Page 81 of New Beginnings on Railway Lane

Katy was quickly realising that Flora had a real talent, but it was somewhat hidden amongst all the hard farming work.

‘Well, speaking as someone who most certainly doesn’t know how, you’ve got a great talent there,’ Katy told her. ‘And it will really help because I’ve got to make good on my promise to Ryan that it’ll work. I’ll never hear the end of it if it doesn’t.’

‘He’ll forgive you,’ said Harriet with a dreamy look on her face.

Katy quickly looked away and sipped her coffee.

‘I agree. I haven’t known him carry anyone else around in their pyjamas,’ said Libby with a wink.

‘Leave her alone,’ said Flora softly.

‘Just saying it like it is as usual,’ remarked Libby with a wicked grin.

‘Anyway, how about I pop over this afternoon and see what else we can do about the decoration,’ suggested Flora.

‘That would be great,’ said Katy, smiling.

‘Hey,’ replied Flora, smiling back at her. ‘What are friends for?’

Katy realised with a start that she was included in that statement and felt warm inside at the thought of finally having friends after all these years.

43

After the somewhat disastrous bonfire night celebrations, Katy had been braced for another quiet week in the coffee shop. But, to her amazement, it was the complete opposite.

Word had got out through local social media about their unexpected evening as hosts whilst waiting out the storm and suddenly Katy and Ryan found themselves with a steady stream of customers throughout the day.

Mums were popping in after the school run and stay at home workers had brought in their laptops and were enjoying the company after their solitude at home. Even some of the more elderly residents of Cranfield had begun to meet up with one another and gradually day by day, the waiting room began to get filled with conversation and laughter.

In fact, it had been so busy during the week that it had taken all of Katy’s organisational skills to pull the pizza restaurant together in time for the grand opening the following Friday evening.

Having rushed around after closing the coffee shop, she stood in the waiting room and looked around, trying to find any small detail out of place. But, thankfully, everything looked perfect.

The tables were laid with cutlery and napkins. There were tea lights on each table, held in one of Flora’s pretty decorated jam jars. There was now also a small chalkboard describing the menu that everyone could choose from.

Ryan had organised a local builder to fix the awful hole in the chimney that Dodgy Del had caused and there was now a far more professional pizza oven on the other side of the chimney to be used instead.

A credit card machine was all set up for people to pay and, most importantly, contacting the council to change the licence had been relatively straightforward.

Everything was ready.

At 7 p.m., Katy unlocked the front door and the small crowd that had gathered outside were welcomed inside.

‘Welcome to Platform 1!’ she told everyone. ‘Your coats can go on this stand here and then please go ahead and find your seats. Each table has been allocated with the party’s name.’

But she was also grateful to see some of the customers studying the museum objects in the ticket office entrance as they waited for their table.

She gave Bob and Eddie a wink as they sat down, determined to be supportive of Ryan.

‘Plus it’s a celebration,’ said Bob, holding out his foot, which was now wearing a shoe. ‘I don’t need to wear that awful boot any more!’

Katy was glad that his foot had begun to heal and it felt as it the whole evening was a step in the right direction for the Connolly family.

Fellow villagers and customers were chatting to Bob and Eddie about the station itself and Katy smiled in satisfaction that the heritage of the station was also on show that evening.

The menu was short but seemed to leave everyone happy. Such was the tiny kitchen that Ryan only had a limited amount of space to use and so they thought that was for the best.

Once everyone was settled, Katy began to take their food orders. They had yet to receive a licence to serve alcohol so Ryan had suggested that people could bring their own bottle, which would stay within the limits of the law.