Page 77 of New Beginnings on Railway Lane

‘Put me down!’ she told him again, with another swift kick.

But he continued his path onto the platform, where, as she glanced up, she saw Eddie heading in the opposite direction. At that moment, she just wanted to die of shame.

‘Good morning, Grandad,’ she heard Ryan say in a grim tone.

‘Good morning to you both,’ said Eddie. ‘The electricity’s still off, but at least the storm’s passed us by.’

Katy looked up from her upside-down position to see Eddie’s eyebrows raised in surprise.

‘Lovely day for it,’ carried on Eddie, breaking into a wide smile before heading out of sight.

They carried on their nightmare journey until, finally, Katy found herself plonked down near the back doors to the ticket office.

She quickly looked around and saw quite a few interested and amused villagers walking their dogs on the opposite side of the railway tracks looking over and laughing. She groaned as she saw Libby and Harriet with Paddington waving at her as well.

This was awful! She was in public, in her pyjamas, in the middle of the village, for goodness’ sake!

‘I’m going back upstairs,’ she said, thinking about making a break for it.

But she wasn’t quick enough for Ryan who went to stand behind her and held her by the shoulders as he turned her back around.

‘Read it!’ she heard him say.

She looked up at the poster that she had drawn up only the previous evening, gave a shrug underneath his hands and looked away. ‘I’ve read it already,’ she told him with a huff.

‘Read it again!’

She sighed loudly. ‘Fine! Italian pizza restaurant opening next weekend…’ But she didn’t get a chance to finish.

‘I can’t believe you’ve done this,’ he told her, spinning her around to face him.

He did look very upset, she thought to herself.

‘Were you drunk?’ he asked, running a hand through his hair.

‘No, this time I was stone-cold sober.’

‘Well, stop trying to fix my life!’ he snapped. He stared down at her with an exasperated look. ‘You have such an attitude. Why aren’t you like this with anyone else?’ he asked.

‘You bring out the worst in me,’ she drawled.

He closed his eyes and puffed out a long breath. ‘You don’t understand,’ he told her, before walking away to sit on a nearby bench.

She could have gone upstairs at that point. But he looked so hurt and upset that she couldn’t stop herself from heading over to stand in front of him.

‘It’s a good business proposition,’ she said, looking down at him and trying to soften her tone. ‘It’s what I do best. I’ve checked and there’s nothing like this in the surrounding area.’

‘What about the legal stuff?’ he asked. ‘You can’t just serve people food without a licence!’

‘I know, but it’s just a change of business. The council should be fine with it.’ She shrugged her shoulders. ‘You have a skill as last night proved and there was a business opportunity to be taken.’

‘You had no right.’

‘Anyway, with the approval we’ve already had for the coffee shop, it will only need an additional health and safety check, which should be easily arranged,’ she replied. ‘Just in time to open up the pizza restaurant next weekend.’

‘Katy…’ he began to say, but she held up her hand.

‘I’m right on this,’ she told him. ‘It was hugely popular last night. You can’t say that it wasn’t. We were both there.’