He frowned in sympathy. ‘My God, that is tough. I’m so sorry you went through this.’
‘Thanks. It was hard but we had no choice but to try and get through it. Before Steph started her treatment, we went for the whole Christmas to the max thing. You could barely move for decorations and presents.’ Lottie had crunched her credit card to spoil her sister and the twins, and her parents, relatives and friends had also gone a bit mad. Still, she had no regrets.
‘You must have been out of your mind with worry,’ he said softly.
‘It was hard but a hundred times harder for Steph than me.’
‘How’s she doing now?’
‘She’s OK. She has to have regular checks and the treatment had lots of after-effects but we try to stay positive. Touch wood,’ Lottie said, flattening her palm on the log’s surface. ‘One thing’s for sure, this Christmas has got to be better than last.’
He let the silence hang for a second, as if he didn’t know how to reply. Perhaps he felt uncomfortable at Lottie’s unexpected display of emotion. Many people couldn’t deal with illness and if they’d never had a close family member affected, it was impossible to imagine how they might feel. Or perhaps he didn’t even want to imagine.
There was no time for any more conversation because Lottie’s phone buzzed with a text from Shayla, asking her to return urgently to the house to meet some potential clients.
‘I really have to go. Thanks for the tree. For everything,’ she said.
‘No problem.’
Lottie nodded and scooted off to the Bothy to change again. While she scrubbed her nails, removed a spruce twig from her hair and redid her lipstick, she thought about her conversation with Jay. He’d avoided revealing anything about why he didn’t celebrate the season and had allowed her to do all the talking. Lottie thought about the reindeer, Santa’s grotto, families converging on the Christmas tree centre. Not only was Christmas the busiest time of year for Jay, he also obviously loathed it. It was the perfect storm for him.
She didn’t regret telling him about Steph, even though she didn’t talk about it much at work.
However, she’d held back the other reason that the previous Christmas had been so tough: that she’d been dealing with her own heartache over Connor but had had to force her problems into the background in the light of her sister’s far more serious situation.
It had been all she could do to function at work and all her energy and cheerfulness went into supporting Steph, the girls and her parents.
Yet it had hurt; it had hurt like hell and she had loved Connor. She’d thought he loved her. Perhaps she was simply hopeless at judging any man’s feelings? Jay had seemed empathetic and he’d revealed a little more about himself … but she wasn’t under any illusions.
It was too soon to even think of any guy romantically – especially one who’d only just moved in next door and worked with her. Better not to even start anything, and that meant flirting too.
When she went into the outer office, she looked through the glass windows and saw Shayla walking around her own office, phone at her ear. Originally from north London, Shayla herself had worked as a hotel receptionist until her grandpa had left her a small inheritance that she’d invested in a tiny boutique bed and breakfast.
Her battle to do it up on a shoestring and make it pay had featured on a TV series. Her success and personality had led to more media work, enabling her to invest in more properties, including Firholme. Before Shayla took over, it had been a rather dated hotel. She’d bought it in early spring and spent several months – and a serious amount of money – restoring the main house and converting the outbuildings to a café and shop.
It had reopened in early September just after Lottie had joined, and Shayla intended to make it a must-visit destination and events venue that visitors and locals returned to in all seasons of the year.
Lottie would love to own – or at least be in charge – of a place like Firholme, and was hoping her role as events manager might be expanded if Firholme could thrive – but that was dependent on her doing a great job and bringing in more business.
Shayla waved at Lottie to enter the office. As Lottie closed the door as quietly as she could, Shayla wound down her call.
A few minutes later, they walked up to the house together. Lottie decided to dive straight in with her concerns about the decorations.
‘Shayla, I’ve just been to the Christmas centre with Jay. While we were choosing the trees for the house, I had a thought about the décor. What about keeping the minimal tones but adding a different accent colour in each room? It would look really striking and help show potential couples we can match any wedding theme.’ Lottie went in with the clincher. ‘Plus, it would save money. Some of those uber cool monotone decs are very pricey.’
‘Hmm. I think you’re right … I’d been wondering about the colours myself and agree we could do with something a bit more, er, cheerful.’
Buoyed by her boss’s response, Lottie outlined her ideas on a walk-through of the main ground-floor rooms. Shayla seemed enthused and happy to let her deal with the styling. Should she message Jay and tell him that the grey was out, and colour back in? It wasn’t part of his job. Was she simply looking for a reason to text him?
How did he really feel about having listened to her problems?
Next, they headed upstairs where Shayla wanted to get Lottie’s opinion on a possible makeover for some of the rooms in the spring. The view from the main bridal suite was stunning, with a magnificent window overlooking the lake and mountains. Lottie couldn’t help thinking what a romantic setting
