Playboy On Her Christmas List

by Carol Marinelli

  ‘Is everything okay?’

  ‘Of course it is.’ Holly smiled her brightest smile but at the last moment it wavered and Holly was appalled with herself when a tear slipped out and she quickly wiped it away.

  ‘Holly?’

  She shook her head, because she was simply not able to talk about Daniel without breaking down.

  ‘Is it your friend that wouldn’t come in?’ Esther checked, and Holly nodded.

  ‘I don’t want to talk about it now,’ Holly said, and her voice was all shaky. ‘I don’t want to start crying and ruin Christmas.’

  ‘I seem to remember saying that just over a year ago,’ Esther said. ‘I sat in the doctor’s and I wanted one more perfect Christmas...’

  ‘And we did.’

  ‘Holly, it was awful. Your dad kept slipping out to cry, I burnt the turkey. Harry got so drunk...’

  Holly started to laugh. ‘It was still a good Christmas.’

  ‘It turned out to be,’ Esther agreed.

  In the end they’d all had loads to drink and watched a sad film, which had been a good excuse to cry and just relax and stop pretending they were brave.

  ‘You know, I remember when I forgot your birthday...’ They just sat there on Holly’s old bed and chalked up all the Christmas fails.

  ‘You remembered it that evening,’ Holly said. ‘And I got a puppy out of it.’

  ‘You did,’ Esther sighed. ‘Please tell me what’s going on, Holly’

  And Holly was about to point out that they could do this another time, but then her mum’s hand came over hers.

  ‘I know I’ve been difficult lately,’ Esther said. ‘But I can still be here for you.’

  It had indeed been a long year, one where at times Holly had felt like she’d lost her mum, but it would seem that she was back now.

  It was the best gift to have a cuddle from her mum instead of the other way around.

  ‘The guy who gave me the lift home,’ Holly said. ‘Daniel. I like him a lot, well, I more than like him. I think he feels a bit the same yet he says we’re going nowhere. In fact, he’s heading overseas...’ She gave a pale smile. ‘He couldn’t make it any clearer that’s he’s not interested in anything long term but...’

  ‘You still want more.’

  ‘Yes,’ Holly said. ‘I’ve never really felt this way before about anyone, not even close.’ The one time she had, it hadn’t been reciprocated. ‘It’s probably for the best, we’d never have worked out. I don’t think he has a romantic bone in his body and he’s not into Christmas. He’s hardly even seeing his family, he just wants to go home to bed...’ She shook her head as if to clear it. ‘I can’t believe I’ve fallen for someone who’d rather sleep his way through Christmas Day than be with his family.’ Holly stood, even though her mum still sat there. ‘Come on, we’d better go down.’

  ‘You missed a present,’ Esther said, and took a box out of the snowman bag.

  ‘From who?’ Holly frowned.

  ‘I don’t know,’ Esther said. ‘I was clearing the paper away when I found it. You brought it with you.’

  ‘No.’

  It was a silver box covered in fake snow with a silver bow, and it looked terribly like the ones she had seen in the department store. In fact, it looked a lot like the gift she had been considering getting Daniel.

  It couldn’t be.

  Surely?

  She looked at the name on the card.

  To Holly

  I hope you have the wonderful Christmas that you deserve.

  Secret Santa

  Holly tried not to get her hopes up but her hands were shaking as she undid the bow.

  It had to be from him.

  She gasped as she saw a glass ball decorated with her name in silver, and delicate outlines of holly in jewelled green.

  What captivated her, though, was the tiny silver envelope inside the glass that had her name on.

  ‘Who’s it from?’ Esther asked.

  ‘Him.’

  ‘I thought you said he wasn’t romantic.’

  ‘He’s not.’

  ‘And that he wasn’t into Christmas.’

  ‘He isn’t.’

  Except Daniel had given her the most beautiful, romantic, Christmassy gift in the world.

  It was actually the perfect gift, Holly thought as she held it up and the ball spun round, catching the light, but right now it was the letter inside that entranced her.

  When would he have put it in her bag? Holly wondered. While they were at the bed and breakfast? But, no, he must have had it before that and then she realised it must have been when they had dragged her parcels in from the car.

  When he’d thought she would never see him again.

  Oh, it was so much better than a chocolate stocking!

  And so-o-o much more frustrating!

  ‘I don’t see the point,’ her father said as Holly hung it on the tree. ‘Why would you go to the bother of writing a note that the other person isn’t going to read?’

  ‘I’m not sure,’ Holly admitted.

  ‘It’s like those fire alarms,’ mused Drunkle Harry. ‘In case of emergency, break the glass.’

  ‘There won’t be any emergencies, Uncle Harry.’ Holly smiled. ‘He probably regrets buying it now. He told me he doesn’t want me. I shan’t be seeing him again.’

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  HE WAS THE FOOL. Daniel knew it.

  As he watched Holly walk to her house in his rear-view mirror, that was exactly how he felt. She was buckling under the weight of presents, and then the door opened and her mother dashed out to help.

  He could see her mother’s bright silk scarf tied around her head and her slender body and guessed, rightly, it would have been one hell of a year for the family.

  And he wanted to go in, to the warmth, to the laughter and fun.

  He just didn’t know how.

  Christmas had always been a let-down.

  A huge one.

  The build-up would start and it had taken years for him to work out that the promise never came true.

  And he was right not to go in, he knew, because it wouldn’t be a friend dropping in for Christmas.

  Holly was the big one.

  The one to whom you promised things like for ever. And those were promises he felt in no position to give, so he started the engine and drove away.

  The roads felt empty. Probably because most people were already where they wanted to be.

  He pulled into the service station, the one opposite but identical to the one where they had stopped last night and bought cinnamon and nutmeg coffee and went back to the car and drank it.

  Really, Holly had ruined coffee for ever because, though it tasted as bad as it had last night, there was a certain warmth to it, this pleasantness.

  He opened the glove box and looked at his gift from Holly, and the ridiculous thing was that he half hoped for a Daniel & Holly snowglobe and some crazy declaration of her love.

  He read the card.

  To Daniel

  From Secret Santa

  There wasn’t even a kiss!

  Well, he guessed there would be something more meaningful inside the wrapping. He opened it slowly and then frowned as a tube of lip balm fell into his palm.

  A lip balm?

  An expensive lip balm perhaps, but even so...

  And then he realised it was Holly’s attempt at being bland. Holly doing what he had told her to do and not be so serious about things.

  Yet suddenly he was.

  He watched as an elderly woman got out of a car and walked towards another. And some children got out and ran to her.

  It must be their turn to have granny for Christmas.


  Perhaps the families weren’t speaking, Daniel pondered, because no one in either car waved to the other.

  Yet the kids and the granny were all smiling.

  They were somehow making it work.

  He thought of Holly, sitting crying, contemplating a taxi, simply desperate to get home. And he thought of his mother and all the Christmases she’d missed out on.

  There were families fighting to be together, longing to be with each other, and there he was, running from his.

  He was tired of running.

  His phone started to ring; it was Maddie, of course, wanting to know how long it would be till he got there.

  ‘About an hour, I think.’

  ‘Have you got me a present?’

  ‘Maybe.’ Daniel smiled.

  And then it was a case of please, please, please, could he stay for Christmas dinner.

  He was about to say no but then he thought of what Holly had said—that it was embarrassing for Amelia, rather than him.

  He could do dinner surely?

  ‘Yes,’ he said, and was almost deafened by her squeal. ‘I’ll see you soon, Maddie. Happy Christmas.’

  He loathed that he hadn’t been able to make it a happy Christmas for the woman who mattered to him the most.

  And so, what was the second-best thing he could do?

  He pinched one of Holly’s cards from the door pocket and wrote one out for Maddie. Then he drove to his rather odd family and took out the bag that held presents and knocked at the door.

  ‘Daniel!’ His father greeted him with a handshake.

  Despite the hurts of the past and the hurts of this morning, this Christmas was still somehow special. Something had changed in Daniel.

  ‘I love it!’ Maddie opened the tiny package and took out a silver neck chain with a little elephant charm with crystal eyes and then she read a certificate that said she’d adopted an elephant. ‘Look, Daddy!’

  Professor Chandler frowned and put on his glasses to read the certificate. ‘She’s adopted an elephant?’ He frowned. ‘For Christmas?’

  He had no idea, Daniel thought.

  None.

  Yet at least he was trying harder than he had when Daniel had been small because when Maddie whispered in her father’s ear, he actually listened and then stood. ‘We’ll be back in a moment.’

  That left Daniel and Amelia and she flushed an unflattering shade of puce and attempted to voice what was on her mind. ‘About what happened last year...’

  ‘Nothing happened,’ Daniel said. ‘And nothing ever shall. Let’s just leave it there and focus on Maddie.’

  Done.

  And he turned as the reason he was here walked into the lounge carrying a very large box that was terribly, and therefore beautifully, wrapped by her.

  ‘I chose this,’ Maddie said. ‘Jessica said you might not want it as you’re travelling but we can keep it here for you when you’ve gone! You’re going to love it.’

  Intrigued, Daniel peeled back the wrapper on a very large box and then he gave a very delighted smile, especially at the thought of Jessica trying to dissuade Maddie from her purchase. It was a pink plastic popcorn-maker, with a happy picture of mother and daughter and mountains of popcorn on the box.

  ‘I do love it,’ Daniel said, and saw that it even came with a little bag of popping corn.

  ‘You really like it?’ Maddie checked, and when Daniel nodded she turned to her father. ‘See! I told you.’

  ‘You did indeed,’ Professor Chandler agreed. ‘Maddie, why don’t you get Daniel his other present from under the tree?’

  It was a wallet.

  A very nice leather one and far from bland it made him smile, given where his had disappeared to last night!

  ‘Thank you.’

  And so to dinner.

  Amelia declined wine, Daniel noted, and so did he, which he was very glad about given that as Christmas pudding was served his phone rang.

  ‘They’ll be wanting me to do a shift,’ Daniel said when he saw who it was.

  ‘Tell them fat chance,’ his father suggested.

  Except he said yes, but only because it was a night shift at The Primary and it was where Holly would be.

  Perhaps he could make this a happier Christmas after all.

  Or completely spoil it for her?

  ‘I’ll need to take food in,’ Daniel said, because knowing that lot they would turn it into a party.

  ‘You can take the popcorn machine in.’ Maddie smiled.

  ‘I’ll see if there’s anything nice you can take in,’ their father said, and stood.

  ‘Popcorn is nice!’ Maddie insisted.

  ‘Of course it is,’ Marcus said, and he smiled at Daniel over her head. ‘So nice that there might not be enough to go around.’

  He had mellowed, Daniel realised as he followed his father into a very spacious kitchen, lined with all the mod-cons, all sparkling from lack of use.

  Maybe he could, as Holly had suggested, try talking to him.

  ‘There’s some pâté and potted...’ Marcus said, as he rummaged through the large basket of goodies.

  ‘Dad,’ Daniel interrupted. ‘I went and saw Maddie perform in her nativity play.’

  ‘I heard that you did. There’s probably a ham in the fridge...’

  ‘Dad!’ Daniel couldn’t give a damn about the ham. ‘You should have been there.’

  ‘Oh, come on, Daniel, do you really expect me to cancel surgery because—?’

  ‘Yes,’ Daniel said, and then he said it again. ‘Yes!’ he urged. ‘When Maddie’s a teenager she might want nothing to do with you but right now she does. You need to be there for the things that matter to her.’

  Daniel watched as his father stood there, not cross at the discussion, more confused. ‘You’ve got a secretary.’ Daniel thought of Iris. ‘I actually looked after one of your old ones the other day. Iris Morrison.’

  ‘She was very efficient.’

  ‘And very under-utilised. She would have loved to factor in your home life. Why don’t you go through the calendar and mark out some days for the coming year, like Maddie’s birthday and things, and have your secretary organise your schedule around that?’

  ‘I could do that.’ Marcus nodded.

  He simply accepted the advice and it was then that Daniel realised that sometimes people simply needed to be told. Sometimes the cleverest of people needed help with what others considered the simplest of things.

  And so, while they were on the subject, Daniel pushed on. ‘And instead of three hours at the club this afternoon, why not take her for ten minutes to the park?’

  ‘She likes the club, there’s a playroom there.’

  ‘No, Dad.’ Daniel shook his head. ‘She hates it.’

  ‘Did you?’

  And he could score some points here, Daniel knew, he could stick the boot in and bring up, oh, so many, many things.

  But it was Christmas.

  And, more than that, this discussion wasn’t about him. It was about a wary-looking little girl who now stood at the kitchen door. ‘What are you two talking about?’

  Daniel looked at his father, who stared back at his son for a moment and then turned to his daughter. ‘I was just saying to your brother that we might go for a walk to the park after dinner if he wanted to come.’

  ‘The park?’ Maddie checked. ‘The one with swings?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘And are you coming?’ Maddie asked her brother as Amelia came in.

  ‘I can’t,’ Daniel said. ‘I need to go home and get some sleep and Holly will be back from her family soon...’ He shamelessly borrowed Holly, but even if not physically present, by God, it had helped to have her sort of by his side today.


  ‘Holly?’ Amelia frowned.

  ‘You met her in the department store the other week.’

  ‘Sounds serious,’ his father said, because if it was running into weeks for his son, then it must be.

  They had worked at the same hospital after all and word got around!

  ‘It’s starting to look that way,’ Daniel agreed.

  It had actually been starting to look that way for quite some time now but he’d been doing his best not to see what had been right there under his nose.

  Yes, try as he might not to be, he was still his father’s son.

  Though that might not be such a bad thing, Daniel realised, because even a rather old leopard could change its spots.

  With a hefty nudge, of course.

  As he was about to leave he gave Maddie the card he had written for her in the car.

  ‘What does “ten school pick-ups” mean?’ she asked.

  ‘That you’ve got ten treats next year, though not all in a row.’

  ‘But you’re going away.’

  ‘No,’ Daniel said. ‘I’m not. I might go on holiday, of course, but I’m not leaving you for a whole year...’

  And maybe it made no sense to some, she was his half-sister after all, but as her little arms wrapped around his neck, staying close made perfect sense to Daniel.

  Maddie was his sister and for her he would be here.

  It was a good Christmas.

  A great one even, for, as he climbed into the car with his pink plastic popcorn-maker, he watched as his father stood outside, with his daughter hanging off his hand, ready to go to the park.

  It was the first time that his father had waved him goodbye.

  Ever.

  And, because it was Christmas, Daniel tooted and waved back as he drove off.

  They looked almost like a normal family!

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  THE MOTORWAY BEHAVED and the drive was made so much easier in her mother’s car. Holly had said that she would return it in a couple of days but was seeing in the New Year in London.

  With friends and bubbles. She was going to keep all her resolutions this year—one being to be more sophisticated in her love life, and so never make such a fool of herself again with men.