Page 125 of Cooking Up a Christmas Storm
So Fiona had definitely told him at least part of the story. ‘But not you?’
Kenny looked around. ‘My visitors are happy so I’m happy.’ He smiled more broadly. It was a good smile, open and warm and more than a little bit sexy. If Jodie wasn’t so utterly infatuated elsewhere she could have fallen for a smile like that. ‘Honestly, I find the whole set-up at the other place a bit clinical. You know what I mean?’
‘We’re a bit more informal here.’
‘It’s great.’ He turned to head back to his group. ‘Oh, actually, odd request – I always used to go to church with my grandma on New Year’s Day. She reckoned it was good to start the year on the right front with the guy upstairs, if you know what I mean. She’s gone now, but I kind of like to keep up the tradition. I don’t suppose you know if there are any services near here tomorrow?’
Jodie didn’t, but Jill was sitting at the next table, sipping a glass of red and listening to a selection of Strachans bend her ear about the perils of internet celebrity. Jodie took Kenny from A2Z Travel by the arm. ‘Let me introduce you to someone,’ she said.
She left Kenny topping up the Reverend Jill’s glass, and walked straight into Bella. ‘Thank you,’ she whispered. ‘For coming back. I know how hard that can be.’
‘I’m so sorry for everything before.’
‘I just wish we’d found out who was sharing our information with McKenzie.’
It had slipped out of Jodie’s mind with so many other things going on. ‘I think I half did. Saira Summers. It was definitely her giving the information to McKenzie, but I don’t know how she got it.’
‘Saira Summers?’ Bella’s face opened up in recognition.
‘You know her?’
‘She applied for your job, for Gemma’s job. For… you know what I mean. She was local so we interviewed her here, in the office. Do you think she could have copied down a password or something?’
‘Maybe.’ Jodie’s mind boggled. ‘Wow. So I wasn’t the worst person you could have hired after all?’
‘Technically I didn’t hire you.’
‘I’m still really sorry.’
Bella shrugged. ‘All’s well that ends well. And Fiona’s conversion to the light side means we live to fight another day.’
‘I’m so glad. It has ended well, hasn’t it?’
Bella looked across the room to where Pavel Stone was desperately trying to sit out the next dance, despite his mum, Netty and Anna all demanding he get back on the floor. ‘Maybe not for everyone.’
‘He’ll barely talk to me.’
‘Can you blame him?’
‘Not really. I did try though.’
Bella moved away to rejoin Adam for the next dance. Jodie really had tried over the hours in Pavel’s van driving around the rival estate. She’d made jokes to break the ice. She’d let him be quiet. She’d tried to give him space. And she’d hoped he’d come back to her. And she’d failed. She knew now that messing things up wasn’t a fundamental character flaw. She wasn’t broken. She didn’t need to change every fibre of who she was to deserve love. But she also knew that she had hurt Pavel terribly and she might have to live in a world where he never forgave her for that.
On the stage the band leader cleared his throat and leaned in to the microphone. ‘So this is the last dance of the year. I always reckon you should never sit out the very last dance. Don’t end the year on a regret, and always start the new one living life to the full. Everyone onto the dance floor!’
Not ending the year in regret. That sounded like good advice. Jodie walked right across the dance floor, through the gaggle of women still trying to lure Pavel up for a spin. ‘Can we talk?’
‘I was going to dance,’ he replied.
‘No. He wasn’t.’ Nina put her foot down. ‘He’s free and he’s grumpy. Good luck to you, pet.’ She led the others away.
Pavel looked up. ‘Outside then.’
They walked away from the castle, past the Dower House and along the side of the walled garden.
‘I wanted to say sorry.’
‘You’ve said that already.’
