‘That’s no kind of proposal outfit!’ Rhona was heard to remark to her sister who, for once, had to agree with her.
‘Shall we go?’ Ally said to Gray as soon as she saw him, hoping to avoid the salacious comments of the volunteers and definitely not wanting them to be caught on camera.
‘Sure. Uh, can we take a walk?’ he said over the growing noise as yet more people arrived.
The repair shop elders exchanged glances.
‘Gray?’
Oddly, it was Laura the grocer who’d called his name, and in such a delighted tone that the Gifford sisters’ eyes fixed on her like this was a matinee show at the Eden Court Theatre.
Laura was approaching Gray with a big grin on her face and her empty basket over her arm, her cup of tea left abandoned on the counter. ‘What are you doing here?’
It was then that everything started to run in awful slow motion as Ally came to realise what was happening.
Gray was stuttering and staring, looking between the two women. Laura kept chattering on cheerfully, even as her confusion set in. ‘I thought you told me you were working this morning?’ Laura stepped forward to hug him. Gray took a step back to avoid it.
‘You… you and Ally know each other?’ he said.
Pennies began to drop around the room. Roz stood up at her sewing station, her eyes narrowed.
‘Uh.’ Gray was gasping like a fish hauled from the River Nithy on a hook.
Ally watched on, letting him flounder, not wanting to jump to conclusions, but there was no getting around it. This wasn’t looking good.
‘Are you here to pick up Ally?’ said Laura, still trying to smile but looking between the pair in concern.
‘Uh, well…’ Gray glanced behind him at the open door.
‘Laura?’ Ally said at last. ‘Is this your new man, by any chance?’
Laura, now struck silent, clasped at her wrist where a pretty gold chain set with clear stones sparkled.
That explains Gray’s trip to the jewellers, Ally thought. Someone should let Jean Wilson’s cousin, Tony, on the hop-on, hop-off buses know. Though, no doubt it would be all across their small town before nightfall, regardless. There wasn’t going to be a proposal after all.
‘Listen,’ Gray was saying over the horrid grinding noises from the oblivious McIntyre’s workbench. ‘I can explain, honestly. Uh…’
‘This I’ve got to hear,’ said Laura, coming to stand by Ally’s side.
‘I’d rather not do it here,’ Gray said, warily eyeing McIntyre across the room.
Ally’s first instinct was to laugh. It wasn’t her dad he had to worry about. Not when the café women already had their sleeves rolled up and were advancing upon him.
Ally was surprised when Laura, who she didn’t really know outside cheery greetings while she dropped off the café’s provisions, took her hand and led her outside. Gray followed behind.
As soon as they were standing on the gravel in the morning sunshine, he started. ‘Look, I was going to tell you I’d met somebody.’
‘Exactly which of us were you going to tell?’ Laura demanded.
Gray pointed a guilty finger at Ally. She felt it like a knife point.
‘Sorry,’ he gulped, eyes fixed on Ally, who found she momentarily couldn’t form any words.
Laura, however, was having no such trouble. ‘Wait a minute. Weren’t the café women saying something about a proposal?’ Gray took a big step back as Laura squared up to him, all five foot two of her. ‘Were you going to ask Ally to marry you?’
Oh God! Why did she have to go and say that? Wasn’t this humiliating enough?
Gray shook his head, emphatically. ‘A proposal? Jeez, naw! I mean…’ At least he had the humility to appear embarrassed once he heard himself. ‘Sorry, Ally. I didn’t mean it like that. I thought we were having fun, that’s all. It was fun, wasn’t it?’
