Page 94 of Cooking Up a Christmas Storm
‘Kill me? I know. You’re the second person who’s told me that.’
Jill laughed. ‘His mum?’
‘Yeah.’
‘And she’s way scarier than me. Anyway, I was going to say I’d have to forgive you. Goes with the job, I’m afraid.’
‘That is less scary,’ Jodie agreed.
‘It would be a very aggressive forgiving.’
Jill moved away to mingle with the rest of the villagers. Jodie could see Nina and Anna starting to distribute lanterns for the walk along to the castle. It was turning out to be a really lovely event. Despite herself, Jodie had done something right.
She turned to find Pavel and liberate him from the huddle of kids and found herself staring directly into a distinctly less friendly face. Fiona MacCellan. ‘Fi.’
When had she got here? Had she seen Jodie introducing the whole event? That might still be something she could style out. Fiona knew she was living in Lowbridge. But if she’d seen that she’d also have seen…
‘You stole my pop star.’
Right. So she had definitely seen that part.
‘I didn’t even invite him.’
‘And Father Christmas. I paid his travel all the way from Edinburgh.’
‘It was his day off,’ Jodie spluttered.
‘Gemma!’
No. No. Not now.
‘Gemma!’ Anna bore down on them both. ‘We’re nearly ready to start the walk.’
Jodie nodded mutely. ‘I’ll be there in a minute.’
‘Why are they calling you Gemma?’
‘It’s a nickname.’
‘Gemma short for Jodie?’ Fiona wasn’t an idiot. Jodie really, really wished she was.
‘No. It’s like…’ What could she say? ‘I… when I first came here I’d just broken up with someone and things were really hard and maybe I wanted to be someone else for a while. It was a misunderstanding really. That I didn’t correct.’
Fiona shook her head. ‘Right. So you moved to the other end of a country and adopted a fake name cos you were having a difficult time.’
Put like that it did sound ridiculous.
‘Jodie?’ Another voice cut across Fiona’s reply. ‘Jodie Simpson? Oh my goodness, it is you. I thought I saw you yesterday up where we’re staying, but I thought don’t be ridiculous. What would she be doing all the way up here?’
Jodie could have kissed the woman hurtling towards them. ‘Diane.’ Yesterday she’d run and hid away for fear of exposure. Today Diane was a life raft and Jodie jumped gratefully aboard. She turned to Fiona. ‘This is Diane. We knew each other before I moved up here. This is Fiona. She’s my boss at the McKenzie estate.’ She arranged her face into what she hoped was an expression of realisation. ‘Oh my goodness. Is that where you’re staying?’
Diane nodded. ‘Lovely to meet you, Fiona.’
Fiona looked utterly confused. Jodie tried to remember what her CV said her last job had been. Pizza Now, of course. So how to use Diane to get her out of one mess, without getting her into a bigger one? ‘I used to do a few shifts for Diane in her coffee shop back in Reading when I was free. She’s a friend of my mum.’
Please let her pick up on the family-friend angle and not the terrible-barista element.
‘That’s right,’ Diane confirmed. ‘I’ve known this one’s family since she was tiny.’
