‘Morning,’ Quinn said, letting himself into Alex’s kitchen the next day or rather later on that same morning.
Her face lit up at seeing him and he loved her reaction. His heart felt so full of her. This was the woman he was going to marry one day and, yes, that day may be many years in the future but the fact he got to be with her now, albeit secretly, was good enough for him.
She surreptitiously looked over her shoulder to see if Zara was around before wrapping her arms around him and giving him a kiss. ‘Morning,’ she said, the biggest smile on her face.
‘I love you,’ Quinn whispered. He was never going to get tired of saying those words to her or hearing them from her too. He never thought this would happen so it was like having all his Christmases come at once.
‘I love you too, so much. Come for dinner tomorrow night, I want Zara to get used to seeing you more often,not just popping in before school or at work. I want her to be OK with this before we launch it on her.’
That made him feel happy too. If Alex wanted to tell Zara that must mean she wanted more than this friends-with-benefits arrangement.
‘Of course, I’d be happy to,’ he said.
‘Happy to do what?’ Zara said, appearing in the kitchen with her nose in a book.
Quinn quickly stepped back away from Alex, cursing that he hadn’t heard her coming.
‘Umm, Quinn is coming for dinner tomorrow.’
Zara nodded, her attention focussed on the book. ‘OK.’
‘Hey Rocket, I have some news. Santa’s house was decorated overnight,’ Quinn said.
The book was lowered, her eyes wide with excitement. ‘For real?’
‘Yes. It looks pretty cool.’
‘Did you see it happen?’
‘Didn’t see or hear anything. Went to bed around eleven, woke up this morning and it’s completely transformed. The elves must have done it through the night.’
‘That’s amazing. I bet they did it with magic.’
‘I imagine so.’
‘And I’ve just heard that Santa is arriving this evening, at five o’clock,’ Alex said, as if his arrival hadn’t been planned with military precision for the last six months or more.
‘That’s amazing. Can we go and see it this morning?’ Zara said, excitedly.
‘Yes, of course,’ Alex said.
‘I’ll go and get dressed,’ Zara said, for once abandoning her book. ‘And you two can carry on kissing.’
She left the room and they stared at each other in shock.
‘I guess she’s OK with it,’ Alex said.
‘I guess so.’
Word had clearly got around as what looked like hundreds of young children were wandering round Christmas Gardens and the house in awe as they looked at all the decorations and lights. Alex hadn’t had a chance to have a proper look at all the decorations last night and the overall effect, but in the daylight and with the fake and real snow sparkling in the winter sunshine, it looked spectacular. Christmas trees were placed around the gardens in a kind of forest trail with little animals and magical folk dotted along the path, and all of the trees were beautifully decorated with lights or garlands or baubles. The house itself looked wonderful, with two large beautifully decorated Christmas trees that were easily twelve foot high or more standing sentry either side of the door. The door was surrounded by a huge bauble garland archway and there were several oversized wrapped presents dotted around. Each window was festooned with a bauble wreath and lights and there were illuminated icicles and snowflakes hanging from the eaves. The whole house was cappedoff with the incredible roof which looked like the snow was a foot or more deep as it sparkled in the daylight.
Zara was looking at it all with wide eyes and her mouth open. ‘It’s beautiful.’
‘It really is,’ Immy said. ‘The elves have done a wonderful job.’
The house door was open and people were wandering around inside. Santa wasn’t officially due to arrive until tonight, but in the meantime the children were delighted to have a little sneak peek into his home. Alex knew that Quinn’s upstairs flat would be locked so there was no chance of anyone rooting around in his home and touching his stuff.
‘Is it weird that people are in your home?’ Zara said to Quinn.
