‘And most people are gracious enough to say thank you for a gift whether they like it or not,’ Ruby said.
‘I hate the thought of upsetting anyone though,’ Willow said, quietly.
The door of the pub opened and Willow sat up as a man with a guitar walked in.
She nudged Andrew. ‘Is that him?’
Andrew looked over. ‘Yes.’
‘Tabitha Butler?’ the man called out, addressing the bar at large. Willow was actually really impressed, he really did look like a younger Cliff Richard.
Tabitha looked up from where she was serving a customer and gave an uncertain wave.
Cliff smiled. ‘I’m your mystery gift.’
And with that he launched into ‘Summer Holiday’, strumming away on his guitar. He sounded so similar to Cliff too.
‘Oh wow,’ Tabitha said, running round the bar and pulling up a stool in front of him. Cliff sat down next to her and carried on singing, seemingly just for her, not aware of all the other villagers and guests staring in their direction. Tabitha looked ridiculously happy as she stared at him, bobbing along with the music.
Other people started joining in, singing and clapping along. ‘Summer Holiday’ finished and Cliff launched into ‘Devil Woman’ and Tabitha laughed and started joining in too.
At least Tabitha was happy with her gift.
Connor came over with the pizzas just as Cliff started ‘Living Doll’.
‘Great,’ he said, sarcastically. ‘The mystery gift-giver has given my wife a hot young man to drool over. This day keeps getting better and better.’
Willow sighed. There really was no pleasing some people.
Twenty-Six
‘I hope Connor isn’t too upset,’ Willow said, as she wrapped one of the gifts they were going to deliver that night in tissue paper.
‘I still think that Connor sounds like an ungrateful sod,’ Ruby said, sticking ribbon on one of the wrapped gifts now that she and Jacob had been enrolled into the Secret Society of Happiness.
Willow chewed on her lip. She kind of agreed with Ruby a little but then Ruby didn’t have to live alongside Connor. At some point it was sure to come out who the mystery gift-givers were and what would happen then?
‘Do you think we should get him another gift?’ Willow asked.
‘Absolutely not,’ Andrew said, as he pulled Sellotape off the table to wrap his present. ‘This is not a shop where you can take the gifts back if you don’t like them. This is something nice we are doing for the whole village and it’s Connor’s problem if he doesn’t like his present.’
‘Remind me again why you are doing this?’ Jacob said, curling the ribbon expertly with a pair of scissors.
Willow blushed. It sounded saccharine even to her own ears. ‘To bring happiness back to the village,’ she said, quietly.
‘Wow you really are sweet, aren’t you?’ Jacob said, but not like it was a bad thing. ‘Although, I can understand why this is bothering you. You want everyone to be happy and you can’t tick that box in Connor’s case. But I have to agree with the others, a fish cookery book was really thoughtful and I think he’s been a bit of an arsehole about it. If it’s any consolation, I did see him singing along to some of Cliff’s songs tonight, so maybe Cliff could be considered a gift for both of them.’
Willow smiled slightly at that thought. Cliff had been brilliant that night. It seemed he had worked his way through almost the entire repertoire of Cliff Richard’s back catalogue, even singing songs that Willow had never heard before, although Tabitha had sung along to every one. The whole pub had loved the live music and she had seen Connor take Cliff’s card at the end of the night with a view to booking him again. Maybe he wouldn’t take the fish cookery ideas on board, but it seemed he liked the idea of having live music, so something good had come out of that night.
‘So if the goal is to make everyone happy by giving them presents—’ Jacob started.
‘It’s not just trying to make them happy by giving them presents, but by providing them with a mystery to get excited about,’ Willow said. ‘It’s all everyone is talking about at the moment, it’s pulled them all together.’
‘Yes I can see that, but what happens when it ends? What happens when all the villagers have received a present? What happens when the mystery has been solved and they all know it’s you and Andrew?’
Willow hadn’t thought about that.
It would be really sad if the village reverted to their old ways, keeping to themselves with none of the lovely community spirit that had started to blossom over the last few days.
‘Do you have to be so negative about everything?’ Andrew said.
‘I’m not being negative, I think what Willow is doing is lovely. I’m just not sure that you’re going to get out of it what you want. These villagers are set in their ways and, while this is all new and exciting for them now, what will they have to keep them happy and excited once the presents stop?’
Jacob had a point.
‘I suppose that I was hoping the presents and the excitement would bring them together and that camaraderie would last. But I guess you’re right, when all this is done, it may just fade away,’ Willow said. If that was the case was there really any point in carrying on?
‘You need to do something that will make this community spirit continue and you can’t keep giving presents away to people for the rest of your life,’ Jacob said.
‘You need to get the rest of the villagers involved too,’ Ruby said.
‘Some of the villagers have been giving gifts as well, I think either to say thank you to the person they believe gave them their gift or in some attempt to pay it forward to someone else. That’s been one of the lovely unexpected side effects of this mystery gift-giving: some of the villagers have really embraced it,’ Willow said.
‘Maybe we can get the villagers to embrace the whole spirit of the gift-giving going forward. Mowing lawns for each other, taking neighbours’ dogs for walks, doing nice things for each other. That’s what all of this has been about, just generally being nice to our neighbours,’ Jacob said.
Willow thought about this for a moment. ‘How do we get people to want to mow each other’s lawns?’
‘I don’t know but surely everyone in the village will see the benefits of helping each other out. This is just the catalyst, but they are going to have to want to continue with this frame of mind if it’s going to work,’ Jacob said.
Andrew passed his present to Ruby to add the ribbon. ‘I suppose for me, I really want all the people that visit us on the open day to see this wonderful village spirit, the kindness and our big hearts, and then people are going to be more likely to want to move in here. Hopefully seeing that generosity as the baseline will make them want to be part of that too.’
Willow finished wrapping the last present. ‘Andrew’s right, it’s not enough that people will see nicely painted houses or that the shower has lovely new tiles and the gardens look pretty. The village has to feel like a home. It’s going to be the villagers themselves that are going to be the big selling point on the open day, it’s the villagers who are going to be the neighbours of the new people, the newcomers need to see them in the best light. Maybe we can show the visitors our generosity by getting the villagers to give little presents to anyone who comes to the village that day. We can have cakes, knitted toys, wooden ornaments, plants, candles, and each visitor can go away with a little gift of happiness to remind them of their day and of the wonderful village which might be their new home.’
Andrew smiled at her. ‘I like that idea.’
She wondered how the villagers would take to the idea. She had only been here just over a week and it didn’t seem right that she should start dictating to the villagers what they should be doing or coming in here with her bright ideas about how to change the place. The villagers might be really happy with how the village was now. Besides, announcing her idea of how to extend the mystery gift-giving to the village would be outing her and An
drew as the gift-givers and she wasn’t sure if she was ready for that yet, especially not after Connor’s reaction to his gift that night.
‘OK, are we all done with the presents?’ Willow asked and everyone nodded. ‘Shall we go out and deliver them?’
‘Why don’t me and Ruby take the ones nearest to the pub? I’m knackered and I’d like to get into my own bed sometime before midnight,’ Jacob said.
‘Me too,’ Ruby said. ‘My bed that is, not yours.’ She laughed nervously. ‘I feel like I spent the whole day yesterday driving, I could do with a good night’s sleep as well.’
Willow eyed the two of them. There was definitely something going on between them.
‘Good idea, these three are the nearest to the pub,’ Andrew said, handing them over. ‘Stephen has a red front door, Suzanne has the big hanging basket and Coral has a gnome in a red hat sitting on her doorstep.’
Willow smirked at the fact that he knew all that.
Jacob took the presents and then practically bundled Ruby out of the house.
‘God, the chemistry is almost tangible between those two,’ Willow said, slipping on her jacket.
‘I know. I hate to say bad things about my brother, but he’s not the settling-down-and-happy-ever-after type. I hope he doesn’t break Ruby’s heart.’
‘She’s not the settling-down type either, not any more. She had her heart broken many years ago and hasn’t looked for a serious relationship since. Maybe they’ll be well suited to each other,’ Willow said. She opened the door, grabbed her bag of presents and stepped outside. Andrew closed the door behind them.
‘So, I heard you talking to Ruby earlier in the pub about Garry’s engagement. You don’t exactly seem happy about it,’ Andrew said, slipping his hand into hers as they walked along the darkened lane, lit only by Andrew’s torch.
Willow had brought it up again with Ruby. It had been niggling away at her, but she hadn’t meant for Andrew to overhear.
‘I’m not unhappy because I’m jealous if that’s what you’re thinking,’ Willow said.
Although there was an element of that, not because she wanted to be married to Garry, nothing could be further from the truth. But because he had never made love to her out in the open, he had never told anyone how much he loved her, he had never been giddy with excitement over being with her and he had never wanted to marry her. She had to ask herself if there was something wrong with her.
‘Well I wasn’t thinking that, but now I am,’ Andrew said.
‘Oh no, don’t feel like that. If Garry turned up here now and asked me to marry him the answer would be an immediate and emphatic no. I just feel like…’ She had no idea how to describe it without sounding jealous. ‘I feel like, I wasn’t enough for him. By all accounts he is a completely changed man now, he’s happy and head over heels in love, but I didn’t give him that. He was as miserable with me as I was with him. And I just feel a little bit sad that I didn’t give him what he needed or what he wanted.’
‘He didn’t give you what you wanted or needed either. It takes two people to fail at a relationship.’
‘I know.’
‘By the sounds of it you two were completely wrong for each other.’
‘We were, we drifted together because it was easy. We knew each other, I liked him and that felt like enough. I trusted him. I suppose I knew I could never get hurt with Garry probably because I just didn’t love him enough to be hurt if it ended.’
That was an awful thing to say. Poor Garry deserved more than that and now he’d found it.
‘So why are you letting this get to you?’ Andrew asked, shining his torch on an owl that suddenly took flight from a nearby tree.
Willow thought about it for a moment. ‘What I have with you is different. It’s something I’ve never had with anyone before. I suppose I’m just scared that…’ she trailed off. ‘I don’t want to lose you.’
‘You’re scared because you think you weren’t enough for Garry and that maybe you won’t be enough for me?’
He’d hit the nail right on the head.
‘You have no idea how completely and utterly you’ve captured my heart, Willow McKay. What we have is something incredible. I’m not going anywhere.’
She smiled and leaned against him, he wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
‘Sorry for being an idiot.’
‘Don’t apologise. I’d rather you tell me your feelings and worries and then we can talk about them together. I want us to be completely honest with each other, I think that’s the only way we will work. I had this huge feeling of inadequacy too after it ended with Sophie, that I clearly wasn’t enough for her. I think I did exactly the same as you when I dated after that: I chose people who were uncomplicated choices, people who I knew I wouldn’t get hurt by. I’d known Morgan for a long time before we got together. We grew up together. Her brother is deaf and he was a good friend of mine so I knew her very well, we had a lot in common. We drifted apart but when we bumped into each other years later, it just felt so easy and like the natural progression in our friendship.’
If this little pep talk had been designed to make her feel better, it was having the complete opposite effect. She didn’t want to hear how easy and uncomplicated it was with Morgan when Willow seemed to come with a lot of baggage.
‘Why do you think it didn’t work out between you?’ she asked.
‘That wasn’t what it was for Morgan. She wanted no-strings-attached casual sex, she made that very clear. Let’s cut through here,’ Andrew indicated the little alleyway they’d seen Mary use the night before to deliver her apple pie to Eileen.
They followed the darkened lane, the moonlight barely penetrating through the trees above them.
‘And if she’d wanted more, do you think things would have been different?’
Andrew was silent for a moment as if really considering that option. ‘I suppose if she wanted more we would have dated, but we never really did that. We never talked about our past or our hopes for the future. It was never that kind of relationship.’
‘Did you want it to be?’
Willow knew she was opening up a whole can of worms here. She was asking questions she didn’t want to hear the answer to.
‘When we were together, having sex…’
Oh god, she really didn’t need this level of honesty.
‘… it was… empty. There was no connection there and I’ve never had that before. Even with the women I dated casually there was some emotion involved, but I didn’t get that from Morgan. It really was just sex to her. And it did leave me feeling a little flat afterwards. So yes, I would have liked more from her.’
Willow was quiet. She had no idea what to say to that.
‘But regardless of whether we had dated a bit more conventionally, I didn’t love her. It was never going to be a forever thing with her. Maybe she knew that and maybe that’s why she didn’t give more of herself to me. Maybe subconsciously I set the tone of the relationship and she only took what I was willing to give, or maybe it was always just sex for her and I had nothing to do with it. But either way it was never going to last between us.’
Willow tried not to think about what could have been if Morgan had been a bit more emotionally available.
He pulled her to a stop, stroking his thumb down her cheek as they stood in the muted darkness.
‘What we have, I’ve never had with anyone, not even with Sophie. This is what a relationship is supposed to be. This is everything I’ve ever wanted. Don’t ever doubt that.’
She leaned up and kissed him just as someone cleared their throat nearby.
Willow looked around and saw Julia out walking Colin and Rufus.
‘Don’t mind me, dears, I didn’t see anything,’ Julia said, giving them a theatrical wink as she squeezed past them.
Andrew laughed as he took Willow’s hand and carried on walking up the alley. ‘I’m sure that will be the talk of the village tomorrow.’
‘I was hoping we
wouldn’t bump into her tonight, as one of the presents is for her. It’s going to look a bit suspicious that she left her house and there was no present and when she comes back after seeing us walking towards her house, there is a present,’ Willow said.
‘Well, suspicious yes, but not exactly concrete proof. But Jacob’s right, we probably won’t be able to keep it a secret for much longer anyway, especially if we want to talk to the villagers about how they can contribute,’ Andrew said.
‘True.’
They emerged from the alley slowly and looked around the village to see if there were any more prying eyes but no one was around, most of the houses lying in darkness.
‘Come on, let’s get this done quickly,’ Willow said. ‘Before Julia comes back.’
They left the box of chocolate-flavoured tea on Liz’s doorstep and the calendar on Roger’s. They then crossed over the street to leave a book about quilting on Julia’s doorstep, which they’d chosen after Andrew had overheard her talking about making one for her grandson. They left two other presents nearby and, with the three that Jacob and Ruby were delivering, that was eight people who would get surprise presents that night.
‘It’s a beautiful night. Let’s take the cliff path back to your cottage,’ Andrew suggested.
‘OK.’
They followed the road out of the village and down towards the cliff tops. The moon glittered over the water, making the whole evening seem enchanting and magical.
‘You know, if we’re going to keep our identity as the gift-givers secret, we should probably give each other presents too so it doesn’t look too suspicious that we’re the only ones in the village not to receive one,’ Willow said. ‘What would you like?’
‘I have everything I want,’ Andrew smiled at her in the moonlight.
She smiled. ‘Smooth.’
‘Well apart from you turning up at my house stark naked, wrapped in a big bow, that would be a pretty spectacular present if you ask me.’
Willow laughed. She was sure she could think of something.
The Little Village of Happiness: A gorgeous uplifting romantic comedy to escape with this summer Page 21