She pulled out her phone and logged into Facebook underThe Lovegrove Lighthousepage where she posted nice, heartwarming stories from time to time. She quickly threw up a post.
Who is St Nick?
Since the beginning of December beautifully paintedbaubles have been mysteriously found all over Lovegrove Bay, with instructions from the equally mysterious St Nick to either keep, re-hide or gift to someone else. So many of us have received these gorgeous baubles yet we have no way to thank the person who took so much time to paint them. Everyone wants to know who St Nick is.
The Wonky Tree Studios would love to find out who it is as they would love to offer him, or her, studio space to paint and sell these exquisite baubles. Maybe we can work together as a community to find them. If you’ve found a bauble, where did you find it? Do you live near where baubles have been found, have you seen anyone suspicious hanging around late at night? Do you have CCTV or Ring cam footage of any mysterious people who might be St Nick? If you have any information, no matter how small, that might lead to us finding out who it is, then please messageThe Lovegrove Lighthouse.
While we have no intention of revealing publicly who St Nick is, unless they wish it, hopefully we can persuade them to sell their art in the Wonky Tree Studios next year and then anyone who has not been lucky enough to get a bauble this year might be able to buy a custom-made one, if St Nick is willing to take commissions.
And if you are St Nick and would like to get in touch, anonymously, please do messageThe Lovegrove Lighthouse. We’d love to hear from you.
There, that should work. Alex didn’t want St Nick to feel like it was a witch hunt, not after their incrediblegenerosity. And no matter what happened, if she found out who it was, she would respect their need for privacy and not reveal their identity to anyone, but she really hoped she could find out who it was, especially because talent that special should be celebrated. Getting St Nick to work in the studio, even if their identity remained unknown, would be a big boon for the Wonky Tree Studios and she wanted to be able to do that for Flick and Luke after all their help over the last year or so.
She switched on the lights in her studio and looked around. Her little hobby of making paper sculptures out of pages of a book was something she loved doing. She never, in her wildest dreams, ever thought she’d be doing this kind of thing full time and have her own studio selling her sculptures. And that was all thanks to Luke and Flick.
She had around fifty smallish sculptures on shelves around the room but she knew that half of those would be sold by the end of the week so she was constantly having to replenish the shelves. At this time of year most of her sculptures were Christmas or winter themed and a lot of them were built inside clear plastic baubles. There were also several that depicted scenes from favourite movies that were always very popular. She turned on the fairy lights that adorned the shelves, and the lights on the little Christmas tree in the corner, decorated with paper sculpture baubles.
Alex sat down and started work on a sculpture that depicted a scene fromThe Polar Express.
She had been working at the Wonky Tree Studios foraround eighteen months now and she loved it. Her sculptures sold well and, while she was never going to be going on any world cruises anytime soon and had to supplement her income by doing illustrations for children’s books and the occasional article for the local paper, she wouldn’t want to do anything else. She adored the creative side but more importantly she wanted to do this for Zara because she wanted to show her that she could follow her dreams, have a job she loved, be who she wanted to be. Alex wanted Zara to see her mother going to work and doing something she loved.
And working at the Wonky Tree Studios had the added bonus of working alongside Quinn every day. She had been in love with him pretty much since she first met him. She felt guilty even acknowledging that since she had been married to his brother and even more guilty because the first time they met was at Liam’s funeral.
When she initially met Liam they had hit it off instantly, within six weeks they were living together and after four months, he asked her to marry him. And that was when she realised he was estranged from his family. Whenever she’d brought up his family before, he just muttered something like they didn’t get on and changed the subject. She hadn’t realised they didn’t get on to such an extent that they wouldn’t even come to their son’s wedding.
Alex had been in two minds whether to even let them know he had died because they cared so little forhim, but she had and invited them to the funeral and that was when she found out that he’d never told them about her or Zara. They had a three-year-old granddaughter they didn’t even know existed. They’d arrived at the funeral and Alex had been fully expecting to hate them, but Violet and Henry, his parents, had been utterly lovely and when Quinn came over to introduce himself and offer his condolences he had given her the biggest hug that made her heart ache. It had been a long time since anyone held her like that. With the guilt associated with Liam’s death and all the stress of the previous year she’d ended up crying against his chest. He’d shuffled her into a secluded corner of the hotel where they were holding the wake and simply held her tight until the tears had passed. It was so sweet and kind that she might have handed over a tiny piece of her heart there and then. He had been there for her that day and he had showed up almost every single day since then and every time he did she fell for him a little bit more.
She’d become incredibly close to Violet over the last few years, and after Henry died, that bond had grown stronger as Alex invited her round to dinner fairly regularly so Violet wasn’t alone. Now she felt as close to her as she had to her own mum.
She still felt sad for Liam that he’d never see his daughter grow up, she felt sad for his family, his cousins who all missed him terribly, and his mum especially who talked about him all the time. She felt sad for Zara who wouldn’t get to see her dad again. But now, four yearslater, she felt cautiously optimistic about her future and couldn’t help feeling horribly guilty about that too. With Liam gone maybe it was time she started looking for that someone who could fill the hole in her heart, the one he’d ripped open eighteen months before he died. Although nervous about her upcoming dates, she couldn’t help feeling a little bit excited about what might happen. Somewhere out there might be the man of her dreams.
Her thoughts immediately turned to Quinn.
It was too simplistic to think that Quinn would step up and declare his love for her when he’d never showed any signs of having feelings for her in the past. He was in their lives because Zara was his niece and he loved her and because he and Alex had become really good friends but it was never going to be anything more than that.
Just as she was cutting out a snowflake shape for her sculpture she noticed movement by the door and looked up to see Quinn leaning against it, watching her.
‘Hey, did Zara get to school OK?’
Quinn nodded. ‘I walked her right up to the gate. But you know she’s going to get wise to this soon.’
‘I know, I’m just banking on the part of her that loves spending time with you outweighing her cleverness, at least until she’s eighteen.’
Quinn laughed. ‘I don’t think there’s much chance of that but I will show up every day to take her to school until she figures it out.’
‘Thank you.’
‘I’ll always be here for you. For her,’ Quinn quickly amended.
‘Being there for herisbeing there for me.’
‘I’m here for you too.’
‘You always have been.’
‘No, I mean, whatever you need, whatever you want, I’m your man.’
‘Anything?’
