Christmas at Mistletoe Cove: A heartwarming, feel good Christmas romance to fall in love with

by Holly Martin

  ‘Claudia said these were people that we had to invite.’

  ‘Well, I suppose there are some colleagues that I would invite but that many people seems a bit much.’

  ‘Everyone who was invited is bringing their partners or wives or husbands. If you’re not happy I can try to cancel some of them,’ Bella said.

  ‘No, no, it’s OK. Don’t do that. God, I feel awful, this is turning into such a big event and I feel like I’ve not done anything to contribute in the organisation. Selling off BlazeStar and SparkStar is taking a lot longer than I anticipated and I just want to be done with that and be here for you instead of travelling backwards and forwards to London all the time.’

  Eden knew Isaac had been really stressed recently. He had accidentally fallen into making computer programs and phone apps for companies when he had graduated from university and built two very successful companies out of it but it wasn’t what he really wanted to do. Being with Bella had made him re-evaluate what he wanted from life and he had started to take a step back from his computer companies, eventually deciding to sell them completely so he could work with Dougie on making computer games which he loved but the sale had involved countless trips to London and too many meetings to count.

  ‘I’m an events manager, this is what I do,’ Bella said. ‘Besides, Claudia has been… very helpful.’

  Eden saw Isaac frown and she knew he had noticed the pause as much as everyone else had.

  ‘Look, why don’t we try to scale it down a bit? There’s still a whole month until the big day and after Christmas I should be able to help you some more.’

  ‘No, it’s fine. Weddings are always stressful. It’s going to be beautiful,’ Bella said.

  Isaac kissed Bella on the cheek and she smiled. ‘It will be, I can’t wait to see you in your dress.’

  The dress had arrived a few days before and it looked stunning. Bella was thrilled with it and at least that was one thing she was happy about.

  ‘You know, we nearly missed our wedding,’ Finn said, as he poured water into everyone’s glasses.

  ‘You did?’ Bella asked, clearly glad of the distraction.

  ‘Don’t tell them that story,’ Lucy said, flapping her hands ineffectually at Finn when he leaned back in his chair ready to impart the details anyway.

  ‘Well as you probably know, we got married here on the island. I was at the church waiting for the guests and my lovely bride to arrive and most of the guests had already got there when I realised that I had on the wrong shoes. I’d worn trainers that morning because the bloody wedding shoes were so uncomfortable and I was going to change before I left the house and completely forgot. Knowing that Lucy probably would be a little late anyway, I figured I had time to nip back to the house and get them. So I ran across the town and back to her mum’s house and grabbed the shoes and I figured that Lucy was upstairs finishing getting ready so I wouldn’t disturb her – bad luck to see the bride before the wedding and all that. But then, as I went back into the hall to leave, Lucy walks down the stairs. She looked so beautiful, so utterly incredible, and I felt so overwhelmed that she was about to be my wife. She must have seen the look in my eyes because the next thing she was pushing her sisters and mum out of the door saying she was going to help me look for my shoes and would meet them all there. Well, I won’t go into details but we had the most amazing sex up against the wall and then again over the back of the sofa. The carriage driver came and knocked on the door and we were way too busy to answer it. Finally we stopped and realised that we were nearly an hour late by that point. We went outside and the carriage driver had gone so we had to run across town together. Well, the priest thought we weren’t coming; guests had started to leave because they thought the wedding had been cancelled. And to top it off, it was quite obvious what we had been doing: Lucy’s hair was a mess, my clothes were rumpled and I was still wearing my bloody trainers. Luckily the priest had time to give us a quick ceremony before he had a christening to take care of, but we nearly missed the whole thing. Her mum wasn’t happy with me, I can tell you. So as long as that doesn’t happen on your wedding day, I’m sure it will be a big success. Well unless you want to, of course. I’m sure lots of couples have sex on their wedding day.’

  ‘Normally afterwards, Dad,’ Eden said as Dougie laughed by her side.

  ‘Yes, well of course after,’ Finn said. ‘But before too. The whole “don’t see the bride before the wedding day” malarkey is just a load of codswallop. If you want to have sex before the ceremony, you go right ahead.’

  ‘Thanks for your approval,’ Bella said, smiling.

  Eden smiled and shook her head. At least Bella was smiling again but Eden knew she was going to have to do something about this wedding.

  Chapter Seven

  Dougie walked into the lounge after wrapping up some Christmas presents upstairs. They’d left Eden’s parents early as Lucy and Finn were going to Cornwall the next day, so it was still relatively early in the evening. Eden was staring at the flames in the fireplace as they danced and swirled. The fairy lights twinkled and sparkled from the tree in the corner, where there were already presents for all her family neatly wrapped and covered in pretty bows and for a moment he was struck with this sweet moment of domestic bliss.

  His family life had never been particularly idyllic. As a child, his parents had… ticked along. He’d presumed at the time they were happy, though in reality he’d never seen any sign of that. Then again, he’d never seen any sign of unhappiness either. They weren’t married back then, and it never really occurred to him to wonder why at the time. They’d married when he was thirteen and, while he wasn’t sure what made them tie the knot at that point when they had already been together for so many years, what he was sure of was that that was when it had all gone wrong, as if a switch had been flicked and they suddenly hated each other. His parents had argued constantly after that. They mostly fought about his dad not being good enough for his mum, which she had proved to him shortly after moving to America by leaving his dad for someone far richer and more successful.

  Although they had celebrated Christmas together when he was a teenager, the day had invariably been ruined with rows; the presents his dad had bought for his mum weren’t good enough, the turkey was overcooked or undercooked, his mum could always find fault in everything his dad did. It had been something of a relief when they had finally divorced when Dougie was nineteen. It had just been him and his dad for many years. The only advice his dad ever gave him, and he gave him it frequently, was to never get married, never get tied down, ‘as women will suck the life out of you,’ and ‘you’ll never make them happy, no matter what you do’. It was no surprise then that, although Dougie had never been against marriage, he’d never actively looked for it either.

  But staying with Eden every few months for the last twelve years had always felt like coming home, there was peace and contentment here. He loved spending time with his best friend and he didn’t think he would ever get tired of that. He watched her, obviously deep in thought as she watched the flames flicker, and wondered, not for the first time, what it would be like to be married to Eden, to spend every night with her for the rest of his life and he couldn’t help the huge smile that spread on his face with that thought. Marriage scared him, but forever with Eden didn’t.

  She looked up at him and smiled but he could see the worry in her eyes. He sat down in the corner of the sofa next to her and put his arm around her and without question she snuggled into his chest. He liked that.

  ‘You OK?’

  She nodded. ‘I’m just worried about Bella.’

  ‘And the wedding? Yes, I’m worried too.’

  Eden was so protective over her adopted sister. Bella had not had an easy start in life. His uncle had had an affair with Bella’s mum, a summer fling that had happened purely because Bella’s mum wanted to get back at her husband for having his own affairs. It resulted in an unwanted pregnancy and an unloved child. Bella had eventuall
y been adopted and raised by her aunt Lucy, Eden’s wonderful mum, but not before Bella had endured the first few years of her life without any love from her mum or her mum’s husband, who Bella had assumed was her dad. Bella believed she was unlovable and Eden was fiercely protective of her because of it. It wasn’t until Isaac came along that Bella finally believed in love again and everyone wanted this marriage to work out and for her to be happy.

  ‘She doesn’t want this wedding, I can see that. Don’t get me wrong, she wants to be married to Isaac, she loves him with everything she has, but this wedding is getting bigger by the day and I just don’t think she really wants any of that. Knowing Bella, she would probably be happy to have a quick registry office ceremony and then go to Rosa’s after for some pasta and some wine.’

  ‘You know what, I don’t think Isaac wants this wedding either.’

  ‘I thought that too. But she is doing all this for him. She’s having it in London for him, she hates the place.’

  ‘Isaac has never been in love with that place. There are things he misses, of course there are, just like there are things I miss about New York, but being here is far far better.’

  She smiled at that. ‘You really think so?’

  He stared at her denim blue eyes, her long dark lashes and the tiny smattering of freckles on her nose. ‘I know so.’

  Her smile grew and then she looked away back into the fire. She was silent for a moment. She was thinking about something else and he suspected it wasn’t to do with Bella and Isaac.

  She cleared her throat before she spoke as if trying to get back on topic. ‘Well, if neither Bella or Isaac want to get married in London, why are they getting married there?’

  ‘He thinks she wants the big fairy-tale wedding, the hotel they are doing it at is very posh, there’s a big ballroom with chandeliers and gold ornate mirrors. And he wants to pull out all the stops to give her the wedding he thinks she wants.’

  ‘She doesn’t want any of that. All those hundreds of guests, she doesn’t know any of them.’

  ‘Isaac’s colleagues and business associates. That’s his assistant’s fault, Claudia. I think she’s brilliant and Isaac does too; she is a machine when it comes to organising anything, but she always has an eye on business opportunities and networking and any chance for hobnobbing is a good thing in her books. A lot of those corporate bigwigs in the city will have big society weddings; Isaac has been to enough of them over the years, and I think Claudia thinks that’s the socially expected thing to do. Isaac is going along with it because he thinks Bella wants a big wedding and Bella is going along with it to make Isaac happy.’

  Eden groaned. ‘They need to talk to each other.’

  ‘I know, I think they both are at that stage of the relationship where they just want to make the other person happy.’

  ‘Should we say something?’ Eden said.

  Dougie realised that he was playing with the ends of her hair, letting it run over his fingers. He quickly let go but Eden hadn’t seemed to notice at all. He wasn’t sure if he was relieved or disappointed by that. How could he ever get close to her if his affection was always seen as just the norm?

  He realised that she was waiting for an answer.

  ‘I was thinking the same thing, I don’t want to interfere but they can’t see what we can see and I don’t want either of them to be unhappy. Maybe we’ll get Christmas out of the way and talk to them about it then. I know Bella is still busy with the Christmas festival so maybe now isn’t the best time,’ he said.

  Eden nodded and leaned her head against his shoulder for a moment. ‘Oh, I’m so glad you feel the same way and that I’ve spoken to you about this. I didn’t know what to do, but now I have you on my side too I feel better about tackling it.’

  ‘I’m always on your side,’ Dougie said softly and she looked up at him.

  Neither of them said anything for a while and then she gently pulled out of his arms as if the intimacy was too much for her.

  ‘So tell me about your new venture with Isaac. He’ll be working with you three days a week after Christmas?’ Eden asked.

  Dougie nodded. ‘Yes initially. I think he would like to do more, but he is still heavily involved with the Umbrella Foundation charity. I think he likes working there because he gets to work alongside Bella every day but I think eventually he will come and work with me full-time.’

  ‘Are you looking forward to working with him?’

  ‘Yes, very much. Working alongside him was part of the reason why I came back to Hope Island. He has skills and knowledge that I just don’t have. He has a lot of imagination too. We’re starting a new project actually. A lot of the computer games are quite violent and though children love them we thought we would make something sweeter and cuter for those children with a… gentler disposition.’

  ‘You mean computer games for girls?’ Eden said, smiling. ‘Nothing like a bit of gender stereotyping.’

  He laughed. ‘Believe me, that’s the last thing I want to do, but girls love playing computer games too and so many of the games are geared towards… well, boys. Blowing things up, killing people, riding fast cars, sword-fighting – the bloodier and gorier the better. And girls love playing those games too but there are a lot of girls and boys actually who are more delicate. On test audiences we ran in the States a lot of the girls we tested didn’t like to shoot the “poor animals”, even though those poor animals were savage beasts trying to kill them, and they winced when there was a lot of blood. In quest games the girls were more likely to pick up pretty jewels, animal sidekicks or magic potions rather than many of the boys who were mostly choosing big scary weapons. So we wanted something a little gentler, something still fun, quests, challenges to overcome, jewels to collect, magic potions, flying unicorns and dragons to ride on, but no killing. So we’ve come up with some ideas for fairy games. There will be a series of different fairy games all set in the same fairy kingdom. The players will get to choose who their characters are, and yes, there will be an equal amount of boy and girl fairies to choose from to avoid any gender stereotyping. There won’t be an abundance of pink either, but hopefully a lot of children will like it. Feedback from parents shows they would like this sort of thing too as many of them don’t want their children playing violent games.’

  ‘This sounds right up my street,’ Eden said. ‘I love the idea of flying on the back of a unicorn and collecting magic potions. Children will love that. Adults too.’

  ‘I had you in mind when I was thinking of this; you were always obsessed with fairies and unicorns growing up. The fairy I’ve used in all the simulations and while I’ve been designing it is called Eden.’

  Her whole face lit up. ‘You named a character in one of your games after me?’

  ‘Yes, of course. Would you be willing to test it out once I’ve finished it?’

  ‘Absolutely. This sounds amazing.’

  He smiled, somehow needing her approval on this and relieved that he’d got it. In truth the game had been made for her, so it was important that she liked it.

  ‘Well I’m not remotely tired, do you want to watch a movie or something?’ Eden asked. ‘I have loads of cheesy Christmas films we can watch.’

  ‘I think if I was to watch a film now, I’d probably fall asleep as I’m still a bit jet-lagged and I’d rather spend the night talking to you than fall asleep again on the sofa. Do you fancy playing a board game?’

  From the huge smile on her face he knew immediately that he’d said the right thing. She loved playing games: Pictionary, Trivial Pursuits, Risk, even Snakes and Ladders. The rest of her family didn’t really have any interest in it, they just did it for her once a year at Christmas. So the only other time she got to play was when he came home to visit. He loved it too, they both got highly competitive and would ruthlessly cheat to outdo the other and spend the night laughing so hard. He liked to think that’s why she enjoyed playing games so much – because she had so much fun with him. It was definitely t
he reason he liked playing games with her.

  ‘We could play strip poker,’ Dougie suggested as he got up and moved to the cupboard where all her games were kept.

  She laughed as he knew she would. ‘We are not playing strip poker.’

  ‘Strip Trivial Pursuits then?’

  ‘No, no strip games at all.’

  ‘Damn it. OK, Cluedo then?’

  ‘Oh yes, I haven’t played that for ages.’

  The cupboard was right next to where her tree was and he had to open it through the branches, the tree ornaments hitting him in the face as he tried to reach through the leaves to get into the cupboard.

  ‘I like your tree ornaments,’ Dougie said as one clonked him painfully on the head. ‘Bit heavy though.’

  Eden giggled. ‘They’re pottery ones; these are ones I’ve hand-painted myself. But next year I’m hoping I might have some decorations on my tree that I’ve hand-made as well as hand-painted.’

  Dougie sat back on his heels to look at her as excitement creeped into her voice.

  ‘We had a pottery wheel delivered this morning. I want to take the pottery painting café in a new direction and offer pottery-making workshops too. If it proves popular then I’ll buy some more pottery wheels. But my plan is it won’t just be teaching people how to use the wheel, I want to run pottery-making classes, teaching coiling, sculpting and various other techniques. I want to teach people about glazing and how to make their own glazes too. I learned all this stuff at college and never used any of it. I really want to be able to offer workshops to children especially. There is nothing really for the children to do here on Hope Island. The school offers lots of sporting extra-curricular activities but a lot of the children are just not into sports. They hang around in the parks and beaches because they have nothing else to do with their time and then they leave the island as soon as they can. And I know there’s nothing I can do to stop them leaving, exploring the world, discovering life outside of the Scillies. Hell, a younger more adventurous me would have gone off and explored the world too, but I want to inspire them to be creative, to show them there are things they can do that aren’t academic or sporty. I’ve been talking to Rome about it and he and Freya are keen to get involved too. They are going to offer stained and fused glass workshops as well, the kids will love that.’