Page 103 of Not Just for Christmas

‘Oh bugger,’ Pete muttered. ‘Too late, don’t look.’

I couldn’t begin to imagine what Dylan had up his sleeve, but I did know that I didn’t want us to find out before time.

‘Sam!’ I called, racing across the yard to scoop him up before whatever was on its way arrived. ‘Quick, let’s go inside, I’ve just remembered something we need to do …’

Darkness had fallen over Merrydown, which was fortunate, because Pete had made me close the curtains so that we couldn’t see what was happening outside. Something big had been delivered. I didn’t know what it was, but it had involved two men, water, and a tray of tea and mince pies. At one point, I thought I caught a whiff of burning, which was mildly alarming until Pete assured me that it was quite normal. They’d gone now, and so had Pete, armed with gifts from me including a bottle of his favourite whisky, a wheel of Stilton and a box of chocolate reindeer for his grandchildren.

I’d told Sam that a delivery of cattle feed had arrived, which had been boring enough for him to lose interest and for the last hour we’d occupied ourselves with icing the Christmas cake. I’d handed over the creative bits to him, and now we had quite possibly the only Christmas cake in Devon featuring a runway, four toy aeroplanes, a helicopter, a fire engine, and a Lego surfer boy atop a surfboard.

‘When is Uncle Dylan going to be here?’ Sam asked, sweeping his finger around the edge of the icing bowl and licking it.

‘Soon.’ My stomach fizzed just thinking about him. In fact, so soon that I was running out of time to freshen up.

By the time I’d wrangled a brush through my hair, put on clean jeans and spritzed myself with the dregs of a bottle of perfume I’d bought in an airport duty-free shop years ago, the doorbell rang. I applied a hint of lip gloss and made it to the top of the stairs in time to see Sam and Gus tripping over each other in their haste to get to the front door first. Dylan was attempting to bring a ridiculous amount of shopping bags into the house alongside his suitcase, with Sam hopping from foot to foot as he filled him in on everything he’d missed in the last two days. Gus barked with joy, waving his tail dangerously while burying his head in each bag in search of edible treasures.

I paused where I was, gathering my strength. I was so happy to see him. Have him home. Even if it was only for a while.

‘Hey dude!’ Dylan whooped, swinging Sam up in the air.

Sam wrapped his arms tightly around Dylan’s neck. ‘Have you finished work now? Is it properly Christmas?’

Dylan locked eyes with me as I walked down the stairs towards him. He kissed the top of Sam’s head and lowered him to the floor. ‘Yes, Sam, I think it is.’

‘Yay!’ cried Sam, racing into the living room, ‘let’s watch Elf! I’ll get the blankets ready. Mummy, you make the pizza.’

‘Watching Elf while eating pizza is a Christmas Eve family tradition,’ I explained, trying to keep the wobble from my voice when I was finally in front of him. ‘Welcome back to the madhouse.’

So what happened now? I wanted to reach my arms around his neck, breathe in his warmth, but I didn’t dare.

‘Thank you.’ His cautious smile tugged at my heart. ‘London is wonderful, but give me Devon any day. It’s good to be—’

‘Home?’ I interrupted gently.

He nodded and opened his arms, and I almost fell over myself in my haste to feel his embrace. He’d only been at Merrydown for a week, but it felt like a lifetime.

‘Oh, Luce,’ he said gruffly, tightening his arms around my waist. ‘I’ve missed you.’

‘Between all your parties and press appointments? Yeah right,’ I teased. ‘Congratulations, by the way.’

A tiny frown wrinkled his brow. ‘For what?’

‘That Star Quality thing in America?’ I said airily. ‘I heard you on the radio. Exciting stuff.’

‘Oh that, not sure Will would call it exciting.’ He huffed out a laugh. ‘I’m sorry you had to hear about it on the radio, but it all happened so fast and at least I got the whole thing dealt with live on air. Will can sort out the rest, he’s not happy as we’re so close to Christmas, but that’s what I pay him for.’

‘Right,’ I said weakly. ‘Well done.’

I could have wept with frustration as a whole host of if-onlys rushed at me.

If only I hadn’t reacted like I had when we’d kissed. If only I hadn’t mentioned that Sam had been the one to invite him. If only I’d told him how I really felt about him. But I couldn’t change the past and now it was too late.

‘Thanks,’ he smiled. ‘I don’t think anyone saw that coming, but I gotta say, I was quite proud of myself.’

‘I’m proud of you too!’ I said, ramping up the joy in my voice. ‘All change, hey?’

‘Are you OK?’ He pulled away from my arms and looked at me. ‘You seem a little on edge. I’ve done the right thing, haven’t I?’

‘Of course you have!’ I said breezily. ‘And I’m fine, just, you know, Christmas chaos.’