Page 74 of Love Letters on Hazel Lane

‘Again,’ Jo said.

‘Incorrect spelling! No points for you for that one.’

She was going to argue, to tell him she’d placed the letters the wrong way round by accident, but then the bell rang and the next minute, Razz was sitting in front of her, smiling.

‘It’s going brilliantly, isn’t it?’ he said. ‘Such a fantastic idea of yours. I’m having the best time.’

Jo smiled and started to clear the letters from the board, left over from the previous game, and as she did, she glanced at Razz’s tick sheet. He had only ticked one box. Number Five. Zoey.

He had ticked her. That meant he wanted to exchange contact details with her. He wanted to see her again. Jo’s heart plummeted; she could hardly declare her feelings now.

‘Do you want to go first?’ She tried to sound upbeat but her voice sounded alien. False.

‘Let’s do it properly,’ said Razz. ‘Draw from the bag.’

‘You said I’d come across as nerdy if I insisted on doing that,’ she said, thinking back to the evening when they’d rehearsed the speed-dating. If only she’d told him then. If only she’d responded when he’d taken her hand. What a missed opportunity.

‘I am nerdy,’ he said. ‘And you already know that.’

They each drew a letter. She drew R. He drew J. She would have taken this as a sign – them drawing each other’s initials like that – if she hadn’t already seen him with Zoey.

‘You make the first move,’ she said, wishing he would make a move on her.

She couldn’t focus on the game. She scored a miserable forty-seven points – less than ten points per word – whilst he more than doubled her score.

‘You’re never normally this easy to beat.’ Razz smiled and she tried to smile back.

‘I’m tired,’ she said and suddenly she realised that she was. Exhausted. And defeated.

The final bell went, signalling the end of the evening. Jo stood up. ‘I’ve got to collect all the forms,’ she said, holding her hand out for his. Perhaps he hesitated before he gave it to her. Or perhaps he didn’t. She didn’t know anymore.

She went round the room in a daze, asking people if they’d enjoyed the event and gathering forms, but she was only interested in one form: Zoey’s. Had she ticked him too? Would Jo have to email her details to him tomorrow evening? To let them both know that they were a match?

Like Razz, Zoey had ticked only one box. It was easy to see whose it was: the last box on the page. She’d written ‘Razz’ alongside it too. Jo was surprised she hadn’t gone the whole hog and drawn a little heart next to it.

Zoey.

Zoey with a y would score 16 points.

Jo’s own name would only get 9. She knew when she was beaten.

29

Sunday morning.

Jo opened her eyes and was happy for a few seconds. Her phone pinged: a text from Gemma.

How did it go with Razz?

He met someone else before I had a chance to speak to him.

WHAT?!!!

At Scrabble speed-dating. He ticked her box. She ticked his. He didn’t tick mine.

Oh God, Jo. I don’t know what to say.

Gemma didn’t know what to say and Jo didn’t know what to think. It had all felt so right yesterday, like everything was about to slot into place. To have that Bloody Big Sign, as Gemma had called it, pointing right at Razz, the man she’d grown so fond of as they’d planned the festival together, only to have Zoey swoop in on him, right in front of her. Anyway, there wasn’t time to lie in bed dwelling on it; she had to be at the school by nine at the latest.