Page 36 of Cooking Up a Christmas Storm (Highland Cookery School #2)

Jodie paused. ‘Are you doing anything tomorrow, Father Christmas?’

The second part of the lights switch-on was outside around the Christmas tree.

Saira showed the last child in to see Santa and whispered that she was going out to get ready for the lights.

Jodie nodded, smiled politely at the last family: another set of platinum customers whose child already had the wrapping paper off the gift before they were out of the door. ‘Ugh. It’s not even the newest one.’

By the time Jodie made it outside, she could see that the five minutes out of Jodie’s sight had been enough time for Saira to corner their celebrity guest, who despite Fiona’s insistence that he was to be treated with VIP kid gloves was signing Saira’s T-shirt quite happily and asking if she knew which date on the tour her mum had gone to.

He also happily let people take photos doing the Christmas bus song dance, and generally seemed like a good egg.

Fiona appeared at Jodie’s shoulder. ‘Is it going all right?’

Jodie nodded. People were mingling, drinking mulled wine, playing on the fairground games, which even as a staunch enemy of the whole McKenzie enterprise she had to accept was a good idea. ‘I think it’s going great.’

‘I…’ Fiona was skittish, more so than usual. ‘I’m trying to see it through John’s eyes.’

‘Why?’

‘He’s so much cleverer about things like this. He sees things I don’t see. Details I miss. I just want to get it all right.’

‘Everything is great,’ she insisted. ‘And you can see that. You need to trust your own judgement.’

Fiona looked around. ‘It does seem to be all right.’ Her shoulders relaxed for a fraction of a second. ‘Oh. Here he is.’

And right away she was rushing to John’s side as he surveyed the crowd from a safe distance at the edge of the clearing.

Jodie couldn’t hear the conversation but she could see the body language.

Fiona submissive and imploring. John imperious.

He said a few words to his partner and then left.

Jodie made her way over to her boss. ‘Everything OK?’

‘Yes. Perfect. Just need to keep an eye on time. I’m such an airhead. I lose track of things.’

Fiona, so far as Jodie could tell, had an organisational brain that processed plans more efficiently than any spreadsheet. What she didn’t have was one remaining iota of self-belief.

Before Jodie could say anything else another figure on the edge of the crowd took up her attention. Pavel Stone, a good three inches taller than anyone else around, and drawing her across the space like a magnet.

‘Hi.’

‘Hi.’ He looked down at her. ‘You look…’

Jodie was suddenly painfully aware of the freckles painted on her cheeks, her purple tights and jaunty pigtails. ‘I look what?’

‘You look happy.’

Oh. Jodie paused. ‘The grotto was fun actually.’ She waved her hand at the stalls and the expensively decorated tree. ‘This is all a bit much, but it’s made me look forward to…’ She lowered her voice. ‘Our switch-on tomorrow.’

‘I wasn’t sure if you’d need a lift back so I thought I’d come over.’

‘I have to stay until after the fireworks.’

He nodded.

‘You can stay too.’

‘Oh, I’m not sure I can afford a ticket.’

‘You can be my guest.’

He nodded silently.

She stood quietly next to him. There was a small stage set up at the far end of the recreation area.

That was where, in about five minutes, John McKenzie would introduce Jay, and Jay would sing his festive medley and press the big red button.

Jodie had seen the run-through and knew exactly how it would go.

She could picture it in her head. John would be charming and play the host with the most and Jodie would vomit a little bit in her mouth.

Maybe she didn’t have to stay right here for the whole event. There were other jobs on her list. She had to get the grotto ready for Monday, when fortunately her elf role would be taken over by some cash-strapped teenager from Lochcarron.

On the other hand, abandoning Fiona when she was strung as tight as a guitar string felt unfair. Surely she could stick out John McKenzie’s smug, arrogant face a little while longer.

‘What are you thinking?’

‘What?’

‘You were miles away.’

‘Just trying to decide whether…’ The end of the sentence died in her throat as she saw a figure at the coconut shy.

It couldn’t be. She’d talked about family holidays in the Highlands, but what would she be doing here?

Jodie moved to put Pavel’s pleasingly large frame between her and the woman she was desperately trying to keep an eye on.

Pavel twisted round. ‘What are you looking at?’

‘Nothing.’ But not nothing.

‘Who is it?’

‘No one.’ But not no one. Diane. Jodie’s former boss at the coffee shop.

Her mum’s old friend. Here. Now. What was she doing here?

Jodie scanned around. At any moment Diane could turn around and see her and come over and talk to her and say any of a million things that would prove that she wasn’t Gemma Bryant pretending to be Jodie Simpson, but just Jodie Simpson messing up life in a new and original way. ‘I need to get out of here.’

‘What?’

‘You want to come with me?’

‘Where?’

‘Anywhere.’

She saw the hesitation.

‘To check something in the office. Everyone’s out here. Prime time for some spying. For Adam and Bella?’

‘OK.’

She hurried away from the mini stage and the massive Christmas tree and along the track to the admin hub. Now she’d thought of it this was actually a brilliant opportunity. ‘Keep watch. Shout if anyone comes by.’

Jodie slid behind Saira’s reception desk and wiggled the mouse to light up the screen.

Locked. Right. In movies this was straightforward.

You just had to remember the name of the one childhood pet the user truly loved.

Jodie, unfortunately, had not bonded that well with Saira.

The password for the tablet Jodie had been given on her first day was JODIE123.

She’d had strict instructions to change it immediately.

She tapped in SAIRA123 in the hope that her colleague was less diligent. Incorrect password.

Jodie rolled her chair back and a flash of orange caught her eye. There was a Post-it note stuck to the underside of Saira’s desk. She unpeeled it and read. JohnMcKHOT123. Well, there was a lot to unpack there. She typed it in and Saira’s computer sparked into life.

‘What are you looking for?’ Pavel asked from his vantage point by the window.

‘I’m not sure. I probably need to be on Fiona’s computer but she mostly uses her tablet and that’s with her. And I don’t know. There’s something about Saira.’ Jodie couldn’t put her finger on it, but her attitude to Fiona was off.

Most of the folders on Saira’s desktop were standard. The same general business files that Jodie had access to. She hovered her mouse over the one that looked unfamiliar. Special Projects. Inside there was one folder. Lowbridge.

Jodie clicked to open and scanned the file list. Most of the things here had been created a few weeks ago. Did that coincide with the McKenzie estate stealing the band and announcing their own event? One file had been updated more recently. Ticket List. And the date was today.

‘Someone’s coming.’

‘I just need to—’

Pavel shook his head. ‘No time.’

Jodie switched the screen off and jumped out from behind the desk, just as Fiona came through the door.

‘Pavel? Jodie, what are you doing?’

‘That’s my fault.’ Pavel bailed her out. ‘I needed some insurance details for my records, just to show everything’s in order. Didn’t want to disturb you. And I just thought I’d forget by Monday.’

Jodie nodded. ‘Yeah. So yeah. That’s all sorted.

We’ll just…’ She grabbed Pavel’s hand and led the way back towards the Christmas tree, and then paused.

‘In here.’ She dragged him through the now empty grotto waiting area and into the main grotto.

‘Nobody’ll be in here now. I was supposed to clean up. ’

‘It looks pretty clean.’

‘Yeah.’ It did.

‘Did you find anything back there?’

‘I think so.’

‘Something that’ll help?’

Maybe. Honestly, Jodie couldn’t quite process what she’d found now. Was Saira working on her special project alone? Or for John? Or was Fiona involved as well? ‘I can’t think straight.’

‘Me neither.’ Pavel was standing right in front of her. Close to her. Now Jodie couldn’t think at all. They were alone together in a room nobody else was likely to come into in the next hour or more.

‘We should go back…’ she started, but neither of them moved.

‘Do you want to go back?’

‘No.’ She couldn’t face looking into his eyes when she asked, ‘Do you?’

‘No.’

Now she looked up. ‘Good.’

She’d spent weeks since the ballroom imagining his lips on hers. She’d imagined it hard and full of desire. She’d imagined it slow and brimming over with promise. What happened next was better than anything she’d imagined. What happened next was real.

The taste of him, the touch of his lips on hers, and his hands on her waist, the firmness of his body against hers, the stretch as she pulled herself onto tiptoes to reach more of him and the feeling like flying when his arms encircled her and lifted her off the ground altogether. All of it was so very, very real.

Without thinking she wrapped her legs around his body and pulled her lips back just a fraction. ‘I’m not too heavy?’

He laughed for a moment. ‘I’d bench-press you as a warm-up, darling.’

‘Darling?’

‘Too much?’

She shook her head. ‘Call me that again.’

‘My darling.’

‘My darling.’

The endearment touched something in Jodie’s soul.

This wasn’t going to be just sex, because there was no doubt in her body right now that they were going to have sex, but this was something more than that.

She wasn’t just a shag. She was somebody’s darling.

She touched a finger to the side of his face, and pressed her lips back to his.