Christmas Promises at the Garland Street Markets: A feel good Christmas romance (New York Ever After, Book 5)

by Helen J Rolfe

  ‘That’s not an answer. Tell me straight.’

  ‘We had a great time in the city, just me and Scarlett. We wanted to eat at Ellen’s Stardust Diner but the queue was huge so we grabbed takeaway noodles from a café I can’t remember the name of. We were close to the Inglenook Inn and Scarlett invited me back there. She said her dad wouldn’t mind, I said not a chance, but she told me we’d eat in the dining room. Darcy doesn’t mind if you grab takeaway and do that.

  When we got there she had a message from her dad to say he’d been to the Empire State Building and was out wandering but he promised he’d be back by eleven at the latest, he joked about not missing his curfew. Scarlett persuaded me we should go eat upstairs seeing as he wouldn’t be back for a while. We could have a bit of privacy and get away from the other family in the dining room who had a crying baby with them. When we got up there I kept checking my watch and Scarlett told me not to be so jittery. So I tried to relax, we ate, we hung out, we were messing around. But then…’

  ‘You need to tell me. I can’t stick up for you unless I know the truth.’

  ‘We were kissing, then Scarlett suggested we go to her bedroom. I didn’t exactly protest.’

  ‘Were you going to have sex?’

  He covered his face with his hands. ‘This is so embarrassing.’

  ‘I’m sure it is, but you need to tell me.’

  ‘We were fooling around, Scarlett took off her top, then she took out a packet of condoms, said she’d bought them that afternoon just in case.’

  ‘She bought them?’

  ‘Yes, but don’t be angry with her.’

  ‘I’m not. Although you’ve only known each other five minutes. It’s a bit quick. But then again, at least she was thinking about safety, the risk of pregnancy, not to mention STDs.’ She was spilling her thoughts out loud now, trying to process the events of tonight. ‘Would you have gone through with it if Nathan hadn’t caught you?’

  ‘I’ve never…you know.’

  ‘Has she?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘But you took the wrap for Scarlett. You didn’t deny the condoms were yours, at least not when Nathan found them.’

  ‘How could I? She’s his little girl, he’s overprotective as it is, I didn’t want to make it worse for her.’

  ‘I’m proud of you for having that attitude. Because it would’ve really put him in his place to tell him it was her and not you, but you didn’t.’

  ‘I told you, I really like her. I know we’re on holiday and nobody ever thinks holiday flings go anywhere, but it feels as though this one will.’

  ‘I need to talk to Nathan, clear the air.’

  ‘You can’t tell him, Scarlett will be mortified.’

  ‘But it’s the truth.’

  ‘Do you think it matters who the condoms belonged to? Do you think if he knows she bought them then he’d say, oh well kids, go on then, go off and enjoy yourselves?’ When Amelia started to laugh, he joined in. ‘OK, that wasn’t a very good impression of him, he sounds way more anal than that.’

  ‘Hey, watch your mouth.’

  ‘Sorry.’

  ‘I think we both need some sleep, we’ll deal with this in the morning.’

  ‘What’s going on with Paul? What’s he even doing here?’

  Now it was her turn to feel uncomfortable. ‘He’s here to see me, says he made a mistake.’

  ‘He’s got a nerve.’

  ‘Yeah.’ She asked, ‘Would you mind if I had dinner with him tomorrow night?’

  ‘I think I’ll be able to cope without you for the evening.’ He seemed glad the topic of conversation had shifted from him. ‘But don’t let him talk you into anything, like getting back with him, not if it’s not what you want.’ When she smiled he said, ‘I’m still wide awake, I might call Mum and say thank you for the decoration.’

  ‘That sounds like a good idea.’

  He left her to it and she tugged the band from her hair before shaking it out. She sat by the window in the lounge, the sounds of the city carrying on around them. From here there was a view of the street, the brownstones opposite much like the one they were in now. Fire escape routes zigzagged up some of the frontages like an elaborate game of snakes and ladders, shouting came from below but soon passed. She wondered whether Nathan had managed to calm down yet, whether he was sorry for bursting in like that, whether Scarlett had told him the truth over at the Inglenook Inn.

  She used the time alone to reflect on everything that had gone on in the last couple of days, everything from the near-kiss with Nathan, to Paul’s arrival, Kyle and Nathan’s latest run-in and now Connie’s letter. She thought life was complicated before they left for this holiday but somehow it still was, just in different ways.

  ‘Did you have a good talk with your mum?’ she asked when Kyle eventually emerged. ‘You were on the phone a while.’

  ‘She never usually chats that long.’

  ‘She never was as talkative as me.’ She beckoned him to come and sit with her. ‘Her school reports would urge her to participate more in class, mine only said Must Stop Chatting.’

  ‘She asked if I’d send her a photo of the decoration hung on the tree.’ He’d taken the fireman ornament with him, maybe he’d held it as they talked, not wanting to let go of that piece of him and his dad. Now, he went over to the tree and hooked it onto a branch at the front, wiggling the white light behind it around so it was illuminated rather than shielded. He stood back and took the picture, his fingers nimbly operating his phone to send it across the miles to his mum.

  ‘Did you talk about your dad?’

  ‘A bit. She didn’t say much, she only apologised for not talking to me more.’

  ‘It’s a start.’

  ‘I guess. But it’s as though she wants to forget him when I want to remember.’

  ‘She probably wants to forget the pain of losing him, which isn’t the same.’

  ‘She was a bit weird on the phone.’

  ‘But you were talking for ages.’

  ‘That’s the weird thing. I kind of got the feeling something’s up, she was gearing up to tell me something. Do you think she’s going to suggest I move out? Stand on my own two feet? She threatened it before. She said either I get my act together or I could find somewhere else to live.’

  ‘In the heat of the moment we often say things that we don’t mean.’ Amelia had heard Connie talking about it a few times, wondering whether tough love was the way to go, but so far she hadn’t followed through.

  ‘She told me one of the good things about being here is I can’t hang out with my friends.’

  ‘The bad influences?’ she asked.

  ‘That’s Mum’s official name for them,’ he clarified.

  ‘Why do you hang out with them?’

  He shrugged, then his shoulders slumped back to the same hopeless position. ‘They’re not all bad. We have a bit of a laugh. But when they do stupid things I know it’s not good to be around them, I just don’t seem able to break the habit. Only one of them has a job you know, the others sponge off their parents, one is on the dole and boasts about living off the state. It’s easy to think I won’t end up the same as the rest of them, but I worry all the time.’

  ‘Then don’t let it happen.’

  ‘Derek, the one who was in prison, has already done another break-in. He asked me to drive the car for him, park it down the lane out back of the house so he could pass stuff over, then jump the fence.’

  ‘I’ll throttle him.’

  ‘He made me feel bad for saying no. They all took the piss out of me, although I could tell Warren didn’t want to get involved either.’ He sat back against the sofa. ‘This trip to New York couldn’t have come at a better time. Derek’s been talking about pilfering kids’ presents from round the tree, he’s got all these photos on his phone of houses with amazing trees in the window, says there’ll be Xboxes, iPhones, gadgets, parcels of money, we can all share it between us.’

  ‘He s
ounds charming.’

  ‘Dad once went on a shout after a burglary where whoever did the robbery set fire to a Christmas tree for a laugh. Half the house was destroyed. Dad was really upset, I saw Mum with her arms around him as he cried. I overheard him telling Mum the family had lost their son the year before and it was their first Christmas without him. Dad went to see the family and took presents around to their temporary house, anything to help.’

  ‘Your dad was a good man.’

  ‘And he’d be ashamed of me right now.’

  Kyle was a seventeen-year-old boy who’d never admit he needed a hug but right now he fell apart, his shoulders heaved, tears spilled down his cheeks. He was wallowing in self-pity, some of it his own doing, some of it life’s way of changing rapidly and unfairly until it brought you to your knees.

  ‘Aside from the blubbing now,’ Kyle managed to say, roughly swiping away his tears with the heels of his hands. ‘I haven’t felt this happy in a long time.’

  ‘And why do you think that might be?’

  ‘Being somewhere totally different where nobody knows me. Some of our neighbours at home give me a wide berth when they see me coming. They never used to but since I got in with Derek, Dale and Warren and the others, they keep their distance.’

  From her line of work she knew how hard it was for kids like Kyle to break away from people like that. ‘I need to talk to Connie. Between the three of us we can make some changes, you’re not on your own remember.’

  ‘I want to work, I really do. I want to sort myself out.’

  ‘I know you do. You’re a good boy.’

  He looked at the ornament on the tree, then at Amelia. ‘I never told Mum but I’ve always wanted to join the fire brigade.’

  Amelia smiled. ‘I once suspected that was the case but I figured when you didn’t do anything about it, perhaps you’d changed your mind.’

  ‘I didn’t do anything because of Mum.’

  ‘You think she’ll hate the idea?’

  ‘I know she will. And it’s all I’ve ever wanted to do. I felt like I was betraying her, going after a career the same as Dad where she was on edge half the time waiting for him to come home. I went to a careers talk on it last year and I floated the idea with Mum by telling her another boy in my class was joining up as soon as he was the right age. She made a comment about how glad she was that it wasn’t her son. She touched my cheek, gave me that same look she saved for when I’d go off on school camp and she was going to worry the entire time.’

  ‘She never told me. And she doesn’t really talk much to me about your dad either.’

  ‘But you two talk all the time. Bet it’s usually about me.’

  ‘You’re not wrong there. She’s a worrier, your mum. And I think she’s a bit lost.’ Connie had been all over the place, more so lately now Amelia came to think about it. She’d been trundling on with her life since Stuart died with a few false hopes of happiness when she met other men but she’d definitely been worse over the last six months. And Amelia couldn’t say with one hundred per cent certainty that she wouldn’t make Kyle move out if he didn’t get his act together. Perhaps the letter, the suggestion of a trip away, was all preparation for telling him it was time to fend for himself. Maybe it was make-or-break time for both of them.

  When Kyle yawned it set Amelia off too. ‘It’s late, and I may not be due at the markets until lunchtime tomorrow but at this rate I’ll be too tired to get up until well into the afternoon.’ She switched off the lamp in the corner, Kyle grabbed the phone charger from the plug in the kitchen to take to his room and Amelia didn’t miss him checking his phone again.

  ‘Have you heard from Scarlett?’ she asked and when he shook his head she suggested, ‘Maybe give Nathan a chance to calm down.’

  ‘Scarlett’s part of the reason I’ve felt happier here.’

  ‘I know.’

  ‘I’ve never met a girl like her. She listens to me.’

  ‘Hey, what am I then?’

  He grinned, gave her a playful shove. ‘You’re an oldie.’

  ‘Cheek!’ She pushed him back. ‘But I’m glad you have her to talk to.’ She only hoped Nathan would stop being such an arse about it, maybe remember how he’d been once upon a time, and give Kyle a break.

  *

  It was all systems go at the winter markets the next day and it had the power to take Amelia’s mind off Kyle and Scarlett, Nathan, and Paul. She must’ve been exhausted last night with everything that had gone on because she’d had the best night’s sleep since arriving in the city.

  Amelia watched her footing on the icy pavement in front of the chalet when she returned with a sandwich for lunch. They were so busy, the lack of a big tree or an ice rink like the bigger, more established markets not affecting footfall in the slightest. People were here in droves, flocking to the Swiss-style chalets with their lights strung around the roofs, and the knitting stall was doing a roaring trade.

  ‘I hope you’ve got more supplies,’ Amelia told Cleo as she demolished her sandwich quickly enough that she could multitask and serve a customer. ‘Today is the busiest I’ve seen it. You’ll have no stock left at this rate.’

  ‘Don’t worry, I’ve got a couple more boxes in the corner, then I’ll bring even more tomorrow.’

  They carried on, replenishing stock, advising customers, taking payment, pushing garments into paper bags, and when there was a lull Amelia and Cleo talked about Ruby and everything that had happened before it came to a head. ‘It must be a real weight off your mind to have her back on side.’ Amelia was glad to see Cleo looking far less stressed.

  ‘All I ever wanted all along was for the kids to be as happy about the wedding as us, and now I think they really are. All I need to do now is find time to plan the big day.’

  ‘Is that all?’ Amelia teased.

  ‘I hope you’ll be there.’

  ‘Another visit to New York at Christmas time? It’ll be hard, but someone has to do it,’ she joked. She hadn’t confided her own problems. They’d been too busy and with Ruby and Cleo finally able to move forwards, she didn’t want to burden her friend with the crap going on in her life. At least not yet, not when she had no idea in her own mind what the next step should be. She’d woken this morning and her first thought had been Nathan but it was very soon replaced with thoughts about Paul and the fact he was here. He’d come to tell her he’d made a mistake and it was a big gesture that left her confused. Once upon a time they’d had a relationship that others envied, he spoiled her, he was always there for her. And if he’d done the same thing a few months back it would’ve been easy, she’d have leapt at the chance. But now she’d begun to get used to making her own decisions and settling into life without him. Nathan was in the picture too – at least she thought he might be, although he hadn’t looked too friendly when he’d come to the apartment with Kyle and seen Paul, and her in just a towel. He must’ve put two and two together and come up with an answer that was completely incorrect.

  ‘Did Mitch say anything about Kyle this morning on your way here?’ She helped Cleo straighten the sweaters on display and positioned the small cardboard price sign in front of them when they were done.

  ‘You have nothing to worry about on that score, because Mitch told me how hard Kyle works and how he deserves a day off.’

  ‘He’s gone to explore Central Park.’

  ‘On his own?’

  ‘I wouldn’t mind betting he and Scarlett arranged something.’ Even though Nathan had made it pretty clear he didn’t want them anywhere near each other.

  ‘Young love, nothing like it.’

  Her phone pinged again with a message from Paul, this time with a photograph of the Statue of Liberty. Amelia had expected him to be hounding her all day, checking up on her, but was pleasantly surprised he hadn’t been tracking her every move. Maybe some time away from each other had enabled both of them to evolve and know what they each wanted. He was out sightseeing, having a great time he said, and couldn�
��t wait to meet up at his hotel later. Not one moan about her working the market stall to help out a friend. Maybe as well as her seeing things from his point of view, he was seeing it from hers.

  A customer beckoned his wife for the fourth time to finish choosing something at the knitting stall. He held a tree upright, it was huge, and his wife muttered something about getting a tree delivered next year when he made her take one end. Cleo and Amelia were busy laughing when the couple left, and when Amelia looked up she realised she’d been right with her theory about Kyle, because he was standing there with Scarlett.

  ‘Does your dad know you’re together?’ She directed her question to Scarlett and by the look on her face he didn’t.

  ‘I do now,’ came a voice on the street behind them.

  Busted. Clearly Manhattan wasn’t big enough for the kids to stay incognito for long.

  Amelia fished in her pocket for some money, handed it to Kyle and told him to go grab her and Nathan a hot chocolate each so they could talk.

  Cleo had everything on the stall in hand for now and Amelia stepped out of the way of Christmas shoppers swarming the markets. ‘I hope you’ve calmed down after last night.’ She figured he must have done because he’d let Kyle and Scarlett disappear to do as she asked.

  ‘Is that why you sent them for drinks? In case I’d come here to punch him?’

  ‘Now I know you’re winding me up, you wouldn’t do that, no matter how angry you were.’ He was too gentle to do it to anyone despite his bravado.

  As he stood there looking at her, neither of them knowing what to say now, his breath came out in puffs of white, mixing with the fog that shrouded Manhattan’s buildings and tampered with the idyllic skyline views.

  ‘I don’t want her to ruin her life,’ he said, his eyes not leaving hers.

  Her heart went out to him. He was doing his best as a father, trying to manage the teenage years the best he could. ‘I know you don’t.’

  ‘It’s not that I think Kyle will do that, at least not on purpose, it’s just, given my past experience, it could happen. Mistakes happen.’

  ‘Mistakes are part of life.’