Page 38 of Cooking Up a Christmas Storm (Highland Cookery School #2)

After far too little sleep, the Lowbridge lights switch-on day dawned bright and crisp and cold, and Jodie’s weather app promised her things were going to stay that way. That ticked one potential problem that was beyond her control off her list.

At half past one, she headed out, over the Low Bridge and into the village.

Nina and Anna were waiting for her outside the pub, the last stop on the planned walk on the village side of the bridge.

The lights on the pub were all in place, so they strolled back through the village checking everything was in order.

‘We have to check,’ Anna explained. ‘In twenty nineteen there was an incident.’

Nina nodded gravely.

‘What sort of incident?’

‘One of the old houses had teenagers then.’

‘Both off in Glasgow now,’ Anna added.

‘They’d… how can I put this?’ Nina hesitated.

‘They’d put tinsel and fairy lights round an inflatable cock and balls,’ Anna explained.

‘Yes. That’s exactly what they did.’

Jodie couldn’t suppress the giggle. ‘Not really the tone you were going for?’

‘Not at all.’ Anna was puce. ‘Mrs Timberley refused to chair the committee when we started up again. She got some terrible letters of complaint.’

‘Mostly from Anna,’ Nina whispered.

‘What was that?’

‘Nothing.’

They came to the final cottage in the first row after the bridge. Anna shook her head dramatically. ‘Oh, that won’t do at all. Barry! Barry Morgan, you come out here right now and straighten up these snowflakes.’

Jodie and Nina left Anna to her troubleshooting and walked on.

‘So my Pavel came home all full of beans last night.’

‘Did he?’ Jodie kept her gaze straight ahead, determined to play it cool.

‘Oh yes. The cat that got the cream. Happier than I’ve seen him in years.’

Sod cool. ‘Really?’ Jodie’s heart leapt a little bit. The nugget of terror in her gut that maybe yesterday had been some sort of mirage, or that Pavel Stone would get home and instantly regret the whole sordid episode, eased a little.

‘Really.’

‘Oh. Good. And he told you…’ Jodie couldn’t end the sentence with anything that sounded even vaguely like Pavel Stone might have said it out loud to his mother.

‘He told me you two were seeing one another.’

‘Right. Yeah. Is that OK?’

‘With me?’ Nina laughed. ‘Is this you coming to ask his parents’ permission?’

‘No. Yeah.’ This was ridiculous. ‘I know you’re close.’

‘He values what other people think far too much, that lad, but for what it’s worth I do like you.’ She paused. ‘Of course, if you hurt him I will destroy you anyway.’

Jodie laughed.

Nina did not join in.

Jodie stopped. ‘OK. Understood.’

‘Shall we go and see the tree? You know Anna’s done it in red and green, don’t you?’

‘Actually I might have added to some of the green.’

Nina frowned as they walked in silence to the front of the village shop. The tree stood proud, not yet lit, and covered in small green baubles. ‘Are they…?’ she laughed.

Jodie shrugged. ‘We had so many sprouts. There was no way they were all going to get eaten.’

Nina plucked a makeshift sprout bauble off the nearest branch and turned it around in her hand. Jodie had stuck red ribbon to each one so they’d hang from the tree. ‘That’s a brilliant idea, love.’

‘Really?’

‘Really,’ Nina confirmed. ‘Absolute genius.’

Pavel arrived outside the shop about half an hour before the official switch-on was scheduled.

Villagers were gathering. Hugh was doling out mulled wine and hot chocolate from a table in front of the shop.

Everyone was bundled up against the early evening chill in the air.

Cheeks were pink and smiles were wide. He scanned the gathering crowd for the face he wanted to see, only for her to appear right next to him.

‘Hi.’

‘I was looking for you.’

‘I’m five foot nothing. Tricky to spot in a crowd. I saw you coming half a mile away though.’

They both hesitated. ‘I’m not sure if I’m supposed to kiss you.’

‘For future reference, if you ever wonder that, the answer is probably yes.’

‘All right then.’ He bent his head to meet her and pressed her lips to his.

As they came apart he looked up to find half the village staring at them, including Jill.

He watched as Anna, Flinty and his mother all looked from him and Gemma to Jill and back again.

‘I…’ He didn’t have an end for the sentence.

Jill was a better person than him though. ‘This is new.’ She smiled brightly. ‘Happy days.’ She walked determinedly over to Pavel and wrapped him in a hug. ‘You could have told me,’ she hissed in his ear.

‘Sorry.’

She pulled back from the hug. ‘It’s fine.’ She moved to include Gemma in their circle. ‘Seriously, this is great. When did this happen?’

‘Yesterday,’ Pavel confirmed.

‘It’s great. Great. Really great.’ She squeezed his shoulder. ‘I’m going to get a hot chocolate. Have fun.’

The moment of relief was short-lived.

‘What happened between you and her?’

Fair question. ‘Nothing. We went on one date. It was awkward. We agreed we’re better as friends.’

Gemma nodded. ‘So why is half the village looking at me like I’m Yoko Ono and Jill’s the rest of The Beatles?’

‘Because this village is lightly insane. I think people had made more of it than it was, to the point where we almost got sucked in too.’ He could see the doubt on her face.

He searched for the right thing to say. ‘Jill’s a friend.

A really good friend, but there’s nothing else there.

It was a story people told each other and we ended up telling ourselves. ’ That was it. ‘It wasn’t real.’

‘And this is?’

He reached down and took her hand in his. ‘It is for me.’

He felt her fingers squeeze his in response and allowed himself to exhale.

‘Gemma, we need you.’ Nina called her away from Pavel, and over to the tiny platform Hugh had built in front of the shop.

‘What’s wrong?’

‘Nothing, but someone needs to introduce your special guests to turn the first set of lights on.’

‘You should do that. You’re in charge of all this.’

Nina waved a hand. ‘Pish. You put this together. You should have your moment. Just remember to speak right into the microphone. If you have it more than about half an inch away it picks nothing up.’

Jodie felt herself being pushed towards the microphone balanced on the platform. ‘Wait. Guests?’

‘Yes.’

‘Plural? I only invited Santa.’

Nina laughed out loud. ‘He brought a friend.’ She leaned in and whispered. Jodie’s cheeks coloured at the very mention of the name.

‘Right. OK.’ She picked up the microphone and cleared her throat. ‘Hello, everyone…’ Nobody turned round.

She glanced at Nina, who gestured to hold the microphone closer to her lips.

‘Hello?’

Still no reaction. Nina frowned. A second later she saw Pavel pushing the cable properly into its power supply and the microphone in her hand crackled into life.

‘Hello, everyone,’ she tried again. ‘Hello.’

This time people towards the front paid attention and a ripple of shushes extended back through the small crowd.

‘Hello, everyone. Welcome to our Lowbridge village lights switch-on. Erm… thank you all for coming. I hope you will join us on our walk through the village to see the rest of the community’s decorations, and then we’ll be finishing up at Lowbridge Castle where the Reverend Jill is going to lead carols and I think there are mince pies and yule log and you’re welcome to stay and mingle and catch up.

’ She glanced at Nina for confirmation that she’d remembered everything important and was met with a cheerful thumbs-up.

‘Great. OK then. All I need to do now is introduce our two very special guests to turn on our first set of lights. Please, everyone, put your hands together and whoop and cheer and generally go a bit crazy for Father Christmas and Jay from Redd Level!’

There was a second of quiet while people wondered, very obviously, whether Jodie was joking before the man in the big red suit was escorted onto the platform by a very cheerful, if slightly bemused-looking, Nineties pop icon. And then the cheers started. Jodie smiled.

Jay took up a position alongside her. ‘Hello again.’

‘Hi. Sorry about yesterday.’ It was a very brief acknowledgement of the mother of all awkward situations.

‘Most fun I’ve had since…’ He shook his head. ‘Actually my publicist doesn’t like me telling that story.’

‘OK. So, I guess now we switch the lights on.’ Jodie realised absolutely too late that she had no plan for this.

The plan had been not to have a celeb switch-on.

And now she had two celebs and nothing for them to do.

The lights came on when Hugh pressed the switch on the extension lead behind the counter in the shop.

She could hardly ask Jay from Redd Level to hop off the stage and rummage under the carrier bags and veg scales to turn the lights on.

Something was thrust in front of her. Jodie took a second to process what it was. And what it was was a shoe box covered in wrapping paper with half an Edam stuck on top of it. She looked down. Anna smiled brightly. ‘Big red button.’

‘Right. OK.’ Jodie took the box from Anna. ‘Is Hugh ready?’ she whispered.

‘Standing by.’

‘All right then. Shall we do a countdown? Ten, nine…’

The crowd joined in. ‘Eight, seven…’

‘Is that cheese?’ Santa whispered.

‘Six, five…’

‘Yep,’ Jodie confirmed.

Jay raised an eyebrow. ‘Do we get to keep the cheese?’

‘Four, three…’

‘Sure.’

Jay nodded his approval.

‘Fair enough,’ Father Christmas agreed.

‘Two, one.’

Two hands came down together onto the cheese button and a second later the lights on the tree flickered into life.

‘Aw,’ Jay grinned, ‘that’s really pretty.’

‘Yeah. It is,’ Jodie agreed. She stepped off the stage, looking for Pavel out in the crowd and seeing him surrounded by kids from the village who were taking turns to get lifted up onto his shoulders for a closer look at the angel sitting on the top of the tree.

A hand on her arm made her turn. Jill. Was she another person Jodie had screwed over in her wake?