finally admitted she’d have to get back to work. ‘Don’t let this one go. I know we’ve not been friends for very long but I’ve seen the way you look at him and the way he looks at you. That kind of connection doesn’t come along very often.’
Lucy left her to it and headed off down The Street to Barney’s place. Lois was holding a girls-only get-together. They’d all acknowledged there was no time to read a book to discuss so they may as well admit it was more of a Christmas party than anything else.
A sign pinned on the front door at Barney’s indicated for Lucy to head in the direction of the barn. She passed by the quaint box garden at the front of the house, went through the archway formed between hardy juniper trees and then on across the courtyard. In the summer she’d been here at the barn for her first Wedding Dress Ball, the charity fundraiser Barney held every year, and the barn looked every bit as special now as she went in through the open door on the right, the other one remaining closed, presumably to keep the heat in. It had been different in the warmer months, with both doors flung open to let the light and warmth filter through.
Lois and Barney were over on the other side of the barn fixing the end of a row of twinkly lights that had been wound around one of the upright beams. Lucy smiled, taking it all in. There was a fresh Christmas tree on the stage loaded up with silver and red baubles, bows in alternating colours tied at intervals on the branches, and a sparkling tree topper. Behind the tree, at the back of the stage, the wall was lined with a row of black-and-white photographs depicting Wedding Dress Ball events over the years. Lucy knew she was in the last one added to the collection, taken by a photographer who’d climbed up on a ladder to get a shot of everyone as they mingled at the Cove’s event of the year.
Lois and Barney finished up and Lucy set the bottle of wine she’d brought with her down on the table. ‘I wondered why you’d pointed us in this direction,’ she beamed, taking in the beauty of the inside of the barn she’d only seen done up for a summer event. Hay bales were still dotted here and there, the old barrels that had been here for the ball were in the same position, one by the door and the other on the far side, and each had an arrangement of a glass bowl half-filled with water and floating candles, the bowl set in another shallow dish of berries, pine cones and snowberries. Twinkly lights had been twisted around plenty of the beams, others had garlands filled with greenery and red berries, three outdoor heaters stood tall, not too close but near enough that they’d warm the group when they sat at the long table covered in a white linen cloth. Places had been set, cutlery gleamed, and where Christmas crackers would usually be were long, shiny silver boxes containing festive bonbonnière, one for each of them, tied up with a snow-coloured bow. Dotted along the middle of the table were mason jars stuffed with bright white lights and decorated with red velvet ribbon and a sprig of greenery and winter berries. ‘You did all of this for us girls?’
‘It was a good excuse to see what the barn would be like in winter as opposed to summer,’ Barney confessed.
‘That’s right, you’re talking about having a winter Wedding Dress Ball too,’ Lucy smiled, remembering he’d mentioned it once or twice.
‘Not anymore,’ Lois put in. ‘We’ve talked about it and the one scheduled charity event a year is enough.’
‘But,’ Barney continued, ‘I am thinking of hiring this place out for parties – nothing wild, you understand – or maybe even weddings. It’s going to take a lot of planning but Lois is way more clued up than me when it comes to events so it’s something we’re looking into. This place is big, the barn takes upkeep as does the land, and it makes me sad not to see the barn filled with people who can enjoy it.’
Lucy remembered Melissa’s stories of coming to this barn as a kid, how it had been her escape and Harvey’s too. And knowing how Barney liked company, how he loved to be in amongst it, holding events