Page 40 of All Wrapped Up
‘I am,’ I said, with a nod to his empty plate. ‘And just in time by the looks of it!’
‘I’m always willing to act as taste tester,’ he grinned. ‘Now, come on, I’ll let Pixie out and then we’d really better get into town and try to nab a parking space.’
‘There won’t be so many people coming that we can’t park,’ I laughed, but it turned out he was right to be mindful about that.
We could hear how many people had packed out The Mermaid even before we’d fully opened the door and Ash threw me a knowingI told you solook before letting me cross the threshold ahead of him.
‘Oh, crikey,’ I gasped, as the noise of everyone chatting rushed to meet me and I tried to back out. ‘Ash, I don’t think—’
‘It’s fine,’ he said softly behind me. ‘You’ve got this. We’ve got this.’
In spite of his encouragement and the memory of Callum’s wise words, I suddenly wasn’t sure that either I, or we, had gotanything. Being with Pixie all day and then with Ash for dinner, had served to stop me worrying, but now, faced with a properly packed pub, I felt overwhelmed and underprepared. This was as far from pacing my reintroduction to living a more social life as it was humanly possible to get.
‘We’ve got this,’ Ash said again, this time even more sincerely, while he discreetly reached for my hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze.
I turned to look at him and found him staring down at me. His striking blue eyes were full of kind encouragement and I nodded and took a deep breath, full of appreciation for his support and assuming the jolt that the feel of his hand in mine gave me was down to the emotion of the moment, rather than anything more meaningful.
‘Yes.’ I swallowed, squeezing his hand in return before letting it go and hoping Joanne wasn’t somewhere watching and getting the wrong idea. ‘You’re right. We have. Let’s go and find Lizzie and the others.’
Lizzie took no finding as she was on the lookout for us and within a minute, she had set us up in front of everyone and was joking with the assembled crowd about the disaster that Jason’s interference had caused the previous week.
Everyone seemed to be in good humour and I attempted to use that to my advantage when Lizzie introduced me a second time and then offered me the floor.
‘Good evening, everyone!’ I loudly said, keeping a tight hold on my notebook to stop my hands from shaking. ‘As Lizzie has just said, I’m Clemmie Bennett. And as someone else previously pointed out, I’m the blow-in the majority of you have never clapped eyes on, but have no doubt heard of afterlast week’s cock up, and I’m also the person planning to push in and organise the autumn festival in honour of Moses Talbot this year.’
That raised a laugh and a cheer, most loudly from Bella and Jeanie, and I felt myself relax a little as a result.
‘Well, thank goodness someone’s willing to take it on!’ shouted a woman I’d never seen before and who was at the front of the crowd.
Another cheer went up and I started to laugh.
‘Well done!’ Lizzie mouthed at me as Evelyn rang the bar bell which was everyone’s cue to pipe down. ‘I think we’re off.’
We were well and truly launched after that. The next couple of hours flew by with me presenting what Ash and I had envisaged the autumn festival could include, and a show of hands used as the easiest way to decide what everyone thought would be the most popular events as I talked through them.
Nothing in my notebook was abandoned. In fact, the list had grown exponentially as the time went on and my head was a muddle of names as I struggled to make notes about who was willing to host what, what their businesses were and where they were located.
‘Given that the first week of September has already passed us by, and thanks to Jason’s meddling we’ve still not got a definite plan or announced anything yet, what do you think the odds are of getting something going by next week?’ Bella asked hopefully, while holding up both hands with crossed fingers.
‘As daunting as that timeframe is,’ I responded, ‘I think it’s doable. Tomorrow I’ll be going through everything we’vediscussed tonight and starting to put an event schedule together. I’d love to see the market square decorated and the shop windows dressed in time for the equinox on the twenty-second of the month, wouldn’t you?’
Making the town centre and surrounding shops look seasonal had been a hugely popular idea and the enthusiastic show of hands was confirmation that everyone was in agreement that the equinox would be perfect timing.
‘The equinox is on a Monday this year,’ said Ash, who had pulled up the calendar on his phone. ‘How about we aim to get everywhere decorated and prepared and then have an official festival launch, here in town the Saturday before, on the twentieth? It will be a much better day for attracting attention than a Monday.’
Again, everyone was in unanimous favour of that and the town dressing and official festival launch on Saturday, the twentieth, became our collective initial aim.
‘Myself and the other yarn bombers are really keen to pitch in,’ said a man at the back of the crowd. ‘Are you happy for us to get together to start making things now? If we’re going to help with the decorating in time for the twentieth, then we really need to.’
‘Oh, yes please,’ I enthused, feeling thrilled that the group was keen to offer some seasonally themed adornments. ‘It would be lovely to have some autumn knits and crocheted pieces on display around the town, along with everything else.’
‘I’ve found a fab pattern for crocheted leaf garlands,’ he told me.
‘They sound perfect,’ I happily told him. ‘I can already imagine them festooned around the market square. Thank you.’
‘Count me in for helping with that, Bill!’ shouted someone else.
‘And me!’ came another voice. ‘And we’ll need bunting, too.’
