‘Iamokay. I think.’ I glanced around the room to try and take an objective look. There was a pleasant hum of conversation and no one had choked or spat out a mince pie in disgust yet, so I’d say that was good. ‘I could use an extra pair of hands though.’
‘Tell me what you want me to do.’
‘You’re like my fairy godmother. Would you be able to circulate the mince pies and wine, so I can stay behind the bar?’
‘Of course. Gimme those pies.’ She laughed and nudged me with her elbow. ‘Good job no one from my weight loss group is around to hear me say that.’
‘You don’t go to a weight loss group do you, Lydia? You’ve got a lovely figure,’ Rachel volunteered.
‘Oh I know.’ Lydia waved a hand. ‘I just like going to get the gossip really. Always interesting to see who’s going through a midlife crisis.’
Ben and Rachel exchanged a careful smile and I bit my lip, knowing that Lydia actually went to help maintain her weight because she had an overactive thyroid, and she was just teasing them. I should introduce Lydia to Noelle; I had a feeling they might get on well.
Which reminded me, I hadn’t seen her yet. She’d been at dinner but hadn’t made it into the bar yet.
‘Can we help at all?’ Ben offered.
‘Um, no, I think we’ll be fine.’ I wasn’t about to ask Rachel to waddle around the room and if Ben was helping, then she’d be left on her own. ‘You find a seat and relax. Err…there aren’t any other villagers on their way up are there?’
‘Oh gracious no.’ Lydia unhooked her handbag and handed it to me. ‘Would you put that behind the bar? No, Ben kindly offered to bring me up in my jeep – I don’t like driving when it’s such bad weather.’
‘And of course, I couldn’t leave Rachel at home on her own.’ Ben rubbed her back and Rachel gave him another small smile. I wasn’t sure, but I think Rachel might’ve appreciated an evening in – she was looking quite fatigued.
‘That was kind of you, Ben, and of course, you and Rachel are more than welcome. I’d love to stay and chat but duty calls and all that.’ I backed away a step, sensing more than seeing that someone else was heading up to the bar. Plus, Bublé was crooning his last song of the album and I was going to need to switch it to another CD.
‘Oh, isn’t that your date from last night over there? How did that go, Beth? Actually, that’s a silly question isn’t it – we saw that video of you dancing with… Hang on, is thathim, the other one?’
Fantastic, they’d seen the video too. I supposed I couldn’t really complain – they could just have easily seen Nick and I dancing in person. We had been at a public event and making a spectacle of ourselves. And despite that little burst of spontaneity coming back to bite me on the bottom, I found that deep down, I didn’t actually regret it.
‘Oh, yeah, that’s his brother,’ I said faintly. ‘Sorry, I’ve really got to get back to it. Come with me, Lydia. We’ll find those mince pies.’
She followed me, all the while quietly hissing in my ear: ‘Dates? Dancing? Brothers? What have you been up to, my darling? Two days ago you’d resigned yourself to cats.’
‘I’ll fill you in later, I promise.’ I scanned the room and spotted the platter on an end table next to the Nakamuras. They’d drawn their chairs together and were looking through a big guide to the Sussex countryside for ramblers. I really hoped they weren’t thinking of going out hiking in these conditions. They looked up in unison as I stopped and picked up the tray, politely shaking their heads when I offered them another pie and going straight back to their tourist guide.
I passed the tray over to Lydia and headed back to the bar. While I served, I watched her out of the corner of my eye. She was smiling and circulating – this wasn’t her first rodeo, helping the hotel out in a tight spot – but it didn’t escape my notice that her walk was less of a meander and more of a beeline for Stephen, Nick and Dorie.
She’d already been beaten to the role of nosy-busybody-far-too-interested-in-my-love-life by Ben and a very slow-moving Rachel. I tried not to ruin the head on the pint of beer I was pulling at the tap as Stephen shook Ben’s hand and then waved towards Nick, who was still mostly hidden by the back of his chair.
But then he stood up and was pulling the chair back, offering the seat to Rachel. She smiled up at him like he was an angel. Dorie pulled a pack of playing cards out of her handbag and started dealing them all in for a game of something around the table. Lydia reached them a moment later and joined in the chatter and it was all very cosy and likely to make me start coming out in a rash if I let my mind linger on what they were talking about.
Nick settled himself on the corner of the tiled hearth, knees drawn up and elbows resting on them, the fire dancing off to his left, making the gold in his hair gleam and a shadow fall in the hollow beneath his cheekbone. As he leaned forward to collect his cards, he looked straight over at me. I froze. Completely caught out, mid-ogle, I did the only thing a reasonable person could be expected to: I ducked down behind the bar, pretending to check the glasses.
‘Are you all right down there?’ Noelle’s voice carried down to me and I looked up to see her red hair trailing over the bar as she leaned over towards me.
I rose slowly to my feet and yanked the skirt of my mum’s dress down with a somewhat wobbly sigh. ‘Oh, I’m just peachy.’
‘Anything to do with the c-r-u-s-h that I’m supposed to pretend I don’t know about?’
‘Among about a dozen other things. Can I get you a drink? Mulled wine?’
She pulled a face and stuck her tongue out. ‘No offence but why would I want to drink something that tastes like a boiled bottle of perfume?’
‘Fragrant breath?’
She laughed and shook her head, climbing up onto the bar stool. ‘You know how to make any cocktails?’
‘Some.’
