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Brooke glanced at him. He looked like a man who hadn’t slept at all. And he kept looking at Izzy, who seemed to be doing everything in her power not to catch his eye.

Her inner matchmaker wanted to intervene, but at the same time she knew she couldn’t interfere. She didn’t know these people. There were probably good reasons why they weren’t together despite the chemistry pulsing between them.

“Tread carefully up there,” Mabel said. “I’m not sure of the state of it. I can’t guarantee you won’t put your foot through the floorboards.”

“I can go up in the attic if you like?” Izzy emerged from under the table. Her hair had freed itself from the clip she’d used to restrain it and fell in soft strands around her face. “I’m not afraid of spiders.”

Elsie shuddered. “I hate spiders. They’re crawly and they move quickly so you never know where they might be hiding.” She picked up Crumpet. “I’m going to read in the library until we’re ready to make pancakes. And after I’ve done drawing with Mabel, can we make decorations?”

“We can.” Izzy pulled the clip out of her hair and resecured it. “Let’s see what Mabel has up there first. I’m sure there will be plenty of things we can use.”

Matt and Jason, together with Izzy and Mabel, headed up the stairs and Brooke took both girls into the library.

The door was open so she heard the occasional thump, a shout of laughter and the murmur of voices.

Eventually, Matt and Jason reappeared balancing various boxes, and Izzy came in clutching a long, narrow box.

“We think this might be a Christmas tree!” She put it down and sneezed. “Excuse me. I think we may have brought down more dust than decorations.”

“I hadn’t realised we had that much.” Mabel surveyed the boxes. “I’m not sure how much of it will be any good. Some of it has probably disintegrated with age.”

Brooke caught an uncertain look on her face and wondered if this was going to be hard for her. Maybe the decorations had emotional significance. Would they remind Mabel of past Christmases? Her estranged daughter?

They were about to unbox the past, and that had to be painful, and yet Mabel seemed determined to do it.

What exactly were they about to discover?

22

Izzy

It was like stepping into one of her Christmas fantasies. Family, gathered together (not her family but that made it all the better). Snow falling outside, a cosy room filled with books. Children and laughter. There was something comforting about being surrounded by people whom you knew a little enough to like them, but not enough to be irritated by them. Because they were essentially strangers, they were all being excessively polite and thoughtful to each other. It was several steps up from the previous Christmas when she’d paced the streets rather than sit in her empty apartment trying not to think about the fun other people were having.

There was only one thing stopping her relaxing and enjoying the moment, and that was Jason.

She hadn’t slept at all the night before, and she blamed him for that. The conversation he’d insisted on.

He’d stirred up memories she’d been trying to forget.

It was true that there was a subject they hadn’t talked about, but she’d told herself that there was really nothing to talk about.

It had been one night, that was all. One night when she’d been feeling sad and lonely and her willpower had slid south along with her mood. She’d sneaked out early from the work summer party, but only after doing her duty and networking with everyone she was supposed to talk to. Having made a great deal of noise in a short time in the hope that everyone would have noticed her and assume she was still around somewhere, she’d slipped away quietly and bumped into Jason doing the same thing. They’d become co-conspirators and somehow they’d ended up grabbing a pizza and eating it in the sunshine on the banks of the Charles River. After that, they’d gone for a long walk. Before long, they were both laughing and bonding over difficult clients and colleagues. Her mood had lifted. She wasn’t exactly sure who kissed who first, but one minute they’d been walking and talking and the next they’d been kissing, and kissing had led to—

“Izzy!” Poppy bounced onto her lap and tugged at her shoulder. “Open it. Open it.”

“Yes.” Elsie was almost vibrating with excitement. “Open the box! We want to see. Your face is all red. Why is your face all red?”

“Well, because—” Because she’d been thinking of Jason and that moment they’d closed the door of his apartment. One perfect night. “I’m hot. All that climbing up and down stairs to the attic. It was quite a workout.”

Pushing aside memories of slow kisses and skilled hands, she settled Poppy onto the rug next to her and opened the long, narrow box that they’d carefully manoeuvred down from the attic. Inside was a silvery-white Christmas tree.

Elsie gasped. “It’s a tree! A snowy tree.”

“It has been a while since I saw that tree.” Mabel sat down on the nearest chair. “Walter and I bought it when we lived in our first house in Boston. It came out every year until—well, until he died. We used to joke about this tree, because although we had thousands of real trees right outside our door, and despite the fact Walter always cut down at least two real ones, we still put this one up in the library.”

Izzy had a feeling she’d been about to say something else. Every year until—what? Was it losing Walter that had driven Mabel to store it away out of sight in the attic or something else?

“It’s pretty.” Elsie touched the branches with something close to reverence. “It looks as if we’ve brought it in out of the snow. Can we put it up?”