I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day - Milly Johnson Page 0,114

naked of needles underneath the tinsel and adornments, and the branches drooped wearily.

‘Good morning, ladies,’ said Luke, smile bright and pinned on his lips and Bridge thought of how he had always been a morning person – a lark, not an owl as she was.

Jack looked up briefly from his phone to add his good morning before returning to it. Business as usual for him, thought Mary. He must have loads of emails to sort through. Probably hundreds. He had that solemn set to his features again, that downward cast to his mouth; his Jack Butterly, MD of Butterly’s scones face. A Jack who didn’t throw snowballs or sing carols. A Jack with clear demarcation lines around himself that lowly PAs should not cross. But that wasn’t her problem any more.

‘Here, let me pour,’ said Luke, standing to pick up the coffee pot. ‘Want some toast?’ He nudged a platter full of buttered triangles and blocks of cheese over in their direction. ‘The bread hasn’t gone green yet.’

Bridge pretended to gag, but took some anyway. ‘We’re going to get straight off after this,’ she said, referring to the mug. ‘Looks like the roads will be clear enough.’

‘I tried to check the travel news with Radio Brian but there’s just white noise where he once was,’ said Luke with a sigh of regret. ‘I had to consult the “other BBC”. All the major roads and most of the minor ones are passable now.’ He’d call it the ‘other BBC’ for a long time to come.

‘Sorry,’ said Jack, turning his phone to silent as ping after ping came out of it.

‘Mine was exactly the same,’ said Bridge.

‘And mine,’ said Luke.

‘Did you get through to Carmen?’ asked Bridge. ‘And is she all right?’

‘All well, all good,’ said Luke, and for her ears only, ‘And it appears I’ll be eating another Christmas dinner when I get home. She hasn’t told her family yet, she wanted to wait for me.’

Bridge smiled at him. She was so happy for him. She hoped one day she’d get to meet Carmen, and have a cuddle with their baby.

Jack’s phone might have stopped pinging, but it carried on vibrating.

‘It’s a vicious circle that needs breaking,’ said Luke, leaning back in his chair, hands behind his head, looking every bit the laid-back dude. ‘Work might fill the empty spaces in your life but maybe you need to fill those empty places with other things instead, Jack. Take a leaf out of this happy but still extremely successful man’s book. Streamline, delegate, don’t trot halfway around the globe for meetings you can do on a video call. Find someone to care about.’ His eyes flicked to Mary but her thoughts weren’t at the table with them. There was no customary smile on her face this morning. ‘You need a good woman, Jack,’ he went on. Last ditch attempt to guide him.

‘Or a good man,’ said Charlie, appearing at the bottom of the stairs. Robin followed behind, struggling with a suitcase until Jack and Luke both got up to help him and Mary began to pour out coffees in readiness for the last two members of the Figgy Hollow Six to join them.

‘Well here we all are again,’ said Robin, patting some breath back into his chest, sitting down, reaching for the plate of mince pies to pass to Charlie.

‘Here we all are,’ echoed Luke. Even in jeans and a jumper that needed a wash, and his unruly white-blond hair stuck up at weird angles, he looked every inch a success story, thought Bridge. She wanted that contentment he’d found: having a million in the bank was absolutely no good if you were too busy to spend it. She had turned down one too many invitations from friends in favour of chasing deals. Things were going to change this year.

‘Can I just say, a big thank you,’ said Charlie, before he bit into his mince pie. ‘If I can take something with me and keep it forever, I’d take my memories, and these past few days would be right at the top of the pile with the best ones.’ He raised his mug in a toast. ‘May all of us around this table enjoy every minute of what we have left,’ he said. Five other mugs crashed into it.

A noise from above, as if something had fallen heavily.

‘This place is dropping to bits around us,’ said Robin, surveying the lounge. Funny, but he couldn’t remember it looking as worn out as this.