Christmas at the Little Village Bakery

by Tilly Tennant

  ‘I wouldn’t have minded your feet. You could have warmed them on my hot butt.’

  ‘Your butt is hot,’ he agreed, ‘but I’m not sure foot warmer should be its primary function.’

  Tori nuzzled into him. ‘Come back to bed now and I’ll warm the whole of you up.’

  ‘I’d love to but I think I’d better get this place in order before my parents arrive.’

  ‘It looks ok to me.’

  ‘It’s really not. I haven’t been here for months so there must be inches of dust on everything.’

  ‘But this is the last time we’ll have the place to ourselves until after Christmas, so maybe the dust can wait just half an hour…’

  Spencer pressed his mouth to hers. The doubts she had been harbouring melted. When they were together, everything felt right and it was hard to understand how she could ever feel otherwise. She believed he loved her, and when he kissed her she felt certain.

  ‘Only half an hour?’ he said. ‘That’s never enough with you.’

  ‘I know,’ she whispered, falling into the sea of his eyes as she reached to kiss him again. He was her future, and whatever was in his past, she had to let it go and believe that it would stay there. ‘I was lying about that in the hope you’d forget about the cleaning once I got you in my clutches.’

  ‘What the hell…’ Spencer flipped her onto her back and rolled on top of her. ‘Who needs a bed when we have the sofa right here?’

  Jasmine shoved open the doors of the bakery, and as she lugged in the car seat along with Oscar’s bags, Darcie ran from behind the counter to help her. It was snowing again and Jasmine shook the flurries from her hood as she handed the car seat with Oscar in it to Darcie. Millie had just given some change to one of her fans from the pub – Jim or Saul, Darcie still didn’t know which was which – and as he left the shop, Millie lifted Oscar from the car seat and hugged him close.

  ‘Hey, my little man. Did you have a good time with Aunty Jasmine?’ she crooned.

  ‘He’s been as good as gold,’ Jasmine said. ‘And you look like a different woman this morning,’ she added with an approving nod.

  ‘I feel like a different woman. I’d forgotten that night-time can be used for sleeping as well as feeding and burping. Was he ok with the expressed milk?’

  ‘No problem at all.’

  ‘Have you got time for a cup of tea?’

  Jasmine looked at her watch. ‘I have to get the triplets before lunch, but I should be ok for a quick one.’ She took a seat at an empty table, and Millie started to hand Oscar back to her when Darcie interrupted.

  ‘You sit down,’ she said to Millie. ‘We’re quiet right now so I’ll get the drinks.’

  ‘Oh, you are an angel,’ Millie smiled. ‘You’ll join us, won’t you? Might as well if we’ve got nobody in. The pies for Colleen won’t be ready for half an hour or so.’

  Darcie nodded and went to make the coffees while Jasmine and Millie fussed over Oscar and Jasmine gave a detailed breakdown of how he’d been overnight. When Darcie returned, she found Millie shaking her head in some wonderment.

  ‘How did you get him to be so calm?’ she asked. ‘It sounds like he was a dream.’

  Jasmine smiled. ‘I suppose it comes with practise. And it’s so much easier when they’re not your own. Even if he’d been crying all night I’d know that I was going to give him back at some point. Your mindset is different and it’s a lot more stressful knowing that this is your life for the next few years.’

  ‘Don’t remind me,’ Millie said. She kissed a now sleeping Oscar on the head as she cradled him in her arms. ‘Dylan says the same thing, but it’s hard not to feel like a failure.’ She turned to Darcie with a smile as she put a cup of coffee in front of her. ‘I don’t know what I’d do without my wonderful cousin.’

  Darcie sat next to her but didn’t say a word. Her plan to leave after Christmas was still very much in her mind, but the guilt was already beginning to set in over her decision.

  ‘So,’ Millie asked, ‘how was Rich this morning?’

  Jasmine rolled her eyes. ‘As grumpy as he usually is with a hangover.’

  ‘But he was ok with having Oscar overnight?’

  ‘I doubt he even noticed – he was more or less out cold as soon as he hit the pillow. I slept in Reuben’s room with Oscar. There was a lot less snoring in there, I can tell you.’

  ‘Oh, I bet. My little Oscar doesn’t snore. He makes every other noise under the sun and he makes a few smells but he doesn’t snore.’

  ‘Just like his dad then,’ Jasmine said, raising her eyebrows. She turned to Darcie. ‘Have you recovered from your shift at the pub with my brother?’

  ‘It was ok,’ Darcie said carefully.

  ‘So he didn’t have you dancing on the bar with him when Slade came on the Christmas CD? It wouldn’t be the first time the Dog and Hare has had that treat.’

  ‘Oh no. He spent most of the night talking to Rich and Spencer.’

  ‘I see… But Tori was there?’

  ‘Oh, yes! But she mostly just watched them get drunk. She helped me a bit behind the bar, actually, towards the end of the night.’

  ‘Sounds about right that someone would have to bail them out,’ Jasmine snorted. ‘But it was nice of Tori to do that. She’s really lovely; I’m so happy for Spencer that he’s found the right girl.’

  Millie looked down into her coffee and Darcie was struck by the sudden heavy silence. Was there something she was missing?

  ‘Anyway…’ Jasmine rallied. ‘Oscar was such a good boy that it got me thinking…’

  Millie looked up. ‘You’d have him again?’

  ‘Of course. In fact, having him last night has made me realise how much I’ve missed a baby around the place. In fact, he’s made me quite broody.’

  Millie’s eyes widened. ‘You don’t mean…’

  ‘I want another.’

  ‘But you already have three!’ Darcie squeaked, unable to help herself.

  ‘I do,’ Jasmine laughed. ‘But they’re ten in a couple of months and already quite independent. Soon they’re not going to need me at all. I think I’d like to have one more before I shrivel up into a barren husk of a woman.’

  ‘One more with you might mean four more,’ Millie said darkly.

  ‘I know that too,’ Jasmine replied. ‘But I figure the likelihood of another multiple is quite small.’

  ‘I’m not sure of the statistics but I think you might be persuading yourself of that fact more than anyone else.’

  ‘Maybe,’ Jasmine smiled.

  ‘Have you mentioned it to Rich?’ Millie asked.

  Jasmine wrinkled her nose. ‘Sort of, before I left to come over here.’

  ‘And it didn’t go down too well?’

  ‘You could say that. What he actually said was something along the lines of over his dead body.’

  ‘I suppose you do have your hands full already,’ Millie mused.

  ‘Don’t side with him!’ Jasmine laughed. ‘You’re supposed to back me up!’

  ‘But I can see his point. Poor Rich doesn’t cope well with stress.’

  ‘We coped alright with three at once so I don’t see how one more would push him over the edge.’

  ‘He’s got more work on now that his career is taking off. You too, come to think of it.’

  ‘True, but we have a good support network, and I don’t think we’d be the first working parents in the world. I’m sure we’d manage.’

  Millie looked unconvinced. She blew out a long breath. ‘What makes you think he’ll back down?’

  ‘He won’t,’ Jasmine said with a wicked grin. ‘But we’ll see how he holds out over Christmas when I refuse his conjugal rights.’

  ‘Devious,’ Millie said.

  ‘I know…’

  The conversation was interrupted by Dylan hauling a huge plastic tray through the front doors.

  ‘How did it go?’ Millie asked keenly.

  He nodded, beating the snow from his
coat. ‘They seemed happy enough, but I suppose we’ll really know when their customers have tried them.’

  ‘A new pub in the next village,’ Millie replied to Jasmine’s questioning look. ‘They’re taking our steak pies on a month’s trial but we’re hoping they’ll become a big customer.’

  ‘That’s brilliant,’ Jasmine said.

  ‘We certainly need them. It’s been so quiet here the last couple of months, which has been good for motherhood, but not great for the business.’

  ‘It’s been cold, though,’ Jasmine said, ‘and people have been thinking of other things in the run-up to Christmas. Things will improve in the summer.’

  ‘Well,’ Dylan said as he sat down at their table, ‘we have plenty of ideas if they don’t. We won’t be letting the bakery go without a fight. After all, if it wasn’t for this place, I wouldn’t have my beautiful girlfriend and very noisy baby.’ He leaned in to place a passionate kiss on Millie’s lips.

  Darcie looked away to where snow was gathering in the corners of the window frame. She was sorry that she wouldn’t be here in the summer to help get their business expansion plans off the ground, but it was better for everyone in the long run. And right now, with Dylan throwing loving looks in Millie’s direction, it was almost more than she could bear. How could she carry on living this way? It was as if she was a time bomb, and any moment she might blow and tell them everything. Darcie couldn’t risk the consequences of that – it might drive a wedge between her and Millie and she wouldn’t allow that to happen no matter what else did.

  ‘Nobody in Honeybourne would let this place go without a fight,’ Jasmine said. ‘That’s how we work around here, we support each other.’

  ‘I know.’ Millie smiled at Darcie to indicate she was included in that support.

  It added to Darcie’s guilt, particularly as she recalled how little support she had offered Millie when her ex-boyfriend had died. She had been young at the time – at least she felt a lot younger than she did now – and she hadn’t really understood what had happened, but she vividly remembered the day Millie had decided to leave their home town and how she hadn’t tried to persuade her she shouldn’t. Things had worked out in the end, but it could have been a very different outcome. Perhaps that was part of the reason why she’d felt the urge to come down and help Millie at the bakery. But even that pure motive had been tainted by something she now felt ashamed of.

  ‘So…’ Dylan said, grabbing Millie’s mug and taking a slurp. ‘What were you all looking so sneaky about when I came in?’

  Millie and Jasmine looked at each other and then burst into laughter. Dylan shot Darcie a bemused look. ‘That good, eh?’

  ‘Please stop pacing, you’re making me nauseous.’ Tori patted the sofa next to her. Spencer shook his head. The sun was up now, the snow lying in drifts in the garden and the sky heavy with more to come. Spencer and Tori had spent the morning cleaning and putting up Christmas decorations. Spencer had inherited most of them from his parents when they moved away, and although they were a little nibbled around the edges – the tinsel was torn and threadbare in places, baubles scratched and cracked, and the fairy had lost half a wing – he had smiled at the sight of them. It finally felt like Christmas, but not one he completely recognised. It was like Christmas was old and new, all at the same time: same old decorations, new and very different life.

  ‘You’re not getting me on that sofa again,’ he replied. ‘It’ll end in filthiness and my parents have to sit on that in about ten minutes from now.’

  ‘It won’t end in filthiness if we only have ten minutes, will it?’

  ‘I could manage filth in ten minutes and sitting next to you is too tempting. It wouldn’t be any good, of course, but you might want to get used to the idea for when I’m old and can’t manage more than ten minutes.’

  Tori giggled. ‘Please just sit down.’

  ‘I can’t.’

  ‘I thought they were cool, your parents? Dylan told me they were.’

  ‘They are. That’s why I’m nervous about you meeting them. They’re a bit too cool.’

  ‘Is that even a thing? How can someone be too cool?’

  ‘Believe me, it’s possible.’

  ‘Well, if they made you they can’t be that bad.’

  ‘You haven’t met them yet. Save that opinion until later today.’

  Spencer sat down next to her with a deep sigh. ‘This is crazy, isn’t it? We shouldn’t be worrying about stuff like this, we should only have to care about what we feel for each other. Why are we getting worked up over it?’

  Tori prodded him playfully in the chest. ‘I’m not, buster. It’s you having the nervous breakdown.’

  ‘So you don’t care if your parents like me or not? Honestly?’

  ‘I didn’t say that, but I only really care because you care.’

  Spencer kissed her lightly on the nose. ‘God, I wish I could be more chilled about it all. Things seemed so much easier when it was just you and me having fun before all this parent business, but this feels like the real world now.’

  ‘It is the real world, dummy. It’s always been the real world, we just kept it real small. But if we’re serious – if you’re serious – about us moving to the next phase, and we have been engaged for eight months now so I hope you are, then we have to do this. Right?’

  Spencer nodded. ‘You’re right. But I won’t say I told you so when you decide that my parents are so wacky and embarrassing that you don’t want to marry me after all.’

  ‘I like wacky and embarrassing. That’s why I dated you.’

  ‘Ha ha, very funny.’

  There was a knock at the front door, and Spencer shot to his feet. ‘They’re here!’

  ‘Yay!’ Tori squeaked, getting up with him and grabbing him by the hand. ‘Let’s go meet the parents!’

  Spencer couldn’t help but laugh, even though his stomach was doing backflips. At least someone was excited to see his mum and dad. If anyone had asked, he wouldn’t have even been able to articulate what his misgivings were, but whenever Lewis and Jenny Johns were around, he was always filled with some vague sense that he was a disappointment to them in some way. He wasn’t exciting or daring or spontaneous like they were. He wasn’t doing some crazily romantic astrophysics research job like his dad did in Barcelona, nor was he a successful freelance journalist and political activist like his mum. He didn’t drive a mod scooter, nor did he flamenco dance three nights a week, or paint or sculpt or play the violin or do any of the amazing things they did. He was just a teacher in a village school. He was just Spencer. Somehow, it never felt like enough, no matter how many times they told him they were proud.

  But when he and Tori opened the front door together, ready with smiles and hugs, they found not Spencer’s parents but Ruth Evans on the doorstep.

  ‘Ah…’ Spencer said, not knowing what else to say.

  Tori shot a quick glance at Spencer before smiling brightly at Ruth. ‘What can we do for you?’

  ‘Ooh, look at you, all cosy in the house like a married couple already,’ Ruth said, nudging her way forwards as if trying to get across the threshold in a move so furtive that they might not even notice she was doing it until she was in.

  ‘Oh no, not quite,’ Spencer said, subtly blocking the doorway in a match to Ruth’s stealth. ‘We were expecting—’

  ‘Lewis and Jenny,’ Ruth interrupted. ‘I know. Dylan Smith told me they were due to arrive any time now.’

  Spencer stared at her. He couldn’t help it. Ruth had some odd notions of boundaries, but this was a new level of impertinence, even for her. She knew his parents were due at any moment and that he hadn’t seen them for God knew how long, and she still thought that was a good time to come round? Not only that, but she also knew that it was the first time they would be meeting his fiancée. The world had gone mad… Or maybe he’d gone mad for being surprised that Ruth was capable of such a misjudged social call.

  And right on cue, a car bearing
the logo of Countrywide Vehicle Hire pulled up, and out climbed his parents.

  ‘SPENCER!’ There was a squeal and a flurry of fabric, and Ruth was practically knocked over in Jenny’s rush to get to her son. She threw her arms around him and pulled him close. ‘I’m so happy to see you!’

  ‘Hey, Mum!’ Spencer cried, almost choking from the force of her hug. ‘It’s good to see you too.’

  He gently prised her arms from his neck, smiling broadly. Looking up, he saw that his dad was smiling at Tori, but then he switched his attention as Spencer made eye contact.

  ‘How are you, son?’ he asked, clapping him on the back before pulling him into a manly hug. ‘It’s been too long.’

  ‘It has, Dad.’ Spencer stepped back and took Tori’s hand.

  ‘Mum, Dad…’

  ‘This must be our future daughter-in-law!’ Jenny squealed as she grabbed Tori to dish out the second overly violent hug of the day.

  ‘I am,’ Tori laughed, taken aback at the enthusiasm and familiarity of the greeting.

  ‘Pleased to meet you,’ Lewis said, grinning at her.

  ‘Oh, Lewis,’ Jenny said, appraising Tori at arm’s length, ‘she’s every bit as lovely as her photos!’

  ‘That she is,’ Lewis nodded. ‘We’ve heard so much about you, Tori, we feel like you’re family already.’

  Tori looked at Spencer with a bemused smile. ‘You have?’

  ‘Of course,’ Spencer said with a sheepish grin. ‘What else am I going to talk about when I phone my parents but the love of my life?’

  From behind them Ruth cleared her throat loudly and they all turned to see her watching the exchange avidly.

  ‘Oh, hello, Ruth,’ Jenny said with rather less enthusiasm than she had shown Tori and Spencer. ‘Long time no see. How are you?’

  Spencer could barely contain the groan that formed in his throat. Had his mum really been away from Honeybourne so long that she had forgotten the first rule of any opening conversational gambit with Ruth Evans? You never asked how she was – not ever.

  ‘Well…’ Ruth began, but Spencer quickly cut her off.