Christmas at the Gin Shack
Page 24
‘Ho ho ho.’ Olive had always wanted to do that, but only realised it as she did her best fake belly wobble. ‘Now I need all the good girls and boys to line up in an orderly queue.’
Lucas was first over. ‘You are the best, Grandma Olive,’ he said, as she passed him his present and was quickly involved with getting it open.
Grandma Olive had such a good ring to it. Hearing it filled her with a level of joy that was enough to make her chest swell. ‘You next.’ Olive waved Skylar over.
Everyone looked on and took pictures as Olive dished out the first of the presents.
‘Who’s next?’
‘There aren’t any other children here, Olive, unless you mean the boys,’ Esme said from behind her camera.
‘She means all of you. Mrs Claus hasn’t left any of her children out.’ Richard waved everyone over.
Olive drew the line at Tony offering to sit on her knee. And it really was a joy to dish out a gift to each of her friends. They normally just exchanged cards up at the beach huts, but this year had changed so much for them. And Olive had wanted to say thank you. Thank you for their friendship. For their support. For bringing together her worlds in ways she never thought possible.
And their picnic that day was a little bit special with ALL the Christmassy foods displayed on their usual mishmash of tables. Only there was one difference today. Well, two if the Christmas crackers were included. In the middle of the table was a very special trophy. Because they weren’t just the Gin Shack crew, they were the award-winning Gin Shack crew.
‘There’s one more present,’ Richard said, before Olive was able to head over and join the others and gather her buffet goods.
‘Here you go,’ Skylar said, passing Olive a long, thin box.
It looked like it should contain jewellery. A necklace or something equally lovely. ‘You two really shouldn’t have. I did this for all of you, I wasn’t expecting anything in return.’
‘Open it,’ Richard said.
Olive did. She ripped it open in that way young kids do when they can’t possibly wait for their treat.
‘It’s not. You’re not?’
‘We were going to tell you tomorrow. There was something else I was going to do tomorrow as well, but as my mum keeps reminding me, there are some things in life you shouldn’t wait for. You should go ahead and grab a hold of those dreams as soon as you get the opportunity.’
Skylar waggled her ring finger in Olive’s direction. ‘He asked this morning. And I’d like to pretend the whole Santa idea has come as a complete surprise, but he was wearing that outfit at the time.’
‘Oh, Richard.’ There were many things a mother liked to verse her son on in life. How to suitably propose wasn’t something Olive had covered. Still, it was too late now, and she was sure it wasn’t every man who went about it in fancy dress.
‘Obviously we’re not telling anyone about your present yet. It’s early days, and… you know.’
Olive did. Olive knew that life was precious. And she had everything she needed right here. This very new news was the icing on the cake, or rather the custard on the mince pie, and she was going to blame it on the head injury, but for the first time in her entire life, she shed a tear of joy. She hadn’t had enough of them in her life. And as she’d been busy teaching her son life lessons, she was also old enough and wise enough to know it was never too late to start learning a few of her own.
She just hoped relearning how to change nappies didn’t end up being one of them.
Epilogue
After a heavy Christmas dinner, Olive headed to the Sunken Gardens. The little snow that had laid was now melted away, so she braved taking her Segway, so she wouldn’t be too worn out by all the Christmas Day festivities.
There was one gift Olive had left to deliver. Leaving the Segway at the entrance, she wandered down and took a seat on John’s bench. In the New Year they planned to restart meeting here for the gin sampling as they always had. But today it was just her taking a moment to reflect.
Now Lucas knew he wasn’t in trouble with everyone he seemed to be okay. He’d had several lectures on not running away from home and about not talking to strange men even if they did claim to be friends with his mum. Hopefully it was sinking in and he knew he always had friends and family to turn to if he ever thought he was in trouble.
In the days she’d been in hospital, Pete had up and left. She believed it was Richard who’d warded him off and threatened to speak to the police about how he’d conducted himself. Bottoms Up hadn’t been open since and there was every hope it wouldn’t be again.
Fingers crossed the threat that had been affecting the bay was now gone. Olive gave John’s bench a rub. Like it was a lucky charm that had listened to her worries and kept everything safe, including her.
The bruises on Olive’s face were turning to bright greens and yellows. Not particularly Christmassy, but she’d worn her Christmas tree jumper in an effort to match her new discovery… Christmas leggings. How awesome were they?
Riffling in her bag, Olive sourced the item she’d brought with her. John wasn’t about any more, but he’d loved Christmas like she did. She wasn’t in the habit of buying him presents still. There was no point for starters, but this was something she’d done for fun.
Because, for the first time in a very long time, Olive had gone to one of the Oakley West classes. She couldn’t help it when she’d seen the word “decoupage”. And it turned out it was possible to teach an old girl new tricks.
Adding the pieces she’d made to the bench, Olive stepped back and admired her handiwork. Either end she’d added some bells, with a banner that stretched across and changed the memorial plaque to say “Olive and John wish you a Merry Christmas”.
It was silly, but it was making Olive smile. If craft-fiti was going to be a “thing”, she wanted it to produce nice things, not stupid bottoms.
‘Are you okay, Mum?’
The voice made Olive jump. Richard was at the garden entrance.
‘I saw your Segway. I thought I’d check you were all right.’
‘Come and have a look.’ Olive waved her son to come down and look.
Richard joined her and looked at his father’s bench. Olive hoped he liked it. She’d never checked it was an okay thing to do.
‘Mother, that is so ridiculous, it’s brilliant. Merry Christmas, Dad.’ Richard gave his mum a squeeze round the shoulders.
Olive was glad he approved. For one second she thought it might have been wholly inappropriate, but she was glad he saw the goodwill side of the gesture.
‘Shall we head to the Gin Shack?’ Olive suggested. It was too nippy to stay at the bench much longer.
‘Definitely. There are a lot of people waiting there for you.’
‘I can’t wait.’ It was already proving to be a Christmas to top all the others.
‘And I have news,’ Richard said.
‘Surely you’ve given me enough of that to last a lifetime.’
The thought of not only being regarded by Lucas as Grandma, but also knowing another grandchild was on the way was more than Olive had ever dared hope for.
‘Well, if you can handle a bit more, I think I’ve found somewhere to have the distillery.’
‘Really? Where?’ Olive wasn’t sure how Richard had found time to research suitable premises.
Then it struck her. Of course. There was one building very nearby that was no longer in use. ‘You mean the beach café?’
‘I think you mean the Gin Shack distillery.’
If it wasn’t for the news of the previous day, it would have been the most delightful news she’d heard in half a century. And there was only one way to go and celebrate that kind of news… with a Mince Pie cocktail with the rest of her friends. Christmas with the Gin Shack crew was going to be cracking.
THE END
Fancy mixing up some of the delicious cocktail recipes Olive and the gang experiment with in
Christmas at the Gin Shack? Kee
p reading to find out how!
Christmas at the Gin Shack Cocktail Recipes
Mince Pie Gin
You will need:
A large, sterilized jar
A jar of mincemeat
Gin!
Spoon approximately half a jar (200g) of mincemeat into the jar.
Top up with gin (level to suit, but take note of the word top.)
Leave overnight then remove any floating suet.
Shake well and leave for a further 24-48 hours.
Sieve the gin to separate from the mincemeat.
The Gin is ready to be enjoyed as part of a cocktail or as a very Christmassy simple G&T.
What you do with the left-over gin-infused mincemeat is up to you, but it’s worth suggesting it should be saved for a mince pie, and if you do try that out, please send this author at least one sample per batch.
Chocolate Orange cocktail
You will need:
25ml Chocolat Bailey Luxe
25ml Orange/Spiced Gin (I used Opihr gin)
10ml Cointreau
Chocolate milkshake to mix
Ice and chocolate orange segments to decorate
Drink and enjoy!
Holly and Ivy ice cubes
The author admits to having never actually attempted this, but in her head it sounds good, just really, really fiddly. She is not good with fiddly things. To her mother’s despair, she does not have a crafty bone in her body. The author blames many years in a house full of craft material for the invention of craft-fiti. To date, the author has not sculpted a bottom. Neither has her mother. As far as she knows.
Copyright
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by HQ in 2017
Copyright © Catherine Miller 2017
Catherine Miller asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
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E-book Edition © October 2017 ISBN: 978-0-00-824486-6