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

by Holly Martin

  ‘No problem, I’ll do that now,’ Clare said and disappeared into the little office in the corner.

  Eden glanced over at Dougie, watching him as he pulled his glasses on and moved things around on his iPad. Why was it a man in glasses was so sexy? Or was it just Dougie?

  ‘Holy crap!’ Clare’s voice rang out loud and clear from the office and Eden quickly rushed in there.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ Eden said, seeing that Clare had the online banking screen up. Maybe the account for Pots and Paints was looking a lot lower than it should be.

  ‘Did you win the lottery or something?’ Clare said, her eyes wide in shock.

  The shop had done particularly well in the last few months but Eden was always careful that after her and Clare’s wages had been paid and any overheads and bills had been sorted, any profits were squirrelled away into savings to cover any repairs or new equipment she might need in the future. Maybe it was the savings account that was looking quite healthy – she had no idea what was in there but she knew it was probably several thousand.

  ‘What do you mean?’

  Eden moved closer and saw the large number on the balance. She blinked a few times as her eyes adjusted to so many zeros. It couldn’t be right. She stared at it and her heart started to pound furiously.

  Her balance on her personal account showed a figure of just over a million pounds.

  Chapter Twenty

  ‘No, it can’t be,’ Eden said, probably way too loud. ‘Click into my account, let me see where this money came from.’

  Clare followed her instructions with a shaky hand and clicked on the account to show all the credits and debits coming in and out and there it was. Exactly one million pounds deposited that morning. She looked at the details and saw that it was a counter credit, which meant it was paid in at a bank somewhere either via cash or cheque. Of course it wouldn’t show any more detail than that.

  Tears smarted her eyes because her second wish had just come true. But this one she didn’t want, because if all of her wishes were coming true it meant that Dougie only loved her because of her wish.

  No, this was ridiculous. This was just a simple mistake, that was all.

  ‘Everything OK?’ Dougie appeared in the doorway, looking worried.

  ‘Is this to do with you?’ Eden said.

  ‘Is what to do with me?’

  ‘This million pounds,’ she gestured to the screen.

  ‘What million pounds?’

  ‘It seems Eden has a rich benefactor,’ Clare said, unable to take her eyes off the huge amount on the screen.

  ‘Someone put a million pounds in my account this morning, was it you?’ Eden demanded, knowing that her voice was really shaky.

  ‘Me?’ Dougie was incredulous. ‘I love you and everything but why would I give you a million pounds?’

  ‘Because you’re being all lovely and sweet and you want to do nice things for me.’

  ‘Yes, but I wouldn’t give you a million pounds, that’s way too nice even for me.’

  ‘This is you,’ Eden insisted. ‘There is no one else I know that could give me a million pounds so easily. This is some kind of Dougie joke. Take it back, I don’t want it.’

  Dougie laughed. ‘It’s not mine, honey. Why do you think it’s mine?’

  ‘Because of these silly wishes you made me do at Mistletoe Cove.’

  He stared at her in shock for a moment. ‘You wished for a million pounds? How would I know that? I didn’t see what you wrote on that piece of paper. And then you put the wishes inside a sealed envelope and threw them into the blowhole. How could I possibly know what your wishes were?’

  ‘If it’s not you, how do you explain this?’

  He shrugged. ‘This is what you wanted; it’s what you wished for. Your wishes are coming true.’

  ‘I didn’t want this, I don’t want a million pounds, what the hell am I going to do with a million pounds? You need to take it back.’ Eden knew her voice was getting high with anxiety but she couldn’t do anything to stop it.

  Dougie frowned. ‘Why did you wish for something if you don’t want it?’

  ‘To prove to you that all this stuff about wishes at Mistletoe Cove was a load of rubbish. I thought it was all just another little Dougie joke; I thought if I asked for something ridiculous, it would prove that you were lying or joking about Mistletoe Cove when it didn’t come true.’

  Dougie’s frown got deeper. ‘You were supposed to wish for something that you really wanted. That’s how it works. Were all your wishes silly wishes?’

  ‘No, I asked for things that I never thought would happen!’

  ‘Things you really didn’t want?’

  ‘I didn’t want this, I don’t need money. Pots and Paints is doing really well. This was just the first thing I thought of to prove to you the wishes wouldn’t come true. I don’t want a million pounds. Money doesn’t buy you happiness. I change my mind about the wish; I’ll go back to the blowhole and ask for a puppy instead.’

  ‘If you don’t want the money, I’ll have it,’ Clare said, only half joking.

  ‘No love, this money isn’t mine. If this isn’t Dougie then there’s been a mistake. My mum and dad used to work in a bank, I know that for every credit there has to be a debit. Money doesn’t just magically appear in someone’s account, it has to have been taken from someone else’s account and put into mine and that someone is probably mightily pissed off by now. If it’s a cheque then the bank can trace who wrote the cheque and who the payee was supposed to be and then they can take the money back. I need to go down to the bank now and sort this out. Clare, will you be OK to watch the shop for a few minutes?’

  Clare nodded, still staring at the money in shock.

  ‘I’ll come with you,’ Dougie said.

  Eden grabbed her coat and pulled her hat on as Dougie gathered his things and joined her out on the street.

  ‘Why not enjoy the money?’ he said as he fell in at her side.

  ‘I’ll enjoy it when I can give it back,’ she said.

  ‘You wished for it, and your wish has come true. Don’t question it, just have fun with it.’

  ‘Wishes don’t come true.’

  ‘Well this one has. There must be something you’d want to spend the money on.’

  ‘It’s not my money,’ Eden said.

  ‘Say that it is, say that it’s a genuine gift from the powers that be, the wishmakers, the fairies, your fairy godmother, someone has given you a gift, do with it what you want.’

  ‘If it’s mine to do with as I please, then I’ll give it away,’ Eden said desperately. She wanted no part of this. She didn’t want to go anywhere near that money. The further she distanced herself from it, then she wouldn’t have to face the possibility that Dougie didn’t really love her at all. ‘I bet Bella’s homeless charity could benefit from a million pounds, I could give Clare a hefty Christmas bonus and she can take her kids and husband to Disney World in Florida. What about your gaming company? I could buy shares in your company or give you some money for new equipment. I could help the air ambulance or the seal sanctuary or pay Rome back for all the money he gave me to start my own business.’

  ‘It’s supposed to be a gift for you,’ Dougie said, quietly.

  ‘There were no rules with the wishes that said that I couldn’t use the money as I see fit. I don’t need a million pounds, Dougie. That’s a ridiculous amount of money. How do I take back the wish?’

  ‘Well if you really don’t want the wish then you have to go back to the blowhole and ask for the wish not to come true or something like that. I don’t think this will work with the money though – now it’s in your account, you can’t give it back. You might as well enjoy it.’

  ‘If I find out you had anything to do with this, me and you are going to fall out.’

  ‘Why do you think it’s me?’

  ‘Because you have the money. Rome said you got two and half million pounds from the sale of your apartment in New York.’r />
  ‘Dollars. Not pounds. It’s a lot less than that in pounds.’

  ‘And it’s still a lot more money than most people will ever see in a lifetime. And you worked bloody hard for that money; you should be the one enjoying it.’

  ‘I am. I bought a house in one of my favourite places in the world next door to one of my favourite people in the world. That’s a pretty spectacular way to spend my money.’

  ‘I’m sure there are other things you can do with it, rather than giving half of it away to me.’

  ‘It wasn’t me. How would I know that you wished for a million pounds? Have you told anyone what you wished for?’

  She thought back to her conversation with Bella and Freya. She had told them about her wish that Dougie loved her, but she hadn’t told them about the other two wishes, other than that they were silly nothing wishes.

  ‘No, no one knows.’

  ‘Then how could this possibly have anything to do with me? I don’t understand why you’re not happier about this. Anyone else in the world who had been given a gift of a million pounds would be over the moon.’

  Eden didn’t break her stride as she hurried along the street to the bank. ‘I told you before we went to Mistletoe Cove; I have everything I could possibly want. I’m very happy in my life, a million pounds isn’t going to change that. I love my job, I love living here on Hope Island. Money isn’t going to make me happier. In fact, it’s making me bloody miserable right now.’

  ‘Why is it making you miserable?’

  ‘Because… because I don’t want the legend of Mistletoe Cove to be true.’

  ‘Why not?’

  Eden shook her head, not prepared to voice her insanity.

  ‘What’s wrong in believing in magic and having hopes and dreams? Why not chase those dreams and make them come true once in a while?’

  ‘Because I learned a long time ago that the belief in the tooth fairy and Santa are silly, dreams of living in a big castle and getting married to a prince are nearly impossible and actually completely overrated. I learned that my teenage hopes of travelling around the world and seeing every little corner of it are completely impractical and irresponsible when you have a business to run and bills to pay. I learned that I will never ride on the back of a magical unicorn or a flying dragon and that dreams never, ever come true.’

  She frowned as she looked at Dougie, because while the rest of that was all correct, her dreams had come true the day that he said he loved her. That was everything she ever wanted. Maybe dreams did come true after all.

  ‘I don’t believe that dreams don’t come true at all,’ Dougie said. ‘Everything I ever wanted has come true. I wanted to live in America, I wanted to have my own gaming company and—’

  ‘I know, you wanted to meet Harrison Ford.’

  ‘I wanted you. To be with you,’ Dougie said.

  She stopped to look at him and he drew her into his arms and kissed her on the forehead. ‘Dreams come true for people every single day, big dreams, little dreams, ridiculous over-the-top dreams, sometimes people wait years and sometimes it happens in a matter of seconds. Some people have to work hard to make their dreams a reality and for some it happens without them even trying, which hardly seems fair. But they do come true. We have to have dreams to give us something to hope for. Don’t ever give up on them.’

  Hope bloomed in her heart. Dougie Harrison was holding her in his arms, kissing her and he’d told her he loved her. He was right. This was proof that dreams did come true. And nothing beat this feeling of seeing her dream become a reality. Maybe now her one dream had come true she needed some new ones. With a million pounds, the possibilities were endless. She shook her head. No, maybe she could believe in dreams again, maybe she would start making some of her dreams come true, but she couldn’t believe that a million pounds had magically appeared in her account. That was a stretch too far.

  ‘OK, so what if this million pounds arrived in cash in a big envelope that said, “To Eden Lancaster, with love from the fairies”, on the outside?’ Dougie said.

  ‘Must be a bloody big envelope,’ Eden said, pulling out of his arms and carrying on to the bank.

  ‘Well I’m guessing that’s why the fairies paid it straight into your account. The point being, you would have no way of sending the money back but you would know it was a gift. So what would you spend it on?’

  ‘I don’t know. There’s these new pottery paints I’ve been thinking of buying for the café. They are kind of metallic and look amazing, they’re quite expensive though, so I guess I would treat myself to them.’

  Dougie groaned in frustration. ‘Not something for the café, not something for anyone else, what would you buy for you?’

  Eden thought about it for a moment. ‘I don’t know, some new shoes maybe, I don’t really have any nice shoes, I live in my Converse. I’d love a pair of nice heels, something dressy. I saw a blue sparkly pair in the window of the shoe shop in town the other day and I did entertain trying them on. But when would I ever wear them? I suppose if I really did have a million pounds I’d buy them.’

  Dougie sighed. ‘OK, a nice pair of shoes, that’s a start I suppose, maybe a dress and a handbag to go with it.’

  Eden shrugged. ‘I guess.’

  Dougie shook his head. ‘Why is it you’re over the moon with something simple like a gift of a bunch of white roses, but a million pounds and you can’t even crack a smile?’

  ‘It’s what the million pounds represents that I’m not happy about. The roses you gave me were so sweet and so unexpected and…’ she had to swallow down the ache in her chest. She had to remember how lovely Dougie had been to her before they went to Mistletoe Cove. They’d spent two nights sleeping together, he’d bought her roses. Surely he wouldn’t have done that if he hadn’t had feelings for her too? Feelings that were there before she wished for them. ‘Right now I’d take a hundred white roses over a million pounds any day.’

  ‘OK, what about building a proper studio out the back of your shop to develop your workshops? This was something you were passionate about, so let’s make this a reality. We can fit it out with a dozen pottery wheels and desks for the children to work at. You could use the money to hire another assistant to help in the shop so you can give more of your time to teaching children. You could use the money to go on a pottery wheel course to get proper instruction, something more than I or any YouTube video could teach you. You could buy all the resources, books and tools that you need and make your workshops the place to go to on the island. You could even teach adults too in the evenings.’

  Eden hesitated because that was exactly her dream. When she had done her pottery course at college she had found it so therapeutic and calming. When she was working with clay she could focus only on that, on sculpting the clay into different shapes and pieces, on spending a long time smoothing out all the cracks and bumps to make the surface of the clay perfect. It helped to clear her mind and at a time when Dougie had just left to go to America leaving her heart in smithereens, she’d needed that time to focus on something else more than anything. She wanted to give that to the people of the island. The pottery painting café had achieved that in some small way, it was fun and a good draw for the tourists, but people would often get disappointed when their works of art never turned out as they wanted them to. But you could really lose yourself when working with clay and creating something simple, something that people could take their time to get right. It would be so rewarding. To be able to offer that to adults and children on a regular basis would be incredible.

  Dougie mistook her silence for her refusal.

  ‘What about a nice holiday, a trip of a lifetime, somewhere you’ve always wanted to go to? You’ve never been anywhere on holiday.’

  ‘That’s not true, I went to France once on a school trip and I’ve been to Scotland for a long weekend with Stephen. That was lovely.’

  ‘Fantastic,’ Dougie said, dryly. ‘Now she’s talking about her ex.’

>   ‘Scotland was lovely, not the ex,’ Eden said, hoping to reassure him.

  ‘You always said Stephen was perfect.’

  ‘He was, but he wasn’t you. I never loved him because I was always in love with you and the poor man couldn’t compete.’

  ‘Oh.’ Dougie smiled at this.

  She nudged him. ‘Don’t feel too happy about his misfortune.’

  He tried and failed to straighten his smile but realising he had got distracted he snagged her arm and pulled her to a stop. ‘We could go on holiday somewhere. With a million pounds, we could go anywhere in the world. We could go to Paris, Vienna, Rome.’

  ‘I can’t leave the shop for two or three weeks, that’s not fair to Clare.’

  ‘So you close the shop for a few weeks, give Clare some of the money so she can go on holiday too. You’ve worked so hard to set your pottery painting café up and make it a success and I know that any money that isn’t spent on wages or bills gets put away for a rainy day, and that’s a very sensible attitude to take, but don’t you think you could treat yourself once in a while? You deserve a holiday.’

  It was true that, apart from the odd day off here and there or the very occasional long weekend away, she’d never gone on holiday. Financially she was doing fine, she paid herself and Clare a decent wage, the shop had been bought outright several years before when Rome had received a huge cash settlement after the accidental death of his fiancée. He’d helped to pay for everything she needed to start her business and as such she only had consumables and electricity bills to pay every month. They didn’t make a ton of money from their little pottery painting café, but they made enough to be comfortable. She’d never dreamed of closing down for two or three weeks and just jetting off to far-off destinations. All that lost income horrified her. And there always seemed to be something else that she had to pay out for: repairs on the kiln, a new fridge, even a new roof the winter before when a storm had ripped off several tiles and then caused a leak. She didn’t dare take any of her hard-earned savings and fly off to some exotic location because what if she had to buy a new kiln or a new floor as the current one was looking a bit tired? But with a million pounds she could do all those things, she could buy a new floor, redecorate the whole café, buy a brand new top-of-the-range kiln, build a studio with all the tools and equipment to teach her workshops and still have enough left over to treat herself to a holiday of a lifetime, somewhere wonderful with just her and Dougie.