‘St Nick must have known they’re your favourite flower,’ Quinn said.
‘You think he left it for me?’ Alex said, in surprise.
‘Maybe,’ Quinn said. ‘I mean, it is right outside your house.’
‘Yes, but I can’t keep it.’
‘Why the hell not? It says on the gift label, keep, re-hide or gift to someone else. Why can’t you keep it?’
‘Because everyone who has found one so far has gifted it to someone else. It would be selfish of me to keep it.’
‘That’s not the case at all. Some people have gifted them, some have kept them. I’m sure St Nick wants the bauble to end up with someone who will find joy in that particular design, that’s why he says to gift or re-hide it if that bauble isn’t specific to the person who finds it. But this one is specific to you, it’syourfavourite flower.’
Alex wasn’t convinced, although she really wanted to hang this on her tree. It was gorgeous.
‘Maybe someone else has found it and gifted it to you,’ Quinn went on. ‘That would be insulting to the person who gifted it to you if you were to give it away. And it was outside your door. If St Nick or the person who gifted it meant it for someone else, it would probably have been left somewhere a bit more public or communal. I think this was meant for you.’
Her heart leapt at that thought. ‘Well I certainly don’t want to offend anyone by giving it away.’
‘Come on, let’s find a place for it on your tree. And if you feel guilty about it, you don’t need to tell anyone, it’ll be our little secret.’
She followed him back inside. The house was silent as it should be in the early hours of the morning – Immy had promised Zara an all-night movie marathon but Alex knew Immy would have had her in bed way before midnight. Although the school had already announced they would be closed the next day too, which was supposed to be Zara’s last day at school, so it didn’t really matter if they’d stayed up later.
They walked into the lounge where the tree glowed in the darkness, the Christmas lights twinkling.
‘Where will you put it?’ Quinn asked.
Alex took the bauble carefully out of the box and looked at the tree. ‘I think right here next to Zara’s roller skates would be the best place.’
She hung it on one of the branches where it caught the light of the fairy lights perfectly. It looked wonderful.
‘I love the idea of gifting these Christmas baublessecretly, and it’s certainly captured the hearts of the people of Lovegrove Bay, but there is one problem.’
‘What’s that?’ Quinn asked.
‘His anonymity means I can’t ever thank him. No one can.’
‘Oh, I think he knows how grateful people are, it’s a small town, I’m sure he is seeing all the reactions to it. Besides, someone like St Nick, doing something like this, he’s not doing this for thanks, he’s doing it to spread a little Christmas joy.’
Alex nodded. ‘This thing he’s doing is so lovely and I don’t think he realises how touching and significant it is for the people who receive them. You saw how delighted Zara was with her roller skates bauble the other day, St Nick never got to see that. Unless it is you then you did see it. But so many people have messaged me after seeing that Facebook post saying how happy they were to receive them, some of them have real significance because the baubles remind them of lost loved ones. I just want to give whoever it is a big hug and say thank you. I really hope by Christmas Eve I will have found out who it is and maybe I’ll even give him a bauble of his own. Something he really wants or loves to say thank you for all of this.’
‘That does sound nice. Any clues from the Facebook posts and comments?’
‘Not a single one. No one has ever seen him. How can that be?’
‘He obviously doesn’t want to be found, apart from by you.’
‘Well, if he keeps throwing me red herrings like he did with the elf hat, I’m not going to find him either.’
‘I thought it was pretty funny.’
‘I did too, but it doesn’t help.’
‘Maybe he wants the magic to last until Christmas Eve, then all will be revealed.’
Alex looked at him through narrowed eyes; maybe it really was him after all.
CHAPTER 13
