she had here already in a community that looked out for each other.
Lucy admired the bonbonnière at her place setting. ‘These are wonderful, Lois.’ Inside the silver box were eight Father Christmas chocolates and Tracy had already announced she’d be hiding them from Giles, her husband, who loved chocolate more than anyone else in her family.
‘I thought it was a nice touch and I didn’t want to do crackers.’
‘I approve,’ said Lottie. ‘And chocolate is way better than something made out of plastic that I have to spend hours trying to work out a use for.’
When lunch was over and Lois had reluctantly let the girls help her clear and wash everything up – Barney had predictably taken himself out somewhere – Lucy was more than ready for a long walk to work off the rich meal. ‘Anyone else interested in working off Lois’s wonderful cooking by going down to the cove for a walk?’ She shrugged on her coat after Lois had taken charge of blowing out all the candles. Melissa had switched off the twinkly lights, Tracy unplugged the Christmas-tree lights and they shut the doors to the barn behind them.
Tracy needed to get back to the inn with a full house of guests this year, Lottie had to relieve her friend at the convenience store, and so it was just Melissa, Lois and Lucy who headed away from Barney’s, along The Street, and gingerly made their way down, the bracing temperatures already surrounding them, until they reached the cove itself. Lucy caught her breath. The ground on the way down here had been hard-packed but now the sand, damp beneath their feet, held a familiar feeling. This had always been Melissa’s favourite thinking spot and it was fast becoming Lucy’s. The openness and seclusion from anyone not willing to make the trek on foot and negotiate the uneven path down here was what made it the ideal spot for contemplation.
The salt spray from the water in the wine-glass-shaped bay had brought all three women out of what Melissa described as a food coma by the time they headed back up The Street and parted at the end of the track. Lois made her way to the bakery, Melissa returned to Tumbleweed House and Lucy walked on to the Heritage Inn to drop off Tracy’s chocolate bonbonnière she’d left behind in her hurry to get back to work.
After leaving the inn, Lucy crossed over the road to walk beside the village tree and in amongst the crowds. It seemed there didn’t have to be a big event planned, this was a drawcard for the village and people still viewed it in awe as though it hadn’t been standing since early December and they’d only just noticed its beauty. A teenager stood nearby eating waffles from a cardboard tray and the sweet smell grabbed Lucy, tugged at her insides not through hunger but through the turmoil of not knowing whether to hear Daniel out or whether to put him well out of her head and honour Joanna’s memory by never getting involved. She thought about the tortoise she’d made for him, the care and precision as well as the time invested in a gift she knew would mean a lot to the man she cared about. Now, it was beneath her tree, wrapped and waiting.
Lucy had asked herself more than once, what would Joanna do in her situation? They both had similar taste in men, both of them attracted to taller men with cute smiles. Neither of them had ever been bothered about a partner’s job – he didn’t have to be a high-flyer, and Joanna had often joked that being able to work with your hands was far higher up the criteria than being able to sit at a desk would ever be.
The sky, not yet dark, was the palest of blues with an orange hue, white streaks like stretched-out cotton wool behind a backdrop of trees that looked as though they were in shadow, and the buzz of the village was one you’d expect in the run-up to Christmas. Voices filled the air, laughter, greetings from person to person, and when Lucy caught sight of an angel decoration the women next to her were fawning over having just bought it from Tilly’s shop, Lucy thought again of Joanna. She looked up at the shack. Joanna would like Daniel; she’d find him mysterious and enjoy his company, and she’d be very impressed by his occupation. And Joanna would