Page 65 of Love Letters on Hazel Lane

Gemma hesitated. ‘We could, I suppose. Although I fancy a chat more. I haven’t seen you in ages.’

‘Why don’t you two go and have a cup of tea?’ said Ras. ‘It’s going to be full on all weekend, so you might as well grab your chance to have a break.’

Full on? She doubted that – and judging from his flat tone of voice, he did too – but it was kind of him to suggest they had a break, so they left him to it and wandered over to the staffroom.

As they neared the door, she could hear Mr Morgan inside, talking with Sal.

‘Disappointing,’ he said. ‘Our events are always so well supported. I don’t understand why no-one’s here. I shouldn’t have said yes. It was silly of me, in hindsight, to entrust this to someone we don’t even know.’

‘She’s done everything she could possibly do to make this a success,’ said Sal. ‘I mean, we work hard in the PTA, but I’ve never seen anyone put in so much effort. She’s incredible.’

Jo looked at Gem.

‘Yes, that’s you she’s talking about,’ whispered Gem.

‘Didn’t you hear what he said? That he should never have trusted me,’ hissed Jo.

‘And she said you’re incredible.’

‘She’s an organising wizard, I’ll grant you that.’ Mr Morgan’s voice now.

‘See?’ whispered Gem. ‘You’re an organising wizard. When are you going to realise how fantastic you are? Come on, let’s go in and get that cuppa.’

Before Jo could stop her, Gemma walked into the staffroom. Sal looked up as they went in and put her hand on the head teacher’s arm, as if trying to silence him, but to no avail. ‘We were saying,’ he said, ‘how disappointing the turnout is.’

‘We were also saying,’ said Sal, giving him a stern look, ‘how hard you’ve worked and how much we appreciate it.’

‘Don’t worry about the turnout,’ said Gem. ‘We’ll put Jo’s plan B into action.’

‘There’s a plan B?’ he said.

‘Of course. And knowing Jo, a plan C and D and…’

‘Yes, okay. I get the picture. So what’s your plan B, Jo?’

Thanks for landing me in it, Gem, Jo thought. She hadn’t got a plan B at all. Although…

‘Well, I’ll get Kate to do a final push on social media,’ she said.

Mr Morgan looked doubtful.

‘I can do a phone chain,’ said Sal. ‘I ring or text six mums, they text six more who text six more and so on. In case anyone’s forgotten.’

Jo doubted that Sal’s phone chain or a final push on social media was going to work; perhaps the good folk of Hebbleswick had better things to do with their weekend than play Scrabble. How could she have ever thought otherwise? But she had to try. As Gemma made two mugs of tea, she texted Kate and explained that things had got off to a bad start, and asked if she could post something in the local Facebook group that might encourage a few more people to come along.

*

When Jo and Gemma went back in the hall, a couple more families had arrived. Ras was surrounded by children. Three were playing a game and the others were all spectating. Jo had never seen him with children before; he almost seemed to be one of them. She watched as he laid down two letter tiles and all of the children erupted into giggles.

‘Good with kids,’ said Gem, raising an eyebrow at Jo. ‘Make a good…

‘Yeah, I know. He’ll make a good dad one day.’ She shook her head. She couldn’t imagine ever getting beyond a couple of dates with someone again, let alone one day settling down and having a family.

They walked over to see what had made the children laugh so much; Ras had played the letters B and M on either side of a U that was already on the board.

‘And don’t forget,’ he was saying, ‘you’ve got to tell all your friends how great Scrabble is, so they come along tomorrow.’

A few adults were arriving now, Jo noticed, but it was only the usual members of the Scrabble club, and not even all of them. No Sylvia. No Cosmic.