Chapter 31 #2
‘I’m right here, Alyssa,’ said the woman who had just appeared in the doorway, the one who was standing there now with the most shocked and horrified expression.
Alyssa watched as Jessie’s eyes threw daggers at her husband. ‘Stan McLean, what are you doing here?’
Her mum answered for him. ‘We’ve told her, discussed it like adults and they’re going to do a DNA test.’
There was something in her mum’s expression, a little triumphant sneer, almost smug, and Alyssa wanted to put her head back on the table.
It was so damned obvious. The reality had been there right in front of her the whole time.
The reason she’d sensed her mother and Jessie couldn’t stand each other was because of this.
Jessie knew about the affair. And her mother hated that she hadn’t won Stan.
Whatever the undercurrents between them all, Jessie was now furious. ‘In the name of all that is holy, why would you choose here and now, after all these years, to share that information?’ she blazed to the two people on the other side of the table. ‘You’re a pair of clowns, you really are.’
As she approached the table, she focussed on Alyssa and her whole demeanour changed.
‘Alyssa, I’m so sorry for all of this. Sorry too that I never realised, because if I had… well, you know we love you, whether we realised you were family or not.’
For the first time since the beginning of the conversation, Alyssa felt her bottom lip start to quiver.
Stan’s shock hadn’t moved her. Her mother’s attitude hadn’t cracked her shell.
But this? Jessie being kind and thoughtful and loving was about to make her dissolve into a puddle on her freshly mopped floors.
Alyssa managed to get out a strangled, ‘Thank you.’
‘I mean it, love. And crazy as it sounds, after everything you’ve just heard, none of that is the reason I came in here.’
A fear of what was about to come gripped Alyssa. What else could there fricking be?
‘There will be plenty of time to discuss that when you’re ready, but I know you had another bombshell today.
Kayleigh told me what happened with your lease, and I think I might have a solution.
I know there isn’t another available shop in Weirbridge that would be big enough, but how would you feel about moving over to the salon? ’
Glad to be pushing the newly raised question of her paternity out of her mind for a moment, Alyssa took a second to switch gears. As soon as she did, she could see the obvious flaw in this. ‘But, Jessie, I know nothing about hair.’
‘Let me start that again. How would you feel about moving the café over to the salon? I own that building. My mortgage on it was paid off when I retired last week so we could make your rent lower than you pay here and that would leave enough over for you to rent a flat. There’s one going up above the nail salon next door so that might work for you. ’
Nope, Alyssa still wasn’t grasping this idea. ‘But if you close the salon, what about Georgie?’
Jessie had an answer for that. ‘The only thing we would ask is that we leave the back section for a small hairdressing room, so that we can still provide hair facilities for the elderly folks that don’t want to leave the village.
Either Georgie or…’ She paused and Alyssa could see she was picking her words.
‘…Or another stylist will work there. Your café space might be a little bit smaller than here, but you’ll have the extra trade of the salon customers, so hopefully that would balance out. ’
‘But Jessie what if it turns out that I’m not… Stan’s daughter.’ Had she just said that out loud? Stan’s daughter.
Jessie shook her head. ‘Alyssa, none of this has got anything to do with that. Whether you’re his daughter or not, I’d have made you this offer. This is about a solution that suits us both.’
Both Alyssa’s top and bottom lips were wobbling now as she tried to process that. In so many ways, it made sense. More footfall. The salon was gorgeous. The location and size were perfect. But then it came right in like a sledgehammer – the one, insurmountable thing that they’d overlooked.
‘Jessie, I can’t. It cost me thousands to kit this place out and I don’t have the money to do it again. ’
Now she could see that Jessie was the one who didn’t understand. ‘But you’ve got everything here already…’
‘Yes, but I’d still need to fit a new kitchen. Build a new counter. Adapt the space. There would be construction. Plumbing. All that work is so expensive and it’s money I don’t have. But thank you. Truly. I’ll figure out something else.’
If the room wasn’t full of people, she’d have cried like a baby. For a second, there she’d got her hopes up and now they were dashed again.
The moment of emotional crisis was diverted when, at the doorway, Lachlan cleared his throat. ‘I’m so sorry to interrupt you, but the AA have just arrived, and they need my car key in case they set off the alarm. I left it there on the table.’
He grabbed it, went back towards the door, then stopped, turned around.
‘Look, I’m sorry, and please forgive me if I’m overstepping.
But I just heard you saying you didn’t have the funds to fit out a new café.
I don’t know if I mentioned earlier, but I’m a builder.
And it turns out I have a couple of weeks to spare, and I wouldn’t mind spending them here.
So maybe I could stick around and help you with that? ’