She thought about what Jamie had told her in his excited phone call.She has no one, Mum. This is going to be her first-ever family Christmas.
Her heart had ached imagining Hayley as a little girl, envying all the family Christmases she imagined everyone else was enjoying. And it ached now for the grown woman who still craved the joy of spending the festive season with family, even though they weren’t her own. Was she going to be bitterly disappointed by the reality? Was the whole thing going to be a giant letdown compared to her fantasies?
It seemed it was Jenny’s responsibility to conjure up an atmosphere worthy of the movies.
She needed to work out exactly what that looked like, but first the basics. She needed to persuade Martin to get dressed and help fix the bathroom door.
And that wasn’t going to be easy.
Merry Christmas, Jenny.
Chapter4
Hayley
Hayley clutched the seat of the car, wishing Jamie would slow down. The roads were narrow and windy, and at lunchtime they’d stopped for a romantic crab sandwich in a pretty seaside village, a decision she was now regretting. Not that there had been anything wrong with the sandwich. Far from it. It was possibly one of the most delicious things she’d ever eaten (she’d been convinced she could taste the sea), but unless Jamie stopped taking corners as if he was on a racing track, the whole episode was going to lose its romantic edges (and she would lose her lunch).
“Could you slow down? I’ve never been to this part of England before and I’d like to not die and maybe have time to admire the scenery.”
“You’ll have plenty of time to admire the scenery when we’re home.”
Home.It was an alien word to her, but she liked the way it sounded.
“You still call it home, even though you have your own home in Edinburgh?”
“Yes.” He smiled. “I suppose I have two homes. The place I grew up, and the place I live now. And by the way, Edinburgh is your home too now. I just hope you don’t get bored giving up your nomadic lifestyle.”
“I won’t.” She smiled and gazed at the view. It was dizzying to think that when Christmas was over, she’d be going back to his (she still couldn’t quite think of it as “their”) apartment in Edinburgh. She was used to moving. Always moving. “It’s beautiful here. Wild. I can’t believe it’s snowing. It’s magical.”
“You’re not missing Thailand?”
“I don’t care where I am as long as I’m with you.”
“Northumberland is a special place, and I can’t wait to show it to you.” He reached across and took her hand, which normally she would have loved. She’d spent so much of her childhood starved of affection she now soaked up every morsel in the same way she soaked up sunshine, but right now she wanted him to keep both hands on the wheel.
The thing about whirlwind relationships, as she was discovering, was that every day you learned something new about each other. Take today for example. She’d known from the first day she’d met him that Jamie loved cars, mostly because she’d been standing next to her jeep, which had broken down again, and he’d stopped and saidlet me take a look, and he’d stared down at the engine, muttered something, tweaked something, covered himself in oil, and then the next moment the engine of her jeep was purring happily again. And she’d been so relieved that when she’d asked what she owed him and he’d looked at her and saidhow about dinner, she hadn’t objected. Coming from anyone else that might have sounded creepy, but Jamie was incapable of appearing to be anything other than what he was—good-natured and honest.
She’d known that from the first day.
What she hadn’t known was that he loved driving cars fast down narrow country roads (he also liked running marathons,watching old movies, playing video games and eating very dark chocolate, but she found those obsessions less terrifying).
“What if your family don’t like me? What if I say, or do, the wrong thing?”
“They’re going to love you.”
He took their support and affection for granted, but that was because he’d never been without love in his life. And he’d never had to earn that love. He didn’t live with the fear that people might walk away from him. He had no idea what it was like to be rejected.
“I’m nervous. It feels like an interview. Or maybe an audition.” She remembered a time more than two decades earlier when she’d been sitting on a hard chair wearing a new dress that scratched her skin, trying to look like a poster child. She wasn’t sure what people were looking for but it turned out it wasn’t her.It happens, she was told.It isn’t about you. Hayley had wondered who else it could be about as she was the only child in the room.
“You need to relax.” Jamie slowed down as they approached a sharp bend. “Everything is going to be fine. My parents are relaxed, fun, good people.”
“I’m sure they are, but it feels like a lot going from never meeting someone to spending Christmas with them. Let me just check my facts again.” She’d been memorizing as much as she could to lessen the chances of her doing or saying something wrong. “You’re the oldest. Then there are the twins, Rosie and Becky. They both live in London. Becky is a computer whiz and Rosie makes costumes for the ballet. Rosie is madly in love with Declan, who she married in February, and Becky is single. Not dating anyone, but I’m not going to mention that because she isn’t the type who likes to talk about feelings.” She glanced at him. “How am I doing so far?”
“A star student.” He grinned. “What’s our dog called?”
“Percy, and he’s an English setter. You’ve had him six years.He loves being stroked, but I’m not to let him jump up or he’ll take advantage. He’s not allowed in the bedrooms, but Rosie usually ignores that and sneaks him onto the bed when everyone is asleep.”
“Full marks, but Hayley, you really don’t need to study this as if it’s an exam.”
