Page 24 of The Best Little Christmas Shop
Chapter Six
The newly installed bell tinkled on the back of the door and from my position at the top of a ladder restocking the top shelf, I saw Cal and George enter the shop. I called out a greeting and received a smile and wave from Cal and an unusually half-hearted response from the little boy.
‘Be with you in a minute,’ I said as I descended the metal steps and then folded them up, carryingthem quickly to the back stock room and leaning them up against the wall. ‘Hi!’ I said, emerging again.
‘Hello.’ George’s greeting was as lukewarm as his wave.
I glanced up at Cal.
‘George isn’t feeling too great and his friends are all playing snowballs but he’s not really up to it so I thought we’d stop in here and see if we couldn’t cheer him up a bit.’
‘Oh no! Well, obviously I’m veryhappy to see you but I’m not happy you’re feeling a bit under the weather.’ George looked above his head briefly in response to my terminology and Cal and I stifled a smile.
‘What’s feeling poorly then?’
George leant against his dad’s leg. ‘My tummy hurts.’
‘Oh dear. That’s not good, is it? I hope Bear’s looking after you.’
George let out a sigh and nodded.
I ran a hand gently over the littleboy’s silky hair, being incredibly careful not to bump into his father’s thigh. If that happened, even if George didn’t have a temperature, I was pretty sure I might.
The doorbell tinkled and I glanced up, waving a hello to the Warner sisters, a couple of older ladies who had lived in the village for as long as I could remember. They were lovely, but it did pay to be careful what you mentionedto them as it had a way of soon becoming known by far more people than you’d originally intended.
‘He doesn’t feel warm but he does look a bit pale,’ I said, resting the back of my hand against George’s forehead.
‘Yeah. I’m going to take him home in a minute and get him into bed. I think he just overindulged in Christmas treats earlier. He was just keen on coming in to say hi and I thought itmight take his mind off things for a minute.’
‘I’m glad you did. Is there anything I can do?’
George had now relinquished his hold on his dad’s leg and wandered across the shop. Cal glanced over to where his son was now talking to the ladies as they all looked at the individual crackers piled into a large, wide wicker basket threaded with red silk ribbon, their marbled paper making each oneunique. His gaze moved from his son and landed squarely on me. The smile it brought with it made my insides go all flippy and warm.
Doing my best to ignore that, and deciding instead that I needed an immediate distraction, I began unpacking a box of handmade lollipops, sticking their handles in a large piece of florist’s foam I’d sprayed white earlier. One dome was for the gingerbread-flavouredones, the other for peppermint.
‘No, I don’t think there’s anything you can do,’ Cal answered, ‘but thank you anyway.’
I nodded without looking at him and finished displaying the lollies. Reaching behind me, I grabbed a gingerbread man from the shelf. ‘Ginger’s good for the tummy. And if George doesn’t want it, you’ve already taste tested them so I assume you approve and you can just eat itas … support.’
Cal’s mouth quirked. ‘A support biscuit?’
I nodded my head at George. ‘If he’s anything like our lot when they don’t feel well, believe me, you’re going to need it.’
Cal brought out some change from his pocket but I pushed his hand away. ‘It’s on the house.’
‘You need to stop giving me stuff for free. Don’t you know anything about business?’ The quirk grew into a wider smile.
‘You’d be surprised what I know.’
George was now on his way back to us, the ladies completely enamoured with him, but not entirely missing the opportunity to give his dad a quick once-over with their eyes. One of them had clearly caught the end of our conversation. As I smiled at their approach, she gave a quick eyebrow raise at me and winked. Cal noticed the exchange and chuckled, shaking hishead. I blushed, grinned, and studied my shoes for a moment.
‘I’m dreading what interpretation of that comment is going to be across the village by tomorrow,’ I whispered.
Cal smiled. ‘Don’t worry. I’ll reassure them it was all perfectly innocent if questioned.’
For some reason, this made me blush even more and I decided it was vitally urgent to get some gift bags ready for the next purchaseand ducked my head under the desk, feeling my skin cool now I was no longer under Cal’s direct gaze.
‘Can I help you, ladies?’ I asked, as I popped back up, smiling and hoping to affect an immediate diversion of their thoughts.
