Grady had thought about her, though. The way her loose golden-brown top had set her auburn hair ablaze. The clear blue of her eyes. How soft her lips looked …

‘Hey, Grady,’ said a loud young voice.

Grady jolted back to the present, blinking to encourage his eyes to focus. ‘Oh, hi, Daisy. Hi, Niall.’ He gave his nephew a gentle arm-punch and said hello to blonde Zuzanna, too. Then he saw Laurel hovering behind the teens. She wore a big black shirt and light blue jeans. ‘Hi, Laurel.’

She smiled. ‘Hi.’ As the teenagers pretend-fought over chairs, Laurel took the seat around the corner of the table from him. ‘How are you this morning?’ she asked, with the kind of glint that suggested she had some idea of the answer.

He made pitiful eyes at her. ‘I think I have a migraine.’

She snorted with laughter just as Carola thumped the table with a book – really? Did she have to? – and said, ‘Shall we get on?’ as if wasn’t her who’d been nattering.

Then Tess barrelled in through the door with a breathless, ‘Sorry!’ and sat down on Grady’s other side, exchanging whispered hellos before noisily scraping her chair, rustling her way out of her coat and stirring the drink she’d brought with her.

Carola’s smile didn’t waver. She knew how to get the best out of people and it was generally by simply asking them to do things so nicely they’d find it hard to refuse her. ‘Hello, Tess. What a wonderful calibre of volunteers we have. Not just Tess, a professional illustrator, but now Laurel, a professional artist.’

‘And me,’ Grady couldn’t resist saying. ‘An unprofessional artist.’ Everyone laughed.

‘Oops.’ Carola adjusted her glasses. ‘And Grady, a professional auto artist. Is that the correct term? Actually, you’re leading the art side, Grady, aren’t you?’

Horrified that he’d almost goofed his way into having to do something, he assumed his most winning smile. ‘But I was relying on you to chair the meeting, Carola. It’s about the Christmas Fair as well and you know so much about committees.’

Carola looked gratified while Grady added under his breath, ‘Because you’re on all of them.’

Laurel hid a smile.

Business progressed rapidly. Helpers were lined up to erect stalls at the village hall, advertising had already begun on social media and Daisy had created the Art December Google map, dropping pins to indicate where the window displays would be around the village. If exhibitors would send photos of their works to Grady, he’d share them with Daisy for the map and post them on the village Facebook page. Tess would email the promotional flyers to Carola and Grady for printing, and Niall, Daisy and Zuzanna volunteered to deliver them around the village.

Grady began his second cup of coffee.