Page 56 of Love Letters on Hazel Lane

They played a game of Scrabble and Jo updated him on her meetings with Sal and Kate.

‘It feels like everything’s sorted,’ he said. ‘Nothing left to do.’

Jo snorted. ‘There’ll be something we’ve forgotten.’

‘What, with all your lists? I doubt it.’

His eyes met her across the board.

‘I still need to come up with something for the Saturday evening,’ she said. ‘It has to be something different. Something with a wow factor. Something a bit more unusual that we can charge a bit more for and that will rope in people who wouldn’t normally be interested in Scrabble. But it still has to be Scrabble-themed.’

‘So you want to get people who don’t like Scrabble to part with a wodge of cash to play Scrabble?’

Jo laughed. ‘Basically yes. Any ideas?’

‘Rude Scrabble,’ said Ras. ‘Bonus points for naughty words?’

‘Hmm. Could be fun, but I can’t see it going down too well with the head. It’s a church school after all. What else?’

‘My mind’s a blank,’ he said. ‘No Scrabble pun intended.’

‘I’ll think of something,’ she said, laying down all seven of her tiles to form the word LOVEFEST. ‘A 50-point bonus. I used all my tiles.’

‘Lovefest?’ said Ras. ‘You sure that’s a word?’

‘Check it if you like.’

Jo raised her eyebrows at him, challenging him to get out the dictionary. She was certain the word would be in there.

‘No, I’ll believe you. So who did you used to play against?’ Ras said. ‘Before you met me and joined the Scrabble club.’

‘Sometimes Gemma, before she moved away. If I could persuade her. But usually the WordPals app. Are you on that?’

‘I am, but I hardly use it. I prefer playing face to face. Although occasionally, if I’ve a free minute at work – if a patient doesn’t show up – I’ll have a quick game. I mean, there’s always tons of paperwork to catch up on, but sometimes I need a breather. A few minutes to myself.’

Perhaps they had played each other, Jo thought, and never realised. But there wasn’t time to dwell on that now. They had to come up with something – and something good – for the Saturday evening of the festival, and it would need to generate a bit of publicity, create a splash. But Jo didn’t have a single idea what that something might be.

22

Over the next few weeks, the stuff in the office mattered less and less to Jo as the festival mattered more and more. She didn’t mind when Leona went off on another filming trip, proclaiming loudly that Adam the presenter had requested her presence. Jo doubted that somehow, but Leona could tell herself that if she wanted. Hannah suggested that Jo came along for Friday night drinks one week, but she declined, saying she already had plans. Well, she did. Friday night was Scrabble club.

With the exception of the Saturday night – Jo still hadn’t come up with anything special to offer and it looked like they’d have to go with a simple social evening – the plans for the festival were going swimmingly. Kate had the marketing ‘all in hand’ and had somehow persuaded Emily to loan them some alternative word games like Codenames, Bananagrams and Upwords. The pile of Scrabble-themed knitwear was reaching mammoth proportions, though Jo hadn’t seen it yet. She was now a frequent visitor to Hebbleswick Primary School. There were regular meetings to update Mr Morgan,the head, on her progress, plus planning sessions with Sal that were more social than planning these days. The PTA were taking care of all the refreshments with the exception of Annie’s biscuit stall. Sal had organised tombola prizes, the year 4 teacher had agreed to run the craft room and had loved Jo’s pictures of cards and necklaces made with letter tiles, and some of the other teachers had worked out a rota for running a Junior Scrabble room.

‘You wouldn’t believe it if you saw me,’ she said to Gemma on the phone. ‘Walking in and out of that school like it’s nothing.’

‘You’re putting your past behind you and that’s great,’ said Gemma. ‘And if you can do that with the school stuff, you can do it with your marriage too. You can move on from the trauma you suffered with Si, find someone new and be happy again.’

But Jo wasn’t so sure. Putting the bullying she’d suffered at school behind her was one thing; recovering from an emotionally abusive marriage was quite another. There were times when she looked at Ras and wanted him so badly. She thought she could trust him – they knew each other pretty well by now – but she’d thought that about Si once, hadn’t she? He too had been lovely at first.

Anyway, she still didn’t know how he felt about her. Sometimes, when he looked into her eyes over the Scrabble board, it was easy to believe that he did want something beyond friendship with her. Wishful thinking probably, and she reminded herself – again – that she had given up dating. Unless the Universe gave her a sign, an unmistakable sign.

Nevertheless, she couldn’t help wondering one morning, as she walked to the station, if things might have been different had she and Ras ‘met’ on WordPals rather than on Buzzz. What might that first date have been like if they’d known they shared a hobby? Might he have asked her out a second time? Would they be together now, well on their way to being a proper couple, instead of just two good friends organising a festival together?

Scrabble brought us together, she imagined herself saying to Caroline. We’ve been inseparable ever since.

And then an idea popped into her head.

Scrabble speed-dating.