Saving Christmas in the Little Irish Village (The Little Irish Village #5)

Chapter 28

28

It was funny, but Hannah was reluctant to put her needles down when Eileen interrupted the banter and chat infusing the hall to say it was time to pack up. The two hours since she’d dragged her heels over to the group had whizzed by, and the strangest thing had happened. She’d enjoyed herself. Tom and herself had even locked horns in a healthy for and against discussion over the development he’d been brought to Emerald Bay for. The teenagers had joined in, with Eileen moderating when things got heated between demonstrating a basic knit stitch to get them underway.

As Hannah stashed her needles and the rows she’d managed back into her kit bag, she looked at the faces of the kids around her. Their cheeks were flushed with the shared conversations and the warmth of the hall. Their eyes were bright, too, she noticed because they were a clued-up bunch, and it was nice to see the surly expressions had vanished. Hannah smiled when Maire said she planned on knitting her nan a tea cosy for Christmas. Eileen was right, she realised, because beneath all the anti-social affectation lurked kids with good hearts.

Hannah caught Tom’s eye, and his smile conveyed that his thoughts were identical to hers.

Eileen Carroll’s first learn-to-knit class had been a resounding success, and she was about to offer her services to help Eileen pack up, but Tom beat her to it. She didn’t fancy staying and hashing over how the evening had gone as they stacked chairs, so she called out a goodnight, fished her keys out of her pocket and stepped outside.

Car lights sluiced in and out of the parking area as parents or older siblings picked the kids up, and she shielded her eyes as she picked her way round to her car. Tom’s hire car was cosying up to Doris, so she’d be sure to mention spatial awareness when parking with him later. She’d have to be a contortionist to get into the driving seat.

It was a good job she was flexible.

But Hannah’s success was short lived because Doris refused to tick over. The slew of parents who’d rolled up to collect their offspring had all driven away, meaning the only witness to Doris’s backfiring as she began bunny-hopping toward the road was Tom, who happened to be exiting the hall.

Hannah slapped her steering wheel. ‘Janey Mack, Doris! What do you think you’re playing at? Showing me up like so.’ It was a rare outburst, and she immediately apologised. ‘Sorry. It’s just you really know how to pick your moments.’

Witheach belch of black smoke from her car’s exhaust, she was reminded of the whoopee-cushion incident. This wasn’t her finest environmentally friendly moment, and she’d be messaging Elon on X about the freebie Tesla again as soon as she got home. If she got home.

There was nothing else for it but to pull over because she might do irreparable damage to Doris’s engine driving back to the Shamrock, and the car would be fine overnighting in the church hall parking area. Dad would come down and look at Doris in the light of day, and fingers crossed, he’d work his magic and get her ticking over properly. The only thing was she’d have to cadge a lift from Tom as he was heading back to the pub anyway.

Sighing, she manoeuvred away from the exit and stilled the protesting engine, clambering out and locking Doris up.

Tom moseyed over. ‘I see you’re having a spot of bother.’

‘You noticed then,’ Hannah glumly muttered. ‘Can I get a ride home with you?’

Tom inclined his head toward his car. ‘Come on.’

She tossed a glance at the hall. Eileen had yet to turn the lights out. ‘Give me two ticks. I’d better let Eileen know I’m leaving the car here, or she’ll think I’ve been abducted and raise the alarm. You heard her say she’s a true crime aficionado.’

Hannah hadn’t known that about Eileen Carroll until this evening when she’d suggested they share something that wasn’t common knowledge about themselves as an icebreaker. As for Tom, she’d turned her curious gaze on him, surprised to hear him confess to an addiction to Rolos with the same gravity he might have announced he was an alcoholic.

When Hannah opened the door to inform her of the situation, Eileen switched the lights off and quickly replied, ‘Well, you can hold your horses and see me to my car. A girl can’t be too careful.’

‘Girl’ was a stretch, Hannah thought, hanging about while Eileen locked up. But given her choice of television viewing, it wasn’t surprising she wanted an escort to her car.

‘Good night,’ Hannah said, waving, once the older woman had arranged herself in the driving seat. Then she hurried over to where Tom had his car idling and jumped in. ‘Sorry about that.’

‘Don’t be daft. I’ll be sure to wait for Eileen to lock up tomorrow night. I never thought, given what a sleepy place Emerald Bay is. It was bad manners on my part.’

‘I didn’t think either.’ Hannah pulled her seat belt across and buckled in. ‘I wouldn’t fancy anyone’s chance of accosting Eileen, though. She’d take them out with her knitting needles.’

Tom laughed. ‘I can imagine.’

She spied the half-eaten tube of Rolos and a takeaway coffee cup in the beverage holders. So, he hadn’t been making up his chocolate habit. ‘You’re a sweet tooth then?’

‘What? Ah, the Rolos. You know all my secrets now. Well, almost.’ Tom flashed a grin. ‘Help yourself.’

Hannah wondered what other secrets he had as she unwrapped the paper and held the tube out.

He took one and popped it in his mouth, talking with his mouth full. ‘Thanks. They’re my new vice. I swapped vaping for Rolos. I didn’t get on with the whole chewing gum instead, and I needed something to do when I’m driving distances.’

‘I wouldn’t have had you down for being a vaper. But fair play to you for giving it up.’

‘Why not? What does a vaper look like?’

Hannah’s brow puckered; there was no point in beating about the bush. ‘You look like too much of a goodie two shoes for that.’

She took Tom’s laughter to mean he hadn’t taken offence.

‘You don’t hold back, do you?’

‘Mam says I’ve foot-in-mouth disease. Sorry, but I’ve always been a blurter. Things pop out of my mouth before I can stop them.’

‘Well, to give you a taste of your own medicine, I’d have said that from how you present yourself, you wouldn’t be the sort to pass judgment on others.’

Hannah took offence because this wasn’t the first time he’d alluded to her being judgmental. Hadn’t Eileen also told her off this evening for the same reason? She spluttered her defence. ‘I’m not. I don’t!’ Then she hesitated. ‘Do I?’ He’d made a valid point because she’d stuffed him in a box and labelled it the minute she’d met him, and yet he kept proving her theories about him wrong.

He was eyeing her as they bounced down the dark road. ‘An honest answer?’

She gave a meek nod.

‘I can’t speak for anyone else, but yeah, where I’m concerned, you did.’

Hannah mumbled an apology. She knew Tom’s eyes were still on her and wanted to escape this uncomfortable subject. ‘Why are you driving so slow?’

‘In case livestock wanders out on the road.’

‘Oh, you mean the herd of cows and flock of sheep grazing in the park there,’ Hannah said.

‘Exactly. You never know when a sheep or cow will take it upon itself to cross the road.’ He flicked her a look, eyes crinkling, and the humour broke the tension.

‘Did you see the change come over the kids when they left the hall tonight?’ he asked, turning off the road to where the Shamrock stood like a lighthouse beacon.

‘I did. The armour went straight back on when they saw their parents waiting outside for them.’

‘Yeah, but for two whole hours, it slipped.’

Tom nosed the car between her mam and dad’s, and Hannah risked a peek at his profile. He was right; it had, and so had theirs. Unwilling to examine that thought further, she concentrated on how the kids had stopped being angry and become engaged.

‘Will you walk me in?’ Tom asked, unbuckling.

‘Why do you need an escort?’ The sensor light had automatically gone on, and Hannah already had one leg out of the car.

‘For protection against Princess Leia.’

Hannah twisted round to stare at him for a minute, unsure whether he was having her on or not. Seeing that he looked about ten years old, she laughed. ‘You want me to protect you from a chihuahua?’

‘It’s not funny. It’s all right for you. Princess Leia doesn’t bare her pointy little needle teeth your way. They could do some damage if she decided to latch on to my ankle. And I heard she bit that reporter fella yesterday.’

This time, Hannah saw a flicker in the corner of his mouth.

‘He deserved it. Come on then – Chihuahua Protection Services at your, erm, service.’

She was pleased to find the back door unlocked as she’d left it. This meant they didn’t have to troop through the pub and answer twenty questions about how the knitting lesson had gone. She didn’t trust her mam not to ask whether Hannah had moved on from her gripe where Tom was concerned and managed to separate business from pleasure either. It was a question she didn’t want to be asked because, throughout the evening, there’d been a shift in her feelings toward him, but the jury was still out. Accordingly, she was relieved to enter an empty, dog-free kitchen. ‘Clear,’ she called over her shoulder to Tom like an FBI agent storming a building.

He followed her inside, shutting the door behind him, and cast a wary glance at the basket to double-check it was empty.

‘Princess Leia will be in the family room with Nan watching a spot of tele. Do you fancy a brew? I’m gasping.’

‘Me too, thanks. Where is everyone else?’ Tom pulled a chair out and sat down at the table.

He looked right at home, Hannah noticed. Mam would be pleased because hospitality was close to godliness in her book. She went through the tea-making motions. ‘Let me see. Mam will be in the Shamrock. She hosts her Menopausal and Hot weekly meeting on a Monday night. It’s a thin guise for drinking wine and having a good old moan about being unable to shift the poundage around their middles with her pals.’

Tom laughed, and she warmed to the sound.

‘Dad will be manning the bar but mostly putting the world to rights with Enda Dunne and Mr Kenny of motorised scooter infamy because, the Menopausal and Hot group aside, Monday night is quiet in the Shamrock.’

As she set the mugs on the table, Hannah remembered the email she’d tapped out for the Department of Agriculture and fetched her laptop before sitting down. Who knew? The defrosting between them this evening might mean he’d see things from her, Nan’s and most of Emerald Bay’s residents’ perspectives. Perhaps he’d even swap sides, she thought, getting carried away as she opened her device.

‘Work?’ Tom asked.

‘More like a labour of love. I’ve written a letter to the Department of Agriculture and included all the signatures I’ve got so far on the petition to prevent the land from being sold to your benefactor. And there’s the matter of the viral TikTok.’

‘I heard about that tonight. Maire showed me the clip when you went to the bathroom. Your nan’s an impressive lady.’

Hannah nodded her agreement, unsure if she was picking up on caginess or not as she slid the laptop over to him and sat down to drink her tea while he read through it.

Her leg bobbed up and down under the table. This was worse than waiting for a teacher’s verdict on an essay you’d just handed in, she thought, trying and failing to read his expression as his eyes flicked back and forth over the text because Tom Flynn was giving nothing away.