I had every intention of finding you and staging an intervention of my own.’
I couldn’t help but laugh, but the sound soon changed to a groan as someone began hammering on the studio door and my plan of action came to a far less intense ending than the one I had set my sights on.
Chapter 23
By the time Finn had rearranged his clothes and rushed down the stairs, leaving me to tuck my dishevelled shirt back in, the hammering had stopped. I coaxed Nell out from under the table and followed him down.
‘Cheers, mate,’ I heard him say, before he closed the door and turned around holding a cardboard box. ‘Delivery that needed signing for,’ he said, rolling his eyes. ‘Do you want to come back up?’
‘Best not,’ I said, lightly kissing him over the top of the box.
‘Sure?’
‘I’m sure,’ I swallowed. ‘Some things are worth waiting for.’
‘Haven’t we waited long enough?’ he seductively whispered.
‘Almost,’ I whispered back, before quickly slipping out in case my resolve crumbled.
* * *
Earlier than requested, the next morning I headed back to Prosperous Place with a spring in my step and a smile I couldn’t seem to get rid of. Not that I particularly wanted to, but if Chloe noticed me looking so chipper so early on a Saturday, then she was bound to guess I’d staged my intervention and put two and two together, and I wanted to avoid her speedy calculations.
I might have staged a successful intervention and Finn and I might have indulged in another knee-weakening kiss as a result, but I still didn’t know what our relationship was destined to be, and therefore it definitely wasn’t time to unwittingly share any details or purposefully go public about it. But as it turned out, it wasn’t my smile that Chloe noticed.
‘What have you done to your face?’ she frowned, when I met her trying to negotiate the door to Prosperous Place while juggling yet more wreath-making supplies.
She’d come equipped with enough bits and pieces to adorn every door within a five-mile radius, but I didn’t comment. There was something about her frown which suggested that it wasn’t only whatever she’d spotted wrong with my face that was causing it. My friend was clearly feeling the pressure of what lay ahead and, even though I knew she’d be fine once the session started, she didn’t look in the mood to listen to my reassurances, no matter how kindly meant.
‘Nothing,’ I therefore cringed instead, knowing exactly what she’d noticed. ‘Why, what’s wrong with it?’
‘All around your mouth,’ she said, ‘it’s really red.’
‘Oh yes,’ said Luke, who then appeared and took some of the bags from Chloe’s laden arms, ‘it looks ever so sore, Freya.’
I felt my cheeks glow bright enough to match the skin around my mouth.
‘Windburn,’ I said, thinking on my feet. ‘I’ve always been partial to it and working here in the city I thought I’d get away without wearing my usual moisturiser to prevent it, but apparently not.’
Thankfully, the pair seemed to accept this answer and neither suggested beard burn, which I was certain it actually was.
‘Oh wow,’ said Chloe when she entered the dining room and found the fire already lit and the lights twinkling away. ‘I thought it looked lovely when I’d finished setting up last night, Luke, but this is wonderful.’
The room smelt even better than when Lisa and I had used it thanks to all the extra greenery which had been arranged into separate piles on the covered dining table. There were long lengths of green ivy, holly studded with the brightest red berries and fecund bunches of mistletoe. Bowls of small pine cones, cinnamon sticks and satsumas added a forest, spiced and citrus tang to the air and it smelt almost good enough to eat.
‘This all looks amazing,’ I said, wondering if I needed to remind Chloe to tell the attendees that mistletoe berries were poisonous.
‘Luke sorted delivery of most of it,’ she told me. ‘Didn’t you?’
‘It was more Finn really,’ Luke nodded. ‘It’s all from the Wynthorpe Hall estate near Wynbridge, that the Connelly family owns. They supply some of the seasonal greenery for their local auction every December and as they’ve had a bumper year, they were happy to supply us at cost after Finn mentioned what we were doing here today to another friend who lives nearby.’
The friend was doubtless Jake from Skylark Farm and I daresay Finn had mentioned the need for greenery to Angus Connelly himself when they were talking