“Definitely,” Brenda said.
“Good.” Dee suddenly relaxed, her eyes full of eagerness as she put her professionalism to one side. “Now tell me about the video shoot. How did it go?”
Like Brenda needed asking twice. “It was great fun,” she said, coming over all animated. “I’m surprised we didn’t see you yesterday though. I’m surprised we didn’t see any of you.”
“Oh, we all tried to get in on things, believe you me. Only to be thwarted at every turn thanks to that mayor of ours.”
Flick looked to her mum, glad to know she wasn’t the only one who didn’t have a clue what Dee was talking about.
“You mean no one told you? He closed off the road. Apparently, he had so many calls from people wanting to know what was going on, he didn’t want to risk a bunch of gatecrashers turning up.”
“That was kind of him,” Flick said.
Dee shot her a look. “Kind is not the word I used.”
Flick laughed. “Trying to keep this one under control was enough for me.” She indicated her mother.
“I wasn’t that bad.”
“Mum, we had to more or less lock you in the kitchen. Goodness knows how much disruption you would have caused otherwise.” Flick turned to Dee. “Honestly, she wouldn’t settle until she’d met every single band member. Talk about embarrassing.”
Dee gasped. “You talked to them?” She scrambled for a seat at the table. “Sit,” she said to Brenda. “Tell me everything.”
With her mum happy to oblige, Flick rolled her eyes and left the two women to it. Checking her watch, Jess and Pete were due to arrive so she headed down the hall ready to greet them.
Much to her surprise, they were already unloading the hearse by the time she opened the front door.
“Just in time.” Pete pulled a box of wine bottles from the back of the vehicle. “Where do you want this?”
“In the hall please, the room on the right.”
“You two look very smart,” Flick said to Jess, taking in their matching white shirt and black trouser dress code. “But you didn’t have to come up with a uniform, you’re not the hired help.”
“It wouldn’t hurt for people to think we are, though would it?” Jess said. “Besides, it was either these or a couple of Café Ange T-shirts that Pete was all ready to get printed up. I know they’d already been mentioned, so I made him settle for a few business cards to pass around.”
Flick laughed. “That’s fine, although the T-shirts would have been okay too.”
Jess handed her a large foil-wrapped tray of delicious smelling goodies before grabbing another one to carry herself. “Anyway, what about you? That dress is stunning, red is definitely your colour.”
Appreciating the compliment, Flick took a peek inside the car. “How much stuff have you brought?” she asked, before leading the way inside.
“Too much,” Pete said, passing them on his way back out for another crate of wine.
“You can talk,” Jess said. “There’s enough alcohol in the back of that thing to run a pub.”
Flick continued to help unload the hearse. By the time the three of them had finished, it was clear they could forget the public house, they’d brought enough sustenance to feed and water a small army. “I can’t wait to see what’s on these plates,” Flick said, taking in the sea of foil that covered the line of tables.
“Me too,” Nate’s aunt said, suddenly appearing in the doorway.
Flick smiled. “Julia, lovely to see you.”
“I hope you don’t mind me letting myself in, but the door was open.” She bobbed her head back out into the hall, stretching her neck as if checking out who else was there, before beginning a round offaire la bise.
Stepping forward, to say this was a custom that Flick usually found uncomfortable, that day it felt nothing of the sort, her own willingness to participate coming as a pleasant surprise. Julia’s responding hug felt tense, however, and her smile appeared strained, causing Flick to yet again wonder if she’d expected too much from her.
“Bonjour. Il y a quelqu’un?Is anybody home?” Gigi suddenly entered the room carrying two huge baskets of breads and pastries. “Pour toi,” she said to Flick.
Distracted from her concerns, Flick stepped forward to retrieve them. Each baguette still felt warm and smelled divine. “Merci. That’s what I call freshly baked.”
