temptation. My phone was proving difficult enough.
‘We’ll have to get our heads together and have a look at these plans of yours,’ said Sam as he served my dinner on Sunday. ‘Sophie tells me you’ve got a notebook full of ideas.’
I looked over to the bar and Sophie gave me an encouraging thumbs up. I hadn’t been able to resist heading back to the pub after I’d seen the board advertising the traditional roast during my walk and I was now sitting at a table with George and his sister, Gladys, poised to tuck into the biggest and crispiest Yorkshire puddings I’d ever seen.
‘Oh, she mentioned that, did she?’ I said, looking up at him and completely forgetting my former conviction to stop admiring his eyes.
‘Just once or twice,’ he laughed.
‘And even if Sophie, hadn’t,’ said Gladys, reaching for the horseradish, ‘he still would have known you’d taken his offer to help out seriously, wouldn’t you, Sam?’
‘I’ll say,’ Sam confirmed. ‘Somehow word has got around,’ he explained, ‘and half the village now knows that you’re the one who has talked me into doing something.’
‘You said she’d nagged you into it a minute ago,’ cut in George.
‘Is that right?’ I laughed.
‘Maybe,’ Sam smiled, turning a little pink. ‘I take it you happened to mention something about it on your shopping trip yesterday, Tess?’
Now it was my turn to colour.
‘I did,’ I admitted, ‘but I didn’t say anything to suggest that I was involved in the organization.’
‘That’s village life for you,’ Gladys beamed.
‘I was simply trying to work out if anyone would come,’ I went on.
‘And?’ Sam asked.
‘You’ll be inundated,’ I told him. ‘Everyone was thrilled with the idea.’
I didn’t mention that they were also surprised.
‘And you already know that really, don’t you, Sam?’ joined in George as he surreptitiously fed Skipper a morsel of beef under the table, ‘because you’ve had folk coming in all morning asking if they need to buy tickets.’
Sam nodded.
‘We’ll talk later,’ he said to me, ‘after I’ve finished the lunches.’
*
‘So,’ I grinned, once the rush had died down and Sam had a couple of minutes to spare, ‘that’s a definite no to the selection of seaside shots party games then.’
It wasn’t the first thing he had vetoed. So far, he’d managed to blackball all the things I had added purely for my own amusement.
‘Absolutely,’ he said firmly. ‘We don’t want folk to drink too much.’
That had to be the oddest thing I’d ever heard a pub landlord say.
‘May I just remind you,’ I said, pointing to the bar and the range of optics behind it, ‘that this is a pub and people do actually come here to drink alcohol.’
‘I know,’ he shrugged, offering no further explanation for his strange comment.
‘Okay then,’ I sighed once we had worked our way through all of his ideas as well as mine. ‘You really are determined that traditional is the right way to go, aren’t you?’
What he had in mind sounded a bit staid to me, but then he knew the locals better than I did, even if he hadn’t noticed that they were crying out for some form of entertainment.
‘Yes,’ he said, ‘definitely. This is just the sort of thing everyone will be hoping for.’
If it was up to me, that would have been the perfect reason to give them something a bit different. I was just about to say as much when Sam leant back in his chair and gave the biggest yawn and I changed my mind. He looked absolutely exhausted.
‘You know what,’ I said tapping my pencil on the list, ‘I think you’re right. This has the potential to be a really great night.’
‘Even though it’s nothing like the Ibiza-style extravaganza you were hoping for?’ Sam asked, leaning forward again.
‘Even though it’s not quite what I imagined when you first asked if I’d help,’ I conceded, ‘I do think you’re on the right track. What we’ve got here will suit this place perfectly.’
‘Now all the pair of you have to do,’ said Sophie, as she carried over a tray of coffee, ‘is organize it. Do you think you can pull it off in time?’
Sam picked up the notepad and let out a long breath.
‘Of course,’ I said forthrightly. ‘No problem.’
‘You sound very sure about that,’ he said, putting the pad back down and stretching his arms above his head, treating me to a tantalizing glimpse of torso in the process.
‘That’s because I am,’ I swallowed, my mouth had suddenly gone dry. ‘We can do this standing