Page 52 of Not Exactly Mr. Darcy
His gaze lifted to hers, then fell, and he only pointed to one, so her tease felt more like a taunt she hadn’t intended it to be.
Okay then. This was going well.
For some reason, the man kept straying into her gaze, talking with Tobias, shaking his head at George, nodding with Gran. He stayed on the outskirts, clearly not inviting conversation with those she’d heard the others describe as “tourists.” And seeing some of the locals probably thought of her as a tourist too, she couldn’t blame him for keeping his distance. Her insertion into the centre of this reopening was obviously resented by people like Valerie. Maybe he resented her too. All she knew was that she had to make amends, but how exactly, she didn’t know.
Maybe she’d figure out an answer by the time of the debrief meeting tonight.
Ugh. What a day. Every muscle protested the sudden onslaught of cleaning she had done after lunch, scrubbing out the bathrooms—women’sandmen’s. Double ugh.
Now all she wanted was to hop into Gran’s rolled-top bath and sink under scented bubbles. But that dream was destined to stay unlived for a few more hours. First, they had a debrief meeting; then she had to return more calls.
She’d invited the committee to join her in the trustees’ room, something which raised Liam’s eyebrows when he arrived last of all. But he said nothing, his lack of acknowledgement of Liv inducing hers.
Marge was impatient to leave. “The pub is closed tonight, but we’re open tomorrow, so I want to make sure everything is in place.”
“Okay, then perhaps if we start with the café you can tell us how you’ve gone today.”
Marge wiped a weary hand over her face. “I knew it would be a big job, but I’m happy to report that the entire kitchen has been cleaned. We found some rotten things in the freezer that hadn’t been tossed out, so that meant this afternoon we had to haul the freezer out and deep clean that too. But it’s ready now, and should be fine to use in the morning. I just hope it doesn’t rain overnight, seeing it’s still outside.”
“I’ll cover the freezer tonight,” Liam said, and Marge thanked him.
“That’s excellent news, Marge. And the café area?” Liv asked.
“We’ll tackle that tomorrow. That shouldn’t take long. It helped to have some of the chairs cleaned, thank you.”
So maybe she hadn’t lost all brownie points with Marge. “What’s next after that? Was there any word on a coffee cart or ice cream van for this weekend?”
Marge winced. “I forgot. I haven’t had a chance to do that yet. Leave it with me, and I’ll contact Wendy and the others tonight.”
“Thanks.”
“And I’m sorry about the food earlier. I underestimated how many people would be here.”
“I don’t think we’ll have quite as many volunteers tomorrow,” Liam said. “Judging from all those who left after lunch, anyway.”
Liv bit her lip. Maybe she was still taking things too personally, but that sounded almost like he blamed her. “I wondered if perhaps we could put a call out on our social media about volunteers.”
Liam’s brows rose. “The Hall has social media?”
Uh-oh. He didn’t sound impressed. “I created a Facebook page and Instagram account.”
“Without my say-so?”
Hissay-so? She sucked in a deep breath. Prayed for calm. “I understand you are the caretaker here, but I was under the impression that I’d been given the role of marketing, at least in the interim until we’re up and running and can afford to pay someone for that job. So I created some posts, but I’ll talk more about that later. I know Marge is anxious to leave.”
Marge nodded and stood. “We’ll be back and ready to do another round of scones and tea and coffee. For eleven, just in case the message doesn’t get passed on.”
Ouch. She swallowed the sting. “Thanks, Marge. Again, I’m sorry—”
“It’s fine. I know you’ve got a lot on. So we’ll take care of lunch tomorrow too. It’ll probably just be roast beef sandwiches.”
“Yum.” Tobias patted his stomach, and even Liam seemed to brighten at this.
Her heart fell a little more. So sausage sandwiches hadn’t exactly been the hit she’d hoped for. Oh well.
“See you good people at nine.”
“Thanks, Marge,” Gran said.
