Page 6 of Cooking Up a Christmas Storm
‘Less than an hour. The pass is clear, so we can go the fast way,’ Pavel said.
The road rose sharply up into the hills, zigzagging away from what Jodie now realised was the coastline rather than just a lakeside. ‘It’s beautiful.’
Her granite-faced driver’s expression softened a little. ‘That it is. Sorry it’s a bit of a trek. I guess that’s one thing Bel and Adam’ll be wanting you to think about.’
Jodie’s ears pricked. Bel must be Bella, who was the woman who’d phoned. The job was events manager, according to the email to the hastily set-upGemmaBryant2025email address she’d given her over the phone with some spluttered explanation about a dead laptop and a hacked email account. And Adam was… almost certainly a name she was supposed to know already.
‘Yeah,’ Pavel mused as he drove. ‘It’s going to be tricky to get students over from the station. Maybe a minibus? But you’ll probably want a four-by-four?’
Students? Jodie racked her memory back through the phone conversation.Highland Cookery Schoolhad definitely been mentioned. So students for the cookery school made sense. ‘Will they not drive themselves?’
‘You didn’t.’
No. Obviously.
‘And if they all drive you’ll need parking.’ He shrugged. ‘There’s some outside the coach house and just over the bridge.’
Jodie’s head was reeling. Minibuses, parking, students. All these appeared to be things that she was supposed to have insight into and plans for. She couldn’t just turn up in goodness knows where, declare herself an events manager and start managing events. She had no idea what she was doing. Somebody, probably the somebody who was supposed to be paying her wages, would notice that in a heartbeat.
Her own heartbeat was picking up pace. She glanced sideways at her driver. ‘So what’s your role?’
He shook his head. ‘Just a mate doing a favour.’
‘So you don’t work for Bella and…’ Name? Name? ‘Adam!’
‘No.’
Great. So she had fifty minutes to try to glean as much as she could about what on earth was expected of Gemma Bryant from somebody who wasn’t going to be sitting at the next desk from her tomorrow morning. ‘So do you think it’ll be a good place to work?’
‘Yeah. Bel and Adam are great.’
That was a good start. ‘And what sorts of events do they do?’ Was that a reasonable question for an events manager to ask?
‘Anything that’ll stick one to McKenzie, I reckon.’
He dropped the name in as though Jodie was expected to know what he was talking about already. Gemma would definitely just smile and nod. Gemma would probably understand, but Jodie only had the rest of the drive to her new workplace to get to the point where she could feign understanding in front of her new boss. ‘McKenzie?’ she asked.
‘Skirting the edge of their estate now,’ Pavel muttered. ‘John McKenzie’s an entrepreneur. Wants to buy up Lowbridge. They’re working their arses off to avoid that. I’d say basically you’re here to make sure they’re profitable enough to be able to afford to say no.’
Jodie laughed – a swell of hysteria pushing its way out of her lips.
Pavel turned his head quickly to look at her, brow slightly furrowed.
‘Sorry. It’s not funny. It’s just…’ Just what? ‘Just a lot to take in,’ she offered.
Her heartbeat thudded harder in her chest. She had stolen Gemma’s job offer. Gemma was off enjoying her new life in Cornwall, so she didn’t need it, but it sounded like these people did need Gemma. And Jodie wasn’t Gemma Bryant. She wasn’t an events manager. She was a mess.
‘Are you OK?’ Pavel Stone’s gaze was flicking in her direction.
‘Fine.’ Her rapidly whitening knuckles told a different story.
‘Let me know if you’re going to be sick,’ Pavel murmured.
‘I don’t feel sick.’
‘OK.’
‘I…’ She opened one eye and quickly closed it again. ‘Can we stop?’
