Twelve Days The Beginning - By Jade Reyner Page 0,125

implication.

Like cooking, Dale didn’t do Christmas. Last time she had bought a tree he had hastily removed it to the garden and it had ended its life at the local landfill site. She couldn’t even begin to comprehend what on earth had possessed him to get a Christmas tree this year, especially when he must have realised that things were so finely balanced between them.

Dale was watching her as she took in his handiwork and his grin became even broader.

“Thought we could celebrate it properly this year – maybe like a new start? I got the tree and bits this afternoon after I had spoken to Olivia and realised that you would be back early. Thought I would surprise you. What do you think?”

Olivia? Hang on a minute, first of all he had spoken to her ‘office’ and now he was referring to Olivia on first name terms, just dropped in there casually, as if they were old friends. Her radar was beginning to warn her that something was off but she just couldn’t seem to put her finger on it.

“It’s beautiful,” she replied, “So nice to have some festive cheer this year – I think we both need it.”

“That’s what I thought.” said Dale, “I’ve even got you presents but you’ll have to wait until Christmas Day for those.”

Those? Plural? Dale had bought her something other than the usual perfume? She almost felt like she had walked into an alternate universe and just about stopped herself from pinching her arm to make sure that she was still alive.

“So, what’s prompted all of this?” she asked as Dale continued to steer her into the lounge and towards the sofa. “You have to admit this is all seriously out of character.”

Dale looked at her almost regretfully. “I know it is and that’s why. I’ve had time to think and things have become clearer over the last couple of days. We need to put some work into this, and I know that I haven’t been the easiest person to be around for a while.”

Elise looked up at Dale as she sat down on the sofa and registered the sincerity in his eyes but there was also an edge there, something that she couldn’t decipher and unbidden a shiver ran down her spine.

Dale was watching her and as she settled herself, he dropped down to join her, running his hand gently across her face where Olivia had slapped her.

“Ouch!” he said, “What the hell happened to your face?”

“Oh, it was nothing,” she lied, “I tripped over a rug at the hotel and came face to face with the rough carpet; it’s more of a burn than anything else.” She really was a scarily proficient liar these days.

“Clumsy...” he said as he gently caressed the injury, “but still my beautiful Elise.”

Aware that his hand was now starting to drift down her cheek and towards her neck and collarbone, she grasped it in hers and pressed a kiss into his palm.

“Hadn’t you better go and check on the food?” she asked, “It smells delicious.”

He kept her gaze for a moment, an almost puzzled expression on his face, and then he stood up and headed towards the kitchen. “I hope you’re hungry” he shouted back as he departed, “I don’t know how much they think two people can eat!”

The food was delicious but far too much as Dale had predicted and Elise was absolutely stuffed by the time she admitted defeat. Dale’s good mood had continued throughout the meal and he had drunk only water which really shocked Elise. It was unheard of for Dale to drink water on a Friday night when he had the whole weekend to recover, and the more his behaviour differed from the norm, the more unsettled she began to feel.

So far he had given no indication of knowing anything at all about what had happened at the conference and he had barely mentioned it, other than to ask if it had been successful. Despite her unease at his radical change of behaviour, Elise began to accept that maybe Olivia had kept her mouth shut as she was certain she would have known about it by now if she hadn’t.

Once the dishes had been cleared away, Dale suggested that they watch a movie and she was surprised to see that he had hired The Holiday, one of her favourite Christmas movies but a real chick flick – something that she would have expected to watch with Cole, not her thriller-loving husband.