Page 51 of One Snowy Day
She didn’t blame Moira for letting the news of the job offer come out – by all accounts it had been an honest slip-up. But her mum’s reaction had been the very reason that she hadn’t wanted her to know. Hopefully now that Georgie had reassured her she wasn’t taking the job, her parents could just fly off tomorrowmorning and put all their energies into having a blissful retirement.
Although, looking at her dad now, stuck over at the bar table and deep in conversation with Dorinda Canavan, she wasn’t sure he’d quite got his ‘bliss’ face down perfect yet. Georgie decided to go and rescue him just as soon as she’d finished getting the scoop on Helena’s wedding plans.
Georgie had always loved Eve, Helena’s daughter and Cathy’s granddaughter. They were only a few years apart in age and had been the two kids sitting giggling under a table at family functions for most of their childhood. Helena, however, had always been mildly terrifying, but she’d mellowed slightly since rekindling her relationship with Eve’s father, and now they were set to marry.
‘You know, Helena, I don’t think I’ve ever asked – how did you meet him the first time round?’
Georgie watched Eve react to that question with ‘Oh no,’ and then put her hands over her ears. ‘Okay, Mum, I’m not listening to this bit – on you go.’
Helena rolled her eyes. ‘This one is such a prude. Anyway, I don’t mind admitting it – he was a one-night stand when I was twenty-five, and Eve was the result. Didn’t see him again for almost thirty years.’
‘Noooooooo,’ Georgie exclaimed. Helena McLean, one of Scotland’s top solicitors, and perhaps the most strong, powerful and intimidating woman that Georgie had ever known, had not just said that.
Eve cagily took a hand away from one ear. ‘Is it over? Has she told you?’
‘I’m shook. Shook!’ Georgie told her, chuckling. ‘Helena, I’d never have believed that of you! If I was wearing pearls right now, I’d be clutching them and demanding my smelling salts.’
‘There’s nothing wrong with exploring healthy sexual urges, ladies,’ Helena preened defiantly, making Eve wince again.
‘You know…’ Helena’s comment had struck a chord with Georgie. ‘I’ve never had one of those.’
‘A mother who overshares?’ Eve asked.
‘No, I’ve definitely got one of those. I’ve never had a one-night stand. Or a two-night stand, for that matter.’
‘I’m refusing to share my status on that, given that my mother is present,’ Eve declared, chuckling. ‘But don’t sound so disappointed when you say that, Georgie. It’s not like it should be a bucket list item.’
‘Well, maybe it should be,’ Georgie declared, emboldened by the full glass of champagne she’d already downed since she arrived. ‘Flynn and I got together when I was seventeen and I’d had one boyfriend and a few fumbles before him, but that was it.’
‘And since then?’ Helena asked with an intense gaze. Georgie saw now why witnesses crumbled under her stare.
‘Erm, nothing. No one.’
‘No one?’ Eve looked surprised, then immediately rallied and attempted to make her feel better. ‘Well, it’s not been long since your marriage ended.’
Georgie loved her for trying, but… ‘Eve, it’s been three years. And in that time, the only hot hip action in my life has been watchingStrictly.’ After the events of this afternoon, she was choosing to remove her occasional indiscretions with Flynn from the hot hip-action category.
‘Then I suggest you get out there and do something about it,’ Helena said, no-nonsense as always. ‘If you’d like to have a man, that is. Or a woman. I truly think I could have gone either way, depending on the person. However, that’s only if you want to be with someone. I don’t think for a single second that a person needs to have a relationship to validate their worth.’
‘Watch you don’t slide off your soapbox there, Mum,’ Eve teased her, but they were saved from Helena’s inevitable scathing retort by Kayleigh passing by, holding a tray of sausage rolls aloft.
‘Mum, Alyssa has put me to work,’ she grinned, then stopped suddenly when she realised who Georgie was speaking to. ‘Aunt Helena!’ she gushed.
Georgie wasn’t surprised by the reaction. Helena was one of the women who’d inspired Kayleigh to go into law in the first place.
‘I didn’t realise you were coming. Hang on.’
She put the sausage rolls down on the nearby buffet table, then came straight back over and hugged both Helena and Eve in turn.
‘Aunt Helena, I can’t believe you’re here. And I can’t believe I didn’t think of you!’
Georgie had no idea what her daughter was rambling about, but she seemed fairly giddy about something when she asked, ‘Do you know anything about property law?’
Helena shook her head. ‘Not much. Only what I can remember from university and perhaps a few titbits I’ve picked up since then.’
Georgie doubted that very much. Helena was a criminal lawyer, but she was so smart in every area of life – including, apparently, relationships and the value of a one-night stand – that she would definitely be Georgie’s pick for the ‘phone a friend’ if she ever went onWho Wants to Be a Millionaire. Having Helena onside would be the perfect complement to Georgie’s specialities of cocktail recipes, the history of hair, and the entire works of Westlife.
‘Would you mind coming and having a quick chat with my friend, Alyssa? She owns this café and I’m trying to help her with a legal issue to do with her lease.’
