit?’ she told him. ‘That we’ll be the talk of the village. So people are going to come in here and see the tractor, aren’t they?’
‘And then they’re going to turn back round and run away in horror,’ he told her.
She frowned. ‘Then let me try and convince you again.’
Amber unfolded a piece of paper from the pocket of her jeans and lay it out on the till counter between them. She turned it around so that the drawing was the right side up for him to look at it.
‘What’s the problem?’ she asked, coming around to stand next to him.
‘That,’ said Josh, pointing at her drawing of the tractor in the middle of the shop floor.
‘I see,’ she said, turning to lean up against the counter so they were face to face. ‘Let me tell you what I know. A shop needs staging. Like a window display, in that respect. Only bigger.’
He frowned. ‘Staging?’ he asked, raising his eyebrows in question.
‘You’re trying to entice people inside,’ she told him. ‘That’s what the fancy window displays are for. You know, in the massive department stores anyway. So I don’t see why it should be any different here. There’s no use having a pretty window display to entice people inside if the place looks, well, like this inside.’ She waved her arm around at the mess surrounding them.
‘You do remember that it didn’t look like this a few days ago,’ he told her. ‘It was just messy. Now it’s a garage and rubbish tip.’
‘It was always going to look worse before it looked better,’ she replied.
‘It wasn’t supposed to be this much worse,’ he said. ‘With a tractor in it.’
She shrugged her shoulders as if the fact that a dirty old farm vehicle in the middle of the shop was a mere trifling inconvenience. She held up her hand to stop him interrupting. ‘Yes, it’s a tractor. But it’s a small one, not the usual size. This one is only waist height, so you can still see across it. The space still works. I think it’ll make a great feature.’ She pointed at the design on the paper once more. ‘Look at it. It looks bright. Modern. Fun. Interesting. Enticing.’
He looked at her drawing and wondered how best to make his point without upsetting her. For once, she seemed determined and brimming with confidence. He really didn’t want to burst what little self-belief she had in her abilities, but her ideas were just too far.
‘Look, they’re good ideas,’ he said. ‘Apart from the tractor, obviously. I mean, I like your window displays. They’re great. But all this…?’
‘The pretty windows are designed to draw customers in, which would affect sales. That was the point.’ She looked at him. ‘I know you’re concerned, but I’ve done this before. I’ve done displays throughout shops. Successful ones. This is on a much smaller scale, but it doesn’t have to be.’
Josh stayed silent, looking at the paper once more. Her drawing looked amazing, but he couldn’t see how it was ever going to achieve anything.
‘Let’s stage the shop whilst we’re sorting it out,’ Amber went on. ‘It needs better lighting. This strip lighting is so harsh and awful. And it definitely needs painting and brightening up. It’s so dull in here. And we’ll need decorations to match the autumnal ones in the window.’
Josh sighed. ‘All that? We’ve only got until the end of the year, otherwise we’re going to lose the whole place anyway.’
‘Then we’d better work quickly, don’t you think?’ Amber broke into a smile which lit up her whole face. ‘I really do think we can make it pretty.’
Josh ran a hand through his hair. ‘I’m no good at the prettying bit.’
She laughed. ‘Yeah, I think you should probably leave that stuff to me. But you know some DIY, don’t you?’
‘I’ve done some building work as well to make ends meet over the years,’ he told her. ‘So I can paint and fix the place up.’
‘Good,’ said Amber. ‘Let’s get started.’
She looked as if she was going to bolt, so Josh reached out and held her arm. ‘Not so fast,’ he said. ‘The trouble is that you can make it pretty, but what are we going to sell?’
‘The stock we’ve got already,’ she replied.
‘Sellotape and rolls of material?’ he reminded her. ‘You saw all that stuff yesterday. It’s so random.’
‘Yes, but nobody could find anything or see what they wanted to buy because it was all such a jumble.’ Amber tapped her chin in thought. ‘It shouldn’t just be a convenience shop. It’s a lifestyle shop as well.’
He rolled his eyes. ‘Could you sound any more New York?’
She smiled once more and he was reminded how beautiful she was up close.
‘Shall we see what paint we’ve got out the back?’ she said. ‘We might as well use what’s available.’
Josh sighed. ‘Am I going to have any kind of say in any of this?’
‘No,’ she said. ‘And I can always ring your mum if you’re going to make trouble. She’ll be totally on my side.’
He shook his head. ‘I can’t believe you pulled the mum card to get your own way.’
She was still smiling as she walked away, her ponytail swinging behind her as she went.
Josh remained sitting down and looked at Amber’s design once more before staring up and around the shop. He just couldn’t see it ever looking any better. But what did they have to lose?
Deep down, he still didn’t feel as heartbroken as he should be over the possible closure of the shop. What was bothering him more was that he didn’t want to upset Amber.
21
Amber stared around the shop and then down at the different pots of paints that Josh had brought out, trying to see how it could best be decorated. She was still quite amazed that Josh had run with her idea of redecorating the place. She just hoped he hadn’t overestimated her limited abilities.
‘They’re all various shades of white,’ said Josh, raising an eyebrow at her.
Amber nodded. ‘White will do. Especially if we can paint some of the shelves as well.’
‘The aluminium ones?’ he asked.
Amber shook her head. ‘They’re a bit 1970s, don’t you think?’
‘They’re probably older than that.’
‘You’ve got all that wood in the back lane,’ said Amber, glancing at the back room. ‘Can’t we add to the existing wooden shelves? We can sand them down. They’ll look nice and rustic. Plus they’ll match the wooden beams.’