Page 52 of Hope and Hot Chocolate on Mistletoe Lane

Mum caught my eye. ‘You’ll work it out.’

She seemed so confident, I wished I could believe it too.

I left her talking to the family and carried on walking through the tunnels past a father taking photos of his daughter with the ponies who were enjoying a carrot treat. I thought about my own father. I’d had no contact with him since he left and I often told myself I was better off without him. Maybe I was but the unfinished business between us had kept me up at night a few times. I never told him how I felt about him leaving or the mess he left us with, or how it made me scared of staying put, of facing problems, and of falling in love. It was all kept locked up tight and I was scared to let it out but something was telling me that maybe my mum was right; it was stopping me from being happy.

Out of the tunnels, the Christmas tree and ice rink glowed ahead. I could hear people laughing and letting out little screams when they wobbled on the ice. Beside the rink, Paul’s van had a queue of four, and more people were sitting on the benches holding hot drinks as they watched the skaters. It was a beautiful scene. I took a photo and posted it on the Mistletoe Lane accounts along with the ones for my business and I tagged Birchbrook Café and the farm. I had a feeling we really had something special on our hands here.

Paul looked over then and caught my eye. I lifted my hand to wave to him and he pulled out his phone, typing something quickly before he served the next person.

I looked down as my own phone lit up with a message from him.

Let me take you out on the ice rink when we close tonight? I won’t let you fall.

I lifted my eyes to see him handing a man two hot chocolates. They had whipped cream and a chocolate flake in. Holly’s hot chocolate. This was a man who had created a drink just for me and was now serving it with my name on it like he didn’t mind people knowing that he cared about me. I didn’t need Willow or her friends to tell me that wasn’t typical behaviour from Paul Ryan.

And here I was back in my hometown thinking about kissing my old childhood best friend again. Definitely not typical behaviour from me either. But there was something in the air. Before now, I would have laughed at anyone believing this was Christmas magic at work but standing here in this spot right now, it felt like maybe it was.

Taking a breath, I decided to believe in it.

Okay, meet me here later.

35

PAUL

‘I don’t know how you’ve talked me into this!’ Holly cried as she leaned against the café van while I shut up the hatch for the night. Her cheeks were pink from the cold evening and she had wrapped a green scarf around her neck that made her eyes look even greener. She smiled though and I knew that there wasn’t much I wouldn’t do to get her to smile.

‘I’ve let you get away with not skating for far too long, Holly Wynter,’ I replied.

‘I’ll be terrible,’ she said, biting her lip.

‘I told you – I won’t let you fall.’ I wondered if she knew I meant more than just ice skating. ‘There’s no one out here now. Just you and me.’ In a lull earlier, I’d stepped over and talked to the guys running the rink. I knew them vaguely through Elliot and Lewis and I’d asked them if I could skate for an hour after they left for the night, promising to cover everything up once I was done. They agreed and I said I’d buy them a beer when we were next in the Birchbrook Arms together.

‘I think it went well today – Willow seemed happy but she was so tired that we didn’t get long to chat,’ Holly told me as we strolled over to the rink, me holding a pair of ice skates in each of my hands. It meant I couldn’t take hold of her hand again like I wanted to. The lights of the winter wonderland were still on. ‘I said she should go inside and relax with Dylan and his family, and we’d talk first thing tomorrow. I said I’d shut up everything for the night after I met up with you. She was really grateful.’

I nodded. ‘You did the right thing. She takes on too much; she’s just so passionate about the farm.’

‘Like you are with your café,’ Holly said.

‘I’m getting there, yeah. And you with your business.’

‘If I still have one,’ Holly said then she shook her head. ‘I need to stay positive. How did your day go in the café van?’

Inside, I bristled about her old boss. I hated that man even though I’d never met him. Trying it on with Holly then punishing her for turning him down – it was beyond low. I knew she wanted to handle it herself but I wasn’t sure if I could keep myself away from the man when he made her look this defeated. I tried to change the subject and show her how much she had achieved here in Birchbrook.

‘We made a good start serving things from the van; all the cakes sold out. The hot chocolate was especially popular. And the customers said they’d really enjoyed coming here today. They will spread the word, I’m sure. Once schools break up for the holidays, things might get manic around here.’ It had been a long day all round and I was tired but I knew this was the lull before it got crazy, so tonight was a good opportunity to have some time on my own with Holly before that happened. Plus, every quiet moment had me thinking about our kiss under the mistletoe. That hadn’t felt like a kiss between two people happy to just be friends. But I also knew that the closer we got to Christmas, the closer we got to Holly leaving again. ‘But I guess you won’t be here then, will you?’

‘The plan was to make sure things were running smoothly and then I would go back to the city,’ Holly replied slowly and quietly. ‘Willow asked me to stay on for a few days to make sure there are no teething problems. But I don’t know… she mentioned there is the tree-lighting ceremony in town on Friday. She’s closing up here early as so many people will be going to it. I hadn’t realised that still happened…’

I grinned. ‘No one in town would give that up or the Halloween lantern festival. People are so stuck with those traditions, it took a while for Willow to get people to come to her events but they’ve proved to be great additions to how we celebrate the seasons here.’

‘You celebrate the seasons?’ she asked with a sly look at me.

‘I’m forced to participate,’ I amended but I shrugged because as long as I had a relaxing beer afterwards, they weren’t too bad. ‘It brings the whole town together; you should be part of it this year.’

‘I never thought I’d be part of anything here again,’ she said, looking ahead with a wistful expression on her face. I longed to know if she was enjoying being part of it all or was counting down the days until she could get out of here.

‘You are,’ I said simply. I nodded to the ice rink ahead. ‘And now you’ll be part of the outside skaters at Christmas club.’