Page 41 of Cooking Up a Christmas Storm
‘Before we got distracted, you were saying something?’
This was it. She could still tell them. She should still tell them. For a split second it felt as though her brain was flashing forward. She could see Adam’s anger. She could see how Bella’s face would fall. She could see all the hope and the trust they had splintering and shattering in a single moment. And she could feel, deep in her gut, how completely they would blame her and how entirely she would know that they were right.
Jodie shook her head. ‘Nothing.’
Bella frowned. ‘It was something.’
‘No.’ There was something else holding her back as well. Not just the fear of how they would react, something else. Something quieter, but it was there. There was another voice that said, why not try? It was mad. It was the voice that got her into trouble again and again. It was the voice Gemma had helped her to realise wasn’t helping her. But maybe? Maybe she could try.
‘I offered you tea and you looked like I’d offered you rat poison,’ Bella continued.
There it was. There was always an exit ramp if you looked hard enough. ‘Yeah. OK. It’s stupid. I feel stupid, but I don’t like tea.’
‘What?’
‘I accepted on the first day to be polite, and then I realised I’m going to be stuck politely drinking tea forever if I don’t say something.’
Bella’s face erupted into a loud, open laugh. ‘That’s priceless. Oh, mate, I’m so glad you said. Imagine you sitting here in ten years’ time with us still forcing endless cuppas on you.’
Imagine you sitting here in ten years’ time. Maybe she could. Maybe her name didn’t matter. It was just a label after all. Maybe she could do this. Gemma had written a really good plan. Maybe if she followed it to the letter, everything would work out OK.
Chapter Eight
Pavel left his van outside the McKenzie estate visitor experience hub and looked out for Tom Barclay. Tom was a decent builder, based in Lochcarron, but the spa at McKenzie’s place would be the biggest job he’d bid for, and Pavel was well aware that most of the McKenzies’ building work had been done by big national outfits. Tom was going to be a minnow in amongst some big fish.
‘Pav!’
Pavel waved to his friend across the car park and jogged over to join him.
‘Thanks for coming.’
‘No bother.’
‘Now I know they’re probably going to go with someone bigger, but they’ve got all this guff on their website about supporting the local economy so I’m going to be leaning heavily on that.’
Pavel nodded. ‘Sounds good.’
‘Did you take a look at the plans?’
‘Aye.’ Tom had sent over the architect’s spec for the new spa the week before. ‘Looks fancy.’
‘And they say they want all top-end materials and finish.’
‘Sounds pricey.’
Tom grinned. ‘You get what you pay for.’
‘True enough.’
Pavel had done a lot of site visits to deliver a lot of quotes in his time, and corporate jobs were often the easiest. The person you were talking to was in the same boat as you. You both had a job to do. So long as it got done, nobody was going to burst into tears about dust on the flock wallpaper.
This meeting wasn’t like that. They were barely through the doors to the McKenzie estate’s vigorously tartaned foyer before a purple-clad woman descended on them. ‘Pavel Stone!’ she squealed. ‘I didn’t have you on my list.’
‘Fiona?’ Fiona MacCellan. Of course it was. With hindsight, Pavel should have anticipated that. Despite steering clear of Facebook and muting the old school WhatsApp group, he knew that Fiona had taken a job with John McKenzie when her father had been forced to sell the family estate. ‘It’s Tom’s meeting. I’m just the hired help.’
She glanced at Tom and then down at her tablet. ‘Tom Barclay.’ She held out a perfectly manicured hand. ‘So how about I give you guys the grand tour and then we have a talk about the spa itself? Mr McKenzie is absolutely set on it providing the best relaxation and wellness experience in the Highlands.’
Was he now? Over the course of the next hour Pavel discovered a lot of things that Mr McKenzie was set on making the best in the Highlands. Not only the spa, but the hotel, the retail space, the four gourmet eateries.
