Page 36 of Winter at Wishington Bay
I kept my face in the tree for a moment, trying to pretend I wasn’t lying astride a Christmas tree in the middle of the pavement. If I ignored it, maybe it wasn’t happening.
‘Sophia?’ the voice came again. OK. So it was definitely happening. ‘Are you OK?’
I turned my head to where Nate had now crouched down level with it. ‘Hello.’ I added a casual inflection as if to convey this was a normal, everyday occurrence. His face assured me that was not the case.
‘What are you doing?’
Humping a Christmas tree in the middle of the village, obviously.
Suddenly two large hands were on my upper arms and I was quickly upright. So quickly I got a momentary headrush and staggered a little. Nate’s hands once again steadied me. Looking up, I saw his face was creased with concern.
‘I’m all right. Really.’
He dropped his hands to his sides and it was then I realised Bryan was tucked into the front of his coat, peering out at the world from this new, advantageous position. His head wiggled as he tried to say hello.
‘Keep still, little mate.’ Nate adjusted his coat and I gave Bryan a quick scratch behind the ears to satisfy him.
‘Sure you’re OK?’ Nate asked.
‘Fine. Honestly.’ So long as you didn’t count mortification. I focused my attention back on the tree and began to bend down to start my next round of Christmas tree rodeo.
‘Wait.’ Nate put a hand on my arm and I stood. Reaching into his coat, he lifted out Bryan, who didn’t seem too thrilled with this development and handed him to me, whereupon the little dog seemed to forgive his temporary master. Nate bent and scooped up the tree, jostled it so that it leant against one shoulder, handily enabling him to also see where he was going, something I’d lacked the benefit of, and turned towards me.
‘Where do you need this?’
‘It’s for Flora’s shop. The little gift shop next to my flat. But you don’t have to do that. I was fine. I just needed to put it down and get a better purchase on it, that’s all.’
Nate began walking. ‘I think you’d handled the putting it down bit quite well. Might need to work on the other part.’
‘That better not be a smile on your face.’
‘Not at all.’ He turned, the gorgeous, shy smile lighting his face.
‘Glad to hear it,’ I grinned back.
We reached the shop far quicker with Nate carrying the tree with long strides as opposed to my Geisha style shuffling.
‘Here we are.’ I scooted across in front of him and opened the door to the gift shop, catching the raised eyebrow that Flora shot me.
‘I met Nate part way and he offered to carry the tree for me.’
‘How kind of you, Nate. I’m Flora.’ She held out her hand and Nate shook it.
‘Pleasure to meet you. You’ve got a lovely shop here.’
‘Thank you. So, you just happened to run into Sophia?’ she asked, now fussing Bryan who had been transferred to her arms while I ducked under the counter to find some scissors to cut the remaining ties of the tree.
‘More tripped over. She was causing a bit of an obstruction.’
Flora looked round and I narrowed my eyes at Nate which brought the smile from his eyes to his mouth and suddenly I didn’t mind any more.
‘I was taking a short rest.’
‘While lying on top of the tree in the middle of the pavement,’ Nate filled in helpfully.
Flora let out a giggle before hastily covering it. ‘Oh, Soph. Are you OK?’ Popping Bryan down to explore the shop, she came over to me, squinting as she put a hand to my face. ‘You’ve got a red mark, there.’ Her hand was cool as it touched my cheekbone.
‘The tree got loose from its top tie and sort of smacked me in the face. It’s fine.’
