Christmas under a Cranberry Sky

by Holly Martin

  They slowed their snowmobiles down as they approached the barn and Gabe cut his engine just outside, so Pip did the same.

  ‘Just leave them here, Boris will put them away later,’ Gabe explained.

  They moved into the barn to get out of their thermal suits and Pip could hear the phone in her bag beeping plaintively to let her know that an email had arrived.

  Gabe moved closer to her, his hands on her shoulders as he smiled at her. He looked like he wanted to say something to her or kiss her or both. He bent his head down to kiss her just as there was movement at the door.

  ‘Hello!’ Boris called, strolling in holding onto Wren with one hand. Gabe leapt back from Pip as if he’d been burned.

  Pip stepped back and smiled at Wren who didn’t seem to think anything was amiss with her dad about to kiss another woman. Boris, on the other hand, was horrified.

  ‘Oh, sorry, boss, erm…we saw you come back and Wren wanted to come and see you. I didn’t realise…’

  ‘It’s OK,’ Gabe said, clearly embarrassed.

  Of course he wouldn’t want Wren to see him kissing Pip. Pip had no idea how to define their current relationship, so how would Gabe explain that to Wren? It didn’t stop Pip feeling a little hurt about how quickly he had stepped away from her.

  ‘Daddy, me and Chester built the biggest snowman. Boris said we might have to take it down before the guests arrive, but we can keep it, can’t we, Daddy?’

  ‘Yes of course, Princess, I’m sure the guests will love to see him.’ Gabe swung her up into the air and kissed her on the nose. Wren giggled and snuggled into his shoulder. She eyed Pip. ‘I told Chester I wanted to call the snowman Pip, but he wanted to call it Buzz, so Boris said we can call it Buzzpip.’

  Pip laughed. ‘Wow, I love that name. Can I see it?’

  Wren wriggled to get down and as soon as Gabe plonked her on the floor, she grabbed Pip’s hand and tugged her out the door. Pip picked up her bag on the way out and she heard Boris apologising to Gabe again as they left the barn.

  Wren pulled her along the track back towards the main reception and as they rounded the corner Pip laughed at the biggest snowman she had ever seen. This thing had to be over eight foot tall, with a bottom, middle and head and huge branches for arms. Boris and Mikael had obviously been keeping the children busy. Wren pulled her round to the front of it and Pip laughed even more when she saw the wonky eyes and smile made from lumps of coal and a bent carrot for the nose. He looked like he’d had way too many mulled wines.

  ‘Pip, this is Buzzpip. Buzzpip, this is Pip.’

  ‘Pleased to meet you, Buzzpip,’ Pip said, gently shaking one of the branches.

  Gabe rounded the corner with Boris and stopped when he saw it. ‘Oh, it is big, isn’t it? And right in front of the reception too.’

  Pip snorted as Gabe’s face fought the battle between the fake smile for Wren’s benefit and the look of horror as he imagined the guests’ reaction to Juniper Island’s own answer to the abominable snowman.

  ‘I can take it down, boss, it’s no bother,’ Boris said, quietly.

  ‘No, Daddy said we can keep him,’ Wren said, a little pout forming on her lips.

  ‘Of course we can, honey, but you know snowmen don’t last forever. If the weather turns mild, Buzzpip might melt.’

  ‘I know, Daddy,’ Wren sighed, sadly.

  ‘Let’s go have some lunch,’ Gabe said. ‘I heard there’s jelly for pudding.’

  Wren cheered and ran off towards the dining room.

  Gabe took another look at the scary drunk snowman and sighed. ‘Let’s just hope we have really hot weather between now and Thursday.’

  * * *

  After lunch Pip excused herself from the table to check on the email that had arrived. She didn’t get many emails and the ones she did get were always work-related. She went upstairs to where all the old bedrooms used to be, now offices if she remembered what Gabe had said correctly. There was no one around and she sat down on one of the sofas and opened up the email.

  She groaned when she read it.

  Hey honey,

  I explained the situation to Arsehole Marcus and asked if you could start your sabbatical early. He had some choice words to say about that, none of which I wish to repeat, but the polite version was that The Tree of Life have paid for your stay there, the flights and even agreed to pay for the longer stay of two weeks so you could be there over Christmas and New Year, and the whole booking wasn’t particularly cheap. Honestly, I can kind of see his point. If it was just starting your sabbatical two weeks early, I’m sure I could talk him round, but he isn’t going to pay for you to stay in some uber-posh resort at the most expensive time of the year and not get anything back.

  I explained about the conflict of interest and he said, not so politely, that you’ve been doing this job for over ten years and that you should be professional enough to write an unbiased and honest review.

  I suggested that you might want to pay back the money we had spent on your reservation so you would effectively be paying for your own stay there. Arsehole Marcus didn’t like that idea either. He said if that was the case, he would have to seriously reconsider your six-month sabbatical and whether he would be able to keep your job open for when you came back. Apparently he wants to run a six-page spread on winter holidays and resorts and he wants to feature Stardust Lake Hotel and your review, which will be great coverage for your friend.

  My advice. If the place is as beautiful as you said, you shouldn’t have any problem writing a good review. It’d be awkward if you had to write a bad review, but as that’s not the case, just write something good now and get it out of the way, then you don’t have to worry about any kind of conflict of interest.

  Sorry not to have better news. Hope you’ve snogged your gorgeous ex-boyfriend by now. I found his picture, and he is hot.

  * * *

  Love you loads,

  * * *

  Wendy x

  Pip sighed. She didn’t have the money to pay the magazine back. The pay she got from them was next to nothing, though she had never really needed much money before as all her accommodation, food and travel was covered. Over the years she had saved up all of her wages and she had just enough to pay for her rent and bills for her six-month sabbatical. She didn’t really want to have to touch that to give the money back to The Tree of Life.

  Although Gabe had said the night before they would give her some compensation for the inconvenience of staying with him, she’d not heard any more about that and she certainly didn’t feel right about asking him.

  She remembered Gabe’s conviction and determination that Stardust Lake Hotel would be a success. There was no way she could let him down. If The Tree of Life was going to feature it in a proper article that would be amazing coverage for him. Pip just had to ensure that it was the best review she had ever written. She would make sure Stardust Lake Hotel shone. She had already told the magazine that she couldn’t write the review because her friend owned it and it would be a conflict of interests. If they insisted she wrote the review anyway she wouldn’t feel guilty for even a second that it might be slightly biased.

  She stared out of the window at the beauty of the resort; it was like something from inside a snow globe. It wouldn’t actually be a far stretch to say it was perfect in the review. The resort was gorgeous, the food was excellent and the staff were friendly. She laughed to herself as she remembered just how friendly one of the staff had been when she had been out on the snowmobile. And if there was anything bad that might crop up over the next few days she would just have to conveniently forget about that.

  She slipped her phone inside her bag and stood up. but as she moved back to the top of the stairs she heard crying from behind one of the doors.

  She moved towards the doors and saw one of them was left ajar. The crying was definitely coming from there. She peered round the crack and saw Neve sitting at her desk crying into her hands.

  Her immediate reaction
was to rush in and comfort her. This was someone Pip had grown up with, who had looked after her like a big sister. Neve had been there for her on countless occasions. She had picked Pip up after she had fallen, held her after her mum had died and comforted her when her dad had yelled at her and she’d ran to the Whitakers for solace. If Pip could offer some comfort now, then she wanted to be able to help her.

  Pip put her hand to the door to push it open and then hesitated. She didn’t know the Neve on the other side of the door. She hadn’t seen her for twelve years. Neve probably wouldn’t thank Pip for sticking her nose in. Pip had seen the way Neve had looked at her over breakfast, and although Neve had been polite and friendly, Pip could see she wasn’t thrilled that Pip had shown up out the blue like this.

  Maybe she should go and tell Gabe – he would want to know if his sister was upset. As she watched Neve continue to cry, her heart broke for her and whatever pain she was going through. Neve could tell her to get lost but Pip couldn’t leave her like this.

  She gave a soft knock on the door and pushed it open slightly.

  Neve jumped and quickly wiped her eyes.

  ‘Sorry to disturb you. I just came up here to, erm, make a call in private and I heard you crying. Are you OK?’

  Neve nodded then shook her head. ‘Not really.’

  Pip inched into the room. ‘Do you want to talk about it? I mean, just tell me to get lost if you don’t, but maybe I can help.’

  Neve didn’t say anything as she wiped the tears away, but she didn’t tell her to get out either, so Pip stayed.

  ‘No one can help, thank you for offering, but there’s nothing anyone can do,’ Neve said.

  ‘Is it the hotel, are you worried about the opening or this Mr Black coming?’

  Neve let out a small smile. ‘I wish it was that. No, I…I broke up with my boyfriend before coming out here. I’ve regretted it every day since I left him.’

  Pip stood awkwardly in the middle of the office. Matters of the heart were not something she was experienced in or particularly good at. She had run away from the only man she had ever loved and there had been no one for her since.

  ‘How long has it been?’

  ‘Since I broke his heart? Eight weeks, two days and, oh, probably fifteen hours.’ She let out another sob.

  Pip moved round the desk and knelt on the floor, taking her hand.

  ‘Breaking up is hard, but sometimes it’s the best thing for both of you. Do you think it was the right thing to do?’

  ‘I don’t know. I think it was the best thing for him. He’s younger than I am and has this huge bright career ahead of him. He’s fulfilling his dream and I didn’t want to get in the way of that. I thought I’d be holding him back, especially if he has to keep travelling over here to see me all the time. I didn’t think he was ready for commitment with me. I wanted marriage and kids and he just wasn’t ready for any of that. But maybe I didn’t give him a chance. Maybe it was too soon and he would have got there eventually. We had only been going out for ten months. I don’t think I will ever stop loving him. God, I hurt him so badly, I could see that, and his sister has just emailed me begging me to reconsider, saying that she has never seen him so miserable before. I thought I was doing the right thing for him. Now I don’t know what to do.’

  ‘If you are doubting your decision, maybe it isn’t too late to change your mind.’

  ‘He’s in Hollywood, I’m here.’

  ‘Hollywood?’

  ‘He’s an actor.’

  ‘Oh.’ The comment about his career suddenly made more sense.

  ‘He was filming in London and I was travelling up here so often to get things ready for the grand opening, but it didn’t matter, we made it work. He knew I’d be moving up here permanently and he was leaving to go to Hollywood, but he was still convinced we could still be together. He said he’d fly over every chance he got or fly me over there, but in reality it was never going to last and I just thought I’d be holding him back. Then I found out…’

  Neve stopped talking and Pip didn’t know whether to push her or not.

  ‘Maybe, it’s for the best,’ Neve said.

  ‘You’re both miserable, that doesn’t sound like it’s for the best to me.’

  ‘This email from Sofia…God, I know what it’s like to see my brother’s heart break. When you left I would have done anything to bring you back. It ruined Gabe. I can’t bear the thought of doing that to Oakley.’

  Pip felt the stab through her heart at what she had put Gabe through. She had ruined him? It had hurt him as much as it had hurt her. That thought was almost crippling.

  Neve didn’t seem to realise she had said anything untoward. ‘He’s going to hate me,’ she said quietly.

  Pip squeezed her hand tighter, trying not to focus on the thought of how much she had hurt Gabe.

  ‘I think if he loves you, then he’ll forgive you. Look at me and Gabe: he probably hated me for twelve years for what I did to him. I don’t know if we’ll ever be able to go back to how we were but he has forgiven me.’

  Neve stared at her through her tears. ‘I don’t think Gabe ever stopped loving you. That was the problem. That’s what ruined him. He has carried that heartbreak with him for the last twelve years and he never ever got over it.’

  Pip stood up, stung.

  ‘You need to think carefully before you get involved with him again. I see the way you are looking at each other and if you let things happen and then walk away in a couple of weeks it will break his heart all over again. I don’t know whether he would recover from it a second time.’

  ‘I have no intention of hurting him.’

  ‘See that you don’t. He might have forgiven you, but I certainly won’t if you break his heart again.’

  Pip felt like she had just been slapped. She had no words and she quickly turned and walked out. She stood out in the corridor for a moment trying to catch her breath before she turned around and marched straight back in.

  Neve looked up as she returned.

  ‘It is absolutely none of your business what Gabe and I get up to. And he is a grown man, not a child; he is responsible for making his own choices. If we want to shag each other’s brains out right here on your desk we will and there is nothing you can say to change that.’

  ‘What’s going on?’ came the deep voice of Gabe from behind her.

  Pip spun around and saw him standing in the doorway. He didn’t look happy. Wren was standing next to him, her hand in his, her eyes wide with shock and confusion.

  Chapter 11

  Neve stood up. ‘Nothing, Gabe, it’s just a misunderstanding.’

  He moved into the small office, filling the space.

  ‘You’ve been crying.’ He looked at Pip accusingly. She couldn’t find any words to defend herself. Had she been wrong to say what she’d said to Neve? Her relationship with Gabe was hard enough to navigate for them, let alone factoring in an overprotective big sister. And she wouldn’t be made to feel guilty for a decision she had made when she was seventeen years old.

  Pip sighed, suddenly desperate to make her escape. ‘Why don’t I take Wren down to play in the snow and you two can have a nice chat about what a terrible person I am.’

  Nobody said anything so Pip crouched down to talk to Wren. ‘Fancy coming with me? We can see if we can make a friend for Buzzpip.’

  Wren looked up at Gabe, clearly unsure if she should go with the person who had just been shouting at her aunt. ‘Can I, Daddy?’

  Gabe nodded and Wren took Pip’s hand and they walked out. The office door closed firmly behind them and Pip wanted to stop and listen to see what was said, but Wren was already tugging her down the stairs.

  Pip made sure Wren had her hat and gloves on before they stepped outside into the cold. But as soon as they had made it down the steps, a snowmobile suddenly roared to a stop in front of them.

  Pip stepped back, scooping Wren up into her arms to protect her, but as she took in the huge man sitting on
its back her heart leapt then fell with recognition. It was Luke. He was huge now. He was sitting down, but she guessed when he stood up he would be nearing seven foot. Everything about him was big too, his thighs, his arms, his hands. He was like a giant bear. His hair was shaggy; even his stubble was four or five days old and had a straggly quality to it.

  He was seven years older than Pip and had never had any time for her before. In fact he had always made it clear just how little he had thought of her growing up. She remembered him as a child, angry with her, angry with the world, but as they both had got older there had been more of a tolerance from him. They had never been friends and they’d never had the closeness she shared with Neve. But there had been a few times that the girls in the village had mocked her for the colour of her eyes and Luke had told them to leave her alone. She had never felt comfortable around him, but she was surprised by the scathing look he was giving her now.

  A face peered round Luke’s massive shoulders, a pretty redheaded girl about Pip’s age with sparkling green eyes and a large smile which made the scowl on Luke’s face even darker by comparison.

  ‘Pip.’ Luke nodded his acknowledgement.

  ‘Hi Luke.’

  There was a tense, awkward silence for a moment and the redhead rolled her eyes. In an obvious attempt to clear the air, she stuck her hand out towards Pip with a smile.

  ‘I’m Audrey, I own one of the shops in the village.’