One Family Christmas: The perfect, cosy, heart-warming read to curl up with this winter

by Bella Osborne

  Angie jumped up. ‘We should go to Chipping Norton.’

  ‘We are not stalking some poor woman on Boxing Day because she looks a bit like the Duchess of … of …’ Lottie nodded at Zach.

  ‘Sussex,’ he said, on cue.

  ‘Anyway,’ said Lottie, checking the clock, ‘it’s time for the stocking game.’

  Kill me now, thought Emily. This family had the weirdest traditions. She had thought that everyone’s Christmas was roughly the same: turkey, crackers, pudding, presents. But the Collins family took it to a whole new level. Why couldn’t they just eat chocolate and argue over TV like any normal family? She really liked Lottie and didn’t want to let her new friend down, so when she looked her way, Emily gave her a big smile. But she was already dreading the stocking game – whatever it was. Things were feeling weird between her and Zach. They’d not had a moment to themselves away from Jessie, so they hadn’t been able to discuss anything, and the second present he’d mentioned seemed to have been forgotten.

  ‘Are you up for the stocking game?’ Lottie asked her.

  ‘Joe and Jessie have taken Dave for a walk. Should we wait for them to get back?’ asked Emily. Anything to delay the stocking game, she thought.

  ‘Yeah, we should really,’ said Lottie. ‘Actually, do you want to give me a quick hand with something?’ she asked.

  ‘Sure.’ She felt a flutter of anticipation at Lottie having managed to get her another pregnancy test. And she followed her out to the kitchen.

  Lottie shut the door. ‘I’m really sorry. I couldn’t get the test. The shop was full of locals and Mum came with me too.’

  Emily’s shoulders sagged. ‘Don’t worry. Thanks for trying.’ She rubbed a hand over her face. She looked tired.

  ‘Are you sleeping okay?’

  ‘Not great.’ There seemed more hidden behind her words.

  ‘Is it the not knowing?’

  Emily sighed slowly. ‘Last night Zach was muttering in his sleep. Most of it wasn’t audible, but he said “Melissa” a couple of times.’

  Lottie wasn’t sure how to respond. ‘Ah. That’s unsettling.’

  ‘It is. Really unsettling. Here’s me wondering if I’m carrying his child, and his mind is full of the wife he loved. The perfect wife.’

  ‘Hmm.’ It was an involuntary noise, and it conveyed too much. Lottie regretted the sound as soon as she’d made it.

  Emily cocked her head in a way not dissimilar to Dave. ‘What does that mean?’ There was hope in her voice. Lottie felt that familiar guilty sensation begin to weigh her down.

  Emily was about to question further but the back door swung open. In came a bouncy Dave and a worn-out-looking Jessie. ‘We’ve walked miles and miles,’ she said, and she flopped onto the floor and began tugging at her wellies. Joe followed her in and shut out the biting cold. The sight of him made her stomach flip. It felt as if their kiss was still fresh on her lips.

  ‘Did you have fun?’ asked Emily, automatically crouching to help Jessie with her boots.

  Jessie nodded. ‘I think Dave knows his name now, but Joe wouldn’t let him off the lead.’

  Joe was shaking his head. ‘Best he doesn’t get lost before we find his owners.’

  Jessie’s face dropped. ‘But I thought we were keeping him.’ She looked pleadingly at Emily.

  ‘It’s likely he has an owner somewhere. Maybe even a little girl like you who loves him.’

  Jessie’s bottom lip was on the wobble. ‘But he loves me now.’

  ‘I know, sweetie.’

  Dave pawed at Jessie’s jeans and she gave him a hug. ‘See? He loves me.’

  Emily was looking at Lottie for help.

  ‘Emily’s right. We need to do absolutely everything we can to find his owners.’

  ‘What if we don’t find them?’ asked Jessie, scratching Dave’s tummy when he flopped on the floor like a hopeless drunk. She pinned Lottie with a hopeful stare.

  ‘Then he’ll need a new home.’ Emily’s eyes widened and Lottie shrugged, she couldn’t lie to her.

  ‘Can I have him then?’ asked Jessie, her head swivelling around to look at each of the adults in turn in the hope of a positive response.

  ‘I’ll be looking after him while we try to track his owners down. So you can always visit him while he’s with me,’ said Joe, with a broad smile.

  ‘Maybe he’s Meghan Markle’s dog,’ said Emily, with a giggle.

  Joe was looking puzzled. ‘What’s this? Royalty?’

  ‘Oh, it’s a really long and very fanciful story,’ said Lottie. ‘Trust me, you don’t want to know.’

  The front doorbell sounded and Lottie went to answer it. Her mother beat her there, which in itself was a huge surprise as Angie usually did absolutely nothing more than she had to. But when Angie opened the door and the visitor was revealed, Lottie knew why her mother had raced to open it.

  The Meghan Markle lookalike was on the doorstep. Angie stepped forward and performed an elaborate curtsey. Lottie couldn’t contain her laughter. ‘Honoured to meet you, Ma’am,’ said Angie.

  The young woman was wearing what looked like an expensive pale cream coat with a sumptuous matching fur collar. Lottie hoped it was fake fur. She was strikingly pretty, but up close it was even more obvious to Lottie that she wasn’t the Duchess of Sussex. It really was a ‘Should have gone to Specsavers’ moment.

  ‘Hello,’ said Lottie, joining her deluded mother at the door.

  ‘Lottie,’ snapped Angie, and she waved at her to join her in a curtsey.

  Lottie ignored her. ‘How can we help?’ She knew her grin looked a bit manic, but she simply couldn’t dilute it. It was one of the funniest things she’d ever witnessed; and more importantly, it would provide a lifetime of amusement as she would never let her mother live this down.

  The woman dragged her eyes away from Angie, still bent low mid-curtsey. ‘Hi. I’m not sure if y’all can help me, but I was told you might know where I can find Joe Broomfield.’

  Lottie’s grin vanished. A million questions flooded her head. ‘Er, um …’ The woman was still waiting. Lottie pulled herself together. ‘Yes. Of course. Joe is here. Come in.’ She pulled the door wide open. ‘Oh, do get out of the way, Mother.’

  Lottie heard the kitchen door open and turned to see Joe walk into the hallway. He froze mid-step.

  ‘Joey!’ shouted the American, and she strode towards him on her very high heels.

  ‘Megan?’ Joe couldn’t have looked more shocked if the Queen herself had cartwheeled up the hall. ‘Megan. Hi.’ She threw herself into his arms.

  ‘Surprise!’ said Megan, stepping back to appraise him.

  ‘Yes. It’s definitely that,’ said Joe, colouring up.

  An unpleasant shiver went through Lottie, and she belatedly shut the door as Angie, at last, stood up straight.

  ‘So Joe knows the Duchess of Sussex?’ whispered Angie, looking more than puzzled.

  ‘Bloody hell, Mother. How many times? She isn’t Meghan sodding Markle,’ said Lottie. But she did want to know exactly who she was.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  In the kitchen, Emily got Jessie a glass of squash and listened as she recounted her dog walk in fine detail. She was a lovely child, full of enthusiasm and zest for life, like her father. She thought of Zach. One of the many things she loved about him was his honesty. She’d never had any reason to doubt that what he’d said about his wife was completely true. Zach had always made her out to be a brilliant mother and a wonderful person, but now Lottie had sown a tiny seed of doubt in Emily’s mind. Perhaps Lottie had a slightly different perspective on Melissa, or even more likely, Zach had chosen to forget any non-perfect qualities. That frequently happened when people passed away, especially if they died young and tragically as Melissa had. But she could recall Zach saying that Lottie and Melissa had been the best of friends, so surely Lottie had no axe to grind. In which case, it was even more odd that Lottie would cast doubt on Melissa’s being flawless.

/>   She wished Lottie would tell her. She didn’t mean to be unkind, but to know that Melissa wasn’t perfect would make her feel a whole lot better. It felt like she had set a standard Emily could never live up to. Of course she had had partners who’d had significant exes before, but those conversations had been brief and easily forgotten. A quick share of their pasts, and then they’d focused on the now. But Melissa was different: she kept popping up, and she was always going to, because she wasn’t an ex – she would forever be a huge part of Zach and Jessie’s life. Melissa was Jessie’s mother, and Zach was keen to keep her memory alive for Jessie’s sake – which Emily totally understood, and 100 per cent agreed with. But right now, she wasn’t entirely sure how she would cope with it.

  Zach was a great dad, there was no question about that, but however hard he tried he was never going to fill the space Melissa had left in Jessie’s life – quite simply, nobody could. Jessie had been a baby when her mother had been killed, so she had no recollection of her at all. Emily’s heart ached for the little girl. She couldn’t imagine growing up without a mother. Emily and her own mum had a close relationship; they always had, but now she was an adult they were more than mum and daughter, they were friends too, and Emily couldn’t imagine not having her there through all the trials and tribulations of life. Just being apart from her this Christmas, with everything that was going on, had been hard.

  Emily watched Jessie telling the story of Dave tying Joe up in the skipping-rope lead. Her pretty, pale-blue eyes sparkled as she re-enacted the scene, her glossy dark hair bouncing around her shoulders. Jessie looked like her mother; Emily knew this from the many photographs she’d seen in Zach’s house. She must be a constant reminder to him of Melissa, she thought. A little mini-Melissa keeping his wife’s image alive.

  Emily didn’t like to consider how Jessie would feel about having to share her father. It would be exceptionally hard for her. It had just been the two of them for the last five years. A new sibling often had a big impact on a child.

  And how would Zach feel about being a father again? He’d never mentioned wanting more children. Did that mean he didn’t? She’d not steered the conversation in that direction. It had never been something either of them had brought up for discussion. Although just because she hadn’t raised the subject, it didn’t mean she didn’t want to be a mother some day; it just hadn’t been near the top of her priority list. Right now, though, it was the only thing on her list, written in red and underlined many times.

  They had all been rubbing along quite happy with how things were. But now the carefully woven patchwork of their life had a loose thread. Emily feared the whole thing was going to unravel, like a cheap cardigan.

  Lottie had gone rigid as she watched Megan hug Joe again. A klaxon was going off in her head. She coughed quietly and Joe’s head snapped around. ‘We’re going to go and start playing the stocking game.’ She knew it sounded ridiculous, but she didn’t know what was going on, so carrying on as normal – well, normal for the Collins family – seemed like the best course of action. ‘It’s a Boxing Day tradition,’ she explained, although she probably didn’t need to. Megan was scrunching up her pretty features. Lottie wasn’t sure whether that was due to confusion over what the stocking game was or at the way Lottie was staring.

  Megan let go of Joe and strode over to Lottie with such gusto that Lottie took a step back. Megan came to a halt in front of her. ‘That was so rude of me,’ said Megan, placing both hands on her own chest. ‘I’m Megan.’

  Lottie didn’t like to say, ‘Yes, I’d gathered what your name was, but what the hell are you doing here hugging my Joe?’ so she said, ‘I’m Lottie,’ and offered her hand to shake. She was hardly going to hug the woman.

  Megan’s hands sprang up. Lottie winced in case she was going to hit her. ‘Oh, I’ve heard so much about you. All the crazy things you and Joey got up to as little kids. It is a delight to finally meet you.’ She flung her arms around Lottie and squeezed her far tighter than was necessary. Lottie glanced through Megan’s elaborate fur collar at Joe, who was rubbing his chin, the way he did when something was bothering him. Good – at least he had the decency to look unsettled.

  ‘That’s nice,’ said Lottie, disentangling herself and adjusting her hair clip.

  Angie stepped forward. ‘I’m Angie. Has anyone ever told you that you are the spitting image of Meghan Markle?’

  ‘Now aren’t you the sweetest?’ said Megan, kissing her cheek. ‘I love your home,’ she said, waving an arm around. ‘It’s so cute and British. Just like Joey.’ She turned to gaze coyly at an uncomfortable-looking Joe.

  ‘And how do you know Joe exactly?’ asked Lottie. There, she’d said it. She’d taken the bull by the horns and draped it in fairy lights.

  ‘Why, Joey’s my partner.’ Megan said it as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

  Lottie felt as if the ceiling had fallen in on her. ‘Shocked’ didn’t cover it. She looked to Joe, but he was staring at the floor. She had forgotten to take a breath when she needed it, and now she quickly breathed in, making an over-dramatic gasping noise. Really not the calm reaction she had wanted to convey.

  ‘Oh, how lovely,’ said Angie, clapping her hands together. Lottie wanted to slap her with one of the ham sandwiches. ‘Are you moving to England too?’

  Lottie froze. She knew she was staring wide-eyed at Megan but she couldn’t help it. First Joe had upended her world on Christmas Eve and now, two days later, this woman had materialised and spun her back to front. It was like some weird form of extreme zorbing. Megan sauntered over to Joe and ran a fingertip seductively along his jawline. Joe had the decency to look embarrassed. ‘That depends on whether or not he’ll have me,’ she said, her voice almost a purr.

  Lottie’s stomach turned over. She felt sick and humiliated. She wanted to escape the excruciating situation. She could hear Nana’s voice in her head: ‘You’re stronger than you know, Lottie. Be brave.’ She decided to pull herself together. She straightened her back and slapped a smile on her face. ‘Right. That is lovely,’ she said, the words leaving a bitter taste in her mouth like she’d bitten into a bad nut, ‘I expect you’ll be off to … to, um … catch up with each other.’ Lottie had to wipe her mind of thoughts of what they might really be off to do. Imagining Joe and Megan in bed together wasn’t going to help her already battered ego. ‘So while you two do … that, we’ll be off to play the stocking game.’ She began nudging her mother in the direction of the drawing room.

  Megan did something akin to jazz hands whilst bobbing up and down on her heels. ‘That sounds like so much fun. Can I join in?’ she asked, taking off her expensive coat and handing it to Joe. Joe and Lottie shared the same bemused expression.

  ‘We’d love you to,’ said Angie, flashing a scornful look at Lottie and showing Megan through to the drawing room.

  The house seemed to be getting chillier. Only Lottie and Joe remained, standing at either end of the hallway. Lottie wrapped her arms protectively around herself. She stared at Joe. Hurt and anger vied for attention inside her. How the hell had he failed to mention that he had a girlfriend? In fact, Megan had referred to him as her ‘partner’ – that sounded even more serious than boyfriend and girlfriend.

  A few short hours ago, she’d shared the most tender of kisses with Joe, and it had felt so right. She’d thought their kiss had meant something – but clearly only to her. Perhaps it was just nostalgia. She’d read somewhere that nostalgia literally meant ‘homecoming pain’ – how fitting that seemed now. All the old hurt had returned in truckloads.

  Joe opened his mouth and she held up her palm to stop him. ‘No, Joe. I don’t want to hear it. Not now. Not ever.’ And she strode with purpose into the drawing room.

  She could almost read the questions on everyone’s faces when she entered the room behind Megan and her mother.

  ‘This is Megan,’ said Angie, her eyebrows dancing as she left a pause before adding. ‘She’s Joe’s American gi
rlfriend.’ Lottie could feel her cheeks flush, but she had no idea why. Nobody knew about the kiss, thank goodness. She had nothing to feel embarrassed about. She’d had no idea that he’d had a girlfriend, or there was no way on earth she would have kissed him. She knew too well what it was like to be cheated on. It hurt her afresh that Joe had been so casual about kissing her when all the while he was in a relationship with Megan.

  Zach was frowning hard and looking to Lottie for an explanation. She gave the tiniest of shrugs. At least Megan appeared to be news to him too. When Joe didn’t follow her into the drawing room, Lottie closed the door behind her.

  Scott was first on his feet. ‘Hi Megan, I’m Scott,’ he said, offering her his vacated seat and his usual broad smile.

  ‘Scott’s my partner,’ said Angie, proudly popping up from behind Megan.

  A round of introductions followed as Megan sat down.

  ‘I love your accent,’ said Emily. There were nods of agreement.

  ‘Whereabouts in America are you from?’ asked Angie. ‘Lottie thought Texas.’

  ‘Oh no. I’m from Lake Charles, Louisiana,’ said Megan, an element of great pride in her voice.

  ‘Beautiful part of America, Louisiana. Lovely people,’ said Uncle Daniel.

  ‘Well, aren’t you all a delight?’ said Megan.

  ‘Yes, we are,’ said Jessie.

  ‘Oh, and you’re the cutest,’ said Megan. Jessie blushed at the compliment. It seemed Megan was making a good first impression with everyone except Lottie.

  Megan regaled them with a brief history of her ancestry, which she proudly explained had origins in Africa and Ireland. Lottie watched her family, all entranced by her.

  Zach poured Megan a glass of wine and topped up his own. He tilted the bottle towards Emily’s glass and she shook her head. He paused as he put the bottle back. ‘You not drinking?’ he asked, looking puzzled.

  ‘I’m okay at the moment. Maybe later,’ said Emily. She glanced briefly in Lottie’s direction, but Lottie didn’t really notice; she had far too many other things on her mind now.