Maxine Morrey - The Best Little Christmas Shop

‘Tricky situation.’

‘Mmmn.’

I took another sip of wine. ‘What do you think he would he do if she turned up now?’

‘I think he’d let her in, but I think he’d also be really careful. George is his world and he’ll do anything to protect him from getting hurt. But, either way, it seems an unlikely scenario to be honest. I mean, she resented the baby from the moment she knew about it. That didn’t change even once he came into the world. I think Cal sort of thought she might have a change of heart once she saw the little one, but she definitely didn’t.’

‘That can’t have been easy for him though. Raising a newborn on his own, with no family to help him? Did he have friends?’ I said, a little intrigued, not to mention a tad in awe.

‘It sounds like it was pretty much just him. He eventually found the childminder who’s still with him now. Lovely lady. Widowed early and dotes on the lad. But I think Cal resisted even that for a long time. She came with him down from London. I think it’s done her good too as she’s met a lovely chap here. Derek, you know, from the plant nursery?’

I did know Derek. Ever so shy but a very sweet man who’d spent many years caring for his elderly parents who’d now passed away. It was nice to think that he’d met someone.

‘Anyway, Cal was doing all this as well as trying to run a business. I think he finally realised he wasn’t superman. He had to ask for some help,’ Giselle added.

‘And now he probably gets all sorts offered here.’

‘I should say!’ Xander chuckled.

I slid my elbow along and jolted his. ‘I didn’t mean sexual help. I meant … general help.’

‘But you wouldn’t be averse to offering either?’

I rolled my eyes. ‘That’s the last thing I’m offering anyone right at the moment. My life is already a mess.’ I put my head down on the table. ‘I really don’t need to be thinking about adding a bonk with Cal Martin into the mix.’

‘Sorry. I did ring the bell …’ Cal’s deep and disturbingly sexy voice drifted into my ears and I fervently hoped that I was mishearing. The fact that, momentarily, both Xander and Giselle went suspiciously silent confirmed that I probably wasn’t. Oh God. OK. It’s fine. I’ll just stay here and perhaps he won’t notice me.

‘Hi, Lexi.’

Bugger.

I dragged my head up off the table and shooshed my fringe with my hand.

‘Hi!’ I said, very casually as though I hadn’t just been talking about bonking him when he walked in. I wondered if there was any way of persuading him to wear a cowbell in the hopes of avoiding three awkward encounters in a row.

‘I hope I didn’t interrupt anything?’ he asked, his eyes scanning the table and our faces, lingering a little longer on mine with what I could clearly see now was a twinkle of mischief.

‘No! Not at all. Sorry about the doorbell. I’ve been asking someone to put new batteries in it for the last week,’ Giselle said pointedly, looking at Xander as she poured water into the kettle. He pulled a face as if suddenly remembering.

‘Can you stay for coffee?’

As much as I loved Giselle and would do anything for her, I could also have quite happily throttled her right then, albeit temporarily.

Please say no. Please say no. Please say no.

‘That’d be lovely, thanks.’

Damn.

‘Martha’s with George and he’s already asleep. I was passing and just wanted to drop off the details of a couple of finds I’ve discovered to see what Xander thought about them.’ He took the seat that Giselle offered him, opposite Xander, and next to me, passing the files across the table.

‘How was the one today?’

Cal blew out a sigh. ‘Waste of petrol, mate. Nothing like the description really. For the time we’d have spent out on it even a really good auction price would barely cover it. And an average one definitely wouldn’t. Not worth the risk and effort.’

‘These look promising though,’ Xander said, scanning the paperwork. ‘Here, Muppet, take a look at that.’ Xander went to push the files towards me and then halted, glancing over at his boss. ‘I mean, if that’s all right? It’s just, you know, she knows a lot about cars.’

Cal grinned. ‘Of course.’

I took the paperwork and studied the pictures and descriptions of the classic cars, both in a very sorry state of repair.

‘Oh … this makes me so sad.’

I looked up to see Xander rolling his eyes. ‘We shouldn’t let you have wine.’

I slapped him with the papers. ‘Oh shush. You know what I mean. Cal will know what I mean.’ I scooched in my seat a bit more to face him. ‘You know what I mean, don’t you?’ I said, pointing at the pictures.

‘It’s sad that such beautiful machines have been left to rot.’

‘You see!’ I threw Xander a slightly inebriated, and very smug glance. ‘Exactly. That’s exactly what I meant. I knew you’d understand.’

Cal twitched an eyebrow and a broad grin showed briefly before the coffee cup hid it. He had a really nice smile. If I’d have had another glass of wine, I’d have gone so far as to say it was a very sexy smile. But I hadn’t, so I wasn’t going to say, or even think that at all. It really was no wonder half the mums wanted a play date with him. I didn’t even have a child and I was a handful of squashed grapes away from setting one up myself.

‘Oi, Muppet. What do you think then?’

‘Are you really calling her Muppet?’ Cal asked, his eyes shining with laughter.

Xander looked slightly confused. ‘It’s her name.’

‘I thought it was Lexi.’

‘Well, yeah. Officially.’

‘Actually, officially it’s Alexandra.’ I did a sweeping sort of motion with my hand, like I was bowing but I couldn’t be arsed to stand up so you had to use your imagination a bit.

‘And you’re really Alexander.’ Cal said, nodding across the table.

‘Yep. Born on the same day. Mums were in the beds next to each other, and they’d both decided on Alexander. Because Muppet here was supposed to be a boy.’

‘I wasn’t supposed to be a boy!’

‘All right. You were expected to be a boy. But that sort of happened anyway.’

‘Do you mind?’

‘What? You’re not exactly girly, are you?’

‘Giselle does girly enough for the both of us.’

‘She’s plenty girly,’ Cal interjected. ‘Carry on.’

I wiggled my head at Xander in triumph and he ignored me.

‘So, anyway, out pops this one and her poor parents hadn’t even begun to consider girls’ names because, although they didn’t have any scanning equipment down at the little cottage hospital we were born in, everyone was convinced in that mystical way people are, that it was another boy. Her parents had resigned themselves to it. And they’d spent so long choosing a name they just made it into a feminine version. Unlike the human being they produced.’

‘You’re such an arse,’ I mumbled.

‘But once we started recognising our names and especially at playgroup, it all got a bit confusing so they got adapted: hers into Lexi. Mine into Xander.’

‘OK,’ Cal said, breaking the leg of the gingerbread man that had now appeared in front of him and popping it in his mouth. ‘That makes sense. But why Muppet?’

‘Because she is one.’ Xander looked at his boss as if this explanation was obvious.

Cal glanced at me and tilted his head. ‘Ask a silly question …’

‘It’s fine. I don’t mind it. It’s all meant with love.’

‘That’s true. But you are a Muppet. You have to admit that. Last year was the perfect example.’

‘Xander,’ Giselle said. Her voice was quiet but there was a definite hint of warning.

‘What person, other than a total muppet, would travel halfway across the world, knowing that by doing so they were not only going to lose their job but their entire career as well, just to visit a friend.’