Snowy hugs,
St Nick
CHAPTER 14
Quinn let himself into Alex’s kitchen later that night as Alex, Immy and Zara were all busily getting layered up with hats, scarves and gloves ready for the parade.
‘Hey,’ Zara said, noticing him first.
‘Hey Rocket, how was your day with Harley?’
‘Good, we made the world’s biggest snowman. Jake helped.’
‘That’s great, you’ll have to show it to me before it melts,’ Quinn said. He could see that the idea of having a new dad was definitely appealing to Zara right now. He hoped he could be that for her one day and he vowed if he ever got that honour he’d make damned sure he would do a better job than his brother ever did.
He glanced over at Alex who was watching him. He so wanted to walk over and kiss her right now. Immy knew about them, Zara sort of knew, but he wasn’t sure how Alex would feel about such a public display of affection, so he settled on a little wave.
‘Are we all ready? We don’t want to miss Santa,’ Alex said, ushering everyone out of the door. Immy and Zara went first, chatting away at a hundred miles an hour about Santa, the reindeer and the Brownies Christmas party sleepover. Immy was so good for her.
As Alex ushered Quinn out, she stroked her hand up his back and leaned up and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. He was looking forward to doing so much more that night.
Zara took his hand as they started walking down the hill and he quickly pushed any dirty thoughts about what he’d like to do to her mum out of his head.
‘I’ve drawn some monsters for you,’ his niece told him. ‘Maybe you can turn them into real-life monsters.’
‘I’d love that. I’m always looking for inspiration for new monsters.’
‘I think I’d like to be an artist like you and make monsters when I grow up. That’s the coolest job ever.’
‘It is a cool job. I love it.’ Quinn didn’t want to tell her it didn’t pay particularly well. It paid enough to cover his bills, just about, but some months paid more than others and he was able to put money in savings for those months that he didn’t make enough. But he wasn’t going to do anything to dampen her dreams, especially as he knew her career choices would change a hundred times between now and when she turned eighteen. And if she still wanted to make monsters for a living when she was older, he’d do everything he could to help her. If she wanted to be an astronaut he’d do everything in his power to make that happen too.
‘Look, there’s my snowman.’ Zara pointed excitedly to the huge snowman standing in the middle of a large garden belonging to the little pink house on the corner. She dragged him over to have a look. ‘Isn’t it brilliant?’
‘This is really cool,’ Quinn said.
‘Literally,’ Immy laughed.
‘It’s massive,’ Alex said. ‘It has to easily be eight foot tall or more.’
Zara was beaming. ‘It took us hours to build it and Jake had to get a ladder out so we could put the buttons and carrot on the face.’
‘You’ve done a fantastic job,’ Quinn said. ‘He’s really smooth and he has a great shape. If you’re going to be an artist you have to take the time to get these little details right and you’ve done this perfectly.’
‘Like St Nick,’ Zara said, as they started walking back down the hill towards Christmas Gardens. ‘He takes time to get the little details right, like knowing that purple is my favourite colour.’
‘Yes, that’s right,’ Quinn said.
‘And knowing that peonies are Mum’s favourite flower.’
‘Yes.’
‘Not many people would know those things,’ Zara said.
‘That’s true, they wouldn’t,’ Alex said, looking over at Quinn.
He smiled.
‘Maybe it’s someone we know,’ Immy said.
