Page 19 of The Merry Christmas Project

‘Fine,’ Nell shrugged. ‘Let Tasha win. I’m sure she can handle it.’

I scowled, weighing up how I felt about her swanning into my town and bossing the committee around for the next two months, versus actually stepping up to the plate myself.

Daniel turned around and looked at me, his pale blue eyes meeting mine.

‘Good for you,’ he said with a smile, ‘you’ll be brilliant at this.’

‘Thanks,’ I mumbled, ignoring Nell who I could sense was on the verge of laughter. ‘Just doing my bit.’

‘Pam has just had a very good idea,’ said Jim, commanding everyone’s attention again. ‘Why don’t each of our three volunteers come back in two weeks for a special Christmas Project meeting and present their ideas ? We’ll all vote, and the most popular scheme will go ahead, run by its creator, of course.’

‘Fair enough,’ said Nigel, stroking his beard. ‘I can live with that.’

Tasha leaned right over to Daniel, smiling broadly, and whispered into his ear just loud enough for me to hear, ‘This is so exciting, I love this sort of thing and I’ve got a few ideas already.’

Daniel smiled back, looking completely enchanted by her and I felt my heart sink. I opened my diary and pencilled in the next committee meeting, sixteen days from now.

All of a sudden I’d never wanted to win anything so badly in my entire life.

Chapter 6

Cole

2 NOVEMBER

Cole rolled his shoulders back and eased his head from side to side ; he was stiff from sitting in the same position. He had been on site since nine and it was now almost noon. Saturday mornings were a good time to get things done without interruption and it meant that Mondays could get off to a good clean start. But this morning hadn’t just been about paperwork ; he’d had a viewing.

A rush of elation went through him and he forced himself not to get too excited. It was early days and it might fall through. But if it didn’t – he allowed himself a smile – he might have sold not one but two of the houses.

An hour ago, he’d shown two sisters around the site. They were very close, they explained, and wanted to buy houses next door to each other so that their children could all grow up together and they’d have a readymade social life on their doorstep. Cole couldn’t believe his luck, especially as they’d seemed keen on the two corner plots, which had the biggest gardens and therefore the biggest price tag to match.

They’d stayed for a long time and had gone for a walk around the area before leaving. The viewing couldn’t have been more positive and he was keeping his fingers crossed that they’d make an offer. If the sisters went ahead, that would mean half of the build was sold, which would be a big weight off his mind. The sisters’ main concern was whether the houses would be ready to move into on time, which according to Cole’s schedule would be early March. They had properties to sell, they said, and one of them already had an interested buyer who wouldn’t agree to any delays. Cole had talked through the timeframe with them to reassure them and they’d gone away to think about it and said they’d be in touch. It was just about possible if everything went to plan. But he’d have to keep on top of everything ; he couldn’t afford any major hiccups between now and completion next spring.

An hour on and he had worked through the entire month’s delivery notes and receipts. He gathered all the various bits of paper into a pile and stuffed them in an envelope ready for dropping off at his accountant.

A good morning’s work that. He got to his feet, pleased with himself, and put his coat on.

He opened the door to the site cabin and a whoosh of cold air rushed in. Just what he needed, he thought, stepping outside – something to wake him up.

There’d been a heavy frost last night and the ground was hard under his feet. He kicked through the leaves as he walked around the site, keeping his eye on the ground for any dropped screws and bits of wire. His team were a methodical bunch, but there were inevitably bits and pieces dropped and forgotten. He put his findings in his pockets and started to collect up anything that would burn. There were several old pallets and unwanted bits of wood and he stacked them up to make a fire. He was tempted to set light to it now, but he’d leave it ; the men loved to have a fire in the mornings to chase the cold out of their bones.

There were some huge trees on the perimeter of the site which would form a leafy backdrop to the houses when they were finished : mature oak and horse chestnut trees which must have been planted at least a century ago. The sisters had commented on how nice it would be for their kids to build dens in the woods. He picked up a shiny conker and automatically put it in his pocket to save it for Freya. Then he remembered. It would have gone dull with age by the time he saw her again. He shook away the thought, took his phone out and took a photo of it instead. He pressed send and hoped it didn’t wake her up.

Once he’d run out of jobs, he walked back towards the van and cast his eye over the area of scrubland at the front edge of the site, just beyond the gates. It was a bit of an eyesore at the moment, a tangle of self-seeded trees, blackthorn mostly. He had planning permission to clear this section to make way for the landscaping : driveways and verges ; the finishing-off bits that would help turn Orchard Gardens from a muddy site into an attractive development. He made a mental note to check when the contractor was booked in for and started to close up the site for the day.

As he was digging in his pocket for the key to the padlock, a car horn tooted, and he looked over his shoulder to see Josh’s pick-up truck arriving.

He waved at him. ‘What are you doing here ?’

Josh jumped down from the cab and grinned. ‘I was going to ask you the same question.’

‘A viewing that went well and sorting out paperwork,’ Cole replied. ‘Got to keep the taxman happy. So what’s your excuse ?’

Josh grinned. ‘Vicky and the baby are having a nap, so I thought I’d come and check over the site. Now it gets dark earlier, I don’t always have chance to make sure we’re leaving it tidy at night.’

‘Beat you to it,’ said Cole, digging in his pocket and producing half a dozen screws and two pieces of steel wire.

‘In that case, I’ll just round up the waste wood.’