‘Come on,’ said Alice. ‘Let’s make a wish.’
They wrote something on a star, then sealed it in a plastic bauble and went to the tree.
‘What did you wish for?’ she asked Jamie.
‘Same wish I always have.’
That intrigued Alice. She reached up to a high branch and attached her own wish. ‘I guess we’re not supposed to tell.’
Jamie shrugged. ‘I don’t believe in superstition.’
‘But you just made a wish.’
He grinned. ‘Yeah, but that’s for you. Whenever I have to make a wish, I do it for you.’
Alice tilted her head to one side as she watched him place his wish. ‘What do you always wish for me?’
He gazed into her eyes. ‘Happiness.’
Alice was quite sure her heart just melted into a pool of slush. Something definitely fizzed in her stomach, and her cheeks were starting to ache from smiling. ‘You don’t believe in such things, yet you make wishes for me?’
‘You’re my angel. You deserve all the wishes.’
Alice was so glad she had made a wish for his happiness now that she knew he wasn’t using wishes on himself. ‘You deserve good things too.’
His smile was small. ‘I have all I need.’
She went to tell him she had all she needed as well now but closed her mouth on seeing his glare directed over her shoulder. Her immediate thought went to Alan. Jamie must have spotted him for sure, but as she turned, she saw his twin, Shannon, marching their way.
‘Oh, there you are.’ Shannon’s dark hair and blue eyes were so like Jamie’s, but she had a natural sneer to her features that he didn’t. ‘You weren’t at Seaview.’
‘What are you doing here?’ he asked, making no attempt to greet her.
‘Hello, Shannon.’ Unlike Jamie, Alice opted for polite.
Shannon rolled her eyes up and down Alice’s coat. ‘Thought you’d got away with it, didn’t you?’
Alice had no idea what she was talking about. ‘Away with what?’
‘Taking my nan’s B&B.’
Before Alice could respond, Shannon closed in on her face.
‘Well, think again, Dipple. I’ll be seeing you tomorrow morning. Make sure you’re around at ten.’ And with that, Shannon stormed off, disappearing into the crowd.
Alice looked at Jamie. ‘What just happened?’
Chapter 14
Jamie
Jamie made sure he didn’t have work at the café, as he wanted to be at the B&B for when his sister showed up to talk to Alice. Not once had she contacted him in eight years, and according to Alice, Shannon hadn’t bothered with Mabel either. He knew his twin had moved to Australia, but that didn’t mean she had to cut their grandmother off all together.
He paced the foyer, checking the clock behind the desk every two minutes, wishing Shannon would arrive earlier than arranged, as he wanted to know what her plan was.
She always had an agenda, but he hoped she had changed over the years, and he wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt. After all, the people around him were giving him a second chance.
His instincts told him trouble was brewing. Shannon had rage in her eyes the night before at the tree lighting. Why on earth she had it in her head that Alice had taken their grandmother’s business was beyond him.
