Jacques’s brain hurt from the speed with which Delphine was delivering the information. The women weren’t leaving? There were windows? Wait, had she said they were moving in with him?
‘Hi, I’m Tommy.’
‘O-K,’ Erin answered, looking Tommy up and down like his introduction might be some kind of trick.
‘And you don’t look like you should be carrying any kind of heavy bags with those perfect nails so I will take these outside and put them in my brother’s truck. OK?’ Tommy said as he took ownership of the cases.
What the hell was going on here? His brother was apparently staying with him and he was about to get two other house guests? He had to have alone time, just him and Hunter, and no one seemed to ever understand that. As Tommy and Erin began to leave the table with the luggage and head towards the door of the bar, Jacques turned to Delphine.
‘Delphine, I can’t have people stay at my house. You know that.’
He could. Theoretically. He’d been assured it was OK. But when you always trusted your gut and your gut still told you it was better to be safe and inhospitable than it was to take risks, it was hard to change that.
‘Jacques, what am I supposed to do? Make them sleep between the aisles of my supermarket? Or perhaps ask Gerard if they can bed down in the cellar with his brewing equipment? You are the only one around here with the space.’
‘Madame Voisin has the space. She rented out the whole top floor of her house to yoga students last summer,’ Jacques reminded her quickly.
But then Delphine struck him with one of ‘those’ looks and before she had even said anything he knew this wasn’t a situation he had a choice in.
‘Jacques, I do not ask for much. It will only be for a few days and then they can come back here… maybe… if the windows are done.’
It didn’t sound conclusive at all. But what was the alternative? He wasn’t the creating-a-scene kind of person. Besides, Tommy was already here. A risk was a risk no matter the multiples. And he would be helping out someone who had helped him out. Except maybe there was one thing he could nail down before he agreed…
‘OK,’ he replied. ‘But if I am to have house guests, then I need a firm date for when this pregnant reindeer will be here. You know, in case I have to also accommodate that.’
He struck Delphine with a look he hoped conveyed he was not going to take any half-truths now. He knew how she reacted under pressure. She was a rapid talker, a filler of gaps in any dead air, her expression warping and shifting as much as her lips. Except there was none of this happening. When she replied it was with confidence.
‘I have been told the reindeer’s transportation was delayed because of the extreme cold.’
‘How far is it coming from? Because I am thinking the vet in Grenoble would be better?—’
‘Should I send Orla and Erin to the vet in Grenoble too?’ Delphine interrupted. ‘Because I always thought Saint-Chambéry was a place where people… or animals… were welcomed without question.’
What could he possibly say to that?
He nodded. ‘OK.’
‘Good,’ Delphine answered. ‘But I would make sure you keep Tommy and Erin at separate ends of the house. The way the boywas looking at her was the way Hunter looks when he sees a wild rabbit.’
19
‘Hello, Mum.’
Orla was in Jacques’s kitchen being watched by Hunter while the others were in the living room. She could hear Erin and Jacques’s brother all making loud comments about the wood burner Jacques was trying to relight. How was she in this weird domestic situation all of a sudden?
‘Oh, hello, Orla love. I know I said don’t worry about me, but I was starting to worry about you. There’s no storm front is there?’
Orla swallowed. Her mum sounded so far away and coming from someone who had spoken to her mum from places much further from the UK than France, Orla knew it was completely to do with the family predicament.
‘No,’ she said. ‘Just Hurricane Erin.’
‘Oh, Jesus, what’s she got herself into?’
‘Not the size-eight dress yet, apparently,’ Orla replied. ‘But that’s probably a good thing with this weather.’ She looked to the window. The sky was black outside but the bright white snow illuminated everything from Jacques’s truck that had broughtthem back here to the craggy mountain backdrop. ‘No storms, but it’s pretty cold.’
‘You need candles,’ Dana answered. ‘Warm you up a treat when the heating’s on the blink.’
‘Your heating’s not working now?’ Orla exclaimed.
