Immy stared after her with wide eyes. ‘Oh crap. Xander will kill me.’
Logan shook his head. ‘He won’t be mad at you, he’ll be mad at her for the way she spoke to you. Where did that come from? I caught most of what she said, but I wasn’t here at the start.’
‘We’ve barely spoken all morning, except for when customers came in and she wanted me to pass hersomething or I asked her how much something was. And then as soon as we were alone, she just started saying how I must be pleased with myself for snagging Xander and how I was using him. I knew she wasn’t happy that Xander was over at my shop because she came over this week to tell him, but I didn’t realise she held me personally responsible.’ Immy let out a sigh. ‘I appreciate your support.’
‘I meant what I said. He is the happiest I’ve ever seen him when he’s around you. You’re good for him, and Etta, anyone can see that. Well, clearly not anyone,’ he gestured to where they’d last seen Judy. ‘But I was wrong, and I’m delighted about it. You two have something special and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.’
‘Thank you. I feel the same about him, he makes me very happy too.’
‘Yeah, I can see that. Anyway, don’t worry about Judy, I’ll explain it to Xander. I just came over to grab his garage keys and get some more of his tools. I think the spare set is hanging up in the little storeroom.’
Immy grabbed them and handed them over. ‘How’s it going over there?’
‘Good, we’re probably about halfway.’
‘Oh that’s great, thank you for all your help. I really do appreciate it.’
‘You’re family. Now more than ever.’
Immy stood outside her shop with Xander, Archer and Logan as the electrician did his checks of all the electrics. The flooring was almost done, apart from the edges. This was the last thing they needed to be able to open the shop for the Easter egg hunt on Sunday. Although everything else was in place: all the eggs, the sweets, the bunny ears. Belinda had even been round earlier with a massive box of maps and clues, after she’d collected them from the printers.
Immy looked up at Xander and he squeezed her hand.
She’d expected him to be mad about Judy, who’d worked with him ever since he’d opened the shop and knew him from when she was his neighbour in his old house. Maybe her view of women was tainted after she’d seen how terrible Brook was as a wife and mother. But it wasn’t fair to tar Immy with that same brush and Xander said the same. He said if she apologised, she’d be welcome to come back but until then it was for the best that she wasn’t there.
It still niggled Immy what Judy had said, that she was a burden to him. Judy was right there was a lot of Easter chocolate left over and Immy felt horribly guilty about that. The last thing she wanted was for Xander’s life to change, negatively, because of her.
The electrician came out after a relatively short time. ‘I have some bad news and some good news,’ Tony said.
Immy cringed. ‘Good news first, I suppose.’
‘The good news is that the till that started the fire tripped the breaker very quickly so that particularcircuit that feeds that socket is fine, otherwise I’d have a lot of rewiring to do. The upstairs electrics seem fine, on the surface at least, they are on a separate circuit board but that circuit board is fed by the downstairs circuit board so right now there are no electrics getting to the upstairs. Unfortunately, the downstairs circuit board suffered quite a bit of damage in the fire. Many of the individual breakers are melted and completely unusable. Now I can replace the circuit board fairly easy, it would take me around half a day. After that, the electrics in the flat and the shop should work fine, although I will need to do further tests to be sure. Unfortunately I have to order it in as I don’t have spare circuit boards just lying around. I can put an order in today and I should get it maybe Wednesday next week. I have a few other commitments but I should be able to install it on Thursday or Friday.’
Immy’s heart sank. They had worked so hard to be ready in time for the Easter egg hunt and, while they could run it from the back room, the front, main part of the shop would be too dark without lights.
‘I know that’s not the news you want to hear because of the Easter egg hunt on Sunday, but it’s a relatively easy fix once I do get the new circuit board. If I had to rewire the shop it would take weeks or months and would be very expensive. At least you should be back up and running by the end of next week.’
‘Thank you,’ Immy said.
‘I’ll be in touch with a date as soon as I get it delivered,’ Tony said.
Immy nodded and he waved and walked off.
The men were silent for a moment.
‘Well, there’s some good news,’ Archer said. ‘At least it’s not a massive overhaul.’
‘Yes, rewiring would be a massive pain and would take ages to do,’ Logan said.
‘We will sort it somehow, we can still run the Easter egg hunt,’ Xander said.
Immy nodded. ‘I know, it’s OK. It’s not what I wanted but I’ve been so lucky with everything else and I’m incredibly grateful to have such wonderful people helping me too.’
‘We’ll finish off the flooring tomorrow and put some shelves up and do any other little jobs that need doing. At least the place will be clean and tidy,’ Logan said.
‘Thank you.’
‘Why don’t we go and meet Max and Etta on the beach?’ Xander said. ‘You’ve had a long day and it won’t take long to finish the shop tomorrow. As far as we can.’
