Page 112 of Cooking Up a Christmas Storm
Did Gemma frown at that? Jodie put the thought out of her head. Why would she?
‘So you’re doing OK here?’ She looked around. The tone was less homely than Lowbridge, but a touch less in-your-face-corporate than McKenzie. ‘It seems like a nice place.’
‘Yeah. I mean since I got here I’ve really turned the place around. They were crying out for someone like me.’
Jodie believed it. ‘I’ve been sort of working in hospitality a bit.’ She’d thought about whether to tell Gemma about taking her job offer, but there wasn’t any point. Was there? Nothing she’d done was going to come back on to Gemma. Why hurt her even more?
‘I don’t think Di’s coffee shop is quite the same league.’
Jodie shook her head. ‘I went away for a bit. After you left. Big estate in the Highlands.’
Gemma narrowed her eyes. ‘I applied for a job in the Highlands.’
‘Maybe you mentioned it. I don’t know what gave me the idea. I wanted to get away, you know?’
Gemma nodded. ‘Probably no rhyme or reason at all, was there? Typical Jodie. Just barging in without thinking.’ She smiled sympathetically. ‘It didn’t work out?’
‘What makes you say that?’
‘Well, you’ve come back to me. Tail between your legs.’
That was fair. Wasn’t it?
‘It was a good thing I didn’t get that job in the Highlands anyway,’ Gemma added.
‘Why?’
‘Oh, it was a ridiculous little place, and the people who ran it were total amateurs.’
That wasn’t right. Bella and Adam were full of enthusiasm and commitment, and they were trying to do what was best.
Gemma continued, ‘They kept spouting all this guff about community and preserving the natural environment and goodness knows what else. I sent them this plan for a Hogmanay Gala that wouldn’t have worked if you’d had a year to plan it.’ She smiled at her own cleverness. ‘They didn’t have a clue obviously. Thank God I didn’t end up having to try to pull that off.’
Jodie’s memories of her time with Gemma shook again. None of what she was saying made sense. She was wrong about Lowbridge, but surely Gemma’s plan had been good. Not being able to make it work was down to Jodie.
‘Anyway, why are you really here?’
Jodie’s head was spinning. ‘Really to say sorry.’
‘Nonsense, Jodes. I can read you like a book, and it’s OK. I can see how much you’re trying. If you really want to try again then I could think about it.’
Jodie waited for the pull, the need to be back in Gemma’s orbit, the need to please her, the need to feel her approval. It wasn’t gone entirely, but it wasn’t strong. It was a speck of sand in the desert of all the other things she was feeling now. She was confused. And angry. And she didn’t feel safe here. She shook her head. ‘No. Thank you. I think I have to go.’
The taxi picked her up half an hour later from the tree stump she was perching on at the end of the hotel driveway. ‘Did you find your closure?’
Jodie thought she had. It just wasn’t the closure she’d been expecting.
Chapter Eighteen
When Jodie came down on Christmas morning her mum was already in the kitchen and her dad was setting the table for eight. ‘I thought it was going to be just the three of us?’
Her dad shrugged. ‘Up until yesterday morning it was. And then Mrs Ashley next door’s cooker blew up doing mince pies so your mum asked her around and she was supposed to be having her daughter and her little one, so that’s two more and then…’ He paused, counted the place settings, moved one up a bit and started to squeeze in a ninth. ‘Then it seemed rude not to ask Colin from the other side, cos his Shirley’s a nurse so she’s working. And then last thing, your brother rang and him and Livvie were going to be in London but your mum said “Why not pop down?” So they’re popping down.’ He counted the place settings again. ‘Nine.’
Jodie went into the kitchen, where her mother was leaning on her perch stool at the kitchen worktop chopping potatoes. ‘I can do that.’
Her mum raised an eyebrow. ‘Really?’
‘Yeah. I did some cookery classes.’
