Page 81 of The Best Little Christmas Shop
‘Oh no. I’m sorry. It sounds like you were happy there.’
‘I was. Which hadn’t been the case very much –’ he gave me a look under his lashes ‘–putting it mildly. So it was a bit of a bugger really. But I’ll always be grateful to them for that time.’
‘Are you still in contact with them?’
He shook his head. ‘No.’
‘That a shame. I’m sure they’d love to see you and how well you’re doing, especially if that’s where your first taste of falling in love with cars began.’
Cal ran a hand over his jawline. ‘I’ve never even thought about it.’
‘Will you now?’
He laughed again, shaking his head. ‘Don’t push it.’
I held up my hands, grinning. The seed was planted. Whether it grew now would be up to Cal.
‘So, enough about me. Tell me about your Christmases. I’m imagining they were slightly different to mine.’
They certainly were, and as together we finished the rest of the rooms, I told Cal all about the busy, noisy, laughter-filledChristmas celebrations I looked forward to every year. I’d only ever missed one when Marco had booked a surprise trip to spend the season in Monte Carlo, seeing friends and lunching with his own family. It had been incredibly different from what I’d been used to – it was glamorous, and formal and expensive.
I’d done my best to enjoy myself but I’d never relaxed the entire time. It was perfectfor some, but I wasn’t one of them. I needed the chill of the air, the warmth of the laughter, and the utterly relaxed atmosphere of opening presents in your pyjamas, and nobody caring if you never quite got to the point where you got out of them. That was something you definitely couldn’t do in Monte Carlo.
‘No wonder you get excited about it. I wondered when I came into that shop whether youever got fed up with going into it every day for months, being surrounded by Christmas, but I can see now that you probably don’t.’
‘Not at all. I love the shop at all times of the year, but it really does make the best little Christmas shop.’
‘I’d have to agree.’
I gave him a smile and put the remaining, child-friendly items back into one of the boxes, giving Cal some ideas as to where hecould put them up in George’s room tomorrow.
‘I should probably get going. Have you seen my phone?’ Unlike some, I wasn’t surgically attached to my phone and had a habit of leaving it in various places.
‘Hang on, I’ll go and look.’
Whilst Cal set off in search, I balanced against the door, and began to pull one of my boots on. Before I got a chance to even get it on, he was back.
‘Here.’ Hehanded it over and I gave the screen a quick flick over, just to check I hadn’t missed anything important. There were four missed calls from various members of my family and a text from Dan.
Call when you can.
