Eve Devon - Christmas at the Little Clock House on the Green - An enchanting and warm-hearted romance full of Christmas cheer

‘I thought the demented pigeon dance would get rid of some of these knots,’ Daniel said, lowering his hand to her shoulders to start rubbing at the tension. ‘But you need a good massage. Smooth out some of the stress-kinks.’

Kate purred. ‘The problem with learning all these new skills is I can’t do them on myself.’ She thought of the half a dozen workbooks on her bed back at the cottage. Was she completely mad to be studying for her diploma in beauty therapy while opening her business? And, yet, she thought, taking Daniel’s advice and determinedly channelling positivity, the sooner she completed her qualification, the sooner she could add those skills to her business degree and ensure the spa ran as smoothly as possible.

Daniel leaned down to whisper in her ear, ‘Hey, you know we’ve got time until our meeting. Forget those emails. I’ve an idea or two of how we can work out some of these kinks.’

‘You have?’ Kate’s grin turned sultry as she spun around in her chair again and lifted her arms to lace around his neck. ‘Oh,’ she said as her ever-working mind remembered something else she’d written on her list. ‘I meant to ask you, don’t you think maybe we should have put in some of those standing desks up here?’

Daniel reached out and cranked a lever under the desk, laughing as the desk Kate was sat in front of, rose smoothly up into the air.

‘Wow, that’s—’

‘Impressive?’ he said knowingly. ‘Now this,’ he said picking her up with an ease that she found exciting and lowering her onto the higher surface of the desk, ‘is a much better height for what I have in mind.’

‘You mean for not putting your back out,’ she said with a laugh.

‘Practicality—’

‘Looks so sexy on you,’ she finished for him.

‘Thank you.’

‘Oh, did you decide what you wanted to do about asking your mother down for Christmas?’

Daniel lifted his head. ‘Wow. Did you just ask about my mother while I was getting ready to unbutton your blouse?’

‘God, I think I did. I’m sorry. I’ve got too much stuff going on up here,’ she said pointing to her head. ‘As soon as I stop thinking about one thing, the next comes to the surface.’

Daniel tilted her jaw and rubbed the pad of his finger across her bottom lip. ‘Perhaps if I occupy these for a while, the message that you’ve got to stop stressing about absolutely everything will get through.’

She pretended to think before replying, ‘I suppose we could give your plan a go,’ and then her grin turned into a wince of regret as her phone alarm went off with another reminder that she should be doing anything else but sneaking a little time with the man that could make her heart beat crazy-fast. ‘We’ll have to wait until later.’

The pout on Daniel’s face was comical. ‘Why did I have the feeling you were going to say that?’

Kate’s mouth turned down to match Daniel’s. ‘Because I always seem to be saying that, lately? I know. It’ll get better.’

Daniel chuckled. ‘You do know it’s actually going to get worse, right?’

‘I know. But—’

‘We’ll always have after hours.’ He leaned in to kiss the hollow of her left cheekbone.

‘Yes.’ Although to be fair, with all the work they both still needed to do to ensure they opened on time, the nights were getting shorter as well.

‘My place or yours tonight?’ he asked, playfully nipping at her lower lip.

Kate hesitated and distracted him by kissing the underside of his jaw. His place was right next to hers so technically what did it matter? They both had the exact same size bed – the only ones that would fit into the size rooms their side-by-side cottages had. But hers…

She really liked waking up in hers. Liked taking comfort from being unpacked and seeing her things carelessly dotted around.

‘Mine, I think. Is that okay?’

‘Hey, I’m happy anywhere you are.’

Kate smiled. Of course if they moved in together he could be with her all the time.

‘You think we’ll still have the energy for “after hours” when we’re working even longer hours?’ Daniel asked.

‘We’d better. I refuse to let Mum and Big Kev outshine us in the romance department.’ Her mum had been seeing Big Kev who ran the corner shop for months now. Although for some reason she refused to give out the confirmation memo, so everyone still had to pretend he wasn’t romancing her after hours amongst the bakery goods. Oh, that reminded her … Kate still needed to ask her mum if she’d be interested in doing the baking for Cocktails & Chai when business slowed down at the B&B which she ran.

‘Rain-check, then?’ Daniel asked.

‘Til tonight.’

‘Tonight. Your place. And to tide us over—’

‘Kate, you up here? Oops. Sorry,’ Juliet apologised as she reached the top of the stairs and spied them mid-clinch.

‘Don’t be silly. It’s fine,’ Kate assured.

Daniel cleared his throat and smiled. ‘Kate and I were just testing out the system.’

‘Right,’ Juliet gave a knowing nod. ‘Oscar and I need to do some of that.’ A blush formed across her cheeks. ‘Not your systems, obviously. What I meant was—’

Kate grinned. ‘What you meant was that you’re both feeling the strain of working long hours and hardly ever seeing each other, as well.’

When Oscar had discovered, this summer, Juliet’s plans to work so closely with Kate, he’d gone into full protective mode, making it impossible for Juliet to hide her feelings for him. The sparks between them had got the whole of Whispers Wood noticing and even though Juliet had moved out of her beloved bijou Wren Cottage and into the barn that Oscar had converted within weeks of them finally getting together, Kate was willing to bet that between Juliet setting up her salon and Oscar finishing up all the building renovations around here, they probably hardly got to see each other outside of work, either.

‘Anyway,’ Juliet said, ‘I wanted to tell you I talked over that other thing with Oscar and he agrees that Jake would be the perfect choice.’

‘Jake?’ Daniel queried.

‘Jake Knightley,’ Kate explained. ‘I thought I’d ask him to take a look at the courtyard. Come up with some plans for re-landscaping the space come spring.’

Daniel frowned. ‘Will he have time now he’s taken over the running of Knightley Hall?’

‘I think he’s looking for all the work he can get,’ Juliet said. ‘Knightley Hall is kind of expensive to run.’

‘Okay, I’ll try and set up a meeting. Let me write it down, or I’ll forget. As you’re here and Daniel’s here, shall we start the meeting now?’

‘Works for me,’ Juliet said. ‘Have notebook, will meet. So, are we employing Harry Stiles or what?’

‘Nope.’

‘Melody’s going to be so disappointed.’

‘Trust me, she really isn’t,’ Kate said.

‘Hey, why don’t we show Juliet what we put up in reception, before we start the meeting?’

Kate jumped off the table excitedly. ‘Oh. Yes. Perfect. Juliet, come with us,’ and grabbing her hand before she could sit down, she steered her down the two flights of stairs until all three of them were standing at the reception desk in the main foyer of The Clock House.

‘What do you think?’ she asked, pointing to the newly placed vintage photo frames that she and Daniel had put up behind the reception desk the night before. ‘I thought it would be nice to have them up,’ Kate explained, looking at the three postcards Juliet had sent her at the beginning of the year, explaining that The Clock House was going up for sale. ‘You know – a permanent reminder.’

Juliet nodded. ‘So when we’re super-successful and absolutely rolling in it we can look at these and think: Jennifer Lopez, ‘Jenny From The Block’.