Let me give you my card.’ He felt around in his back pocket, then held out a small white business card. ‘With a job as big as yours sounds, you’re going to need help with some of it.’ As she couldn’t move her full arms to reach out for it, he tucked the card into her hand, under the original bag of screws. ‘Anyway, I’ll leave you to it. I was supposed to be in here to get some drill bits before you tempted me away to the plastering section.’ He tapped the card she was still holding in front of her, then looked her straight in the eye. ‘Give me a call.’

After dropping her purchases onto the conveyor belt at the till, Rory had a closer look at the man’s card: JP Building Services. Maybe he was right, maybe she would have to give in and pay someone to do the more difficult work on the house. Obviously, she hadn’t planned to do the electrics or the plumbing herself, but she had hoped to do most other things. The problem was, she and Belle had to live there now, so they couldn’t wait for months for it to be made habitable. Even if they could get a couple of the bedrooms straight, and the kitchen and bathroom, they could be more patient with the rest. Unless someone she knew could recommend someone, maybe she would give this guy a call. Looking for a contact name and number, she flipped the card over. It looked as if JP Building Services was the man’s own company. His name was John Prince.

Her mum was going to love that.

Chapter Six

Rory had spent so much time at work trying to get these damn seating plans done for Nathan Finch that she hadn’t even begun to think about what to cook for dinner. It was probably a moot point anyway; she only had one working gas ring and the microwave would be out of action until the electrics were done. Pizza?

Sheila arrived at the house before Belle got home. Belle was spending a lot of time at Fiona’s – her own house being a building site – but Rory missed having her around, and they still hadn’t discussed this boy who was supposedly on the horizon.

‘How was your day?’ Her mum always asked this, and Rory always answered the same way.

‘Fine. Busy. Yours?’

‘Fun. We had our first meeting of Flo’s new committee today. Barb and I sat at the back and giggled like two naughty schoolgirls.’

‘She’s a bad influence on you.’ Rory was shuffling through a drawer for the pizza delivery menu.

Sheila grinned. ‘I know. Marvellous, isn’t it? Anyway, Flo wants to have a rota for checking the laundry room to make sure that no one is leaving behind oddments of their washing. Apparently, there was a Y-fronts incident.’ She made pretend inverted comma marks in the air. Belle must have taught her that.

Rory grimaced. The thought of old men’s baggy underwear nearly turned her off the pizza idea. ‘Thanks for that, Mum.’

‘She also wants each of us to organise a social event. You should have seen her face at Barb’s suggestion. To be fair, I am not sure speed dating would really work, either. It takes some of the older ones more than three minutes to get out of their chair. The date would be over before they’d got a chance to shake hands.’

Rory looked up with a smile.