Page 14 of The Merry Christmas Project

21 OCTOBER

Cole was almost done for the day. His mug was washed and ready for tomorrow and his laptop was just doing a round of updates before it closed down. All that was left to do was clean the floor. He whistled to himself as he swept up the clumps of clay soil from the site cabin floor and dropped them into the bin. It was one of his rituals : leave his work space clean and tidy to come back to in the morning. There was a thud of boots on the steps up to the cabin and Josh’s weather-beaten face appeared at the door.

‘That’s us finished for the day, boss,’ Josh said. ‘Unless you wanted to go over the plan for tomorrow ?’

At six feet tall, it was rare for Cole to feel small beside someone, but Josh towered over him. In truth, Cole could have managed the site without the younger man, but Josh had been desperate for work after he and his girlfriend, Vicky, had discovered she was expecting. And even though he was now a new father to baby Alice and not getting very much sleep, Josh was a hard worker and Cole had never had reason to regret his decision.

Cole shook his head. ‘No, you get off home. In fact, I’ll come with you and we can lock up.’

He shoved his laptop into a battered case and clicked the electric heater off with his foot, while simultaneously threading his arms into his neon yellow jacket.

Josh descended the steps while Cole locked the door. The air smelled of autumn : damp earth and woodsmoke.

‘Looking good,’ Cole said, inclining his head towards plot five which the men had been working on today.

‘Hmm.’ Josh frowned, which Cole knew was his way of acknowledging the compliment. ‘We managed to get a decent day in once the rain had stopped.’

Rain never stopped play on a building site, but it did slow it down and at this time of year, every day of fine weather was a bonus. They walked across the churned-up ground towards the metal fence that surrounded the site.

‘Concrete is booked for next Friday,’ Cole told him. ‘Will we be ready ?’

Cole loved this part of a build ; the concrete arrived by tanker and was poured into the footings from a vast hose. It was such a quick and satisfying transformation ; one minute you were looking at a series of muddy trenches, and then the next, the footprint of a building appeared before your very eyes.

‘We will,’ said Josh confidently. ‘I’ll make sure we are.’

They reached the perimeter fence and Cole wrenched open two of the metal fence panels to let them out.

‘Good man,’ Cole nodded his approval. ‘See you tomorrow.’

‘Yeah. See you, boss.’

Josh got into his van and drove away while Cole secured the two fence panels with a padlock. Although the light was dim, Cole could still make out the eight sets of footings and could already imagine how it was going to look when it was finished.

Eight houses.

A mix of pride and nerves flared in his chest. Orchard Gardens was his biggest-ever project. He’d taken a massive gamble when he bought the land and he needed it to go well. His future was riding on it. The plot was on the edge of the new Wetherley housing estate, which had been developing steadily over the last decade. It was proving popular with people who wanted the benefits of a modern house in a semi-rural setting, but still within easy reach of the town.

Cole had tightly planned and budgeted his small development with a modest buffer for contingency. But that budget would only work out if he managed to sell seven of the properties ; the money from the deposits was needed to keep paying his suppliers. He knew from experience how lack of cash flow could snuff out even the most promising business. If the build went well and he sold the seven houses at a decent price, he should be in a position to keep the last one for himself. Then he’d be able to put down roots again for when the kids returned from Canada.

So far, he’d taken deposits on two of the properties, which was good, but he wasn’t going to celebrate just yet. He’d have to keep on top of everything to ensure the project stayed on track ; there was no room for any major hiccups between now and completion next spring.

Lydia had claimed that the main reason their marriage had broken down was because he was a workaholic, but ironically, throwing himself into this build had been his saviour. Keeping himself mentally and physically busy had filled the void that the loss of family life had created.

Cole swapped his site boots for a pair of trainers, stowed his neon coat and hard hat in the back of his van and set off towards Wetherley. Later on, he was going to the Benny Dunford meeting, but before that, he was calling in on his dad. Family should be cherished before it was too late ; he knew that now, he’d learned it the hard way.

Cole pressed the buzzer for his dad’s flat and waited for him to answer. The Rosebridge retirement complex was a pleasant modern building tucked behind the church just off the market square in Wetherley. He and Hester had been shocked when, only weeks after their mum’s funeral, Fred had announced that he was selling the big family home they’d grown up in with its large garden, double garage and vegetable plot and swapping it for a two-bedroomed apartment. But they’d gone along with it, desperate to do anything to make their dad smile again.

Fred hadn’t just downsized his home, he’d downsized his whole life. When he lost his wife, it was as if someone had flipped a switch inside him. He’d changed almost overnight. He’d always been a doer, a DIYer with multiple projects on the go. But after Val had gone, he lost interest in doing anything that he’d once enjoyed.

To begin with, Cole thought his dad might be suffering from depression. Hester wondered if it was just a temporary thing, his way of dealing with grief. But Fred was adamant he was fine.

‘I’ve worked hard all my adult life and now I’m stopping,’ he’d told his two children. ‘If I stay in this big house, I’ll be rattling round and it’ll be a constant round of jobs. Your mum and I never got to slow down and enjoy our retirement together. So now it’s up to me to go it alone.’

‘What will you do all day ?’ Hester had asked.

‘Read all the books I’ve never read, watch all the films everyone else can quote verbatim,’ Fred had replied calmly. ‘Get up late, go to bed late … whatever I want.’

Cole was unconvinced. ‘You’ll get bored, Dad.’