Christmas Forever

by Sophie Love

  Amy sighed in that way she did when she was overworked but secretly loving it. “I’ll be over in a bit.”

  Emily stood and placed the telephone’s receiver back into the wall bracket. She smiled to herself, relieved to have found a way to fix their issue, even if it was only temporary. She breathed a sigh of relief, relaxing for what felt like the first time in days

  Just then, she heard a very soft knocking at the door. Terry poked his head around.

  “I’m sorry to disturb you,” he said. “I was just wondering if there’s anything I could do around the house to help out?”

  “There is,” Emily said. “You can help out by drinking this coffee and letting me cook you something for breakfast.”

  Terry blushed. “I can fix myself my own food, Emily. Honestly, you’re doing too much for me.”

  “I just want you to be comfortable here.”

  “I’d be more comfortable if you gave me chores. Please. I hate to be idle.”

  Emily considered it. She hated the idea of making her guest work, but Terry clearly needed something to occupy his mind from his troubles.

  “Actually, there’s a tree at the end of the garden that’s going rotten. Perhaps you could cut it down for me?”

  She’d never seen someone look so excited by the prospect of chopping down a tree. Terry leapt up immediately.

  “I’m on it!”

  Emily laughed. “Okay, thank you. But I’ll be gone by the time you’re done. I’m meeting a friend for a coffee date. Please make yourself comfortable. There might be some staff around, Bryony, I believe will be coming in to work on the website, and Parker’s delivering some groceries in about an hour, then he’ll be in the kitchen incase we get anyone in for lunch. The restaurant and spa are open so feel free to go to either of them if you get lonely. Oh and Tracey’s gentle yoga class is this afternoon if you feel like getting bendy.”

  “I’ll be fine, Emily,” Terry assured her. “Don’t worry about me.”

  Emily heard the door open and close, and Amy’s voice calling out, “It’s me!”

  She touched Terry’s hand lightly. “Sure you’ll be okay?”

  He nodded, clearly touched by her generosity. “I will. Thank you.”

  Emily stood and went to find Amy.

  She was in the foyer, waiting, in extremely unpractical heeled boots.

  “You do know it’s icy today?” Emily laughed, eyeing them. She slipped on her own flat, comfy, wooly ones.

  She was just about to follow Amy out to the car when the phone started to ring. Bryony hadn’t arrived yet to cover the phones so Emily picked up the call, using her hostess voice. To her surprise it was Daniel on the other end.

  “Guess what? Jack’s given me an extra day off. He told his wife that I’d been snowed in today and had to cover my shift because he really wants to work on this fairytale treehouse castle order that’s come in for a Christmas gift.”

  “Oh,” Emily laughed. “Jack is terrible. He really needs to be honest about not wanting to retire. He’s going to get you in trouble.”

  “I don’t mind,” Daniel replied. “It means I can come and spend the day with my beautiful wife.”

  “But I have plans with Amy,” Emily told him. “We’re doing the triple organization today -- wedding, house, babymoon.”

  “Think she’d want to make it quadruple?” Daniel asked.

  “I don’t understand,” Emily said, frowning.

  She could hear the grin in Daniel’s voice as he replied. “The woodshop. My woodshop.”

  “You told Jack you’re starting your own store?” she exclaimed, feeling excitement ripple through her. “What did he say?”

  “He’s really happy for me,” Daniel said. “So what do you think? Shall we look for shop locations?”

  Emily looked up at Amy. “How do you feel about Daniel coming along today and scouting a spot for his shop?” she asked.

  “How do I feel about it?” Amy asked, her eyes widening with glee. “I feel fantastic about it! Four things to plan in one day? Bring it on.”

  Emily spoke back into the phone. “We have a resounding yes from Amy. Meet you in town?”

  “Great,” Daniel replied. “See you there!”

  *

  Emily sat in the back of Amy’s car with babymoon brochures spread all over the back seats. Daniel was in the passenger seat with a cellphone latched to his ear, speaking to the real estate agent about a shop location. Amy, meanwhile, was driving whilst on speaker phone to a wedding venue.

  “I’d love to book a viewing with you today,” Emily heard her say. “I’m on a tight schedule, though. Are you free at one?”

  Emily reached for the notebook where she’d been writing their itinerary. “Amy, we’re seeing a house at one. Make it one thirty.”

  “Sorry,” Amy called into the speaker. “One thirty?”

  “We can do one thirty,” the voice crackled back.

  “Fab,” Amy said. “See you then.” She ended the call and spoke over her shoulder. “Got that, Em?”

  Emily quickly scrawled the meeting down, squeezing it in between two other appointments. “Got it.” Then she grabbed the brochure from her lap and handed it to Daniel. “This is the place. I’m certain. What do you think?”

  She’d selected the place in Quebec that Amy had first mentioned to her. Of all the packages offered, it looked like the best value for money and the location was phenomenal, not to mention the fact the actual building looked like a miniature castle!

  With the cellphone resting between his ear and shoulder, Daniel’s eyes scanned the double page spread. “Great, two p.m. is perfect,” he said aloud into the phone. Then he nodded at Emily, indicating his agreement at her choice of venue.

  She took the brochure back and called the number.

  “I’d like to book your babymoon package for next weekend,” she said when the call connected.

  “I’m afraid we’re fully booked for next weekend,” the woman on the phone replied. “But I’ve just had a cancellation for tomorrow and Sunday. Could you make that?”

  “Tomorrow?” Emily cried. She leaned forward and tapped Daniel. But he was in mid conversation. She spoke again into the phone. “I’d have to check with my husband. Can I call you back?”

  “You can,” the woman said. “But I honestly think it will go soon. It’s not often we get last minute spaces like this.”

  Emily chewed her lip in deliberation. She knew Yvonne wouldn’t mind the last minute change. And Daniel had seemed uncharacteristically relaxed about the idea of a weekend away.

  “Just book it,” Amy told her from the driver’s seat.

  “Okay,” Emily said. “We’ll take it.”

  She gave her details and payment information to the woman and ended the call. Amy was looking at her in the rear view mirror.

  “That was lucky!” Emily said. “They were fully booked but had had a last minute cancellation.”

  “This weekend is better anyway,” Amy told her. “Baby Charlotte might be here by next weekend!”

  Emily touched her stomach. There was no way of knowing. Half of the people she met seemed to think the baby would be early, others seemed dead certain she’d be a Christmas baby. Emily just wanted her to do whatever she wanted, to trust nature and fate to give her a safe delivery and a happy, healthy newborn.

  Daniel finished his call to the real estate agent. “Can you put down a three p.m. meeting for me?” he asked, turning to look at Emily in the back seat.

  She added it to their list of meetings. When she was finished writing, she looked back at Daniel.

  “Hon, I booked the babymoon.”

  “You did?” he replied. “But why do you look so worried?”

  Emily bit her lip. “Because we’re going tomorrow.”

  Daniel laughed heartily. “That’s fine by me,” he said. “After the day we’re about to have, we’re going to need it!”

  Emily laughed too and looked at her list. They had a jam-packed sche
dule.

  “I feel like I’m back at work in New York,” she said.

  “Blame me,” Amy replied. “As they say, you can take the girl out of New York…”

  She pulled up then outside the wedding venue they were to see first. Unlike Emily’s choices when she’d been scouring the local area for quaint, historic buildings to marry in, Amy’s tastes were quite the opposite. She liked sleek, modern buildings, grand and luxurious. This one ticked all the boxes, at least from the outside.

  “This is what Raven’s inn will be like,” Amy told her as she climbed out the car.

  Emily looked up at the tall, glass building and grimaced. It would be such an eyesore in Sunset Harbor. Completely ill fitting with the rest of the town. Maybe she should have opposed the plan after all.

  “Are you sure?” Emily said hopefully. “You don’t think she’d tone it down a bit?”

  “Why would she?” Amy replied, a little haughtily. “Because Sunset Harbor is more special than all the other towns she’s ruined? She’s not going to waste money on new architect plans or meetings with the builders. She’s just going to plonk a carbon copy of all her other places in the gap. And that’s what it will be like.”

  Emily bit her lip, feeling worse than ever. She needed to speak to Raven, business woman to business woman, and make her see sense. She’d be reviled in the town if she built a monstrosity like this on the oceanfront!

  They went inside to look at the venue and Amy seemed very pleased. It was clean, bright and modern, with a glitzy restaurant area and a large outside greenhouse-like building where the weddings took place.

  “Yes, this is quite lovely,” Amy said, looking around with her nose in the air, as if she could sniff out cheapness.

  “Don’t you need to check with Harry first?” Emily asked.

  Amy rolled her eyes. “Are you joking? Harry would get married in a log cabin if I let him have any say! He’s not got the best taste in the world. We’ve already sorted it all out. I’ll be organizing everything. All he has to do is turn up.”

  Everyone laughed.

  Amy spoke then to the guide, telling her that she’d be in touch but so far they were the top of her list. Then she, Daniel and Emily hurried off, heading back to the car and their next meeting.

  “Where are we going?” Amy asked Emily.

  “Shop visit,” Emily said, reading from the list. “Chestnut drive.”

  “I’m on it,” Amy said.

  She revved the engine and they spend off.

  The drive from the wedding venue wasn’t long, but from Sunset Harbor it would be close to forty five minutes.

  “Do you really want to be commuting so far each day?” Emily asked Daniel as they got out the car.

  He shook his head. “Probably not. I mean one of the reasons Jack’s been so successful is that he was always there to pull an all nighter if needed. I want to be able to do that if I need to.”

  The store was very cute, but the attached woodworking shop was on the small side, and besides, the town it was in wasn’t particularly large.

  “I think I’d prefer somewhere in Sunset Harbor,” Daniel said. “Close to home. Close to friends.”

  “Let’s hope your three p.m. is the one then,” Emily said.

  Their next three meetings took them back towards Sunset Harbor. First there was a house that Amy didn’t like, then a wedding venue that Amy didn’t like, and finally another house that Amy didn’t like. As the afternoon fell, they were right back into Sunset Harbor for the final two meetings.

  “Okay,” Amy said, turning them down a single track road in the hills. “This is the last house of the day.”

  “It’s quite close to us,” Emily noted, looking down through the thicket of trees to the ocean, knowing their own home was in that general direction. “I bet there’s a shortcut through the trees.”

  Daniel spoke then. “I think it’s parallel to us, actually. We must be just there, the other side of those woods.”

  “You’re right,” Amy said. “I can see your widow’s walk.”

  “Oh yes!” Emily cried. “I hope this is the one. Can you imagine if we just had to walk through a forest to visit each other?”

  “Sounds ideal,” Amy agreed.

  The path grew even narrower and the trees darker. It was a bit spooky, but Emily didn’t say anything because she didn’t want to put Amy off.

  Finally, they pulled up outside the large family home. It had a curved, paved driveway, and neatly trimmed hedges. The house looked extremely well cared for. There was a porch with carved wooden columns, a glass door with gold numbers screwed on, and a large garage to one side.

  “Um…” Emily began. “This is gorgeous.”

  “Let’s wait until we’re inside,” Amy said. But Emily could hear the trembling excitement in her voice.

  The agent was waiting in the driveway. He was a young man with a wide grin. He didn’t look much older than twenty-four.

  “Max Ngyung,” he said, holding out his hand to shake everyone’s. “Which one of you is Amy?”

  “The would be me,” Amy said, shaking his hand back.

  “I’m so excited to show you this property,” the young man told them. “We’ve been working on it for the last few months.”

  “Oh?” Amy asked, curious.

  “Yeah I have a business with my brothers. We buy local properties, do them up so they’re modern and luxurious, and sell them on to lovely people like yourself. This is our third house.”

  Amy seemed impressed. Emily certainly was. For a young man, Max had made a great success of himself.

  “How did you get into this line of work?” Emily asked.

  “Long story,” he told her. “My parents came over from Vietnam. They had a restaurant when I was a kid, down in Portland. Great place. Proper home cooked Vietnamese food. We all chipped in when we were old enough, washing dishes, waiting tables, delivering take out on our bikes! We were always supposed to follow in their footsteps and take over the restaurant when they retired. But then my dad died suddenly. We got a bit of insurance money through and Mom didn’t want to stop running the restaurant, so she gave it to us to start our own business, anything we wanted. We went for property development.”

  “That’s great,” Daniel told him. “It looks like you have a real flair for it.”

  Max’s enthusiasm for the property was infectious.

  “Okay, this living room is awesome,” he said. “Walnut wood floors. Cream walls. All fresh plastering. This fireplace works, we had the chimney’s unblocked and cleaned because who doesn’t want a proper fire for Christmas and Thanksgiving? Over here we have the dining room area which would be an awesome place for hosting events. You see this wall folds back so you can join the two rooms together.” He demonstrated by pulling the screen back. Then he pointed up. “Chandelier. But watch this.” He twisted a dimmer switch. “Romance.” Then he twisted it all the way up. “Party!”

  Emily laughed. Max wasn’t even a salesman, he just took so much pride in his work it sold itself. She could tell as they walked through that Amy had fallen instantly in love with the place. She was trying to keep it in but a smile kept bursting through her lips when she thought no one was looking.

  Max showed them the kitchen complete with an enormous fridge and all the modcons.

  “The coffee machine comes with the house?” Amy asked.

  “Yeah, it’s our thing,” he said, chuckling. “Coffee machine with every purchase. You drink coffee?”

  “Of course,” Amy replied, smiling.

  Upstairs there were three bedrooms -- a master with an en suite and two generously sized rooms -- as well as a family bathroom and study that was down its own corridor with a door separating it from the rest.

  “I work from home so this would be great,” she said. “It’s far enough away to feel like a separate space.”

  “I work from home too,” Max said. “That’s why we made it that way. With the kids and pets running around, you need som
ewhere that’s just a little bit away from all the noise. Do you have kids?”

  “Not yet,” Amy said.

  She didn’t say it aloud, but Emily could hear in her tone the implied soon.

  “Shall I let you guys look around by yourselves?” Max asked. “Or we could book another day for you to see it. Give you time to think it through. Let it sink in.”

  “Yes, that would be great,” Amy said.

  They all went back out to the driveway and shook Max’s hand, then got back into Amy’s car.

  “Oh my God that house,” Amy gushed. “And the real estate agent was such a cutey!”

  “You can tell he’s really passionate about his work,” Emily agreed. “I think you’d be a fool to miss out on this opportunity. The house is in great shape. He’s thought everything through in terms of what a young, modern family would want out of their property. Plus they’re a small, local business and there’s no chain. It’s basically perfect.”

  “It is,” Amy agreed.

  “And we’re five minutes away,” Daniel added.

  “I’ll get Harry to come and see it tomorrow,” Amy told them both. “I’m sure he’ll love it too.”

  “Will you put an offer in?” Emily asked, excitement mounting in her.

  Amy nodded, a little smirk on her lips.

  “YAY!” Emily cried, sounding just like Chantelle on snow day.

  “We’d better hurry to the harbor,” Daniel said. “My store appointment is in five minutes.”

  Amy stepped on it, and the car careened down the hills towards the ocean front. The store was on a side road round the edge of the harbor, so a little off the beaten track. But it was in a bustling area and people walked along with their arms laden with shopping bags.

  Amy parked up beside the sidewalk.

  “It looks cute,” Emily said, looking out the window at the small store squished between a hardware store and vintage clothing shop. “What do you think, Daniel?”

  “I like the location,” he said. “But isn’t it a bit on the small side?”

  They got out the car and went into the store. It was set over two floors, with a lovely wooden staircase in the middle. The store, though narrow, stretched back farther than expected, and with the extra floor it was quite a considerable space.