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Love Heart Lane Series
Christie Barlow
Preorder the brand new romantic comedy from bestselling author Christie Barlow‘Full of warmth, fun and feel-good factor’ Sunday Times bestseller Katie Fforde
Foxglove Farm
CHRISTIE BARLOW
A division of HarperCollinsPublishers
www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)
HarperImpulse
an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)
First published in Great Britain by HarperImpulse 2019
Copyright © Christie Barlow 2019
Cover illustrations © Shutterstock.com (http://Shutterstock.com)
Cover design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2019
Christie Barlow asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Source ISBN: 9780008319724
Ebook Edition © June 2019 ISBN: 9780008319717
Version: 2019-06-10
Table of Contents
Cover (#uf4d85a72-acbe-56dc-8d8c-3aee90bdb6c8)
Title Page (#u23947995-1e22-5a5a-9590-93b51279df95)
Copyright (#ubae9dd9d-ff79-587e-892c-f741132874aa)
Dedication (#ua756ea06-ee47-5dac-bffe-d6cccb8b8291)
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
A Letter from Christie
Acknowledgements
About HarperImpulse (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher
For the four most awesome people in the world,
My gang, Emily, Jack, Ruby and Tilly.
I love you more xx
Chapter 1 (#u19d2ae82-c90f-5173-99ca-eb76c01bf911)
Isla felt the tension bubbling away in the room the second she walked into the kitchen. She hovered by the table and watched her husband Drew slamming every drawer and cupboard door.
‘Have you lost something?’ she asked cautiously, wondering what the hell had gotten into him.
Drew spun round and held her gaze. His face was mottled crimson, the tendons in his neck bulging. Isla knew that look. Drew was spoiling for a fight, but she had no clue to why. It wasn’t very often he reached boiling point but when he did there was little time to duck and take cover.
‘It’s always down to me, isn’t it?’
Trying her best to keep composed against the sudden onslaught – after all, she wasn’t a mind reader – Isla kept her voice calm, ‘What’s always down to you?’
Drew ran his hand through his hair numerous times in quick succession, a trait he had when he was agitated.
‘Everything!’ He threw his arms up into the air. There was an irritation to his anger, a sort of impetuousness.
His words packed a powerful punch. ‘Everything?’ she repeated.
‘Yes, everything. Who’s up milking the cows at ridiculous o’clock?’
Isla narrowed her eyes; this conversation had come out of the blue and wasn’t one she was expecting at all. She didn’t understand the point Drew was trying to make, and for a second she thought about reacting with a flippant comment about the fact that he chose to be a farmer. But instead she replied with a calm voice, hoping not to fuel whatever was burning inside him: ‘And who’s been up three times in the night feeding our son while I let you sleep? I’m shattered too, Drew, as well you know.’
‘That’s not in dispute, but then you go back to sleep whenever you can while I single-handedly keep the farm afloat.’
‘The last time I checked, it was a joint effort.’ Drew was beginning to agitate Isla now. How dare he?
‘You’ve got it easy, Isla.’
Isla absorbed what he was saying, feeling shocked to the core. ‘Are you serious?’ The anger was now rising up inside her. How dare he accuse her of having it easy? Isla couldn’t remember the last time she’d had a decent night’s sleep.
‘You swan around without a care in the world, breakfast at the teashop, lunch at the pub … I’m not here to bankroll your social life.’
‘My social life?’ Isla’s voice rose an octave.
‘While I’m working every hour, you’re frittering it away before it’s even reached the bank.’
‘So now I’m not allowed to see my friends?’ she protested.
‘That’s not what I’m saying.’
‘Goodness knows what you’re trying to say.’
They held each other’s gaze and Drew exhaled.
‘I mean it Isla, I’m sick to the back teeth of bringing in the cash. If you carry on spending it faster than I am making it, then we might have to think about you getting a job.’
His words had an air of finality to them but there was no way on earth she was prepared to just go back to work yet, especially with the baby being so young. And they’d talked about her staying at home while the kids were little. He’d never mentioned this before … What had gotten into Drew?
‘If you want to talk about what’s really going on here, without attacking me the second I walk into the room, I’m all ears.’ Isla’s voice was firm.
Drew stared at her, then yanked his coat from the back of the chair with anger before flouncing out of the door with a slam.
‘Damn you, Drew Allaway,’ she bellowed after him, close to tears.
Chapter 2 (#u19d2ae82-c90f-5173-99ca-eb76c01bf911)
Perplexed, Isla stood in the window and watched Drew stamp across the yard. Of course, she knew the pair of them could squabble from time to time, just like any other married couple, but recently things seemed different between them. This argument seemed different. Drew seemed more distant, his sleep restless. Isla knew having a new baby in the house had changed the dynamics of their normal routine completely, and she knew Drew wasn’t a huge fan of the baby stage – he preferred when he could chase them up the stairs, give piggybacks and hold a conversation with them. Maybe, he just felt he wasn’t getting enough attention from her? But then, neither was she and surely that was what family life was all about?
‘Who does the cooking, the cleaning, the washing … takes Finn to school etc. etc.?’ she mumbled under her breath, picking up her phone from the table and texting Felicity.
