Christmas at the Little Waffle Shack - Helen J. Rolfe Page 0,98
her inside the shack.
And it wasn’t only waffles on the menu for Christmas Eve.
Chapter Sixteen
Lucy picked up Shadow as she came out of the bathroom on Christmas morning. It was light already and she’d had a welcome sleep-in after such a late finish. She and Daniel had kissed like a couple of teenagers at the waffle shack and then back here after he walked her home. In the end she’d had to tell him to go home or she’d never get up today ready to head to her parents’ for Christmas lunch.
She fed Shadow, cursing as usual when the wonky shelf inside the cupboard where she kept the tinned foods wobbled and stopped the cupboard door from shutting properly. With the cat happy, she put on the tree lights and picked up Tilly’s text in reply to the one she’d sent late last night telling her about Daniel. She smiled at the GIF of a kissing couple Tilly had sent along with a request for ‘all the juicy gossip’ when they met up tomorrow for Boxing Day drinks at the pub.
Lucy opened up the curtains and although last night had been tantalisingly cold with the hint of a white Christmas, she was pretty sure nobody in the Cove had expected it to happen. The forecast had said there was an eighty-per-cent chance of snow but nobody had quite believed it. They would now. The rooftops of the bakery and tea rooms and the bushes at the end of the lane that led behind and down to countryside were covered and it looked just like those photographs she’d seen from years gone by. Daniel had already texted to say Merry Christmas and she took a picture of the snow on The Street before pinging it his way. He responded with a phone call and when he asked whether she could still drive to her parents’ today, she told him she’d call him right back. She hadn’t even thought about that, her mind filled with Daniel and how it felt to kiss the man she knew her cousin Joanna would love.
She called her parents and the resounding message was do not go on the roads today. There was a possibility if the snow melted over the next few hours that she might make it, but it was thickly layered out there and a quick glance out of the window revealed flakes were still falling down from the heavens above. When her dad fussed that she’d be on her own she reassured him she’d be fine. She wasn’t quite ready to share anything about the new man in her life just yet but she told them she’d find somewhere to go and, if no friends were available, there was always the pub.
‘Honestly, you’ve had Benjamin’s food, Dad,’ she said. ‘You know he’s talented and I won’t go hungry. Why don’t you go to the Wallaces’ for Christmas lunch, you said they invite you every year?’
‘I’m sure they’d welcome us, but I don’t want to miss Christmas with our favourite daughter.’
‘Dad, I’m your only daughter,’ she laughed. ‘And the weather means we won’t be together so get in touch with them, and have a wonderful time.’
Lucy could hear muffled sounds and she knew her mum was taking the phone from her dad, usually done mid-conversation when her mum felt the exchange wasn’t going the way it should. It was always funny, and it was just their way; a bit like how some couples finished sentences for each other, her mum finished phone calls.
‘Lucy, are you still there?’ her mum chimed down the phone.
You could always rely on her to say that too, as though Lucy might have lost interest and gone off somewhere else. ‘Yes, still here, Mum.’
‘This snow has taken us all by surprise, are you sure you’ll be all right on your own?’
‘I won’t be on my own, I promise.’
‘You could see Tilly, she seems nice. Or that Melissa you talk about. Or –’
‘Mum, I can organise myself. Now, you get on the phone to the Wallaces and tell them Christmas-with-the-neighbours is a go.’
‘What about your presents? We always open them together.’
‘Then we’ll do it another day. Let’s have a second Christmas. It’s a good excuse.’ Maybe she’d even take Daniel along and introduce him. The thought of doing that was exciting, a new beginning. They never asked about her love life. They knew she’d had her fill with Julian, but they’d be happy, she was sure of it. Her dad would