Christmas at Mistletoe Cove_A heartwarming, feel good Christmas romance to fall in love with

by Holly Martin

  He smiled at her, loving her passion. ‘That sounds like a wonderful idea.’

  ‘I have a large shed out the back of the shop. It’s filled with junk at the moment but I’m going to clear it out and do it up, and I’ll run some of the classes back there so it’s more private and won’t get in the way of the regular customers who come into the café.’

  ‘I could help you, I have some time. I’m a dab hand at painting and decorating,’ Dougie said, wanting more than anything to make this dream come true for her.

  ‘You painted your penthouse apartment, did you?’ Eden smirked.

  ‘Well, no, it was already decorated when I moved in but I used to help Dad on some of his decorating jobs when I was younger.’

  Eden grinned. ‘I’d love that.’

  ‘Or if you needed money to help start this side of your business up, I could help…’ he trailed off as she shook her head as he’d known she would. His mum had once told him he needed money to impress women and he’d worked really hard over the years to get into a position where he would never need to worry about money again, and with this wealth he loved being able to help others, give financial support where needed, surprise his friends with gifts. But Eden seemingly didn’t want any of that. She wasn’t impressed with money, which meant he’d have to impress her another way.

  ‘I don’t want your money, you work hard for that. If using the pottery wheel becomes popular and I have to get more, it will be expensive but I have money squirrelled away that will help to cover that. Although I have to learn how to use it myself first.’

  ‘You don’t know how to use a pottery wheel, but you work in a pottery café,’ Dougie teased.

  ‘I know, I feel thoroughly ashamed. Besides, everyone comes in to paint the things, not make them.’

  ‘I can teach you,’ Dougie said as he turned his attention back to the games, freed Cluedo from the contents of the cupboard and passed it to her.

  ‘You know how to use a pottery wheel?’

  ‘Just one of the many things I’ve learned at my night classes over the years. I can’t say I’m an expert but I can certainly teach you the basics.’

  ‘I’d really like that. I was just going to watch some videos on YouTube and hope for the best, but I’d love it if you could teach me. We could have our own Ghost moment,’ she giggled.

  Dougie stood back up. ‘What’s that?’

  He was surprised to see her suddenly blush.

  ‘Oh nothing, just a scene from the film Ghost involving a pottery wheel. Patrick Swayze wasn’t very good at it, it was funny.’ She waved her hand dismissively and he knew there was something she wasn’t saying.

  ‘Well, we can do it one of the nights this week if you want, after the shop has closed,’ Dougie said as he followed her to the kitchen to set up the game on the dining table.

  ‘That would be great, who would you like to be?’ Eden said, referring to the characters in the game.

  ‘I’ll be Professor Plum.’ He looked over at her and saw her cheeks were still pink from the thought of that scene from Ghost. ‘And I think you should be Miss Scarlett.’

  She blushed again but didn’t say anything as she sorted through the cards and set the game up.

  He vowed that when he got a chance, he was going to look up that scene to see for himself exactly what it was about it that had made her blush.

  Eden lay on the sofa and watched the fairy lights dance across the ceiling. Dougie had already gone on up to bed a while before, though she could still hear him moving around upstairs.

  They’d played games all night, drank mulled wine and laughed so much that her face had started to ache. She wasn’t drunk, she was a long way off from that, but she was feeling completely and blissfully happy. And that was a dangerous place to be.

  Because while she was lying there, warm and cosy with a big grin on her face, she would let her mind wonder about what life would be like if Dougie lived with her all the time and how utterly fabulous that would be. They would spend their evenings like they had tonight, talking, laughing, playing games or watching movies and they wouldn’t need to be together or even married to enjoy that. She would have her best friend living with her and nothing could be better than that. Well, apart from if they were married. That would be pretty bloody spectacular because then they’d get to kiss and make love and some nights he would carry her to bed. And that would be pretty bloody spectacular indeed. She frowned slightly. If everything was pretty bloody spectacular she probably was the teeniest tiniest bit drunk.

  She heard footsteps on the stairs as Dougie came back down and then he was there standing in front of the sofa wearing only his Rudolph pyjama bottoms. She had already got changed into her pyjamas a few hours ago. Which ones had she worn? Were they the pretty ones? She tried to look down but she couldn’t see much when the room was lit only with fairy lights.

  ‘You OK?’ Dougie asked.

  God, his chest was a glorious thing, all big and yummy.

  She grinned at him and gave him a salute. Yep, probably a little bit drunk.

  He smirked at the salute and with good reason. She’d never saluted anyone before in her life.

  ‘I thought you might have fallen asleep down here,’ Dougie said.

  ‘Nope, just enjoying smiling.’

  Just enjoying smiling? What kind of weird-ass answer was that?

  He snorted at that and then changed it into a cough to cover it up. He bent down and scooped her up into his arms.

  ‘I can walk, you know,’ Eden said, wrapping her arms round his neck, purely to keep her balance and not for any other reason. ‘You don’t need to carry me to bed.’

  ‘I know I don’t need to, but I want to.’

  She didn’t really have anything to say to that as he carried her up the stairs and into her room.

  ‘I’ve been thinking,’ Eden said as he laid her down gently on her bed. She rolled over on her side and snuggled into her pillow.

  ‘About what?’

  ‘I think you should stay with me,’ Eden said. It made sense. Otherwise they’d be two lonely people living next door to each other instead of two happy people living with each other.

  ‘OK.’

  Dougie slipped into bed behind her and covered them both with the duvet. Eden frowned for a moment and then nearly laughed. He’d completely misunderstood. But as he curled himself around her back and wrapped his arms around her, any comments she had been about to make dried in her throat.

  She closed her eyes and relished in the warmth of his body next to hers.

  ‘I didn’t mean tonight, I meant forever,’ Eden murmured as she started to fall asleep.

  ‘OK,’ Dougie said, without any hesitation.

  She smiled. It didn’t hurt to imagine what forever with Dougie would look like for just a little bit longer. She drifted off to sleep thinking that enjoying smiling was pretty bloody spectacular actually.

  Chapter Eight

  Eden was shaken gently awake the next day. She woke up blearily and noticed that it was still dark outside.

  Dougie was standing next to the bed holding out a bacon sandwich and a mug of tea.

  She sat up and looked at him in confusion. ‘What time is it?’

  ‘Half past seven, I’m going for a walk on the beach to watch the sunrise, thought you might want to come with me before you go to work. Of course you might want to stay in bed for another half hour; I can always go on my own.’

  ‘Oh, I’d like to come.’

  ‘Good. I’ve missed that sunrise – it’s just not the same watching the sunrise through a ton of skyscrapers as it is watching it over the sea. Sunrise is at twenty past eight, so you’ve got a bit of time to eat your breakfast.’

  She took the sandwich from him and propped herself up against the headboard. She took a bite and watched as Dougie settled himself next to her as he opened his newspaper. It was such a coupley thing to do, as if he was just contented to be with her, rather than going off to read it in the k
itchen or the lounge.

  Memories of the night before came back to her as she chewed, how much fun she’d had with him playing the games and then how he’d slept in her bed with her.

  ‘We slept together last night,’ Eden blurted out.

  Dougie put his paper down and turned to face her with a big grin on his face.

  ‘Yes we did.’ He stroked his finger up her arm. ‘Was it as good for you as it was for me?’

  She ignored the innuendo. ‘Why did you sleep in here?’

  ‘Because you asked me to.’

  She put her sandwich back on the plate and thought back to the night before.

  ‘You asked me to stay with you,’ Dougie explained, his eyes alight with amusement.

  It all came back. She had asked him to stay with her.

  ‘But I didn’t mean that, I meant…’ she trailed off because what she actually meant was probably even more embarrassing.

  ‘You explained what you meant; you said you wanted me to stay forever.’

  Eden picked up her sandwich and took a big bite, while she played for time. He was still watching her, waiting for some kind of explanation, though she could see he wasn’t taking this remotely seriously.

  She swallowed. ‘I didn’t mean… That makes it sound a lot worse than it is. I just meant…’ She sighed. ‘I like having you here, it’s nice to have some company and we get on so well. All I meant was that it would be fun if we actually lived together. But not as a couple, just as two friends. You’d be my lodger, nothing more.’

  The smile on his face faded away. ‘Your lodger?’

  ‘Yes, exactly.’

  ‘Nothing more?’

  She could see that she’d hurt him with that comment. ‘No, I didn’t mean that. You’re my best friend, there is no one in the entire world I would rather spend my time with than you. That’s why in my mulled-wine-addled brain last night I was proposing that we live together. Which is ridiculous, you wouldn’t want to live with me, I know that, but I did really mean just as friends.’

  ‘Got it, just friends, nothing more.’ Dougie picked up the newspaper and carried on reading.

  Well, this was suddenly awkward. And Eden had no idea what was the right thing to say to make it better. She could hardly tell him that as she had thought about how wonderful it would be to live with him the night before, what she’d really wanted was to be married to him and live the rest of their lives as husband and wife. But in trying to convince him that her comments of the night before didn’t mean that she had feelings for him, she’d gone too far and hurt his feelings instead.

  ‘It was nice having you sleep in my bed last night,’ Eden said quietly, focussing her attention on the remains of her sandwich.

  Nice?

  That didn’t even come close to describing how it had felt to have his body wrapped around hers as she fell asleep.

  He didn’t say anything for the longest time and when he did speak he didn’t look at her either.

  ‘I thought so too.’

  What did he mean by that?

  He folded the newspaper and climbed off the bed. ‘You need to get dressed, we have to leave shortly.’

  And with that he left the room, leaving Eden feeling more confused than ever.

  By the time she had got dressed and gone downstairs, Dougie seemed to have forgotten their previous conversation and was back to his normal happy self. He passed her scarf and coat to her and then pulled her woolly pompom hat on over her head. A few moments later they were out on the street and Dougie took her hand again as he led her down towards Buttercup Beach.

  ‘I’m looking forward to going with you to Mistletoe Cove tonight,’ Dougie said. ‘Have you thought any more about your three wishes?’

  They walked down the steps onto the beach as the sky in front of them turned an inky blue in preparation for the day.

  ‘There’s only one thing I want.’ The same thing that she had wanted all her life but it was an impossible dream.

  ‘Wish for it at Mistletoe Cove and it will come true.’

  Eden sighed. She definitely wasn’t going to get her hopes up.

  ‘And it needs to be three wishes for it to work. Apart from the one thing that you really want, what else would you like?’

  ‘There’s nothing I want as much as that.’

  ‘A sports car, a holiday home in the Bahamas?’

  ‘Are they the kind of things you want? I know you could probably afford those things.’

  ‘No, I don’t.’

  ‘I don’t either. Why would I need a sports car? Hope Island is probably only two miles all the way round. And I don’t want a holiday home in the Bahamas either. I live in one of the most beautiful places in the world. It might be hotter in the Bahamas right now, but I’d take Hope Island any day. Besides, if I did have a holiday home in the Bahamas, how would I fly there? My pottery painting café is doing very well, but I’m no millionaire. I certainly don’t have the money to fly to the Bahamas on a regular basis.’

  ‘There’s got to be something.’

  ‘It’s hard really. I’m very happy with my life – as I said, there’s only one thing that would make me happier. What would you wish for?’

  ‘I’ve already had my three wishes.’

  ‘But if you hadn’t, what would you wish for right now?’

  Dougie was quiet for a while as they walked hand in hand along the shore. ‘I guess I would wish that it was the right decision coming back here.’

  That was like a kick to the stomach and so unexpected. He’d only been back a few days and he was regretting it already.

  ‘You don’t think it was the right decision to come back here?’

  ‘No I do, Hope Island has always felt like home, I love it here. And regardless of what happens I think it will always be home for me. And if I’m going to be working alongside Isaac in my company, I can’t do that as easily if I’m in New York and he’s here, but…’

  She waited for him to finish but when he was still silent she prompted him. ‘But what?’

  ‘There was another reason I wanted to come back here. Well, quite an important reason actually, and although coming home to Hope Island felt like the right thing to do and working with Isaac is reason enough to make that change, in my heart I know that it was the other reason that brought me here.’

  ‘What was that?’

  ‘I can’t tell you, not yet. But right now, I want that to work more than anything else.’

  They were silent for a while and Dougie sat down on the cool sand, so she sat next to him.

  ‘If it doesn’t work out, will you go back to New York?’

  Out on the horizon a fragment of rose gold lit up the midnight sea. They watched it for a moment, the beauty of it silencing them both.

  Dougie slipped his arm around her and she rested her head on his shoulder.

  ‘Right now, I don’t want to be anywhere else but here,’ he kissed her on the head. ‘But who knows what will happen in the future.’

  She swallowed down the pain of the thought of him leaving again.

  ‘Well in that case I know what my wish will be.’

  ‘What’s that?’

  ‘That your wish comes true and whatever brought you here works out for you, so you can stay.’

  ‘You want me to stay?’

  She looked out at the line of gold that was growing, sending its sparkling blanket over the waves.

  ‘More than anything.’

  ‘More than the thing you were going to wish for?’

  She didn’t dare tell him that the two were irrevocably linked. But in actual fact she wanted him here more than she wanted to be with him so she nodded.

  He looked out over the sea and they watched the sun until it was too bright for them to stare at any more. Then Dougie stood up and pulled her to her feet. He wrapped his arms around her and held her. She wished that this gesture meant as much to him as it did to her, but he had always been a very tactile person.

  ‘I
f me staying makes you happy then I’ll stay.’

  ‘You will?’

  Dougie was such a generous person, but she never expected him to alter the course of his whole life just to make her happy.

  ‘I want to make you happy and I don’t want you to waste a wish on me. I want it to be something you want for you, not for me.’

  ‘Wishing for you to stay here is for me, it’s completely selfish, believe me. I have my best friend back and I don’t want to lose you again.’

  ‘You won’t, I promise. It was silly of me to say that. I will be disappointed if it doesn’t work the way I want it to work, but I won’t leave because of it. You’re too important to me for that.’

  She leaned her forehead against his chest and he cupped the back of her neck. God, why couldn’t he be hers? This wonderful, kind man, she loved him so much. And they’d be great together, she knew that. Why couldn’t he see it? How could he hold her like this and not have feelings for her? It was beyond heartbreaking. But if this was all he was willing to give her, then she’d take it over not having him in her life at all.

  ‘We better go back, you’ve got to go to work and I’ve got some things to take care of. Think about your wishes,’ Dougie said.

  She sighed because no amount of wishing was going to change what they had between them and it was futile to hope for that. She nodded anyway because there was no point telling him any of that.

  But regardless of the wishes, she was looking forward to spending the night with him at Mistletoe Cove. They would have fun, talk, laugh, toast marshmallows by the fire and she would try really hard not to remember that that was exactly how it had been the night they had first kissed.

  Chapter Nine

  Dougie stood on the shores of Mistletoe Cove and looked up at the hawthorn trees that jutted out from the steep grassy banks above him. It was a magical place, a secret secluded haven that hardly anyone ever came to. The hawthorn trees were heavy with mistletoe, making them look as if they had been decorated especially for Christmas. He knew that on occasions people looking for an easy buck would come by boat to the cove and climb up to the trees to get the mistletoe to sell but it wasn’t as easy as it looked to get up there, and he was proof of that. He licked his fingers to wipe away the bloody scratches on his arms. Most people now were happy to leave the mistletoe alone and without interference it grew in abundance.