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“They wouldn’t ask you to help if they didn’t trust you to look after those kids and deal with any problems. You’re going to be a natural father because it’s in your nature, and because you’ve learned from Michael and from experience caring for people.”

“Thanks,” said Dylan. “I hope you’re right.”

“Thank you for telling me all this,” said Lucy. She hated seeing how painful this conversation was for him.

Dylan nodded. “Anyway,” he said, a more forced smile than usual appearing on his face, “what about adding a few Christmassy bits onto the menu downstairs? I know you’re doing the mince pies and those gingerbread lattes and the gingerbread men, but could we maybe offer some turkey and cranberry fillings for sandwiches or something?”

Lucy’s first reaction was still to bristle at the suggestions he was making for her coffee shop: she knew how to handle the Christmas season, but she managed to stop herself. “That sounds like a good idea,” she said. “I’m normally more on top of things—”

“Luce, you’re doing an amazing job,” Dylan said, giving her hand a squeeze. She gave a little smile — they were business partners, he should give his opinion. It was also the first time he’d used a nickname for her and she didn’t dislike it.

“I could message Rachel from the bakery about her making some stollen for us as well. Maybe tomorrow I can get a turkey crown to roast . . .”

“The supermarket’s open for another couple of hours. We can go and get one if you want, and get your walk in.”

“Excellent plan,” said Lucy.

It definitely felt strange to be making changes to the coffee shop, even if it was just adding in a couple of different festive items to the menu for a few weeks. She’d always decided everything herself. But it was sensible, and she would have been more organised and done more before if she’d been feeling better and more on top of things, in general. Having the bakery temporarily supplying some items was really helping, and that was another one of Dylan’s ideas which had turned out well. He might not know much about running a coffee shop, but having another person’s ideas and opinions was turning out to be useful, especially because he wasn’t as emotionally attached to the business as she was and could see things more logically. Where she felt like she needed to do everything herself because that’s how she’d done it up until this point, he was able to notice things that could be tweaked to make things easier for her, at least while pregnancy was making her feel rough. And he was incredibly self-sacrificing. He was rearranging his life to be able to help and support her. Yes, he had a financial interest in doing so as he obviously didn’t want the business he was invested in to fail, but it didn’t feel like that was why he was behaving the way he was. It felt like he cared about their baby, and about her.

She appreciated that he’d told her a little about his childhood. He’d seemed so different when he’d confided in her, so unlikely his confident self, which had sometimes seemed like an act to her. She felt like she understood him a little more now, and, in particular, his friendship with Michael and why he was always so willing to drop everything to help his friend and, it seemed, anyone associated with him. She wondered how many times after the last couple of years he’d reached out to her, especially once Carrie and Michael were together, and she’d pushed him away. Knowing how caring he was, she hated the idea that her actions might have hurt him. It seemed she’d been rather unfair towards him.

Chapter 13

Lucy was definitely regretting advertising that she’d be staying open for the town’s Christmas lights switch-on and Christmas Fair on Saturday.

When she’d agreed to do it at that fateful meeting months ago, she hadn’t realised that the repercussions of that walk home would sap her energy quite so completely. She placed her hand on her stomach and smiled, suddenly realising that this was the first time she’d thought about that night and hadn’t cringed with regret and embarrassment.

There would be lots of people around, many of them eager for a hot drink and a sweet treat, and it would bring in a nice bit of extra money. But she definitely had enough on her plate at the moment without this extra event. However, she couldn’t cancel because the town council had offered not to sell any pitch spaces along the high street to any other coffee vendors. Without her keeping the shop open, the only hot drinks available would be from a stall selling mulled wine.

At least, thanks to Dylan, the coffee shop looked all lovely and Christmassy and ready for the occasion.

She resolved to be sensible and booked both Ellen and Jo for the whole day so that they could get the extra baking done that was needed and there would be plenty of people to run the coffee shop during the evening.

“Put me to work,” Dylan said as soon as he found out what was going on and how much there was to do. “I may not be much good at making pastry yet, but the customers love me.”

“That’s only because you flirt with most of them,” countered Lucy.

“It’s good for business!”

As true as she had to admit that was, that didn’t stop it getting her back up every single time she witnessed it. She shouldn’t let it bother her, but she couldn’t help it, though she’d never witnessed it going any further than talking.

The other thing that was proving good for business was the coffee shop’s new website which was now live and looked brilliant. Dylan had used the colours from the coffee shop on the site, along with plenty of photos. The menu was all on there, and the online lunch orders made things much easier for Lucy as she could get them ready during slow periods. Dylan had made sure that Lucy okayed everything to do with the website, so it hadn’t actually felt at all like he was trying to take over or boss her around.

Turkey, stuffing and cranberry toasties were going to be the special for the evening. Dylan picked up a couple of extra toastie makers and cooked turkey crowns in the oven in the flat over the bookshop. Time flew as the preparations went on, while simultaneously dealing with a Saturday, which was wonderfully busy. It seemed people were out Christmas shopping before the evening’s festivities, and lunchtime service was particularly hectic. It was lovely to have so many locals popping in, on top of day visitors who’d travelled to the town.

The promised dry, bright weather held. It was cold, but that somehow added to the charm of the day, and more than one customer commented how lovely it was to come into the comforting warmth of the coffee shop.

Lucy found a fruit tea placed in her hand by Dylan more than once, for which she was grateful. At one point she was even picked up and put on a stool to rest her feet by him. He would have got in trouble for that, but the citrusy smell of his shampoo made her feel a little dizzy, and there were customers around (and he knew it as he gave her a cheeky wink before going back to serve).

There was a welcome little lull at around four during which Nat and Sam popped in for a chat during a break from looking after the schoolchildren, but business rapidly picked up again at five when the local choir began singing by the huge town Christmas tree. Poppy came in with Carrie and Michael, and Lucy sent Ellen off with them so she could see her granddaughter sing with the primary school choir that was to follow. When Ellen returned, Jo went on a half-hour break so she could go and check out some of the stalls.

The toasted sandwiches Dylan had placed himself in charge of were proving to be extremely popular. He often had all three toastie makers going at the same time while he prepped the next lot of sandwiches to go in them.

Lucy made drinks and took orders while tables were served and cleared by Ellen and Jo.

Carrie and Michael came in again to say hi, but didn’t stay long as it was clear everyone was so busy, and Carrie was going to take over in the bookshop for a while so that Mary could take a break. It seemed Mary and Seren were also run off their feet.

Everyone took a break to stand outside the shop and watch the Christmas lights being switched on. Winning designs by the local schoolchildren had been made into physical lights attached to the lamp posts along the high street. Other light strings adorned the buildings, with the huge tree draped in glimmering white bulbs being the centre of attention. The mayor stood on a makeshift stage in front of it and made a short speech before the crowd counted down and collectively held their breath until the tree’s lights flickered on.