He smiled. “I’ll take my chances.”
Their lips met, and for several blissful minutes she forgot about anything and everything that wasn’t Ryan Frost.
27
“Do you have writing paper?”Fred asked her great-aunt.
Ryan had left to check in on his dad and locate an elf costume for her. It hadn’t been easy to stop kissing him. She could still feel the delightful tingle of his beard from where he’d trailed kisses along her throat, and found her hand moving to stroke where he’d been.
“Of course!” said Cam. She was busying herself at the kitchen table, threading slices of dried orange and bay leaves onto a long piece of string. “The art of letter writing is still alive and kicking in our generation. To whom are you writing?”
“Mr. and Mrs. Doukas, the Campbells, and the Riccis at Nonna’s Olive Branch for starters. I need to explain that I didn’t set them up for Warren’s article but also apologize for it. What do you think?”
“I think they’ll appreciate the gesture,” said Aunt Cam,piercing another shiny green leaf with her yarn needle and adding it to the garland.
“Hopefully, they’ll tell everyone else before the town reinstates the ducking stool just for me.”
Aunt Cam chuckled lightly. “You’re a Hallow-Hart; they think you’re a witch already.”
Fred shrugged in agreement. “Also, I have an idea that could help build some bridges, but I want to run it by the family first.”
“Well then,” said Aunt Cam, securing the end of the garland by tying a cinnamon stick to it, and standing up, “I’ll fetch the writing paper; you summon the coven.”
Ten minutes later, Cam reappeared with Aggie. She handed Fred a flattish wooden box, open to reveal a sheaf of paper faintly patterned all over with pine trees, and a separate compartment filled with envelopes. Fred lifted the box to her nose. “Did you spray the paper with perfume?” she asked.
“We gave it a spritz of lavender, patchouli and ylang-ylang to soothe the senses of your recipients,” said Aggie.
“And a drop or two of geranium for its antianxiety properties,” added Cam.
“Oh,” Fred sniffed it again. “Thank you, that’s very thoughtful.”
“And I brought you this too.” Aunt Cam handed her a small pot of gel.
“What is it?”
“A little soothing aloe vera for that beard rash you’ve gotgoing on around your chin and neck.” She smiled knowingly.
“Oh Goddess!” Fred put her hands to her face, but she laughed, opening the pot and dabbing some of the cooling gel around her chin.
The aunts settled themselves at the table and Fred flicked on the kettle for tea.
A moment later, Bella walked in with Liam. Fred thought she’d never seen her mum look more radiant.
“Are you staying, Liam?” Fred asked, her hand hovering over an extra mug.
“No thanks, love, I’ll leave you ladies to your business. I’ve got to get down to the stall. And I have some arrangements to make—romantic getaways, and so forth.” He smiled broadly at Bella, who beamed back at him.
Fred couldn’t help her own smile in response. How had she missed seeing how happy they were around each other? Their auras were practically glowing…she pulled herself up short.Did I just think about auras? This place really is rubbing off on me. She smiled even harder.
With mugs of tea and a plate of digestives present and correct, the meeting began.
“So, here’s what I’m thinking,” Fred began. “I’ll record an intro for Hallow-Hart Crackers, and then—if they’ll let me—I’ll do interviews at all the places Warren slagged off in his article. I’ll make the videos fun, and add in a ‘getting to know the town’ montage, and then I’ll upload one a day to Instagram and TikTok. I’ll tag the restaurants and makethem collaborators on the posts, and that way the traffic generated goes direct to them.”
“Sounds great to me,” said Bella.
Aunt Aggie nodded. “I can’t see why they wouldn’t want to be a part of it.”
“And I wondered if—provided they agree—we could include a Dinner-for-Two voucher, one for each restaurant, in some of our cracker boxes for the Christmas market; make it a part of our campaign, like a lucky dip? I’ll tag the market’s Insta page in the promotion. I know it’s a lot to ask of people who’ve just had their businesses slagged off, to give away freebies, but this would be a fantastic way to get new patrons through their doors. It would get people talking about the place in a good way again,” Fred went on, buoyed by the enthusiastic expressions of her family.
