Chapter 20
CHAPTER TWENTY
‘Hello, everyone, and welcome to our annual Easter egg hunt,’ Belinda said, over the microphone, and everyone clapped and cheered.
Immy looked around. There were hundreds of children this morning with their families and most of them were wearing the little cardboard bunny ears that she’d given out to all the participants.
The maps and clues were all clutched in their hands and the children were all bubbling with excitement as they waited to start.
Some of the dads were looking mighty competitive too, eyeing up the competition, doing stretches so they were ready to run.
Xander, Quinn, Alex, Zara and Etta had formed a team and were clearly itching to go.
All the children had come into the sweet shop this morning with wide, wondrous eyes and looked at all the pretty lights and candles that made the sweet shop glow. Immy had given out the tiny jelly bunnies to all the children and most of the parents had bought some Easter sweets for the kids too.
Everything had turned out perfectly in the end and so many people had contributed towards that.
‘Many of you know that a little over a week ago, the sweet shop suffered a fire that devastated the whole shop,’ Belinda went on.
‘We weren’t sure if the Easter egg hunt would go ahead.
The sweet shop is such a valuable member of this community and the whole town felt the loss.
But Lovegrove Bay showed what the spirit of community means, and we managed to clean it out and redecorate in one week. ’
There was another round of applause.
‘Our wonderful shop owner, Immy Berry, would like to say a few words.’
The cheering got a lot louder as she climbed the steps up to the makeshift stage.
She looked out at her family, Xander’s family, Lizzie, Diya, Beth, the community groups that met in her little room once a week, the other shop owners that had all come over during the week to offer their condolences and support, and all the other members of the town all clapping and cheering for her, but Xander and Etta were cheering the loudest.
She had never felt so at home as she had right now. She was excited to raise her child here, among all these wonderful people.
Eventually the crowd quietened down and Immy approached the microphone.
‘You’re all amazing,’ she said. ‘Every single one of you. I had so many messages of support, so many of you came to see me after the fire to see if you could help. You gave your time, your expertise, some of you donated wood for the shelves or jars for the sweets and so many of you made a donation. I couldn’t have done this without you.
From the bottom of my heart, thank you so so much. ’
She clapped the crowd and everyone joined in with her.
She stepped back from the microphone and Belinda took over as Immy went back down the steps.
‘Thank you, Immy, and thank you all from me too. Now, are we all ready to find the eggs?’
There was a massive cheer.
‘OK, without further ado, we will declare this Easter egg hunt open in five, four, three, two, one. Go!’
Everyone started charging off in different directions, ready to follow the clues which would lead them to the location of the plastic eggs.
Each plastic egg was decorated with a letter and once they had all the letters and rearranged them to make a word, they could return to the sweet shop to collect their chocolate egg.
Immy quickly approached her family, her new and old family who were working together. Logan, Max and Archer were also there but they were going to work as marshals for the event to help anyone who needed assistance.
‘Good luck, girls,’ Immy said to Etta and Zara.
‘Thank you,’ Zara said. ‘The shop looks great.’
‘And it’s all the more special because there is a bit of all of you in there, the people I love and care about. You all made this possible. So thank you, all of you.’
They all smiled and nodded.
‘I like being part of your shop,’ Etta said. ‘And I like you being part of our home.’
Immy smiled at that. ‘I like being part of your home too.’
‘Will you stay over tonight?’ Etta asked.
Immy glanced at Xander to see what he thought.
She hadn’t stayed over the night before although she had stayed for dinner with Xander and Etta.
They’d made it clear to Etta that Immy would be staying over one or two nights a week, and sometimes they might stay a night with Immy too as she had a spare room, and Etta had seemed happy with that.
They were going to tread really slowly for now, break her in gently so it wasn’t such a massive change for her.
Later on they would make it a more permanent thing.
‘If that’s what you want, Immy can stay over,’ Xander said to Etta.
Etta nodded. ‘It feels happier when you’re there.’
‘Well, I’m happier being there too,’ Immy said, beyond touched by that simple statement.
‘We should go,’ Logan said.
‘We should go too,’ Xander said, leaning over and giving her a kiss on the cheek. ‘I love you.’
She was just about to reply when Etta threw her arms around Immy’s legs. ‘And I love you too.’
Immy crouched down and hugged her. ‘I love you too, very much.’
She stood back up. ‘All of you should go.’ She needed them gone before she broke down in tears, happy ones this time. ‘Have fun and I’ll see you back here in a bit, I’ll have lots of chocolate eggs waiting for you.’
Alex gave her hand a squeeze, knowing how important it was for Immy to hear those words from Etta, and then they all left, talking excitedly about the hunt and where to find the first egg.
Immy watched her perfect little family with a big smile on her face. Everything was going to be OK. While she might not be able to move back in for a few months, she knew they were her home. She’d found exactly what she’d been looking for and it had been right across the street the whole time.