‘OK.’
‘Come on,’ Zara said, ‘I want to show you some tricks.’
She tugged his hand and he winked at Alex as he skated away. ‘I think a good trick will be me not falling over on my butt.’
Alex watched them together and smiled. Suddenly she was joined in the seats by the mum of one of the kids in Zara’s class. Alex didn’t really know her but she’d probably nodded hello to her a few times at the school gates.
‘Hi, I thought I’d come over and say hello,’ said the woman. ‘I’m Kayleigh, Jessica’s mum.’
‘Hello,’ Alex said. Jessica wasn’t one of Zara’s friends so she wasn’t sure where this was leading to.
‘I just wanted to say, I find this whole thing a bit weird,’ Kayleigh gestured between Alex, Quinn and Zara.
Alex blinked in surprise at the audacity. ‘Why?’
‘Because he’s her uncle.’
‘Yes, but he’s not my uncle, so I’m not sure why it’s weird.’
‘If it gets serious between you, what will she call him? Uncle Dad?’ Kayleigh laughed.
‘Well right now she calls him Quinn so if…whenwe get married, I imagine that won’t change.’
‘You’re really going to get married?’ Kayleigh pulled a face.
‘I’m sorry, I fail to see how this is any of your business.’
‘It just feels weird. Even Jessica was asking me about it.’
‘Look at them,’ Alex said, pointing to Zara and Quinn. ‘Look at how ridiculously happy they are together. Surely that’s more important than anything else, that Zara is loved and happy. Surely anyone with an ounce of kindness would want that for me too.’
‘I just think he can do better than his brother’s cast-offs.’
Alex felt her mouth fall open in shock at the pure rudeness.
‘It’s just so weird, everyone says so,’ Kayleigh said.
‘Fortunately I couldn’t give a rat’s ass what anyone else thinks.’ Alex smiled as she realised that was true. She didn’t care. They could talk and gossip and laugh all they wanted, it wouldn’t change a thing. ‘I’m in love, he loves me. I am so freaking happy right now. Some sad, lonely people who have nothing better to do with their time than stick their nose in other people’s business really aren’t going to impact on me. Now excuse me while I join my family.’
She got up and skated over to join Quinn and Zara. She wrapped her arms around Quinn and gave him a kiss in front of everyone. Let them talk. They couldn’t ruin this for her, no one could.
Quinn peered out the window of the car into Christmas Gardens. They’d only been there on their stakeout forfifteen minutes and Zara was already bored, lying curled up under a pile of blankets in the back seat of the car, reading a book. Zara had insisted on a proper car stakeout, like you see in the movies and TV shows and although he’d been happy to go along with that, doing it from his house would have been much more comfortable.
There were plenty of Christmas snacks stuffed in the car: mince pies, Christmas-pudding-flavoured fudge, gingerbread men, mini chocolate yule logs, even apple-and-cinnamon cakes decorated with little iced Christmas trees. Alex was still unpacking all the snacks onto the dashboard as if they were going to be here for months, not just an hour or so. Plus she’d made a flask of white hot chocolate which she was currently pouring out into plastic mugs. She then sprayed squirty cream on the tops and sprinkled them with tiny marshmallows before handing the mugs to Quinn and Zara.
Quinn smiled as he took his. She really had thought of everything.
They were parked at the side of the gardens with the house on the far side from where they were, all lit up and twinkling under the abundance of lights. Although slightly unnecessary, Zara was intermittently watching the house and surrounding gardens through a pair of binoculars.
They took a few minutes to drink their hot chocolates, the windows steaming up slightly with their hot breath.
Quinn finished his mug and Alex took it off him and put it, along with hers and Zara’s, back in her bag.
‘I got another message,’ Alex said as she continued to unpack yet more snacks. Quinn knew Alex hadn’t told Zara about the messages because she didn’t want her daughter to figure out St Nick’s true identity from the clues and then blab it all over the town. Alex had promised St Nick anonymity and it looked like she was going to keep that promise. Quinn also knew that Alex didn’t necessarily want to ruin the magic of St Nick by telling her who it was.
‘What did he say?’ Quinn said.
‘He said I should be careful about putting all my duck eggs in one basket.’
