I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day - Milly Johnson Page 0,98
Bridge. ‘Nothing less.’
‘I’ve been lucky,’ said Charlie. ‘I had to kiss a lot of frogs though before I met my prince. One who’s been barking “Cholesterol!” at me for years.’ He tutted then, affectionately so. ‘I’m going to miss him, but I hope I have a lot of time to wait until he joins me.’
Bridge folded, Charlie opened up his arms and wrapped them around her: he felt the weight of her head against his breastbone and tears seeping through his shirt.
‘A new year’s around the corner, it’ll bring some magic, I promise you, Bridge. And no more need for fakery. Just you wait and see.’
* * *
‘Fancy a game of something, Mary?’ asked Jack, tapping her on the shoulder as she stood by the window, her brain miles away from her body.
‘Er, yeah, okay. Buckaroo?’ she suggested. She didn’t have the headspace for chess at the moment.
‘Okay. I’ve never played it before, you’ll have to show me what to do.’
Mary brought over the box from the pile of games on the floor by the Christmas tree and set it on a table by the window. She took out the mule, pressed down its hind legs and attached the plastic saddle onto its back. It struck her how calm she was: emotionally distancing herself from Jack was liberating; she wasn’t second-guessing what he might have thought about her choosing Buckaroo over something far more mature. Her second choice would have been Snap.
‘We have to take it in turns to hang things on the hooks. The person who overloads the mule and he bucks, loses the game,’ she explained.
‘Right. You go first. Show me how it’s done.’
Had Mary looked at him then, she would have seen something new in his eyes, something sparkling and hopeful and slightly scared, but she didn’t.
She picked up the coiled rope and carefully attached it to the saddle.
‘This looks easy,’ said Jack, who duly hung on the spade and the mule bucked. It startled him enough for him to jump. ‘Cripes, not as easy as it looks, is it?’
‘You have to sneak up on him,’ said Mary. ‘He’s lazy, he doesn’t want to carry anything.’
‘I see. Okay, one nil to you then.’
Mary reset the mule, chose the bedroll this time.
‘I’m sorry about your Christmas present yesterday,’ said Jack. The words came in a blurt, as if his voicebox had pushed them out before they had a chance to hurry back to where they were formed. ‘Everyone else’s presents were so inventive and personal.’
‘It was nice,’ said Mary. ‘It’s a nice diary. Handy. For a handbag.’
‘I couldn’t think of what to wrap up for you. Well, for anyone really. So whoever I picked out of the hat would have probably got the diary.’
That didn’t quite come out the way he’d expected it to. He should have said that he was terrible at picking presents so it might have been the easiest option, but for anyone else it wouldn’t have held the same meaning, it wouldn’t have symbolised their most excellent qualities as it did with her. Mary’s hand slipped and the mule bucked.
‘One all,’ she said. She really was doing the right thing, said a voice in her head, one that was standing there, arms folded and head shaking slowly from side to side with disbelief.
‘I mean—’
‘Charlie’s book of life hacks was brilliant,’ she spoke louder, cut off whatever useless crap he was going to come out with to mitigate what he had just said.
Jack picked up the pan and hung it carefully.
‘Yes, I particularly liked, Ships are safe in harbours but that’s not why ships are built. It’s about comfort zones and reaching beyond them.’
Mary felt some heat in her cheeks, willed it to go away. Had he drawn the right conclusion from what she’d said last night when she’d been half asleep in front of the fire? Did he suspect that she planned to desert him, hand in her notice and leave her currant- and sultana-filled comfort-zone harbour to work for a property magnate in another county?
‘Why did you give Robin your bracelet? Was there a hidden meaning?’
‘A friend gave it to me after my father passed; a reminder that whenever I needed someone to talk to, I should ring her and she’d be there for me.’
‘And did she keep that promise?’
‘She did. As I shall be there for Robin when he needs a friend.’
Jack smiled. ‘That’s incredibly generous of you, Mary. Such a thoughtful gift to give someone.’