give him a chance?
‘Do you think you’d be willing to help me set up Melissa in the same way she set us up tonight?’ Harvey had the same expression now as he’d had when they were boys and he had suggested they make a supply of snowballs and use the wheelbarrow in the shed to transport them to the laneway near the florist one Sunday morning. The plan was to hide behind the wall and ambush Calvin Trilby when he set out for his paper round. Calvin had been teasing Melissa, calling her carrot top on account of her red hair, and even though she’d promptly told him he was stupid because carrot tops are in fact green, Harvey thought he’d give the dude the message that any more insults Melissa’s way and he’d have him to deal with. Calvin hadn’t expected them to be lying in wait for him but he got the message loud and clear and left her alone after that.
‘Get your own back?’ Daniel laughed. ‘I like your style. What do you have in mind?’
And no matter what Harvey might tell him, he didn’t care. They were talking, they were beginning to repair some of the damage that he’d thought would leave everlasting scars.
It was a start.
Chapter Fourteen
Once Tilly had finished wrapping a gift and waved goodbye to her customer with a Merry Christmas, she rejoined Lucy at the back of the shop to carry on with their mulled-wine tea and mince-pie meet-up, squeezed into Tilly’s working hours because she was still busy. ‘Have you heard from Melissa?’ she asked.
It was the day before Christmas Eve and Heritage Cove had woken to a light sprinkling of snow on the tarmac of The Street, an intermittent dusting on the parts of roofs it had managed to reach, the odd branch of the village tree if you looked close enough like Lucy had on a walk this morning. Today marked day one of a two-week break from work for Lucy and one of the joys of time off from her business was being able to get out nice and early, bundled up warm, before the rest of the village stirred. Another joy was the absence of Julian’s games and at last she was beginning to feel festive and ready for Christmas. The only thing she was a bit confused about was that since she and Melissa had thrown Harvey and Daniel together, she hadn’t heard a word about it and according to Melissa’s text, she didn’t know anything either. Even more weirdly, Daniel hadn’t once tried to get in touch with her since. It had all gone mysteriously quiet.
‘I haven’t spoken to her. She texted but she doesn’t know how it went down. It seems Harvey’s keeping quiet about it all, which I’m not sure is a good sign.’ Melissa and Lucy had filled Tilly in on their antics when they met her in the pub while on exile from Tumbleweed House as Daniel and Harvey finally confronted one another properly.
‘You two played a dangerous game.’ Tilly managed half a mince pie and a swig of tea before serving another customer, who was after a last-minute gift for her best friend. It seemed Tilly’s business would be going right up until the big day itself. ‘I was expecting them to come to blows,’ she said the second she came back over and resumed her tea break.
‘No broken bones, according to Melissa, and from what I hear, people are still getting their waffles so Daniel must be in one piece too.’
‘Talking of waffles, aren’t you desperate for more?’
‘No comment,’ she said, gesturing with her hands that she had too much of a mouthful to say anything else. She knew Tilly wasn’t referring to waffles at all.
‘If you play your cards right you could have that special someone just in time for Christmas.’
Lucy laughed. ‘You’ve been watching too many soppy movies.’
‘If I had a Daniel to snuggle up to for Christmas I wouldn’t even care what was under the tree.’
‘You’re terrible,’ she laughed, but she hated to admit Tilly might have a point. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t thought about it, but the drink-driving charge he’d once faced still loomed at the back of her mind, confusing her more and more. And with everything he was bound to still have going on with his brother, perhaps he needed to sort out those differences first.
‘Do yourself a favour,’ said Tilly after three more customers came in the shop and she