‘Yeah. She’d been with Millie while Darcie was out, but Darcie came home early and I think Jas had an argument with Rich or something before going out so she didn’t want to go straight home.’
‘Do they argue a lot?’
Spencer looked sharply at her. ‘What makes you ask?’
Tori shrugged. ‘Just stuff I heard.’
‘From Ruth, by any chance?’
‘Your mom too.’
‘Don’t put too much stock in the gossip you hear in these parts – even from my mother.’
‘That’s what I figured. But you left with her last night when you’d finished working…’
‘After I’d come up to find you and had been turned away. I walked her home – with my mum and dad. Who told you?’
‘Colleen.’
‘Of course… Do you have a problem with Jas?’
‘Should I?’
‘We’re just old friends.’
‘If that’s what you say, then I believe you.’
‘It is.’
‘But you used to be in love with her?’
Spencer stopped on the path. ‘Tori, what is this?’
‘You’re not denying it.’
‘I love you.’
‘You still maybe love her a little? It’s ok, I just need to know what I’m up against.’
He took her into his arms and pulled her into his embrace. ‘I love you. Jasmine and I… we never got that far, and despite all the rows, she’s crazy about Rich – always has been. So you don’t need to worry.’
‘You say that but you still haven’t denied that you love her too.’
‘Love is a very strong word. I had feelings for her, but if they weren’t reciprocated then it couldn’t really have been love, could it?’ Spencer replied, but he wondered if he was trying to convince himself more than Tori.
‘I don’t know,’ Tori said, her eyes watering. ‘I just need to be sure, and right now I’m not sure of anything.’
‘I want to marry you – not Jasmine. Isn’t that enough? Jas and I are friends, and we were once very close… I’ll always be fond of her, but my heart… that’s yours.’
‘You mean that?’
‘Yes, of course I do.’
‘Because I don’t think I could live in this village with her here knowing that you still had feelings for her.’
Spencer blinked. ‘Wait… You mean you’re still considering Honeybourne, even though all this shit has happened here over the last couple of days?’
She shrugged. ‘We gotta live somewhere, and I quite like it here.’
He picked her up and swung her around as she laughed. ‘You’d do that for me? You’d move here?’
‘I’m saying maybe, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. There’s a lot more to talk about first.’
Spencer grinned. ‘I’m all ears.’
It didn’t feel like Christmas Eve. In fact, as far as the bakery was concerned, it was just another day, and busier than it had been for a while, with people calling in for last-minute treats to grace their Christmas tables. Millie had promised Dylan that they would close early, but as things were, it was quite possible they would close a lot later than usual. But Millie had said (and Dylan and Darcie both agreed) that the money was needed and if they had a busy day, they would just have to make the most of the respite that Christmas Day would afford them.
Millie had just seen Saul and Jim out with an armful of pies that quite possibly represented their Christmas dinner when a sandy-haired youth entered with a coat draped over his arm and an anxious expression.
‘Darcie…’ Millie called as her gaze fell on the coat and a look of recognition illuminated her features.
Darcie came through from the kitchens with a tray of bread pudding. She almost dropped the tray, and then stopped and stared.
‘Nathan!’
He shuffled awkwardly over to the counter. ‘I wanted to return your coat… I think it’s yours, right? There were so many unclaimed at the end of the night it was hard to tell.’ He glanced at Millie, who was watching intently with her arms folded across her chest, then back at Darcie. ‘I don’t suppose we can go somewhere to talk,’ he added in a low voice.
‘How did you find me?’ Darcie asked, still clinging onto the tray. Millie stepped forward and took it gently from her.
‘If you need ten minutes—’ Millie began, but Darcie stopped her.
‘It’s ok. I don’t think we’ll be long.’ She turned back to Nathan and waited.
He looked sheepish. ‘I remembered the village you said you were living in, and as there’s only one bakery here…’
Even as she resolved not to give him a second chance, Darcie felt that resolve melting away. He had come to find her, all that way on Christmas Eve, when he didn’t need to at all. He could have called her to collect her coat, put it in the bin, sent it to charity, left it to rot where it fell… But he came to bring it back and she felt sure that wasn’t the only reason he had come. But she couldn’t risk getting as hurt as she had been the night before – she didn’t think her heart could take a second pounding like that.
He pulled her to one side as Ruth Evans came in to distract Millie. ‘Please, just let me explain about last night.’
‘I don’t need an explanation… I understand it must be difficult and you’ve just broken up with Carly—’
‘That’s just it – we haven’t only just broken up. We broke up months ago, and she just keeps turning up to ruin my life because she can’t let go. I swear, she means nothing to me.’
‘How did she know about the party?’
‘Come on – it’s not that hard to find out about student parties. The campus is a smaller place than you think and word gets round quick, especially when there’s a possibility of free booze or a shag. Not that I was after a shag with you,’ he added quickly, ‘although that doesn’t mean I don’t fancy you and one day I would… well, you know what I mean…’
Darcie couldn’t help but smile at his blushes. It was sweet, and she still felt he was sweet too beneath that street-cool exterior.
‘So you’re going to give me another chance? Your smile tells me you want to…’ he said, giving her a small, hopeful grin.
Darcie chewed on a nail, and glanced around the room. Millie was still being held captive by Ruth, though she kept throwing meaningful looks across at her and Nathan, as if to say to Darcie that she was there the moment the SOS came through and she needed to get rid of an unwanted visitor. Dylan was nowhere to be seen, presumably somewhere out back with Oscar or in the kitchens.
‘I don’t know,’ Darcie replied finally. ‘Your world is so different from mine. I don’t really like parties and I’m pretty boring.’
‘We don’t have to do parties, we can just hang out and, well, whatever. And if you saw me with my Xbox, you’d see that I’m pretty boring too most of the time. But you have to throw a party or two at Christmas, don’t you?’ He pulled his mobile phone from his pocket. ‘I bet you’ve deleted my number… Let me give it to you again and you can think about it.’
‘What about Carly?’
‘What about her? We’re not going out anymore.’
‘That’s not what she thinks. And I only have your word for it. I can’t stop thinking about what she said last night – that you were only trying to make her jealous.’
He raised his eyebrows. ‘Would I have come all this way with your coat just to talk to you if I was trying to make her jealous? She’s not here, so what am I gaining other than a second chance with you?’
‘My phone is in the back. I can’t get it right now.’
‘It doesn’t matter. I still have your number so I’ll phone it and you can store the number from the missed call if you decide to. I won’t pressure you, but I do want to see you again if you can get past what happened at the party last night.’
Darcie was about to reply when she heard Dylan’s voice behind them. ‘Is everything alright, Darcie?’ She turned to see him looming over Na
than as best he could, though it was hard to look scary with a baby strapped to your front. If the situation hadn’t been quite so emotionally tense, Darcie would have laughed out loud to see it.
‘Yes,’ she said, glancing between him and Nathan, who did seem to shrink away, despite the baby-hampered offensive.
‘Are you sure? Because you don’t look ok… Is this him?’
Darcie nodded, and she wondered what Dylan was going to do, but he simply aimed his coldest stare at Nathan. ‘Darcie is like family to us, and I don’t take kindly to people hurting my family. You understand?’
Watching him warning off Nathan with Oscar strapped to him, Darcie realised suddenly how much of a dad he was, and how he clearly viewed her in the same way he saw Oscar, and it was like a bolt of illumination. She had loved Dylan all this time, and he had only ever seen her in the way he saw Oscar – someone under his protection, someone he needed to care for like a child. It was difficult to comprehend how this made her feel, she only wondered how she hadn’t seen it before. Dylan would never have loved her in the way she loved him, even without Millie. How could he when he saw her as a little sister, or even a daughter? The idea was going to take some getting her head around, but perhaps it would be a turning point.
Nathan nodded uncertainly. ‘I didn’t mean any of what happened last night and I came to set things straight – that’s all.’
‘That’s good then. So consider things straight. You can be on your way and not bother her again. And if I see you around this village I’ll want a damn good reason not to smash your face in.’
‘Dylan!’ Darcie squeaked. She wasn’t sure she liked this heavy-handed approach and she wasn’t sure she liked this Dylan either.
‘I think Nathan understands me,’ Dylan said grimly.
‘Yeah, I understand.’ Nathan turned to Darcie. ‘Don’t forget what I said… Think about it, yeah?’
She nodded. And then Nathan handed her the coat before turning to leave. They watched him go, and then Dylan looked at Darcie.
‘You’re not seriously giving that loser another try, are you?’
‘He wanted to give me his number again—’
‘Darcie! Have you forgotten what he did last night?’
‘No, but—’
‘Believe me, I’ve seen his type before… I was his type before! And I know he’ll mess you around if you let him get under your skin.’
‘But you’re not like that now,’ Darcie protested, feeling more than a little confused. The previous night he had told her there must be a reasonable explanation for what had happened. Now he was like an overprotective uncle, unable to listen to reason. Perhaps something about the way Nathan looked had put him on his guard, or maybe it was something Millie had said after talking to Darcie. Maybe last night he had simply been trying to make her feel better when she’d been at her lowest. Whatever it was, Dylan wasn’t happy and was rather less inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt in the cold light of day.
But then he turned to look at Millie, who was still trying to get rid of Ruth as more customers appeared behind her, and his expression softened instantly. ‘Only because of one extraordinary woman.’
Darcie’s heart sank. Millie was extraordinary, and she was very ordinary indeed. Maybe Dylan had a point. Maybe she was asking for trouble by giving Nathan another chance, but she couldn’t help but believe his promises and she wanted to believe that he really did like her, that he thought she was special. And his excuse was plausible. Now that she thought about the events of the previous night, his explanation did make sense. The way he was with Carly certainly didn’t look like the behaviour of someone in love. He’d looked as shocked at the way things turned out as Darcie. He’d also gone to a lot of effort to come and apologise, and like he said, why would he do that if he didn’t really like Darcie? He wasn’t going to make Carly jealous in Honeybourne when she probably had no idea that the village even existed.
What Carly had said also played on her mind. Darcie didn’t have model looks like Carly did, and if Nathan had wanted to make her jealous he could have chosen a stunning girl to do it with, not someone as ordinary as Darcie. So whatever weird reason he might have had to give Darcie his number, there must have been a bit of genuine attraction… Though she found it hard to believe, it was easier now to believe than Carly’s version.
‘Give him a wide berth,’ Dylan said, breaking into her thoughts. ‘You deserve better.’
Darcie looked up at him, cradling and kissing Oscar’s head as he spoke. She may have deserved better, but he wasn’t available and never would be.
‘You’re cold?’ Spencer asked. He and Tori had wandered around the churchyard for over an hour, so wrapped up in the things they needed to say that they had hardly noticed the snow getting steadily worse until it forced them to take shelter in the doorway of the church. He hugged her close, trying to warm her up.
‘I’m fine,’ she said. ‘Nothing that a little hot chocolate wouldn’t put right.’
‘I happen to know just the place to get the best hot chocolate in town… and it’s not the Dog and Hare.’
Tori smiled, but then it faded. ‘I should get back. Mom and Dad will be missing me.’
‘But they know where you are?’
‘They know I’m with you, but they’ll worry – I’ve been out for so long.’
‘You mean they’ll be annoyed at being left for so long?’
‘Yeah… I guess so,’ Tori said with a sheepish grin.
‘Stuff ’em! And I mean that in the best possible way. They can manage without you for another hour, and we have a future to plan.’
‘And might that future involve a fairy-tale wedding in a pretty English church?’
‘It might…’ Spencer said, kissing her.
The doors of the church opened and they leapt apart.
‘Don’t mind me,’ the man said as he went to a poster frame to put up details of the carol service. Spencer took in the long garments of office and frowned.
‘You’re the vicar?’ he asked with a look of confusion.
‘Last time I checked,’ the man replied with a white-toothed grin that could dazzle birds from the sky. He looked young – early thirties at most – and he was handsome. Spencer detected an accent that sounded like it originated from somewhere in Africa.
‘I’m sorry,’ Spencer explained, ‘it’s just that last time I was here Clive was the vicar.’
‘Oh…’ The man wiped his hands on his cassock and held one out for Spencer to shake. ‘You’re from Honeybourne? I haven’t seen you around.’
‘I’ve been working in America. Just come home for Christmas. This is my girlfriend, Tori.’
‘I should think so,’ the vicar said cheerfully. ‘I would hope you don’t kiss all the girls you meet like that. And you’re?’
‘Spencer Johns. I used to teach at the school here. Well, I suppose I still do, technically, although I’m on an exchange programme at the moment.’
‘Ah, I have heard your name before. Tristan Okonjo… That’s me, in case you were wondering. I’m very pleased to meet you. And might you be joining us for the carol service tonight?’
‘We’re planning to,’ Tori put in.
‘That’s wonderful. Extra voices are always welcome.’
Spencer was suddenly gripped by a wild and crazy idea. ‘How quickly can you get a wedding arranged?’
Tori stared at him, but he simply smiled and took her hand. ‘You’re not getting away,’ he said. ‘Not again.’
Tristan threw back his head and laughed. ‘Don’t let Mr Policeman hear you say it like that!’ He held his sides as if to show that they were splitting. ‘I certainly can’t marry you today, if that’s what you’re thinking.’
‘When?’
Tristan shook his head. ‘You’ll have to come and see me next week to talk it over.’
‘But we’ll be on our way back to America next week.’
‘Mr Johns…’ Tristan clapped him on the back.
‘If you love her and she loves you, then it will happen. There is no need to rush the course of true love.’
‘It’s a lovely idea,’ Tori said, nudging Spencer, ‘but Tristan is right. We should do it properly. Besides, my parents would kill me if we did it this way.’
‘Being killed by one’s parents is not a good way to start married life,’ Tristan agreed, his face stretched into a broad grin. Spencer wondered vaguely whether he ever stopped grinning. ‘Come and see me by all means before you go overseas, and we can talk about dates and other things if you want to marry here.’ He gave them an amiable nod. ‘Now you must excuse me – I have a lot to do before the service later.’
‘It was lovely to meet you,’ Tori called after him, and he waved a huge hand behind him as he walked back into the church. She turned to Spencer. ‘That was so romantic… Thank you for trying.’
‘It’s a shame it didn’t work out, though. It would have been quite nice to come and marry in secret, and nobody would have been able to stick their noses in to tell us how we should do it.’
‘Oh…’ Tori said. ‘I hadn’t thought about all that.’
‘Trust me, I did. And I wasn’t very keen on the idea. But, it looks as though we’ll have to rethink the whole thing… Now, where were we?’ He moved in for another kiss, but Tori pushed him off with a giggle.
‘The vicar will come back out and have us arrested if we keep making out on the steps of the house of God.’
‘I don’t think God has any particular issues with making out,’ Spencer replied impishly. ‘In fact, I think he’s quite a supporter of the old making-out business. After all, making out often leads to other things, and that’s how he gets new fans…’
‘We have to get back!’ Tori snorted as she pushed him off again.
‘Ok, I know when I’m beaten.’ Spencer let go and dug his hands in his pockets, turning his attention to the snow. ‘So are we getting that hot chocolate at the bakery or not?’
‘Maybe just one,’ Tori said, ‘but then we have to get back or my parents will be calling in the FBI to look for me.’
‘It wouldn’t take them long to search Honeybourne, but if you’re that adamant then I suppose I’d better keep my word.’ He offered his hand and they walked out into the snow together.
Christmas at the Little Village Bakery Page 17