that she’d heard from Dan’s mother’s sister’s cleaner that he’d had gone home to Dublin. Marla’s heart had iced over at the news.
Jonny slammed the boot door down and slid into the passenger seat, bringing an unwelcome gust of frozen air into the car with him.
‘Kerist! Dunno about glitter balls, but my poor balls shrivelled up like walnuts out there!’
He pulled off his leather gloves and clamped his hands over the heater vents.
Marla laughed and patted his satin-clad knee.
‘Don’t worry, still bigger than Rupert’s, then.’
Jonny high-fived her with an evil snicker.
‘So indiscreet, Ms Jacobs! I love you.’
Marla blushed. He was right. It had been an indiscreet comment, but if anyone deserved it, then it was Rupert. She usually played her cards close to her chest when it came to her personal life. Even Jonny had no clue about her relationship with Gabe.
If you could call it that, she thought, with a heavy heart.
She crawled along the high street at ten miles an hour to avoid sliding towards the last-minute shoppers and Christmas Eve revellers spattering the pavements.
‘Why the big sigh?’ Jonny asked.
Marla frowned. She wasn’t even aware that she had sighed.
‘Would you want to spend Christmas day with my mother?’
Jonny grinned.
‘Just thank your lucky stars that creepy Brynn isn’t here anymore.’
He pulled a macabre face. ‘He’d have brought a whole new meaning to the term stuffing the turkey!’
Marla laughed softly and turned off the radio when she heard the opening bars of White Christmas to prevent Jonny from reaching for the nearest sharp object.
‘So, come on then, ladybird.’ He rubbed his hands on his thighs like a market trader. ‘What are you hoping for in your Christmas stocking?’
‘Well … my mom always went traditional with oranges and walnuts at the bottom, but you’ve kinda just put me off.’
Marla eased the car to a stop at a red light.
‘Let me take a wild guess.’ He drummed his fingers on the dashboard. ‘A tall, dark Irish undertaker?’
Marla turned to him sharply, but the all too knowing sparkle in his eye silenced the denial on her lips.
‘How did you know?’
‘Oh, come on! You two are like Romeo and Juliet, star-crossed lovers kept apart by the brides on one side and the widows on the other.’
‘Really?’ Marla squeaked, as she slid the car into first gear and moved off again. She hadn’t even properly acknowledged her feelings to herself, yet it seemed that Jonny had known all along.
‘Really,’ Jonny confirmed.
Out on the pavement, a couple were wrapped in each other’s arms, a bunch of mistletoe clutched tightly in the girl’s hand. Marla’s heart thumped against the sides of its ice tomb, desperate for escape.
‘I think I love him, Jonny,’ she whispered, and steered the car into a parking space.
The enormity of saying the L word out loud required all of her attention.
‘No shit, Sherlock! I know you do.’
Marla gulped in a great lung full of air as she brushed away tears. Tears of relief at having finally admitted it, and of fear that she’d left it too late.
‘But he’s gone. I sent him away. Oh God, what if he’s changed his mind about me?’
‘Don’t be stupid. He’s an undertaker.’
Marla squinted at him. ‘So?’
‘So he’s reliable and serious, of course. And I happen to know that right at this very moment he’s back on these shores.’
Marla stared at Jonny in silence, hardly daring to hope, willing him to continue.
‘Come on Marla, work with me sister! Ask me where he is!’
‘Where is he?’ she whispered.
Jonny tipped his head to one side and arched his eyebrows at her. ‘How much do you want to know?’
Marla grabbed him by the lapels of his winter coat.
‘That’s more like it!’ he laughed. ‘Word on the street is that he’s spending Christmas at his horny henchman’s house so he can finalise the sale of the funeral parlour.’
Marla’s heart soared at the knowledge that Gabe was close by, then nose-dived again. He was only here to tie up loose ends before he disappeared for good.
‘What am I going to do?’ she asked, as much of herself as of Jonny.
Her eyes focused on the street outside and spotted a doorway to the side of the hairdressers, which had a neon sign flashing in the window. For once, she’d asked a question and been given the answer. Life-altering decisions deserve to be marked. Maybe there was something in this praying thing after all.
‘Don’t answer that. I know exactly what to do.’ Laughter bubbled up inside her as she jumped out of the car. ‘Come