Page 34 of A Merry Irish Christmas
He gave an exasperated groan, taking it from her. ‘Jeez, I didn’t think I’d be getting homework! Do you seriously need me to write it in?’
‘I think it’s better if we both know where we stand, don’t you? Let’s not make this situation any more difficult than it has to be. Besides, how can I promise to stay out of your way if I don’t know where you’ll be? You don’t want a repeat of the Annascaul incident, do you?’
‘Fine.’ He unscrewed the cap of the pen and began writing.
‘I can make some suggestions if you’d like?’ she offered. ‘There are some lovely drives around here.’
‘No thanks. All done.’ He replaced the cap on the pen and handed the sheet back to Mary. He’d scrawled ‘Moody walk on the beach/Slob out on the sofa’ across his half of every day.
‘Great,’ Mary said, refusing to rise to his bait. ‘Message received and understood. Though you might want to skip the moody beach walk on Christmas morning because that’s where I’ll be, along with half the town. So you’ll have the house to yourself for a few hours. Try not to miss me too much.’
He flattened his mouth in a facsimile of a smile.
‘Right,’ she said, standing. ‘I’m going into Dingle to do some shopping.’
‘I know,’ he said, going back to his laptop. ‘I read it on your schedule.’
‘Want to come?’
‘No thanks.’ He didn’t even look up as he spoke.
‘Well, suit yourself. You can either stay here and sulk, or put on your cat burglar disguise and come into town with me,’ she said, channelling her mother.
‘Cool. I’ll stay here and sulk then.’
‘You don’t need to do any shopping?’
‘Nope. I’m all set. I’ve got everything I need right here.’
Hah! He was going to be so embarrassed on Christmas Day when she gave him a present and he had nothing to give her – and it would serve him right. Maybe she should get him an Aran jumper after all, just to spite him. That’d really show him up.
She went to the hall to get her coat and pulled it on, then went back into the living room. ‘Do you want me to get you anything while I’m out?’ she asked, pulling her hair free of the collar. ‘Food, drink?’
‘No thanks. Your mom stocked the place up for me. It was part of the deal.’
‘Sweet deal.’
‘You’re not kidding. And I did the same for her.’
‘She told me you’d got her turkey and ham. How did you know she’d want to cook a full Christmas dinner at your place?’
‘I asked her what she wanted. She put in an order.’
‘Did you put in an order with her?’
‘No, I just told her I didn’t want to do any major cooking and pretty much left it up to her.’
‘So what have you got?’
‘There’s smoked salmon, veggie lasagne, a fish pie…’
‘That’s my brother Aidan’s fish pie. We always have it on Christmas Eve.’
‘Homemade bread, pigs in blankets?—’
‘We call them sausage rolls.’
‘Lots of mince pies, a Christmas cake,’ Evan continued. ‘Plus cheese and a bunch of deli stuff. So you might want to pick up some stuff for yourself while you’re out, but I’m all set.’ He put his hands behind his head and gave her a smug smile.
