Mistletoe's For Kissing Under, part 2
Settle in and join Jenni in eavesdropping a bit on Paige and Noah as they start to get reacquainted...and mmm....those cookies do look good....
ICYMI: part 1
‘It must be what, seven years since you left? Are you visiting friends?’
‘Actually, I’ve just moved back to the island. Today, as a matter of fact. I start my job on the business park on Monday and I’m renting a flat two streets away. I was just checking out the neighbourhood and I had to pop in and say hi.
‘I'm sorry about your dad. He was a good bloke.’ He stroked my arm and I shivered involuntarily.
‘Thank you. Your mum sent flowers from you all.’ Husky-voiced I changed the subject. ‘You’ve got a job here? Oh that’s right, you graduated this year, didn’t you?’
‘Keeping tabs on me, front-Paige?’ His teasing smile could heat the shop all by itself. He’s always been a sunny kid, but this was ridiculous.
‘Your mum and I swap updates with our Christmas cards. She keeps me abreast of all the family news, so you have no secrets. . . well, up until last December! So tell me about your job – why back here? I presumed you’d be off to London – your mum boasted you were top of your year, doing really well. Graphic design, wasn’t it? You were always a talented artist, even as a kid.’
‘I’ve been kicking around since graduation, did an unpaid internship while living at home in the summer, but I missed the island. Something has been calling me back home for years, and when I saw the advert online, I knew it was fate. It’s a start-up, but they’re going places, and it feels like the first step in the right direction.
‘But what about you? The shop looks a world away from when your dad was in charge! I love the new name, by the way, but then you couldn’t really call it anything but Paige Turner’s, could you, Paige Turner? What a wasted opportunity that would be.’
‘Exactly what I thought! When you left I was taking over more of the day-to-day running of the store as dad got sicker, and when he died I sold the house. It was too big to rattle around in all by myself. Coincidentally, the lease on the shop was up, and the building was for sale, so I bought it and relaunched the shop. I live in the flat upstairs, which is really convenient.’
‘So no husband, kids, dogs and a picket fence yet then? Or are they all tucked away upstairs?’ Noah’s voice sounded different; deeper and serious.
‘No, not yet. There’s been nobody serious since Alex – I dunno if you remember him? When dad got sick it all got too much and I called things off. He took it very well, said if I ever changed my mind. . .
In fact he still sends me a bouquet every Christmas, always the same, with all my favourite flowers and decorated with candy canes and ribbons, although how he knew what I like is beyond me. He never bought me flowers when we were together.’ I gestured at the exuberant arrangement which had been delivered only this morning. ‘He sends it anonymously, never a card or anything, but he’s never missed a year.’
‘He was a lanky git, awfully well-spoken and terribly well-meaning, but limper than a double-dunked rich tea biscuit. I never knew what you saw in him.’ He snorted dismissively, adding, ‘Speaking of, any chance of one of those cookies? I missed lunch, and I’m starving. You used to make cookies every year for me, and I loved them.’ I couldn’t resist Noah’s puppy eyes when he was a kid, and it seemed nothing had changed.
‘Take a pew over there in what we grandly call our “café” space, and I'll bring them over, and some hot chocolate too.’
‘Now you’re talking!’ He made his way over to the little seating area while I locked the front door, turned the sign to “closed”, and told Jenni, who’d been eavesdropping shamelessly from her position at the cash register, that she could go early. I swear she looked almost disappointed. She collected her things from the back and let herself out, grinning her lewdest grin and winking suggestively.
We worked our way through the cookies and a thermos jug of my homemade real hot chocolate over the next hour or so, catching up on each other’s lives in the years since we’d seen each other last.
Stay tuned for part 3…
