Page 44 of The Perfect Gift

She touched her glass to his. ‘Cheers.’

After the slightly rocky start, the rest of the evening was a lot more fun and very revealing. Where Frankie’s approach to a task was to lay everything out and work out exactly what she needed to do, Ed was much more act first and ask questions later.

Frankie carefully cut open the top of the box containing the tree and folded back the flaps. A sheet of paper with the instructions sat on top and she retreated to her seat to read them.

‘You don’t need those,’ Ed said, trying to snatch the sheet out of her hand.

She held it out of the way. ‘Don’t be so impatient.’

‘How hard can it be?’ he scoffed as he tipped the rest of the contents out on the floor. ‘These are for the stand.’ He picked up three pieces of plastic and tossed them on the armchair. He reached for one of the tree parts next.

‘Careful!’ Frankie called out. ‘It says here you can’t pull the wires or the lights will break.’

‘I’m being careful!’

And so it went on until they eventually had the tree put together. ‘We’d better make sure the lights are working before we do anything else,’ Frankie suggested when Ed began to spread out the branches.

‘This is going to take all night,’ Ed grumbled, but he did pause to plug the tree in and flip the switch. Golden light sprang to life and, even with the branches all squished together, Frankie felt a little frisson of excitement in her tummy.

His approach to hanging decorations was even more haphazard and after the third time she’d found two baubles the same size and colour next to each other, she banished him to the sofa. Laughing, Ed settled for finishing off the mezze and shouting out ‘helpful’ suggestions.

About half an hour later, Frankie hung the last bauble. She stepped back to examine the tree, returned to it and shuffled a couple of decorations around and then moved away again with a nod of satisfaction. ‘Beautiful.’

‘Yes, you are,’ Ed said, his voice richer and deeper than usual. Frankie turned to face him, her insides all aflutter. He was watching her with an intensity that sent a shiver through her. ‘Come and join me.’

She moved without hesitation, accepting his outstretched hand, the palm still carrying a faint stain that reminded her of the absurdity of their first meeting. How had they gone from that to this in one week? A tiny part of her said perhaps they should be worried, that things were moving too fast, too soon, but the need and longing reassured that voice that everything was fine. She and Ed were playing a little game, that was all. One where they both knew the rules and there would be no losers at the end of it.

Two weeks of fun and relaxation. A holiday from the real world, from the demands and pressures of her life. She was going to pretend she was in one of those holiday movies she loved so much. A Hallmark moment where she got to play the outsider heroine and he the handsome local hero with a quirky, loving family in a village so pretty it was more fairy tale than reality. When the clock struck midnight on New Year’s Eve the spell would be broken and they’d both step back into their real lives with happy memories and no hard feelings.

As he tugged her down into his arms and his lips settled on hers, Frankie let the little voice of doubt go and fully immersed herself in her new role. She opened her mouth to him with a soft moan of desire. It had been too long since she’d felt this good and she was hungry for more. His hands slid under her jumper to tease the base of her spine before shifting lower to shape her bottom and cup her hips and she stopped thinking about anything other than the touch and the taste and the feel of him.

23

Dragging himself from Frankie’s bed in the wee small hours was one of the hardest things Ed had ever had to do.

‘You don’t have to go,’ she murmured, snuggling herself into his side.

‘Don’t make this any harder for me,’ he pleaded with a half-groan. ‘I’ve got an early start in the morning and I wasn’t prepared for an overnight stay. I don’t even have a toothbrush with me.’

She pulled a face and pretended to push him away. ‘Ugh, then you definitely need to go home.’

Ed laughed and leaned over to kiss her forehead. ‘I’ll bring it with me next time.’

‘Oh, you think there’s going to be a next time, do you?’ Frankie rolled onto her back and curled one arm over her head. She was posing for him, the little minx, and Ed didn’t know whether to fall on top of her or roll her over and smack her bottom for being a tease.

‘Stop that! I’m going.’ Ed got up, flinging the quilt further back than he needed to.

Frankie shrieked and scrabbled for it, tugging it back up to her chin. ‘That was mean.’

‘So is teasing me.’ Ed fumbled around on the floor, hunting for his clothes in the dim light of the single bedside lamp. ‘Where the hell are my pants?’

Frankie burrowed under the quilt and he watched in bemusement as the shape of her wriggled down towards the foot of the bed. ‘Ah-ha,’ her muffled voice declared, and she emerged from underneath the bedding with his red-and-white-checked boxer shorts in one hand. She waved them in the air like a striker celebrating a goal and he snatched them from her with a laugh and quickly pulled them on. It was chilly in the room now the heating had gone off and he made fast work of pulling on the rest of his clothes.

Frankie sat like a little buddha all bundled up in the quilt and watched him. ‘Are you sure you need to go?’

‘Do you remember how garlicky those roasted vegetables were?’ he reminded her.

‘Bleurgh.’ Frankie pulled a face. ‘Yes, you definitely need to go home.’ Her expression grew serious. ‘What time does the fayre start tomorrow?’