‘What do you think?’ asked Emma the following day, handing the Christmas itinerary to Rhona who scanned through it.
‘I think Peggy’s right, it does look like a lot of work!’
Emma twisted her hair. ‘But worth it, right?’
‘Definitely,’ replied Rhona in a tone that said, ‘Obviously’. She put the piece of paper back on the office desk.
‘I’ll do all the planning this weekend, put together a week-by-week schedule. If we stick to that we should be fine,’ said Emma, trying to convince herself more than Rhona.
‘Have you thought any more about having the building work done before Christmas?’ Rhona asked, polishing the old leather-topped desk as they chatted.
‘I spoke to Aidan about it last night, he still thinks it makes more sense to do it in January, when there will be less disruption, and David agrees.’
‘David Reid?’
‘I think so, you know him?’
‘We all went to school together.’
‘Right, of course you did,’ laughed Emma. ‘Good guy?’
Rhona shrugged. ‘As far as I know. He was one of the sporty blokes, bit of a jack-the-lad. Didn’t have much to do with him.’
‘Aidan seems to trust him.’
‘Then I’m sure he’s a safe bet, if you can pin him down,’ she said, putting the lid back on the can of polish.
‘Are you heading home now?’ Emma asked, repositioning the items Rhona had moved while polishing.
‘I’m going to nip to Jen’s first, pick up the kids. Finn’s up to something at the house, he told us we’re not allowed back until five.’
‘Curious,’ said Emma, hoping to sound casual.
Rhona had just left when there was a little rap on the office door. Emma looked up to discover George, who was reading the ‘Scotland’s Best-kept Secret’ article that she had framed on her wall. She noticed that he’d had a haircut, which made his green eyes appear bigger and brighter.
‘Hi George,’ she said, happy to see him. After almost a week of chatting to him at breakfast and bumping into him on the stairs, she’d become used to having him about the place. She’d come to like his easy, gentle manner. But despite six days of chit-chat, Emma still knew very little about him. They’d stuck to general conversation: his job in care work, the weather, plans for the day, that sort of thing. ‘Any progress on your house?’
‘That’s what I came to talk to you about,’ he said, standing just inside the office door, his hands in the pockets of his jeans. ‘It’s still not ready. Is there any chance I could stay another couple of weeks?’
‘Let me have a look.’ Emma brought up the bookings calendar on her laptop. ‘Sure. I can shift a couple of reservations around, so you don’t have to switch rooms.’
‘I don’t want to be any trouble.’
‘It’s no trouble, I promise,’ she said, wishing all her guests were as low maintenance and as friendly as George.
‘Thanks, Emma. I’d better push on. People to see.’
‘See you later,’ she said, unsurprised that George was in a rush. No matter what time of day she saw him, he was always coming back from or heading out to see some person or other. For someone who had just moved to the community, Emma couldn’t help but notice that he had integrated himself far more quickly than she had managed.
Aidan arrived just as George was leaving, the two of them narrowly missing bumping into one another. It was only seeing the two of them side by side that Emma noticed how small George was in comparison. There was something about his friendly, cheerful nature that somehow made him seem bigger.
‘Who was that?’ asked Aidan, when George was out of sight.
‘That’s George,’ she replied, surprised that they hadn’t crossed paths at some other point during the week.
‘George?’
Emma thought she detected a hint of jealousy in Aidan’s voice.
‘The guy who moved up for a job then discovered his house wasn’t ready.’
Aidan acknowledged the remark with an almost imperceptible nod.
‘What’s up?’ she asked, when he wasn’t forthcoming.
‘David said he can’t get a team together in January, but he’s had a cancellation so they could start straight away, and have it done in time for Christmas.’
Emma’s heart leapt into her mouth.
‘If we want to go ahead, he can get the structural engineer in at the start of the week.’
‘Wow. That’s exciting,’ she said, butterflies fluttering in her stomach as the reality of having to complete the project before Christmas suddenly hit home, yet the pull of the twelve-week challenge was more powerful than her misgivings. ‘What do you think we should do?’
‘I think if you want to go ahead, we should,’ he said with a light shrug.
‘What about the finances?’
‘The finances add up. We’ve had such a strong year. The money is there. We should do it.’
Emma observed him for a moment, trying to figure out what was going on behind those blue eyes. She still had a feeling that he was holding something back, that he was just going ahead with it to please her, to give her what she needed, when maybe it wasn’t really what he wanted at all.
‘It’s a big thing to do,’ she said, trying to coax him into sharing how he really felt.
‘David said four to six weeks, it’ll be fine.’
Emma laughed at his misunderstanding. ‘I don’t mean the physical work, I mean the emotional upheaval for you.’
‘It’s fine,’ he said quickly, Emma felt a little too quickly.
‘Are you sure?’
‘A hundred and ten per cent. Should I call David, or will you?’
‘You call him,’ she said. ‘Get the engineer to come as soon as possible.’
Her mind leapt ahead to all that needed to be dealt with despite her concerns about Aidan. ‘As soon as he’s been, we need to decide when’s best to do the dining room. It might make more sense to do that last, when we’d have fewer bookings to cancel.’
‘Okay,’ he said, as if they were simply chatting about changing the hand soap, not ripping a structural wall down and combining two houses and lives. ‘Want to do something this evening? Catch a movie, have a few drinks?’
‘I’d love to but Finn’s doing a big dinner for Rhona and I said I’d be here to help out. Sorry, love.’
‘Pub it is then,’ he said, doing an exaggerated hangdog expression, which made Emma laugh.
‘I promise not to be too late,’ she said, hinting that although they couldn’t spend the evening together, that wasn’t to say they couldn’t have fun in the night.
*
‘Finn, Rhona’s going to love it,’ said Emma, who was sitting at the kitchen island working on her Christmas schedule, while remaining on hand to help, should Finn need anything.
‘I just know I’m going to make a hames of something,’ he said, grating cheese at a rate that would make Gordon Ramsay look slow. Emma tried not to watch his fingers, which she was certain were going to be grated into the cheese any second now.
‘Even if you do, she won’t mind. She’s just going to love that you’ve put all this effort into preparing it.’
‘You’re right, I know it, but . . .’ he tailed off, too stressed to finish his sentence.
Emma went back to her notes, suspecting it might be best to leave Finn to concentrate on what he was doing. She’d never known him in such a flap, and her mind wandered to what Rhona had said about him ‘acting kind of weird’ recently. She wondered if in fact his recent behaviour hadn’t been negative, as Rhona clearly saw it, but covert; if he’d actually been planning a big romantic gesture all along. Her mind crept to whether he might be about to propose, but she stopped the thought short, in case he failed to deliver and she was left disappointed for her friend.
‘The dining room’s all set,’ said Skye, coming into the kitchen, interrupting Emma’s ruminations. ‘Can Zoe and I go out to the garden until Mum gets here?’
‘Of course,’ said Emma, pleased that they wanted some fresh air. Wilbur, who’d been lying at Emma’s feet, got up and followed them.
‘Would you mind checking the dining room for me?’ asked Finn, once the girls had shut the back door. ‘Skye’s been all over the shop recently. She’s bound to have forgotten something.’
‘Sure,’ said Emma, putting down her pen and nipping through to the dining room, surprised to hear Finn say anything untoward about Skye. She’d been her usual self during her breakfast shifts, and Rhona hadn’t mentioned anything.
Walking into the dining room, Emma felt her breath catch for a second. Between them, the girls and Finn had managed to transform the room into what felt like a romantic restaurant for two. The table in the window was laid with a simple linen runner and decorated with silvery eucalyptus, antique roses and astilbe. Soft candles flickered in the falling light, and soothing piano music played in the background.
Caught up in the atmosphere, Emma jumped when the doorbell rang.
‘Do you want me to get that?’ she called through to Finn, who came rushing out, trying to pull off his apron, but it got stuck and he ended up fighting with it.
‘Finn,’ she said sharply, looking him straight in the eye while helping him remove his apron and checking his crisp white shirt for stains. ‘She loves you. Whatever has happened, everything will be fine. Take a deep breath.’ Finn did as instructed. ‘Now, open the door.’
Emma took her leave, standing just beyond the kitchen door so that she could hear if Finn needed her.
‘Good evening,’ he said stiffly, as Rhona stepped into the house. Emma caught a glimpse of her friend, who wore her hair down and even had make-up on. ‘May I take your coat?’
‘Sure,’ said Rhona, laughing nervously at Finn’s wooden demeanour.
Emma had just enough of a view from where she stood to see Finn remove Rhona’s coat to reveal a pretty, dusky pink evening frock with a satin empire band. She couldn’t remember ever seeing her friend in a dress before. She looked stunning.
‘Let me take you to your table.’
Emma heard Rhona exclaim as she entered the dining room, and the subsequent barrage of questions about what he was up to, followed by the pop of a cork from a non-alcoholic bottle of fizz.
Moments later Finn came dashing back into the kitchen.
‘What can I do to help?’ asked Emma.
‘Where’s Skye?’ he asked, sounding frantic.
‘I’ll get her,’ she said calmly, then dashed out to the garden, past Wilbur who lay sleeping in the back passage, where she found neither hide nor hair of the two of them in the dark. ‘Skye!’ she stage-whispered. ‘Zoe!’
A moment or two later Emma heard movement from the bushes and then the outlines of Skye and Zoe walking towards her. ‘Finn needs you,’ she said, waving them in, too rushed to ask what they were up to.
‘Sorry, Emma,’ said Skye, who slipped past her wearing a guilty expression as she hurried into the house, unlike Zoe who dawdled at the rear. Emma gave a cursory glance in the direction from which they’d come but couldn’t discern anything.
In the kitchen, Finn gave instructions to the girls to bring the fondue sets through, followed by the plates of bread, meat, autumn vegetables and pickles.
‘It looks lovely, Finn,’ said Emma, placing a reassuring hand on his back, which was damp from exertion. ‘Can I do anything for the next course?’
‘Could you put on the linguine and stir the sauce?’ he asked, rapidly stirring the prawns that were simmering in tomatoes and wine.
‘Will do, now go. Relax. Enjoy yourself.’
As Emma brought the water to the boil, Skye and Zoe returned to the kitchen, sniggering together, but when Skye saw Emma she stopped.
‘You okay?’ asked Emma suspiciously.
‘Uh-huh,’ she replied slightly dismissively, which was so unlike her it took Emma by surprise.
While they waited for Finn to ask them to clear the plates, the two girls sat at the kitchen island and pored over their phones, intermittently showing each other things and giggling. Once the pasta was on, Emma sat at the island too, pretending to be caught up in her work, when in fact she was listening to try and figure out what they were up to.
‘How was it received?’ Emma asked Finn when he returned to the kitchen looking far more relaxed than when he left it.
‘Went down a treat,’ he said, and the girls disappeared through to clear the table. ‘Let’s hope the main course has the same effect.’
‘I’m sure it will,’ she said, watching him plate up the delicious-looking pasta before the girls carried it through.
When Finn returned to serve the dessert, the girls now sprawled out in the living room, Emma expected him to be relaxed and perhaps even a little merry from his wine, but he wasn’t, and she watched in curiosity as he fiddled and flapped over a heart-shaped chocolate fondant with icing sugar and blackberries that wouldn’t sit exactly as he wanted them.
‘Finn, it looks amazing,’ she said. ‘Leave it as it is.’
Finn glanced over at her, pushing his specs up with a sugar-covered finger and smearing the glass. Emma laughed.
‘Come over here,’ she said, handing him a piece of paper towel to clean himself up. As she handed it to him, she felt his hands, cold and clammy, and saw that they too were shaking. It was then that she was convinced of what he was up to.
She reached for the bottle of whisky that Peggy kept beside the cooker and poured him a glass.
‘Drink this,’ she said with a knowing look, and he knocked it back. ‘Now go through and be with Rhona. I’ll bring the dessert.’
Emma delivered the puddings to the dining room and then beat a hasty retreat to the hallway, where she sat on the bottom stair tightly clasping her hands, praying that Finn would get the outcome he wanted.
For what felt like an age, Emma could hear little other than her own racing heartbeat. There was no conversation from the dining room, just the occasional chink of silver on china. But then, just as she was losing faith, she heard Finn’s Irish tones mutter some soft words and then Rhona shout at the top of her lungs, ‘Holy fuck!’
At that, Emma’s eyes burst wide open and her hands leapt to her mouth, containing both an exclamation of her own and the beginnings of a smile. She held her breath until she heard Rhona whisper, ‘Yes’. In the silence that followed she imagined Finn putting the ring on Rhona’s finger and kissing her.
Just then, she heard keys in the front door, and Emma, assuming it was guests returning from an evening out, retreated to the kitchen. She was surprised when, seconds later, Aidan came in.
‘Finn just proposed to Rhona,’ she whispered, desperately trying to contain her glee to avoid disturbing the happy couple.
‘Fascinating,’ slurred Aidan, offhandedly.
‘Are you drunk?’ she asked as he moved towards her in that way he did when there was only one thing on his mind.
‘Might be.’ His head rolled, his eyes half closed and his mouth lunged for Emma’s.
‘Aidan, no!’ She pushed him away and he lost his balance and stumbled against a cabinet.
He looked at her as if to say, ‘What’s your problem?’
‘Finn just proposed to Rhona,’ she said hotly, trying to get him to see this was a big romantic moment, one to be celebrated. This wasn’t the time for him to be making drunken moves.
‘Good for them,’ he hiccupped, giving a sarcastic thumbs up before going to the living room and passing out on the sofa.