Chapter 21
JESSIE
‘Och, Alyssa, it’s beautiful. I can’t thank you enough.’ Jessie gazed around in wonder at the transformation of the café from this morning. Earlier, it had been a warm, cosy, Christmassy retreat from the cold – now it was like a grotto from a winter wonderland.
There were dozens of white and gold balloons, filled with whatever air they put in them to make them rise up and attach to the ceiling.
In the middle of the room, there was a glistening Christmas tree.
Over at the buffet table, the spread looked incredible.
And the whole room was glowing, thanks to the clusters of candles that covered every shelf on the walls.
They looked realistic, but they were the battery-operated ones because everyone knew Val’s huge blonde bob contained so much hairspray it could go up like a flash if she went near a naked flame.
Over at the makeshift bar, Hugo and Ginny were polishing glasses, and Jessie shouted her thanks to them too.
Alyssa gave her a hug. ‘You’re welcome, Jessie. I’ve loved working across the road from you and I really appreciate all the support you gave my business when it first opened, and every day since.’
That was a fond memory for Jessie. When Alyssa’s café had opened its doors, Jessie had been delighted.
The café had been closed for months at that point, after the previous tenant had realised that his concept of a gaming café wasn’t going to work in a village where the daytime customers’ average age demographic sat somewhere north of seventy.
Jessie had fair missed a local spot to pick up a bacon roll on a busy day so to ensure Alyssa’s café thrived, she’d offered a 10 per cent discount on any hair treatment to every client who came in with a receipt for a purchase at the café.
She’d viewed it as a good marketing ploy for Alyssa’s fledgling business, but she’d found to her surprise that it was mutually beneficial when she’d also gained new customers who’d heard about the deal and couldn’t resist the bargain.
Alyssa gave her another squeeze. ‘You have a great night, Jessie, and if you need anything at all, just holler. I’m going to go check on the hot food and let you get ready to greet your guests. By the way, is Kayleigh going to be here tonight?’
‘Yes, she is. In fact, there she is now.’ She opened her arms to welcome Kayleigh and Grant, who’d just burst in the door.
‘Gran, you’re a total babe,’ Kayleigh proclaimed, giving her the second hug of the last five minutes. Grant gave her the third, while Kayleigh greeted Alyssa. Her granddaughter had worked here in the summer every year since it opened, so the two of them were great friends.
‘Can you come find me when you have a minute? I just want to pick your brain about something,’ she heard Alyssa ask Kayleigh.
In normal circumstances, Jessie would be curious, but there were too many other things vying for her attention tonight, including her big honey of a son. ‘You look fabulous, Mother,’ he told her, making her beam. ‘Where’s Dad?’
Jessie nodded over to Stan, who was propping up the bar and already on his second beer.
He wasn’t exactly radiating happiness, and she didn’t blame him, given that disaster of a conversation earlier.
Even now, her stomach flipped just thinking about it.
She’d got totally the wrong end of the stick and she’d made everything much worse.
Not only were they still leaving for Tenerife tomorrow, but he now knew that she hadn’t wanted to go in the first place. What a bloody mess.
When he’d told her that he wasn’t changing his mind, and that it was her decision as to whether she went with him or not, she’d been so shocked, her voice had escaped her. But only for a moment.
‘Like I said, Stan. We’ve done this life together.
I’m not going to change that now. I’ll be ready to go to the airport first thing in the morning.
’ She was going. They both were. And that was that.
The only thing left to do had been to put on her red sparkly sequin frock, her favourite silver heels and enjoy the last night with everyone she loved. Talking of which…
‘Kayleigh, where’s your mum? and dad? She’s not with you? I’m worried that no one else will venture out in this weather and it’ll just be us lot. We’ll never get through all those sandwiches.’
‘Gran, don’t worry. If that happens, we’ll still have a great night. Mum’s just coming. My dad was at the house earlier and he was going to come tonight too, but then he got an emergency work call and had to go.’
Jessie wasn’t quite sure what emergency work call a solar panel salesman would have at seven o’clock on a dark, snowy, December night, but given that Grant was now standing behind Kayleigh making frantic slicing motions at his throat, she guessed it was something best addressed later .
Kayleigh and Grant went off to see Stan, just as the bell above the door dinged again.
And again. And again. Her worries that no one would come floated off on a sea of gratitude, as the room began to fill.
She was so busy greeting everyone as they came in that she only had time to talk for a few moments before the door would open again and the next lot would arrive.
Val arrived with her pal and next-door neighbour Nancy Jenkins, both of them bearing elaborately wrapped gifts.
‘Thank you both. That’s very kind, but you didn’t need to do that,’ Jessie chided them.
‘It’s just a couple of wee things to remember us by,’ Val told her. ‘Don’t want you forgetting all about us.’
‘As if I ever could. I won’t open them just now, because I’ll cry and I’ve just done my mascara.
’ She gave the two of them a quick cuddle before they headed into the mêlée, with Nancy’s husband, Eddie, in tow.
He was another one who’d gone to school right here in Weirbridge, and then left, but moved back a few years ago, when he’d met up with Nancy at a school reunion.
Jessie often saw them around the village, and they were great for a chat and a laugh, especially if they were with Buddy, a gorgeous wee boy that Val and Nancy looked after a couple of days a week.
His parents, Noah and Tress, were coming along tonight, with the rest of Noah’s family.
His mum, Gilda, had been a client of Jessie’s since she’d arrived from Ghana just after the salon had opened, and Jessie adored her.
The next to arrive were her neighbours from the two houses on either side of her, all of them saying lovely things about how much they’d miss her.
Her lip began to tremble with the loveliness of it all, so she distracted herself with more pragmatic matters and addressed Linda Nesbit from next door, a rough-cut diamond of a woman who didn’t have her troubles to seek, because her man was way too fond of the booze.
‘Linda, pet, don’t forget to ask one of your boys to nip in every fortnight and cut Mrs Dawson’s lawn.
My Stan has done it for years, and it would be the size of a hedge if he hadn’t, because she doesn’t have the money to get someone in to do it. ’
‘Don’t you worry, Jessie, it’s the least we can do for all the nights you’ve watched the triplets over the years.
’ Jessie remembered when Linda brought those three beautiful wee cherubs home from the hospital.
They were a handful even then, and over the years, they’d grown into lovable but cheeky wee rascals.
They were twelve now, and much as she was fond of them, Jessie still couldn’t tell them apart.
They were going to be a challenge in a police line-up, and given that they’d been caught letting down the tyres of every car on Main Street several times this month, Jessie just hoped that wasn’t in their future.
The gifts were piling up on the table behind her now, and Jessie realised she hadn’t factored that in at all. She’d have to ask Georgie to store them because she was already over the weight limit for her suitcases on the flight tomorrow. Again, where was Georgie? Shouldn’t she be here by now?
She was about to give her a call, when the door opened again, and in came Cathy, Richie and of course… ‘Loretta!’
Cathy’s younger sister was a riot of a woman, loud, hilarious, and up for anything.
She’d been a fairly well-known pop star back in the seventies, but her career had transitioned through various incarnations over the decades, ultimately ending with a ten-year stint as a cabaret singer in Benidorm before she retired.
Now that she was in her seventies, she only sang for fun, and Jessie had been thrilled when she’d offered to perform tonight.
She’d have the whole place singing along in no time.
After their greetings, Cathy and Richie went on over to the bar, but Loretta hung behind and leaned in close.
‘Jessie, I need to ask you…’ she whispered in her quiet voice, which was still loud en ough for half the room to hear.
‘Our Cathy was telling me that Moira Chiles has moved to the village. Is that right?’
‘It is, Loretta. She comes into the salon to get her hair done. I invited her tonight, and I think she’s coming along if she’s free.’
Loretta beamed at that news. ‘You know, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, her and I did a couple of show runs together. Rocky Horror , if I remember correctly. She was just a young thing then, but, och, it would be a treat to see her again, it truly would. She was sensational.’
As if Loretta had just manifested her arrival, Jessie spotted a familiar face passing the window. ‘I think you’re about to get your chance, Loretta, because that’s her coming now.’
At that moment, Moira opened the door and came in brandishing a bottle of champagne and a gift bag with paper tissue blooming from the top of it. ‘I’ll miss you, Jessie,’ she said, hugging her. ‘My hair is going to be a shambles without you.’
‘You’ll just need to commute to Tenerife for a wee cut and blow-dry,’ Jessie joked, before bringing the woman standing next to her into the conversation. ‘Moira, I don’t know if you’ll remember…’
Moira’s reaction to Loretta was priceless – there was a glance and a polite smile, then a quick double take and a squeal of delight. ‘Loretta! Oh, my love, how long has it been?’
Loretta chuckled. ‘Around about the last time a man saw me naked, so probably some time in the nineties.’ That set the two of them off, and Jessie suddenly felt something damp on her cheeks.
Too late, she realised it was tears. Loretta spotted them first and her eyes widened in horror, but Jessie immediately started fanning her face and reassuring her.
‘I’m fine, I’m fine! It’s just… a lot. I’ll miss this all so much, I truly will.
’ Every word caught in her throat because she meant it more than she could say.
This was her idea of a great life. Her pa ls.
Her family. A room full of people – some she’d known for a year, some for a lifetime, but all of them in some way meant something to her.
Embarrassed that the night had only just started and she was bawling already, she had a quick glance around the room to see if anyone had noticed, but everyone was deep in conversation, and no one was looking her way…
except Stan. Over at the bar, he was staring straight at her, concern in every line of that handsome face.
She gave him a smile that said, ‘Don’t worry, I’m fine. ’
‘You need a drink!’ Loretta declared wisely.
‘Let me just go and grab you one and I’ll be right back.
Moira, let’s do a wee duet later. You can be Dolly Parton and I’ll be Loretta Lynn – I’ve not got the boobs for Dolly.
One glass of plonk coming right up, Jessie.
’ And with that, the force of nature that was Loretta went off to seek a medicinal refreshment for her.
‘Sorry, Moira. It’s been an emotional day. I’m not great at goodbyes, and I’ve been saying a lot of them lately,’ Jessie explained.
‘That just shows you all the smashing folk you have in your life, Jessie. It’s hard to leave people you love. I was singing on the cruise ships for sixteen years and there wasn’t a day that went by that I didn’t miss my Ollie and my pals.’
‘He’s a lovely lad, Moira. You did a great job with him.’
Moira beamed. ‘Aye, but not because he’s famous, because that’s the least of it. He’s just a decent man, and that’s all any of us can ask for really, isn’t it? That our kids turn out to be good people. Your Georgie is the same. I think that’s why those two hit it off together.’
Jessie nodded, knowing what a thrill Georgie got from having her one celebrity client – if you didn’t count old Mr Collins from Craigielea Road, who was once on Antiques Roadshow and got told his granny’s tea set was worth over a grand.
He splashed out and gave Georgie a two-pound tip on his next visit.
She was so distracted by that memory, she misheard what Moira said next. At least, she must have picked it up wrong, because it didn’t make sense. Something like…
‘They’ll be great company for each other over in Colorado.’
‘Sorry, Moira, I didn’t catch that. What did you say?’
‘I said they’ll be great company for each other over in Colorado.
Ollie was so chuffed when she said she was interested in the job.
’ Moira must had spotted Jessie’s perplexed expression, because she suddenly caught herself.
‘I hope I’m not speaking out of turn. Someone from the studio was calling her to confirm everything today. I just assumed…’
Whaaaaaat? She could swear that brain cells were exploding in her head right now.
But Jessie McLean hadn’t worked with the public for a lifetime and not learned how to act fast and fake it.
Big smile. Cheery voice. ‘Ah, she mentioned that, but I haven’t heard the latest. She’ll be here soon though, so fingers crossed. ’
‘Here you go, Jessie,’ Saint Loretta of the Holy Thankful Interruptions appeared, brandishing a large glass of something bubbly, allowing Jessie to shift the focus. She took it, then, balancing it carefully, hugged the two of them in turn.
‘Off you two go and get a drink of your own. I’m looking forward to that duet!’
Somehow, she managed to keep the smile up until they turned away, then it dropped like a stone. What the hell? A job in Colorado? What was that about? And why hadn’t Georgie told her?
She took a large slug of her bubbly.
As soon as Georgie got here, Jessie was going to find out exactly what was going on. And she had a feeling she was going to need something stronger than Prosecco.