‘Are you sure?’
‘That’s what friends are for.’
With Michael Bublé’s velvety voice singing Christmas tunes, Nell and her friends put her hotel back together, and she was left feeling more positive than she had in months. Things were finally starting to turn around and she even had Thanksgiving dinner with Harry to look forward to in only a few days’ time. There was a lot to prepare for that too. She wanted to create something special for him. Not a scene from a movie exactly, but with the twinkling lights, the Christmas decorations and the fire burning, it was sure to be a magical evening and one that catapulted their relationship forward into … well, into something, because right now it wasn’t anything at all. She just knew this was the thing to stop him thinking of her as just a hostess and as a woman. The idea sent longing through her body causing the tired aches to intensify.
With a contented sigh as she hauled furniture up from the basement, she daydreamed of another wonderful fantasy where Harry was madly in love with her and her guests joined him in calling her the greatest hostess in the whole of Great Britain. Cat might have said that life wasn’t like a romantic movie and Nell knew that deep down, but there was no harm in believing. Maybe one day her daydreams would come true. There wasn’t actually anything wrong with hoping you’d find a love that made you fizz with excitement every time you saw that person. And her daydreams had never hurt anyone before. It’s not like they would now, either. There was no one to hurt.
Chapter 14
Though Tom was thoroughly enjoying adding even more things to the Christmas window display of the flower shop, slotting in a couple of poinsettia in bright red pots tied with giant gold bows and wooden nutcracker dolls standing proudly to attention, he shivered having gone outside in just his jumper, too preoccupied to find his coat.
He’d seen the exchange between Cat and Brenda and heard all about Cat and Nell’s argument. At least the wedding fair had brought them together again and been a huge success too. It was nice to see Nell looking content again. Even if she did still beam a little brighter when Harry was around.
Then there was Kieran. As his best friend and best man at his wedding, Tom had a duty to check on his mate. Kieran had told him what Cat had said at the wedding fair about the buttonholes, but he had no idea how to actually support his friend. Cat was constantly making all the decisions, and Kieran was too worried about starting a row to say anything much about it. Cat was normally fun and lively, but this behaviour was worryingly erratic. Laid-back Kieran had always steadied her, brought her down to earth, he was her perfect counterpoint, but if she was shutting him out, what exactly did that mean?
At the back of Tom’s mind, he worried that if things carried on as they were, and Cat continued to push ahead as she was, she would end up so stressed at the idea of marrying Kieran, she’d jilt him at the altar. He hadn’t voiced these fears to his friend. It would be too much right now and apart from that one episode at the wreath-making, and Nell mentioning that Cat kept changing her mind on the more minor details, nothing else had happened. Now she’d given Brenda a flea in her ear maybe she’d back off. Unfortunately, all this drama had taken the edge off how successful the wreath-making event had been for Holly Lodge. He’d so wanted for everything to start coming together for Nell, but it seemed life liked to throw more obstacles in her way than an episode of Ninja Warrior.
Stepping outside into the cold air, he examined the window display again. It had a lot of height, but it needed framing more. The two tall nutcracker dolls at the sides were doing a good job but it needed a little more. He still had tons of holly as there were more wreath orders to fill and a holly wreath hanging down from the centre would finish it off perfectly.
Back inside, shivering from not wearing his coat, he settled at his workstation to begin. The Christmas music was in full flow now it was the end of November and he and Janie could often be found having a bop and a singsong. Without his permission, Tom’s thoughts ran to Nell. Her dinner with Harry was coming up on Thursday and it weighed on his shoulders. Swimmers flew across his vision, blurring everything before him and a sharp pain shot through his finger. ‘Ouch!’ He blinked but the squiggly dots made it hard to focus, and they were all he could see against a background of red. ‘Shit!’ He’d cut himself with the secateurs. He hardly ever cut himself. The tiny lapse in concentration combined with the pesky swimmers getting in the way of his vision and he’d split open his finger.
‘Oh no,’ said Janie, coming up behind him. ‘That’s deep, Tom. You’d better go to the hospital and get it checked.’
His vision cleared and his eyes focused on the deep gash in the pad of his left index finger. ‘It’s fine, I’ll just wrap it up and shove a plaster on it. I’m sure it’s not as bad as it looks.’ He squeezed it tight to stop the bleeding, wincing as pain shot through the length of his finger and into his hand. ‘I’m sure it’ll stop in a minute.’
‘I really don’t think it will,’ Janie continued, grabbing some tissues from the box on the worktop and wrapping them around the wound. Almost immediately the tissue became red and sodden. ‘I think that might need stitches. We can do the deliveries when you get back. I can’t wait till I’ve passed my
