Christmas at Lilac Cottage: (#1 White Cliff Bay)

by Martin, Holly

  ‘I bought him some flowers,’ she said lamely, as she got out the van, holding the bunch of bright orange and purple blooms aloft.

  Daisy laughed. ‘You bought him flowers, that’s hilarious.’

  Penny cringed inside – it was a terrible idea, but as he had bought her flowers to apologise the night before she thought he might get a laugh out of her doing the same for him.

  Daisy encouraged Penny to follow her to the door and then told her to hold back a second. This was ridiculous, he was going to take one look at her and slam the door in her face.

  ‘Hi Daddy,’ Daisy sang.

  ‘I was just about to come looking for you. I said to get home before it’s dark.’

  Although Henry was keeping it light, Penny noticed the protectiveness to his voice.

  ‘That hill took a lot longer to walk up than I thought, besides it’s not dark, it’s twilight, dusk at best. I’ve brought a friend with me, can she stay for dinner?’

  ‘You’ve made a friend already? Of course she can stay for dinner, where is she?’

  ‘She’s outside, she’s a bit scared of you,’ Daisy giggled.

  ‘That’s ridiculous, I don’t bite.’

  Penny saw the huge shadow of Henry looming towards the door, then he poked his head out. His face fell when he saw Penny.

  ‘She’s my friend, and you said she could come for dinner, so you have to let her in,’ Daisy laughed with the confidence of someone who knew she had her dad wrapped round her little finger.

  Henry sighed heavily and stepped back to let her in.

  ‘I, erm, bought you some flowers to apologise.’ Penny proffered the small bouquet.

  Henry stared at them in confusion. ‘No one has ever bought me flowers before. That’s normally a woman thing.’

  ‘Why should it be though, Dad, they don’t come with labels saying for women only,’ Daisy protested. ‘I think it’s a fantastic idea.’

  Penny stepped into the warmth of the kitchen, eyeing Daisy who obviously thought the whole thing was hilarious.

  Henry took the flowers, holding them like they were an unexploded bomb. He found a pint glass, filled it with water and shoved the stems into the glass, the flowers still wrapped in their plastic.

  He turned back to face her, folding his arms across his chest, his eyebrows slashing down across his eyes.

  ‘I really am very sorry.’

  ‘You said that.’

  Wow, he really wasn’t going to make this easy on her.

  ‘I’m just going to send an email,’ Daisy said. ‘How long until dinner?’

  ‘About five minutes,’ Henry said, not taking his eyes off Penny.

  Daisy turned from the room and Penny heard her race upstairs.

  He stared at her for a moment, the awkward tension hanging over them like a black cloud.

  ‘It’s OK, I don’t have to stay for dinner. I just wanted to apologise and I’ve done that. I certainly don’t want to make you uncomfortable in your own home. Tell Daisy I’m really sorry I couldn’t stay, but something came up.’

  She moved to the door and he didn’t even try to stop her.

  She stepped outside, let herself into her own kitchen and switched on all the lights. Bernard popped his head over the arm of the sofa, but seeing it was her and not a burglar he went back to sleep again. Even if she had been a burglar she was pretty sure she’d get the same reaction from him.

  She sat down at the kitchen table with her head in her hands. Life was going to be pretty unbearable between them. If there had been a fledgling friendship developing between her and Henry, it was well and truly gone now.

  The connecting door suddenly opened and when she looked up Henry was leaning on the door frame.

  ‘Are you coming for dinner or what?’

  Penny stared at him. She knew the tension would be excruciating and she didn’t think she could face it. ‘No, I’m fine, I’m just going to get a sandwich.’

  ‘Putting up with my grumpy face has surely got to be better than sitting in here on your own. Daisy will talk to you even if I don’t.’

  It was hardly the best offer she’d ever had but it didn’t seem there was any room for arguments as he disappeared back into his own home again.

  She stood up and followed him in. He was already dishing up three plates of a cheesy tomato pasta bake.

  ‘Daisy, get your arse down here,’ Henry called, but it was said in good humour and she heard Daisy laughing from upstairs.

  Henry put the plate down on the table in front of Penny. ‘Help yourself to salad and garlic bread,’ he said, gruffly. He sat down opposite her and turned his attention to his own dinner, not looking up again. Penny sat at the table and tried to force some pasta down. Really, eating a sandwich on her own was going to be better than this.

  Daisy came running into the kitchen and sat between them. She tucked into her pasta and grabbed three slices of garlic bread and was halfway through the first slice when she realised that the atmosphere hanging between Penny and Henry was intense and unbearably awkward.

  ‘Dad, don’t be an arse,’ Daisy said.

  Henry sighed and put down his knife and fork. Penny focussed on her food; there was no way she was going to apologise again.

  Suddenly a piece of pasta splatted against the side of Penny’s face, sliding down her chin and landing with a plop against her shirt.

  Penny looked up in shock and Daisy burst out laughing. She was surprised to see Henry fighting with a smirk.

  ‘Don’t ever call me a pervert again.’

  ‘Did you just throw your pasta at me?’ Penny said, still unable to believe that the evening had taken this bizarre turn.

  ‘He and his sister do it all the time, you’d wouldn’t believe they were grown adults,’ Daisy said.

  Henry shrugged. ‘I think we’re even.’

  Penny scooped up a piece of pasta and weighed it in her hand, taunting him.

  ‘No, don’t you dare,’ Henry laughed.

  Penny launched it across the table and it hit Henry in the middle of his forehead. A laugh erupted from Penny’s throat, a huge genuine laugh that she hadn’t heard from herself for a very long time. Another one joined it, followed by a snort.

  Henry’s face lit up at hearing it. ‘Did you just snort?’

  Penny shook her head, unable to stop laughing, and just to call her a liar another snort escaped.

  Henry’s big booming laugh filled the kitchen and he picked up his knife and fork and carried on eating. The atmosphere between them had vanished.

  * * *

  Henry watched Penny across the table, tucking into her food with much more enthusiasm than she had been a few minutes before. He was an ass and he shouldn’t have overreacted about her comments that afternoon. It was a perfectly reasonable misunderstanding and he should have just laughed it off.

  He really liked having her here. He and Daisy so rarely had company; any women that he dated he normally did so away from his home, wanting to keep that part of his social life separate from his daughter. But this little family dinner with the three of them seemed so right. Penny fitted in with them perfectly. There was something about her that he found he was attracted to that went way beyond her looks. She was fascinating and he could have watched her all night and never got tired of it.

  ‘So Daisy, you’ll be going to White Cliff Senior School?’ Penny asked.

  ‘After Christmas,’ Daisy said, over a mouthful of garlic bread.

  ‘Don’t talk with your mouth full,’ Henry said.

  Daisy swallowed. ‘I’m going in for a day to meet people and some of the teachers but I won’t start properly till after Christmas because they won’t have the room for me. One of the kids is leaving so it works out well for me, otherwise I’d have to go to the school in the next town and the bus ride is over an hour. And the art teacher here is fantastic, he’s had work in galleries in London.’

  ‘Mr Cartwright?’

  Daisy’s face lit up. ‘Yes, you know hi
m?’

  ‘He used to be my teacher too. So you like art?’

  ‘I love it, just to be able to watch something brought to life with your hands is just wonderful.’

  Henry smiled as he watched his daughter come alive as she talked about her passion.

  ‘Dad said you were an ice carver?’

  ‘I am.’

  Daisy started bombarding Penny with a hundred questions about the process and Henry watched as Penny explained in detail about how she did it. It was clearly a great passion for Penny too. He liked that Penny was talking to Daisy like she was an adult, she wasn’t dumbing down any of the explanations. Most of the women he had been with still spoke to Daisy like a child and she hated that. Lots of people didn’t know how to behave around a teenager, but for Penny, it was the most natural thing in the world. She had behaved the same with Bea in town; there was no singsong voice or cutesy face like Jade.

  He finished his dinner and was standing up to take his plate to the sink when there was a knock at the door. He looked up to see Jade outside. He sighed – speak of the devil. She clearly hadn’t gotten the message earlier in the café. She looked like she was about to go on a glamour shoot dressed in a red clingy dress and high heels.

  He opened the door and Jade immediately leaned into him, engulfing him in a sickly cloud of perfume. He took a step back and she pouted slightly.

  ‘Henry, I brought you some dinner. I figured you’d be tired from all the unpacking and I went to The Olive Branch and got you some Italian. I figured we could share it together.’

  ‘That’s very thoughtful of you, thank you, but I’ve just eaten, though me and Daisy can reheat it tomorrow. We still have a ton of unpacking to do so this will be a huge help.’

  He heard Daisy snigger at his polite rebuttal and he tried to suppress a smile.

  ‘Daisy?’ Jade asked in confusion.

  ‘My daughter.’ He gestured to the dining table. Jade hadn’t even registered there was anyone else in the room with them. He didn’t know whether to be flattered by that or annoyed that she hadn’t even acknowledged Penny and Daisy.

  Jade looked over and Daisy smiled with pasta hanging out of her mouth. Henry scowled at Daisy’s rudeness but had to keep the laughter that bubbled in his throat under control.

  ‘Oh, she’s so cute.’

  She still hadn’t acknowledged Penny, which annoyed him and he didn’t know why.

  ‘Penny, do you like Italian?’ Henry called over to her. ‘Looks like Jade has brought a ton of food here, you can come and share it with me and Daisy tomorrow.’

  Penny nodded in confusion. She’d gone very quiet again, scuttling back inside her shell just as she was starting to come out of it.

  Jade laughed nervously at the new cosy arrangement that Henry had created with Penny.

  ‘I hope you are settling in OK, is there anything I can do to help?’ Jade said, curling her hair around her finger, leaving him with no doubt as to how Jade would like to help him settle in.

  ‘Well, actually there is. Me and Penny are going out on a date on Tuesday, would you be able to babysit Daisy for me?’

  Daisy choked on her pasta. It had been a long time since he’d needed a babysitter for her. He glanced over at Penny who was looking like a rabbit in the headlights.

  ‘I’d normally ask my sister but she’s busy with the new baby so could you do it, Jade? I know how much you love children.’

  Jade’s sultry smile slipped from her face. ‘You’re going out with Penny?’

  She said it with such disgust that he felt anger slam through him at her reaction. He bit back the retort he wanted to make. It had been kind of Jade to bring him dinner even if she had an ulterior motive.

  ‘Yes, we just hit it off the moment we met. It would be so kind if you could babysit?’

  ‘I, erm… I’m busy that day.’

  ‘Ah, that’s too bad, I’m sure we can find someone. Thanks for this, did you want to come in and share dessert with us all? We have Funny Feet ice lollies or I think we might have a Magnum or two at the bottom of the freezer.’ Henry moved to the fridge, knowing Jade would be the last person in the world to sit down at the table with Daisy and Penny and suck on a Magnum.

  Jade shook her head, still clearly in shock over the Penny revelation. ‘No, I better go, I, erm… have somewhere I need to be.’

  ‘Oh, that’s a shame. Thanks for popping by though.’

  Jade stumbled out and disappeared round the back of the house. Henry closed the door softly after her.

  He went and sat down at the table again.

  ‘Dad, you’re so rude,’ Daisy giggled.

  ‘She’s rude, I don’t like her much.’ He turned to Penny. ‘Another classmate of yours?’

  Penny nodded.

  ‘How many times has she been up here over the years?’

  ‘Tonight was the first, I’m surprised she even knew the way. She, erm…’ she looked at Daisy as she tried to find the right words ‘…went out with Chris for a while.’

  ‘Who’s Chris?’ Daisy asked.

  ‘My ex.’

  ‘Let me guess, she went out with him whilst he was seeing you,’ Henry said.

  Penny nodded.

  Bitch.

  He took a sip of water and stared at Penny across the table. Jade’s attitude to Penny disgusted him. And Beth’s too. He suddenly had a sudden desire to stick two fingers up at all the arseholes in the town who didn’t think Penny was worthy of paying attention to. ‘You know what this means? You and I have a date on Tuesday.’

  Penny’s eyebrows shot up and Daisy grinned at him.

  Chapter Five

  Penny woke in the night to mumbles and cries of panic coming from the lounge. She quickly got up and ran downstairs.

  She was surprised to see Daisy lying on her sofa with Bernard by her side. She was clearly having a nightmare. She didn’t know whether to wake her or not and she certainly didn’t want to scare her by doing so. She didn’t know why Daisy was in her lounge either.

  ‘Daisy,’ she said softly but there was no response. What should she do? What kind of mum would she have made when she didn’t even know how to deal with a child who was having a nightmare? Her first reaction was to stroke Daisy’s head and hug her, but Daisy wasn’t her daughter, she couldn’t do that.

  Leaving her lying on the sofa with Bernard staying guard, she went through the open connecting door and crept upstairs.

  Henry’s door was open and she stole a brief moment to admire him sleeping, the blankets bunched around his waist, his bare muscular chest gleaming in the moonlight that spilled through the open curtains.

  She reached forward and touched his arm, the feel of his smooth velvety skin making her stomach clench with a need she hadn’t felt for years.

  He didn’t stir, so she shook him gently.

  He opened his eyes blearily and suddenly smiled, running his hand up her arm.

  * * *

  She was here, in his bedroom. He hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her as he fell asleep earlier and now she was here. He was dreaming but she sure felt real, her skin was so soft. She wasn’t dressed in the sexy lingerie the women of his dreams were normally wearing, but she still looked heavenly dressed in cute snowflake pyjama bottoms and an oversized t-shirt. He wanted to pull her into bed with him and see the gorgeous body she hid underneath these big clothes.

  He slid his hand down to her fingers and entwined them with his own. He shifted back into the bed a bit and pulled her gently towards him. For one wonderful moment, she came willingly, before she stopped and pulled her hand from his.

  ‘Henry, it’s me, it’s Penny.’

  He was well aware who she was. Although as he became more awake it was very obvious she hadn’t pitched up in his bedroom for a night of hot sex.

  He cleared his throat and rubbed his face to try to dispel the images that were playing through his mind.

  ‘Are you OK?’ he said as he sat up and looked at her.

&nb
sp; ‘Daisy’s having a nightmare.’

  He shot out of bed, all thoughts of passionate sex vanishing. ‘Where is she?’

  ‘In my front room. I didn’t want to wake her in case I scared her.’

  He raced downstairs. Why was Daisy in Penny’s front room? He knew she hadn’t been able to sleep earlier and he’d heard her go downstairs, presumably to watch TV or read – quite why she had gone next door he didn’t know.

  * * *

  Penny followed him down the stairs and back into her front room. She watched him carefully scoop Daisy up into his arms and place a tender kiss on her head, before he carried her back into the safety of his home.

  She wondered briefly if she should follow him but Henry knew how to deal with it; she would only be in his way.

  Sleep was a long way off now, especially after what had passed between them in the bedroom.

  He had tried to pull her into bed with him and for a moment, maybe a few seconds, she had nearly done just that. What would he have done when he woke properly to find her in bed with him and not some gorgeous model that he had been imagining?

  She was pouring some milk in a saucepan to make a hot chocolate, when suddenly there was a noise behind her. She turned to see Henry standing in her kitchen, looking incredible still only dressed in a pair of tight boxer briefs. He had his robe in his hand but he hadn’t bothered to put it on. She quickly looked away.

  ‘Is she OK?’

  ‘Yes, she’s fast asleep, and the nightmare seems to have passed.’ He sighed heavily and Penny’s heart ached for him.

  ‘Does it happen a lot?’

  ‘More often than I would like, but a lot less now she’s older than when she was a child.’

  Penny turned round to look at him, hearing the angst in his voice. He clocked the look of sympathy and smiled sadly.

  ‘Mainly they revolve around her being abandoned or rejected, despite me doing everything in my power to reassure her that I would never leave her. She had attachment issues for the first ten years of her life, I couldn't leave her with anyone but my parents or Anna and even that was a struggle. She was two months old when her mum walked out and, although Daisy has no memory of her, as a baby it was clearly hard for her to understand why her mum was no longer there. She was three months old when her maternal grandparents left her with me for a weekend and never came back to collect her, just as she was getting used to them raising her instead. She was so clingy for the first few years and understandably so – even putting her down and staying in the same room as her would cause her to cry buckets. I’m sure subconsciously she was waiting for me to abandon her too. For the first six months she lived with me she would only sleep in my bed, with me lying next to her. I couldn't even leave her once she was asleep as she would be completely inconsolable if she woke and I wasn’t there. It took a long time for her to realise that I was in it for the long haul but clearly she still doesn’t totally trust me now if she is still having nightmares.’ He rubbed his face to clear it of sleep and then suddenly looked horrified as he realised he had said too much. ‘Sorry, I shouldn’t have talked about that with you.’