‘Apparently yes, that would be me. I’m Lachlan.’
‘Pleased to meet you, Lachlan. How do you know Alyssa?’
He’d wondered if she knew the circumstances of his meetingwith Alyssa, but she wasn’t threatening him with the knitting needles, so he’d guessed not.
‘She’s… she’s… It’s a long story. I only met her today for the first time, but she seems really nice.’
Georgie had agreed with that conclusion. ‘She’s great. It’s my mum’s birthday, retirement and going away party tonight – we like to milk all the occasions – and Alyssa has made her feel really special.’
He’d asked the obvious question. ‘Where’s she going? Your mum, I mean.’
‘Oh. Nowhere. It was supposed to be Tenerife, but she’s changed her mind. It’s a long story. Anyway, why are you out here? I hate to break it to you, but unless you’ve got a sledge in the boot…’
‘I’m waiting for the AA to come blow up my tyres.’
She’d considered that answer. ‘This might be a crazy idea, but have you thought about sitting inside where there’s heat and food, so you don’t die of frostbite before the AA get here? There’s a table at the window right there.’
Even when she was making fun of him, she was amusing.
‘Plus I need to give Mrs Dawson back her knitting needles before she calls out a search party to find me.’
So that was how they’d spent the next half-hour, chatting at a table by the window, watching for the AA until they arrived and sent him to retrieve his car key. When he’d come back out, he’d discovered the tyre situation was terminal.
The AA guy had been shaking his head. ‘I’ve got three of them fixed, but they must have broken the valve on that one,’ he gestured to the one remaining flat tyre, ‘because I can’t get it to reinflate. I can get your vehicle towed for you, but I don’t know how long that’ll take in this weather.’
At this point, Lachlan wouldn’t have been surprised if atornado had come down the street and created yet another obstacle to his travel plans. There had only been one way to go with it though, ‘Yeah, if you can arrange a tow that would be great. I’ll give you the address of the car hire place to drop it off.’
The AA guy wasn’t done. ‘And do you need a lift somewhere? All part of the service.’
Lachlan had glanced back inside, seen Georgie chatting to a bloke who looked uncannily like her, and factored in that he still needed to speak to Alyssa again about the offer he’d made when he’d gone back for his key. Had he really volunteered to stay here and help her with building work? Apparently so.
‘No, it’s fine. I’ll work something out.’ His flight was long gone, so his best plan was to get a taxi to the airport and get a room there. Or find a local hotel for tonight. He didn’t want to disturb Margaux’s date by crashing at her place.
Fast-forward half an hour and now that his feet had defrosted, and he’d abandoned his plans to drive, he was on his second beer and still sitting with the woman who’d been dancing in the snow, listening to the whole room singing ‘Caledonia’, before they all burst into a round of applause at the end.
‘Grant, why is our mother climbing up there?’ Georgie asked the man on the other side of her. He’d joined them ten minutes ago, and had already informed Lachlan that he was Georgie’s brother, before asking his name, home location and enquiring as to whether he had a criminal record.
Lachlan followed Georgie’s gaze, and watched as one of the women he’d seen in the kitchen took a microphone and tapped the top of it.
‘Ladies and gentlemen. Some of you might have noticed that my earlier speech wasn’t my finest moment…’
That got another cheer, and she took a bow.
‘I might need therapy after this,’ Grant whispered.
‘So this time I promise to hold it together. At least until I’ve made a wee announcement to you all.’
Beside him, Lachlan could see Georgie’s eyes begin to glisten and her smile get wider, and he had absolutely no idea what was going on.
‘But first I need to thank you all for coming here, for being my customers, my friends and my neighbours. I know exactly how lucky I am to have you all.’
Another cheer and stamping of the feet caused the candles on the wall shelves and the fairy lights draped across the windows to flicker.
‘As you all know, tonight was a party for my birthday, my retirement and a going away shindig because Stan and I were planning to leave for Tenerife tomorrow. Well, I just want to let you know there’s been a change of plan on that one. We’ve decided that we don’t want to leave right before Christmas, so we’re going to stay a bit longer. In fact, if I get my way, it might be a lot longer, because I don’t know what I’d do without you all.’
Lachlan saw her eyes go to the tall man who was watching her from the kitchen door, and he nodded at her, as if agreeing to that plan.
‘So thank you all again. Thank you to Loretta and Moira for being incredible entertainers tonight. Thank you to Alyssa, Ginny and Hugo, for the most amazing spread and throwing such a brilliant party. Thanks to my pals, Val and Cathy, for putting up with me all day today, and for the last forty-odd years. Thank you to my Georgie and Grant, who will always be my whole heart.’
