Chapter Twenty-Six
A loud gong sounded and Flora giggled. ‘Crikey, we’d better pay attention,’ she whispered to Brodie. She was tempted to reach out and touch his arm but instead clasped her hands together in front of her. ‘It’s time to focus.’
He suppressed a smirk. ‘It certainly is.’
‘Welcome, everyone,’ called Struan, from the bakery, who was tonight’s quizmaster. ‘And thanks for coming. I can’t believe what a great turn out we have tonight at our quiz!’ He clutched at his clipboard. ‘We’ve got fifteen teams registered to take part tonight which is a Rowan Bay record.’
Flora heard the smattering of unimpressed chatter from the Bay Village Rollers.
Struan threw them a look. ‘Okay,’ he said loudly. ‘Now, can we please remember to keep quiet so that everyone can hear what I’m saying. I know we’re all keen to get started but let me remind you of a few of the rules . . .’
As Struan’s voice echoed across the beer garden, Flora’s gaze drifted back towards Brodie who was absorbed by what Struan was saying.
The pale blue T-shirt he wore seemed to highlight his tan and clung to his muscly arms. She leaned in to reach for a pencil and started to doodle on a sheet of paper.
When she looked up and saw him watching her, she blushed.
‘Thanks, folks. I’ll give you a few minutes to get yourselves organised and then we will start the quiz. Five minutes,’ said Struan.
‘What are we calling ourselves?’ Flora asked, looking around the table. ‘Seeing as we are a brand-new team.’
‘Well, I just called us Jessica’s team when I registered. But I think we could do with something better than that,’ said Jessica. ‘Something snappy.’
‘Like the fab four,’ suggested Brodie.
Reuben groaned. ‘That’s a pish suggestion, mate. What about the fantastic four or the four amigos?’
‘No way,’ groaned Jessica, holding her head in her hands. ‘Can you not come up with something better than that?’
‘Four-leaf clovers?’ suggested Brodie.
‘I know.’ Flora banged the table triumphantly. ‘How about the Red-Hot Trivia Peppers?’
The other three clapped.
‘Love it,’ agreed Reuben, smiling approvingly.
‘I agree. That’s brilliant,’ said Brodie.
He looked at her with such intensity that she had to avert her eyes, her fingers trembling as she wrote down the team’s name at the top of the paper.
She prayed she wasn’t obviously quivering under his gaze and was grateful when Struan struck his gong again to let everyone know the quiz was about to start.
The teams were soon absorbed in the general knowledge and movies rounds and their team answered all the questions before Struan moved on to geography.
‘What is the capital of Venezuela?’ Struan’s eyes darted around the room.
‘I know that,’ muttered Flora quietly so none of the other teams could hear. ‘It’s Caracas.’
Struan cleared his throat. ‘Okay, next question. Can you name a volcano in Guatemala?’
Everyone groaned and Flora looked over at her gran who caught her eye and shrugged her shoulders in disbelief. Even the Bay Village Rollers looked perplexed.
‘Seriously?’ said Reuben.
‘It’s okay. I’ve got this,’ whispered Brodie. He leaned towards Flora, her pencil poised and ready to write down the answer.
His breath was warm against her ear and she tried not to shiver. ‘Go on then,’ she urged. ‘Though keep your voice down. We don’t want anyone stealing our answer.’
‘Acatenango. It’s part of the mountain range of the Sierra Madre and has two peaks.’
‘Wow,’ she gasped, impressed by his geographical knowledge and also feeling herself becoming flustered at the proximity of his body next to hers. His thigh was now pressed against her leg.
‘How do you know that?’ asked Reuben, looking at Brodie in disbelief.
‘A wee snippet of information someone told me when I was in Costa Rica at Christmas.’
‘Brilliant,’ said Jessica. ‘Though let’s not get too smug yet. We’ve still got the sport round to go.’
But when they moved on to the sporting questions, they were all able to pull together and answer them. When they were asked why football team, Partick Thistle, were called The Jags, Flora quickly wrote down the answer. Because thistle means prickly or jaggy.
‘I’m impressed.’ Brodie gave a low whistle as he looked at what she’d written. ‘Me and Reuben are meant to be two of their top fans.’
‘My dad is a bit of a fan,’ she explained and winked. ‘As well as supporting Stirling Albion.’
‘He roots for the smaller teams then,’ Brodie said, half-teasing but sounding impressed.
‘Okay, people, listen up,’ called Struan. ‘This is the final question.’ A hush descended over the garden as the teams waited in anticipation of what he was going to say. ‘How many pleats are in a kilt?’
Flora grinned as she watched Reuben and Brodie look at each other in disbelief.
‘No idea.’ Brodie shrugged.
‘It’s okay,’ she whispered as she looked at her teammates. ‘I know this.’ She wrote down the answer. Between 25 and 34 depending on the size of the kilt and the tartan. She looked up to see Brodie looking at her, clearly impressed and he gave her a high five.
While they waited for the results, they laughed and joked together and she watched enviously as Reuben put his arm around Jessica and drew her in for a kiss.
They were a couple who clearly belonged together.
Flora was loving being in their company, and actually enjoying the quiz and as she glanced around the pub, she realised that she felt so much lighter than on her arrival here in Rowan Bay at the start of the month.
She looked across at her gran to check she was okay and saw her deep in conversation with Jeannie.
Struan whacked the gong and the reverberations promptly created a hush.
‘Okey-dokey. We now have the results,’ he said loudly, smiling at the teams. ‘And I can tell you it was a close one tonight. You all did very well.’ He raised an eyebrow.
‘Well, mostly . . . I won’t name and shame the team who thought Mount Vesuvius was in Guatemala.
’ There was a ripple of laughter. ‘Tonight I can confirm that . . .’ he allowed a dramatic pause for tension to build ‘. . . we have not one but two winners. That’s right, ladies and gentlemen.
We have joint winners.’ There was a loud round of applause and some cheering.
Struan didn’t speak for a moment, doing his best to channel his inner game show host and create even more tension.
‘In third place,’ he said, pausing again, ‘we have the Bay Village Rollers.’
Flora looked over at the team who did not look at all pleased that they hadn’t won. Morag, the captain, looked as though she had bitten into a lemon and the rest of them exchanged puckered expressions and looks of disbelief. Livid was an understatement. They were raging.
‘And tonight’s joint winners are . . . the Golden Girls and, of course, Gus . . . and the Red-Hot Trivia Peppers.’
Flora and the team looked at each other in disbelief as the sound of clapping and cheering grew louder.
‘Brilliant,’ shouted Jessica. ‘We are geniuses!’ She stood up and gave everyone at the table a hug. ‘I’d better go and see the joint winners,’ she said giggling as she went over to congratulate her parents and Jeannie and Iris.
Flora was about to stand up, also keen to go over and make sure her gran was okay, when Struan sounded the gong loudly, the sound vibrating around the garden.
‘Whoops, sorry folks, didn’t mean to bang that quite so hard.
Thanks to you all for coming and taking part.
Enjoy your night. And, before I forget, I need to remind you that we now take a break over the summer but we will be back and raring to go in September. ’
There was a round of applause then a brief lull before laughter and chatter resumed.
‘Well done, guys.’ Reuben reached across to slap Brodie on the back and kiss Flora on the cheek.
‘Congratulations,’ said Brodie, high-fiving Reuben back and kissing Jessica on the cheek.
Flora turned to look at him. ‘Who would have thought we were so brainy?’
She could tell he was hesitating over whether to kiss her when Reuben intervened. ‘Oh, for God’s sake, Brodie. Give the woman a kiss. She got the kilt question right which probably saved us.’
Brodie sensed all eyes were on him so he leaned towards her and kissed her.
He felt the spark as his lips brushed her cheek.
But before he could say or do anything, Flora sprang to her feet, as though her backside was on fire.
Had he done something wrong? Was his kiss that unwelcome? He inwardly groaned at himself.
‘Ah, looks like Gran is ready to go,’ she said quickly, looking over at Iris who was waving at her.
Brodie stood up, trying to make sense of both his reaction to kissing Flora and the way she had leapt up like she couldn’t wait to get away from him. ‘Well, thanks again for being part of the winning team. I guess, er, I’ll see you tomorrow, Flora.’ He shrugged.
But then she turned and smiled at him, almost shyly, and there was a glint in her eye. ‘Bye, Brodie,’ she murmured.
His heart skipped a beat. Maybe she had felt the spark too. In that moment his doubt faded and he smiled back at her.