Page 6 of Hope and Hot Chocolate on Mistletoe Lane

‘Can you move in now? Start tomorrow?’ She bounced in her chair excitedly.

I hesitated. I thought about the reaction in town when my dad’s affair came out. I had been sixteen at the time. He was the headmaster at my school and he’d run off with my English teacher – who had been twenty years younger than he was. He’d left me and my mum to be with her. It had been the talk of the town. Our sleepy home wasn’t used to any scandal and the gossip mill had been relentless, especially at school. Kids had been mean. I had clung to Paul but still it had wounded me. And my mum just told me to ignore it all. She refused to criticise my dad. She still loved him and thought he’d come home after he realised what a fool he was being. I blamed her for everything. We rowed all the time. And it had damaged our relationship forever.

Dad had never come home. He’d married his girlfriend and then we found out she was pregnant. I hadn’t spoken to him since. Mum told me I should, which again caused us to row. I still didn’t understand why she wasn’t angry with him like I’d been. Still was.

But that was ten years ago. I hoped the shadow he’d left was gone now. And if I just worked hard on the farm, I could make sure I could return to my city life and not worry about losing it all. A difficult short-term plan for long-term gain. So I nodded. ‘Yes,’ I told Willow. ‘I can start tomorrow. I’ll pack some things and come back tomorrow as early as possible. We’ll put on a winter wonderland that everyone will be clamouring to come to.’

‘I knew you were the right person to call!’

I really hoped that would prove to be true.

6

PAUL

I leaned on the counter in my café, tuning my mum out. As usual, she was chattering away, not requiring a response from me while she decorated more gingerbread men. I’d lost all thread of what she was talking about. All I could think about was what happened an hour ago.

Walking into Willow Connor’s kitchen and coming face to face with Holly Wynter had been like seeing a ghost. Shocked was an understatement. I had no idea how to feel about it and my brain refused to focus on anything else. All I wanted to do was escape this café and be alone again. Glancing at the clock, I sighed. There was still an hour left until closing when I could go upstairs to my flat above the café and dwell on it all in peace and quiet.

‘Are you sure you don’t want to have dinner with us tonight?’ Mum broke into my thoughts as she placed the freshly decorated biscuits under the counter for the customers to be tempted by. Mum and Dad still lived in my childhood home around the corner while I was in the apartment upstairs. At eighteen, when I’d agreed to stay in Birchbrook to help run the family business, they’d offered it to me, saying I needed my independence. Ten years had passed and that apartment had become my sanctuary. My grandmother had lived there once, but I’d renovated it and made it all my own.

‘No, I’ve got football to watch,’ I replied, which wasn’t strictly a lie but I doubted I’d be able to concentrate on the game. I couldn’t believe that after ten years of wondering if I’d ever see Holly again, she was back, just like that. It was as if she’d somehow known I’d been thinking about getting away from this place finally.

‘Actually…’ I was about to tell Mum about what had happened at the farm, to get a woman’s perspective on the whole thing, when the café door opened with a jingle of the bell that often got on my last nerve.

Annoyed, I looked over to the see who the customer was, hoping it wasn’t one of the chatty ones who would require use of my brain.

And the air was sucked out of my lungs for the second time that day.

Because in walked Holly Wynter.

I could see her clearly now, and I took a calming breath while she looked around nervously. I’d recognised her instantly in Willow’s kitchen. Mum used social media a lot and had kept up with Holly through her mum’s accounts. When I’d heard about her new business, I’d looked it up and seen photos on her website. And if Mum left her social media open on her phone or laptop in the café, I had found myself having a peek at Holly’s city life more than a couple of times. But still, seeing her in real life in Birchbrook had jolted my whole system.

Holly saw me at the counter then and she faltered in her step for just a second. No one else in the café would have probably noticed but me. Then she threw on a smile and came over.

I couldn’t help but notice the changes to her appearance after the ten years she’d been away. She was still the tallest woman in town but she was slimmer, with dark circles under her eyes, which made me worry she was working too hard. Her hair was longer, still a pretty blonde shade, and it suited her. She now wore glasses, which made her look as smart as I knew she was. Her green eyes were still mesmerising and that smile of hers brightened up any room. She used to live in jeans and hoodies at this time of year but today, she wore trousers and a jacket. They were sophisticated but made me long a little bit for the jeans and hoodie casual vibe. Maybe because I never wore anything that smart.

‘Hi again,’ Holly said softly, as she stepped over to the counter.

I had no idea what to say but before I got the chance to think of something, my mum was suddenly next to me. I swear, she was like a bloodhound.

‘Oh my goodness,’ she cried, causing me to inwardly wince. ‘Little Holly, is that you? All grown-up!’

‘She was never little,’ I reminded her curtly, embarrassed as hell.

‘She’ll always be little to me!’ She rushed around the counter to the other side to pull Holly into a warm hug. I watched Holly giggle a little and hug her back. Something swirled in the pit of my stomach. Maybe I wished I could hug Holly too. I hadn’t hugged anyone since I broke up with my ex two years ago.

‘You’re back in Birchbrook! And you look gorgeous!’ my mum declared when they finally parted. She looked back at me. ‘Doesn’t she?’

Fuck. She always put me on the spot. I coughed to give me a second. I decided to avoid the second part of what she had said. ‘Well, uh, she was at Birch Tree Farm when I went over there,’ I replied.

Mum raised both eyebrows, clearly put out that I hadn’t relayed this hot piece of Birchbrook gossip to her.

‘That’s what I was hoping to talk to you about,’ Holly said, meeting my eyes finally. I found myself gripping the counter for something to do with my hands. ‘Maybe I could get a coffee, although I have had a few today…’ She bit her lip, something she used to do when we were younger whenever she was nervous. I was kind of glad I wasn’t the only nervous one. We had been so close once but now it was like we were strangers. It kind of sucked, in all honesty.

It did bring back that protective instinct I’d felt when we were growing up, though. ‘Let’s sit over there,’ I suggested, pointing to the corner table, hoping we could get away from Mum’s eyes and ears. Then I had a sudden memory return to me. ‘I could make your favourite drink instead?’

Holly seemed confused for a second and then a smile broke out across her face, making her look younger and lighter. ‘You remember it? Yes, please!’