Page 4 of One Last Gift

“I didn’t get you anything,” she admitted.

He rolled his eyes in a way that diffused some of the subtle tension between them. “Just open it, Cass.”

She lifted the lid from the box. A necklace, she saw, and took it out to examine it, the silver chain cool against her already cold fingers. Her breath caught when she saw the pendant. It was a stone. A stone, from when they’d all gone to the beach together months ago, over the summer holidays. She’d found some beautiful ones and it had felt sad that they were there unappreciated; they’d seemed almost lonely out there on the beach, so she’d collected the best ones and given one each to Tom, Sam, and Hazel.

“It’s the stone you gave me at—”

“I remember,” Cassie murmured, embarrassed to find that there was a lump in her throat. She traced the stone with her fingertips.

“Right.” Sam cleared his throat. “I just…This is making it beautiful, right? Giving it time to…whatever.”

She looked up at Sam to see him running a hand across the back of his neck, looking incredibly embarrassed—more than she thought she’d ever seen him before.

“I took it into a shop and they made it into a necklace for me. It’s stupid,” he continued, words coming quickly, “you don’t have to keep it—I just thought…”

“I love it,” she said, firmly but softly. And then, after a brief moment of hesitation, she reached up on tiptoes and kissed his cheek. It was something she’d never done before, and it felt very grown up, like they were both on the verge of something else, something older, something new. She felt Sam go very still, felt the whisper of his breath on her ear as he exhaled. “Thank you,” she murmured.

They stared at one another, and Cassie saw the stars reflected in his eyes. She felt like she couldn’t breathe. Like she didn’t dare breathe, in case it ruined this moment. She should smile or squeal and throw her arms around him. Something she’d done so many times before. But she couldn’t bring herself to.

“Cassie,” Sam said, his voice husky. He reached out to toy with that lock of hair again, and her neck tingled. “I—”

“There you guys are!”

Cassie jolted away from Sam as Tom came outside.

“Come on. Hazel’s guarding the table, and Linda will be forcing us all to sing Christmas carols soon—you can’t leave us alone for that.”

Cassie snorted. “I hear you practicing your singing in the shower often enough—I’m surprised you don’t want a solo.” Together, Sam and Cassie crossed to where Tom was standing. Cassie didn’t dare look at Sam, though she was still clutching the necklace and the cardboard box in her hand.

“Jealous of my incredible singing voice, Chipmunk?”

Cassie wrinkled her nose at the nickname he only pulled out when he was being deliberately annoying—referring to her height and the fact that when she was growing up her front teeth had looked way too big for her. Something which she’d been self-conscious enough about without him reminding her of it—not that he ever seemed to get that.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll show us all up with that squeaky little chipmunk voice of yours.”

“I do not have a squeaky chipmunk—”

“Ah, there it is.”

Cassie scowled at Tom, resisting the urge to stick her tongue out at him like a four-year-old. She glanced up at Sam, whose face was carefully neutral—clearly determined not to get in the middle. Something he’d practiced enough, she supposed. He was always on Tom’s side really, Cassie knew—he was Tom’s friend before he was hers—but she appreciated the effort he made not to make that obvious.

“Ah, come on,” Tom said, swinging his arm around Cassie and pulling her back into the warmth of the pub. “You can’t be too annoyed with me, or I won’t give you your first clue tomorrow.”

She wrinkled her nose, then sighed, leaning into him. “It better be rhyming, that’s all I can say.”

“Of course,” Tom said, putting his hand on his heart dramatically. “Do you think I want a repeat of the tantrums of ’03?”

She ignored the jibe and just said, “Good. It’s not a treasure hunt if it doesn’t rhyme.”

“So you’ve told me—multiple times.”

Cassie glanced over her shoulder at Sam. He met her gaze, gave her a little smile, then came up on the other side of Tom, clapping him on the back as they reached their table. And as she sat down, Cassie slipped the necklace into the pocket of her leather jacket before she took it off. She didn’t want it on display just yet. She’d tell Hazel later, and no doubt Tom would find out, one way or another, but for tonight, on Christmas Eve, she wanted it to be something that was just hers.

Two Years Later

Chapter Two

Up high in the Alps, the snow glittered in the sunlight beneath Cassie, spanning out under a blue sky broken occasionally by wispy clouds. The mountains stretched out around all sides, almost unnerving in their vastness, the white giving way to gray rock in places where snow had melted or not quite settled. The nearest pine trees were topped with white, looking like something right out of a snow globe, and a brisk, biting breeze tried to cut through her hefty ski jacket, which did not look quite as effortlessly fashionable as it had on the online model.