It Takes A Village

I meant to say this last time I updated but I forgot - I can't believe this story has over 100 reviews now! I'm so grateful to everyone who has been reading/reviewing/commenting/favouriting/PMing me. This year has been a pretty tough one for all of us I think, getting back into writing fic and having this great community has really helped - so I'm super thankful to all of you.

A little while back I said this fic would probably have about 20 chapters...but here is chapter 20 and we're not quite finished yet. I already have a fairly good idea of the ending for this, but I keep thinking of other bits to add in. I think I'm done with the angst though (well, the Sam/Cassie angst - I'm still throwing some at Abigail & Stephanie). Hope you enjoy this one - I'm hoping to get the next chapter of Melt Your Heart posted in the next day or two. Xxxx

Chapter 20: Shine

Abigail was feeling more cheerful than she had in a while. She found herself humming along to the radio as she arranged fresh lilies into a display for the window. She thought it might have something do with the way her cousin had casually and confidently slipped into the passenger side of their neighbour's car. As well as being a creative outlet and her source of income, Abigail's flower shop was also a great location for snooping on the rest of main street.

She was pleased that Cassie and Sam were finally taking steps to work things out, and she had a feeling that their afternoon rendezvous would bring them closer than ever. Now that things seemed to working out for them, Abigail realised that she would finally have to face up to the mess that was her own love life.

She was toying with colour and flower combinations for the next window display when the bell chimed. She looked up expecting to see a familiar face, the majority of her clientele was generally local especially now that the new flower shop had opened in Blairsville but this potential customer was a stranger to Abigail.

"Hey, welcome to Abigail's flower shop. Can I help you with anything today?"

She took a moment to drink in the man's appearance, as she tried to remember if she had seen him somewhere before but her memory stayed blank. He looked to be nearing fifty and there were strands of grey amongst his short dark hair. His eyes were a warm hazel and there was a faint dusting of dark stubble along his strong jaw line. He definitely didn't look like the kind of man who was usually attracted to Middleton, but then all sorts of people came and went if they were staying at Grey House. Abigail wondered if he was going to be a guest at the B&B.

"Hi," He replied, a little thrown off by the friendliness. For Abigail it was just customer service, but to him it seem steeped in small town charm. "I really have no idea about flowers."

Abigail smiled. One of the biggest parts of her job was helping slightly helpless men find just the right flowers for any and all occasions.

"Well, you've come to the right place."

He acknowledged that with a smile as he started to warm up to Abigail.

"I'm Jared," He held out a hand for her to shake.

"Nice to meet you Jared, I'm assuming you're not local?"

"No, I actually live in New York," Abigail's ears pricked up at this. "I'm just here visiting."

"Anyone I know?"

"I guess it depends if it's true what they say about small towns and everyone knowing everyone else's business?"

"There's some truth to that."

"Well, I decided to come here to try and win back a woman I pushed away. I don't know if she'll take me back, and I'm not normally one for grand gestures but when you care about someone you have to go all in, don't you?"

Abigail nodded, realising it was advice she needed herself. At some point you had to make a decision; and you had to make it with your whole heart.

After talking for a while with Abigail pointing out certain flowers and what they meant, Jared left the shop with a large bouquet of blooms. Once he was gone, Abigail took out her phone and tapped his name into Google. It didn't take her long to find his Facebook page, and not much longer to see that one of his Facebook friends was none other than Linda Wallace.

"Do you want me to drop you somewhere?" Sam asked uncertainly as they pulled into Middleton.

They had spent the ride back home chatting or in companionable silence, with the radio playing softly in the background. Now that they were back in town, Sam felt like he had to fight off the forces that had kept them apart all over again. Not even a run-in with his ex-wife could take the shine off the day for him, though.

"No, Grey House is fine." Cassie smiled reassuringly at him.

"What ever will people say?" Sam grinned back as he took the turning up to the street where they both lived.

"I don't care," She replied as Sam pulled to a stop outside his house. "I hope we can do this again soon, Sam."

"Me too," His eyes sparkled. "Wait, which bit?"

She laughed at him as she opened the car door, and it felt natural and relaxed.

"Goodnight Sam,"

"Goodnight," He watched as he walked up the path to the Grey House front door and disappeared inside. He really wished they were spending the rest of the day together; really wished they didn't have to be apart again but today had been more than he could have ever hoped for. He hoped that this meant they were finally back on the right track.

The bell startled her. It had been a fairly quiet afternoon in the shop after Jared left and she hadn't really been expecting any more customers before closing time. She was still mulling over what to do with the information she had uncovered. Of course the first person she wanted to tell was Cassie, but only a life-or-death situation would have caused Abigail to interrupt her cousin's romantic afternoon with Sam.

"Stephanie?" She looked up in surprise, the scissors she had been using to trim an errant stem slipped through her fingers and hit the floor.

"Hi," Stephanie was cautious. Although Abigail's sense of perception was a strong as her cousin's, it was usually pretty hard to surprise her but Stephanie could see that she had certainly caught her unawares.

"I don't usually see you in here," Abigail replied, bending to retrieve the scissors and letting her long hair shield her flushed face.

"I usually prefer to have flowers bought for me, rather than be the one doing the buying."

"Fair enough," Abigail replied, back on her feet now. "What can I help you with?"

Stephanie forced a considering look onto her face.

"I need an arrangement that says 'you're an idiot, but I care about you and I'm here for you'. Have you got something like that?"

"Oh," Abigail replied, looking down at where her hands were passing the scissors back and forth.

"I was kind of a bitch to you at Grey House after Tara and Brandon's party,"

"I kind of deserved it."

"Can we be friends again?" Stephanie asked, realising she had been holding her breath. She just wanted things to get back to normal between her and Abigail. It wasn't unusual for them to bicker and argue, but it had always come from a good place of friendship and trust. Now, well now she wasn't sure what was going on at all. All that she knew was that Abigail had kissed her, and then she had turned up to the party only hours later with Harry back on her arm.

"Of course," Abigail gave one of her rare grins, hoping Stephanie didn't see the way her hand balled into a fist around the pair of scissors.

"Great," Stephanie smiled back. She had wondered if they should hug or even shake hands or something, but that wasn't really Abigail's style. Or that's what she led people to believe, anyway. "I'd better head back to the Bistro, dinner rush will be starting soon. Goodnight, Abigail."

"Goodnight," Abigail watched Stephanie leave the shop and rush back across the road to her Bistro.

The chance to finally resolve the situation she was caught up in had presented itself, and Abigail was kicking it herself for letting it and her slip away. As if on cue, her iPhone began to vibrate on the counter and she didn't need to be a Merriwick to know it would be Harry's name on the display.

Linda looked up from her laptop as her ex-husband walked into the kitchen. She studied him over the top of her glasses, trying to figure out what seemed different about him. Things had not been great with the three of them under the same roof recently, making Linda realise she had been wrong to think she could ever patch their family unit back together. Too much time had passed for that to ever be possible.

She had enjoyed getting to spend more time with her son though. She realised she had missed out on his life and hadn't taken enough of an interest in him when she should have. She couldn't fault Sam for that or for his decision to move them both away from the city and into Middleton. But lately it seemed like a lot the tension between Sam and their son was back again and Linda had feeling it was more than just teenage angst. The two of them were thick as thieves, and she always felt like she was on the outside.

"You got laid, didn't you?"

Only the slightest tug at the corner of Sam's mouth showed that he had heard her.

"You got flowers,"

He looked at his ex-wife and realised to his great surprise, that a hint of a blush was showing in her cheeks. He wasn't sure he had ever seen Linda flush like that and, if he had, he was fairly convinced he had never been the one to put it there.

"Just because I moved to Mayberry doesn't mean I can't have a romance."

"Nobody said you couldn't," He bit his lip, trying to think of who was single in Middleton and out of those guys who would be interested in Linda and vice versa. "Who's the lucky guy?"

"His name is Jared. We had just started to date before Nick had his accident. We had lunch together when I was back to New York and I really thought it was over."

"Does this mean you're having second thoughts about settling here?" Sam hadn't intended on staying and chatting to her, he had wanted to go upstairs for a shower and to replay his afternoon in his mind, but he took a seat opposite her.

"You'd love that, wouldn't you?" She replied, killing the friendly atmosphere that had been growing between them. "I'll be out of the way so you can go back to screwing Cassie Nightingale while our son sleeps in the next room."

Sam glared at her. He hated the way she had of making his relationship with Cassie seem tawdry and indecent, when it had been a friendship that had organically grown into a romance before they had even laid a hand on each other. Deep down he knew that Linda was jealous of what he shared with Cassie, because it was so different to how their own relationship and marriage had been, but sometimes it made him seethe.

"Don't talk about her like that?"

Linda just shrugged, shutting the lid of her laptop with a snap.

"Where is the man of yours staying anyhow?"

"He drove back to New York, it was just a spur of the moment visit. He might come back at the weekend, I'd like him to meet Nick."

"I'd like to meet him too, before he meets our son."

Linda stood up from the table, her old self-satisfied smirk back in place.

"That hardly seems fair, I never got to vet Cassie before she met our son."

Sam stood up too, refusing to let her ruin what had been a wonderful day. Arguing with her had always been pointless. Sometimes he wondered why she had chosen a career in banking when she would have made an excellent lawyer.

"I can't talk about this with you now Linda, good night."

Before she could stay another word, Sam stalked upstairs to the bathroom to shower. He still made sure to firmly lock the bathroom door these days. When he was clean and feeling calmer, he picked up his discarded clothes from the floor and went into his bedroom. He took his phone out of the back pocket of his jeans and saw he had a message.

I had a perfect day with you today. I hope we can do it again soon. I love you.

He was grinning as he typed out a response, his fight with Linda long forgotten.