Holly's Christmas Kiss
Page 11
‘Roll up your sleeve.’
The cut was on the back of her wrist and wasn’t as bad as Sean had first feared. He found an antiseptic wipe and started to clean.
‘I can do that.’ Michelle took the wipe off him with her good hand and started to deal with her own wound.
‘Why did you run off?’
Michelle shrugged. ‘It seemed perfectly clear that I wasn’t wanted.’
‘What?’
Michelle swallowed, still holding the wipe against her arm. ‘Look. I’m sure you were trying to be nice, and this probably isn’t your fault but I don’t do things like this. I don’t ride Ferris wheels. I don’t play in the snow. I don’t run away with strange men. I don’t …’
She tailed off, as if the other things she didn’t do were too numerous to list.
Sean laughed, trying to keep the tone lighter than he felt. ‘You do now.’
‘No. I don’t.’ Michelle lifted the wipe from her wrist. ‘I need to put something on this.’
Sean accepted the distraction. ‘I don’t think there’s a plaster big enough.’ He fished around in the first aid kit.
‘Hold this.’ He pressed a pad against the cut, and started wrapping a piece of bandage to hold it in place. ‘I thought there was something good happening here.’
Her face was pinched and closed, like it had been when he’d first met her, like it had been before he’d persuaded her to ride the Ferris wheel, and shown her the Christmas tree field. She wouldn’t look him in the eye. ‘Apparently not.’
Sean swallowed. ‘What happened?’
She glared at him. ‘Seriously? I thought … it doesn’t matter.’
‘You thought what?’
‘I thought you might, sort of, want to …’
Sean smiled. ‘I did. I do. I very much sort of, want to …’
‘Well that’s not going to happen.’ She took a breath. ‘Well not again.’
Sean paused in his bandage wrapping. What had happened? Things had been going well. Things had been going really well. ‘Help me here. I’m confused.’
Michelle pulled her hand away. ‘What’s confusing? You had a bit of fun. It didn’t work out.’
‘What?’
She set off walking back along the lane. He ran after her. ‘Seriously. I’m getting really tired of watching you walk away.’
‘Then why don’t you let me go?’
‘Because I don’t want to.’ He yelled his answer back at her, and the shouting was exhilarating. ‘Because I’m sick of being cautious and sensible. Because I want to jump in with both feet, and I don’t care if I get hurt.’
‘You don’t care about getting hurt?’
‘Not even a little bit. I think you might be worth it.’
Michelle let out a small bitter laugh. ‘And what do you reckon your wife would think?’
‘What?’
‘Your wife?’
Oh. Sean was stupid. Cora. Of course she’d have told a possible rival she was his wife. That was exactly what she’d do. He took a deep breath. ‘Look. I can explain.’
‘I’m not interested.’
‘I tried to tell you before we … before we did anything. You didn’t want to wait.’
‘How long would it have taken to mention your wife?’
‘She’s not my wife.’
Michelle was still striding away from him.
He tried another tack. ‘You can’t walk anywhere from here. It’s freezing. I know, for a fact, that that’s not your jumper, so you have to take it back. Come on. You don’t even know where you are.’
She stuck out her chin. ‘I do.’
‘Where?’
Her chin lowered. ‘Scotland.’
‘Excellent. Well I’m sure that’s all you’ll need to tell the AA for them to pop out here on Christmas Day and pick you up.’ He saw her shoulders drop. ‘Come back to the Land Rover. Let me explain.’
She walked past him without speaking, and sat back down on the tailgate. ‘Two minutes.’
Two minutes. What could you explain in two minutes? The big stuff, he guessed. If you were going to jump right in, you couldn’t be half-hearted about it. ‘I’m not married.’
She raised her eyes.
‘I was married. I’m divorced. I should have told you that. I tried to tell you that.’
She folded her arms across her chest. ‘So tell me about it now.’
‘Ok.’ What to say? ‘It was a long time ago. We were seventeen. We were in love. I leapt right in, didn’t think, didn’t hesitate. I wanted to be with her.’
‘What went wrong?’
He looked at her. ‘Apart from being seventeen?’
She laughed, a small quiet laugh. It was beautiful.
‘We stayed together quite a while actually, living with my mum and dad. Then, when she was twenty-one, she started thinking about all the stuff she’d missed out on. University. Wild nights out. Growing up, I guess.’
‘And that’s why you broke up?’
‘She didn’t tell me until she already had the place at college. One day I thought we were fine. The next she was moving to London to do Business and Economics, and I wasn’t invited.’
He closed his eyes.
‘I’m sorry.’
‘I haven’t really jumped into a relationship since then.’
‘Once bitten?’
Sean nodded.
‘Are you still in love with her?’
‘What?’
‘I heard you talking at the house.’
‘I knew there was someone in the hall!’ He paused and shook his head.
‘How do you know?’
‘I know.’ He turned to face her. ‘Honestly. I’m not in love with Cora. She’s cool in her own slightly self-involved way. We have history, but I think I’ve been kidding myself that we can be mates. She’s part of my past. That’s all.’
Michelle didn’t answer.
‘So what about the future?’
‘What?’
Sean leant towards her. ‘Well, officially you still owe me another twenty-four hours.’
Michelle shook her head. ‘That was always a silly idea.’
‘I know.’ Sean swallowed. He was all in now. No pretending this was just him taking pity on a girl who was alone at Christmas. No pretending that when the two days were over he’d be able to stand by and let her walk away. ‘I was kidding myself about the forty-eight hour thing as well. I don’t want a couple of days with you. It’s not enough. I don’t want to be safe. I don’t want a time limit. I want to take care of you. I want to spend time with you. I want … I just want you.’
Michelle kept her head bent away from him as she spoke. ‘I don’t think I can do that.’
‘Do what?’
‘Jump right in. What if it doesn’t work? What if I’ve seen this whole relationship play out before?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘My mum and dad. He was so impulsive, so much fun, and she was like me. Careful. Cautious. It didn’t work for them.’ She lifted her head towards Sean. ‘Why would it work for us?’
That was it. That was her biggest fear. She’d loved her dad so much, but he’d let her mum down. He’d let them both down. ‘Well, for starters, I’m not like your dad. Yes. I’m a bit impulsive, but I don’t quit. I’m not going to run off with an elf ...’
Michelle opened her mouth, but Sean kept going.
‘… or a secretary or my ex-wife or a foxy Christmas tree saleswoman or whoever it is you’re worrying about. When you’re around, I don’t see anyone else. I only see you. I see you taking care of everybody, and I want to take care of you.’
Michelle shook her head again. ‘You’ll get bored of me. Sensible Michelle.’
‘There’s nothing boring about sensible Michelle.’ Sean grinned. ‘And if I get bored of sensible Michelle, I’ve always got Holly.’
‘Shut up!’ The hint of a smile was returning to Michelle’s voice.
‘And so what if you are your
mother’s daughter? Your mother’s dying wish was that you went on holiday to the Caribbean. That’s hardly sensible.’
Michelle sighed. ‘I suppose not. I think maybe she thought she’d stopped me having fun when I was younger.’
‘So maybe you’re both your parents? Sensible Michelle and impulsive Holly?’
‘Maybe. Actually, when I was little I had a dolly, called Dolly …’
Sean grinned. ‘What else?’
‘I used to make her do the things I was too scared to do.’ She smiled at the memory. ‘Like I had to be Michelle but she could be Holly in my place.’
She shook her head. It was a silly idea. ‘You could still break my heart. My dad broke Mum’s heart.’
Sean shrugged. ‘And you could break mine.’
‘I wouldn’t do that.’
‘Good.’ He took a deep breath. ‘One question then, when we’re together, do you see anyone else?’
Did she? She paused for a second. Normally her head was full of plans and things to do and problems to solve, but the last twenty-four hours had been different. She’d managed, mostly, to just be in the here and now, because the here and now with Sean in the middle of it had been all she could see. Michelle shook her head. ‘It’s just you.’
Sean leant towards her and she found his lips. Soft, chilled from the cold air, intoxicating but safe. Maybe she could trust a feeling. Maybe she could jump into the unknown and let him catch her. She kissed him back.
She pulled back a fraction. ‘I crashed your hire car.’
‘Yep.’
‘What are we going to do?’
‘Dunno.’ He glanced at the car in the ditch. ‘I can probably tow it back somehow. Don’t worry about it today. It’s Christmas.’
‘Oh.’ She sounded sad.
‘What’s up?’
‘It’s getting dark. Christmas is nearly over.’
‘I thought you hated Christmas.’
‘Maybe I’m a convert.’
Sean laughed. ‘Well, in that case, can I interest you in New Year?’
‘What?’
‘Well, this is Scotland. Really Hogmanay is what it’s all about. We’ll go to Edinburgh.’
She squirmed. ‘I don’t know. Isn’t New Year a big waste of money?’
Sean shook his head. ‘I’ll do you a deal. Give me another week. I’ll get you to love New Year. I promise.’
‘Just one week?’
‘Well, a week until New Year.’ He pulled her closer. ‘After that, we can start planning next Christmas.’
About the Author
Alison May was born and raised in North Yorkshire, but now lives in Worcester with one husband, no kids and no pets. There were goldfish once. That ended badly.
Alison has studied History and Creative Writing, and has worked as a waitress, a shop assistant, a learning adviser, an advice centre manager, and a freelance trainer, before settling on ‘making up stories’ as an entirely acceptable grown-up career plan.
Alison is a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association. She writes contemporary romantic comedies. Her debut novel, Much Ado About Sweet Nothing, is also available on Kindle.
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Table of Contents
Chapter One Christmas Eve, 1991 Holly Michelle Jolly
Chapter Two Three days before Christmas, 2013
Chapter Three Two days before Christmas, 2013
Chapter FourChristmas Day, 1996Sean
Chapter Five T
wo Days before Christmas, 2013
Chapter SixChristmas Eve, 2013
Chapter SevenChristmas Eve, 2012Michelle
Chapter EightChristmas Eve, 2013
Chapter NineBoxing Day, 2002Sean
Chapter TenChristmas Morning, 2013
Chapter ElevenChristmas Afternoon, 2013
Chapter TwelveChristmas Day, 1992Michelle
Chapter ThirteenChristmas Afternoon, 2013
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