Cupcakes for Christmas
A Return to Willoughby Close Romance
Kate Hewitt
Cupcakes for Christmas
Copyright© 2018 Kate Hewitt
Kindle Edition
The Tule Publishing Group, LLC
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
First Publication by Tule Publishing Group 2018
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
ISBN: 978-1-949068-90-0
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Epilogue
The Willoughby Close series
Excerpt from A Cotswold Christmas
About the Author
Chapter One
“Hey, Olivia!”
Olivia James looked up from her shopping list with a smile for twelve-year-old Mallory Lang as, on a gust of cold air, she breezed into Tea on the Lea, the tea shop Olivia had been running for the last two years.
Mallory shook her long, blonde hair over her shoulders as she collapsed into one of the white wrought-iron chairs at a small, spindly table and shivered dramatically. “It’s freezing out there. Mum says it might snow.”
“A white Christmas? That would be lovely.” Olivia came around the counter to close the door a bit more firmly; it really was cold, and her little shop’s antiquated bow windows were not double-glazed. Although it was only a little past three, outside the sky was already turning to the colour of pewter and only a few brave souls were walking down Wychwood-on-Lea’s high street, heads tucked low against the chilly December wind.
“Have you got something for me to try?” Mallory asked with pseudo-nonchalance, still sometimes trying to play the cool kid even though Olivia knew her far too well for that. During the two years since she’d moved to Wychwood-on-Lea, she’d become good friends with Mallory’s mother, Harriet, as well as the other three residents of Willoughby Close, a courtyard of converted-stables cottages on the grounds of Willoughby Manor. Harriet and her neighbours Ellie, Ava, and Alice regularly came in to the shop for coffees and chat, and more often than not Olivia pulled up a chair and joined them.
It had been a lovely surprise to find unexpected friends in a village where a single woman pushing forty was considered a bona fide spinster, someone who should invest in a plaid wheelie bag and a tabby cat. Although now, thanks to her mum moving into retired housing two months ago, she was in possession of the latter—a massive, marmalade, and monstrous beast aptly named Dr Jekyll.
“Indeed I do have something for you to try,” Olivia told Mallory. “Another cupcake.” Since Mallory had started secondary school a little over a year ago, she’d been coming into the shop every so often and hanging out for an hour or so before heading home. She’d even started bringing friends along on occasion, so that Tea on the Lea was turning into Wychwood-on-Lea’s cool destination for tweens, not that they had many options.
Besides a couple of pubs and a charity shop, the village nestled next to the Lea River in England’s rolling Cotswolds had very few retail possibilities. Teenagers tended to hang about the village green or the skate park, looking vaguely menacing in their dark hoodies, phones practically pressed to their faces. Far better for them to be in here, scoffing scones and fizzy drinks, which Olivia now stocked in a chilling cabinet for expressly that purpose.
It had been a steep learning curve, taking over her mother’s tea shop six months ago, after having helped her out for a year and a half before that. Tina James was a fantastic baker and a not-so-good business owner, by her own cheerful admission. She simply hadn’t cared about money, never had, preferring to bake and chat, to listen and love, running the shop like her own kitchen, and relying on a double mortgage to keep her afloat.
Olivia had been working tirelessly, trying to boost the little shop’s custom as well as the services and goods it offered. Hence, the cupcakes, as well as the new website, the made-to-order wedding cake service, the venue-for-hire option, and the Mums’ Morning Out she offered once a week, with a box of toys in the corner, and a special two-for-one offer on muffins.
Now Olivia took out her latest creation, made early that morning, when the world had still been pitch black, the winter dawn hours in the offing, the little shop freezing as the pipes clanked and the heat slowly began to kick in.
“My cookies and cream cupcake,” she announced, and placed it in front of Mallory with a flourish. “Chocolate cake and vanilla buttercream icing, with cookie pieces on top,” she added. “Give me your honest opinion.”
Olivia stood back, her hands on her hips, as Mallory took a big bite. One of her more recent initiatives—only in the last few days, as a matter of fact—had been to start offering cupcakes—gorgeous, fluffy, decadent cakes the size of your fist, loaded up with icing and decorated to perfection, a step up from the scones and sponge cake she usually offered, and when placed in the shop’s front bow window in a tantalising display, hopefully enough to entice a passer-by into the shop—and to make a purchase or two.
“This is amazing,” Mallory gushed as she wiped a dab of icing from her upper lip. “The chocolate is so gooey and yummy.” She hesitated, and Olivia’s eyes narrowed.
“But…?”
“But maybe it could use a few more cookie pieces on top? Not just for decoration, but you know, because, yum?”
“Yum. Okay.” Olivia nodded, smiling.
