Christmas Promises at the Garland Street Markets: A feel good Christmas romance (New York Ever After, Book 5)

by Helen J Rolfe

  Shuffling in a herd down the aisle to the freedom of the plane’s door, she knew that for these four weeks she could leave behind all her pressures at home, put to the back of her mind the redecorating she had to do, the new kitchen floor she needed to fund after a minor flood had damaged the tiles beyond repair.

  Amelia thanked the hostess after Kyle walked past the woman with his eyes fixed to the ground, and she kept on his tail, reminding herself she’d volunteered to bring him here.

  She must’ve lost her mind.

  Then again, Kyle had already had to deal with plenty. The death of Connie’s husband had knocked her sister’s world sideways, but although Connie had wobbled, she’d managed not to topple over completely from the knock – whereas Kyle had never been the same again. He’d worshipped his father, Stuart, and losing him had changed the kid forever. If Amelia ever grew frustrated with Kyle’s attitude to her, to life, to anything, recalling what he’d gone through was a harsh reminder that he could never go back to being the happy-go-lucky boy he once was. Amelia and Connie had had the luxury of two parents being there for them right up until five years ago, when they’d both passed away within twenty-three months of each other, and Amelia couldn’t imagine how different their lives might have been without that kind of stability.

  Paul and Kyle had never got on. Paul had never appreciated the way Connie expected Amelia to pick up the pieces when it came to her nephew. He was right, in some respects, but Amelia had never been able to turn Kyle away or say no to her sister, whose life had endured plenty of knocks already too. Paul had always blamed Amelia’s empathetic nature, but she wondered, was that something she ever wanted to change? When she was with Paul she sometimes wanted to explain to him, a man who still had both parents and plenty of extended family who gathered on a regular basis, that not everyone was as lucky. Sometimes a kid needed someone else to step in for a while. But when they’d argued about it, and more so now she was on the other side of the world with Kyle, Amelia wondered why she’d never ever been able to say no to her sister.

  Amelia absorbed the sound of American accents as they emerged from the plane to a city that had always felt impossibly out of reach. Her heart sank when they saw the queue at JFK’s passport control. Kyle when he had something to do was hard company enough, but Kyle and her stuck in a long line, with him barely managing to utter more than a quick word, was going to be agony.

  She shuffled forward whenever the queue allowed and her patience began to wane. ‘We’ve got a month together, Kyle, we may as well try to get on.’

  ‘What’s the point? I know you didn’t want me here, you’re doing it because you have to, to help Mum out.’

  ‘I am helping her out, yes. But it was my idea for you to come on this holiday, not her suggestion.’

  ‘Admit it, you’d rather be on your own than have me tagging along.’

  ‘That’s not true.’

  He shook his head with all the anger she’d seen too often at work from kids under her watch. It was always a toss-up as to whether you tried to reason with them or let them settle before you made the effort. She went for the former. ‘This is a favour to Connie and it’s also a favour to you. You and your mum clash, I don’t need to point that out, but you’ve reached a crossroads and you both need space.’ She’d heard Connie more than once say she was close to throwing him out of the house, but she wasn’t going to tell him that.

  ‘You drew the short straw.’

  ‘Then it’s up to you to fix that,’ she said as they progressed in the queue. ‘Make this a good experience, for both of us.’

  ‘Not much of a good experience for you if you have to work at the markets. Who is this Cleo anyway?’

  A little bit of sympathy from his direction and an interest in conversing was a step in the right direction. ‘I worked at her aunt and uncle’s knitting shop in the Cotswolds.’

  ‘You knit?’

  She shook her head. ‘No, I’m rubbish. But I was a good Saturday girl. I served customers, cleaned floors, surfaces, took deliveries.’

  ‘Sounds riveting.’

  Ignoring his remark, she said, ‘Cleo and I have been friends ever since and it worked out well being able to help at the markets, not to mention the free accommodation. Do you know how lucky we are with that?’

  ‘Sure.’ He didn’t sound convinced.

  ‘I’m looking forward to it in a way. The markets won’t be proper work, it’s not my usual job, and I certainly won’t have to put in the long days.’

  ‘You trust me bumming around the city while you’re working?’ He seemed doubtful but she couldn’t totally read his expression behind the curtain of long ebony hair that was just like his mother’s. Silky smooth, it suited him and complemented the dark skin he’d inherited from his father; so like his dad, Kyle was a constant reminder that Stuart wasn’t with them anymore.

  ‘You won’t be bumming around.’ Cleo and her friends had also come up with a favour Kyle could do for them in return for their hospitality. He probably thought he’d be getting free rein around Manhattan for four weeks, no adults to nag him, no chores to do. Amelia wasn’t that much of a mug, but she deliberately hadn’t told Kyle about the work she had arranged for him, knowing he’d be likely to go walkabout and not get on the plane. Connie didn’t need that, and Amelia hadn’t wanted to get roped into looking for him at the last minute with the risk of missing her flight.

  ‘Hanging around, then.’

  ‘We’ll do plenty of tourist things,’ she assured him.

  ‘You’re not going to expect me to be with you every minute of the day, are you? Oh Jesus, you are. You’re going to have me on the clock, track my every move, report back to Mum – not that she cares. She’ll be glad to see the back of me for a while. Bet she thinks all her Christmases have come at once.’

  He could do a runner here but the chances of that were unlikely so she braved telling him what she had planned. She hoped he wasn’t going to freak out and make a scene at passport control that would result in them being detained like in one of those border-patrol shows, or their body cavities being searched. ‘In exchange for the apartment in the East Village we’ll both be helping out at the markets.’

  Face stony, he stared at her. ‘No way. I’m not working on a la-di-da wool stall selling ugly jumpers.’

  If he wasn’t so volatile she’d have a bit of a joke with him, wind him up, but it wasn’t worth the risk. ‘You won’t be on the wool stall. Cleo has a lot of close friends doing her favours for us this holiday, and her friend Mitch has said he could use help with selling Christmas trees.’

  ‘Do I get to cut the trees down, with a chainsaw?’ He leapt into boy mode and mimicked using a chainsaw with his hands.

  ‘Behave, don’t draw attention to us.’ Something about airports and security always made Amelia nervous despite being totally innocent. Whenever she and Paul had travelled somewhere he’d insisted they do it smartly dressed so they looked like professionals rather than anyone who was up to no good. She’d seen his point after a friend of theirs was strip-searched before boarding a flight to Thailand. ‘You’ll be in the city at the Garland Street markets.’ Near me, where I can keep an eye on you, although she kept that part to herself.

  ‘Figures.’ He’d seen right through her.

  ‘If you play your cards right Mitch might want a hand at his Christmas tree farm out in Inglenook Falls, but you’ll have to prove yourself first.’ She put it back on him, left him in control rather than bossing him about, and he took her suggestion well, the corners of his mouth not looking quite so downturned. Dealing with trees and the possibility of getting close to a chainsaw was clearly manlier than handling soft, luxurious wool, or yarn as it was known in America. It was going to take her a while to get used to the different lingo, but it was exciting too. She’d never done much travel on her own – the last few long-haul trips had been with Paul when he went on business – and now they were here, she wondered why she’d left it so long to be mo
re adventurous.

  They inched forward in the queue and finally reached the front. ‘Don’t give them any attitude,’ she whispered to Kyle, referencing the security men standing to attention. Her work persona was never far from the surface.

  ‘Don’t draw attention, don’t give them attitude,’ he mimicked. ‘I’m not a total dumb arse.’ And off he went to the booth where they checked the passport and your fingerprints before she had a chance to reprimand him for his language.

  This trip to New York was supposed to take her away from her job; she’d have to make more of an effort to switch off, but that was hard when it was family. She’d helped out with Kyle in the early days, which she hadn’t minded at all, in fact she’d enjoyed it. But the favours had long continued as Kyle got older, and although Amelia valued the bond she’d made with her nephew, the childminding hadn’t been done entirely without rancour. It’s just that as time went on Amelia had found it more and more difficult to turn down the requests. Her job in those days as a home-based telesales executive had been ideal in many ways. When she was feeling unwell she could stay in her pyjamas all day, if she had a cold there was nobody to offend with her constant nose-blowing and sneezing, but it also meant that others didn’t quite see her job in the same light as their own. Connie had assumed that because Amelia was based at home she could jump through hoops to keep her sister’s life running as smoothly as possible. Amelia was on hand to take Kyle when he was too sick to go to school, she was there to meet him at the school gate if Connie was held up in a meeting, and if Stuart was working overtime and between them they hadn’t coordinated childcare, there was Amelia yet again. But every time she was asked, Amelia acquiesced. It was what family did, wasn’t it? And after Stuart died, how could she possibly say no to Connie?

  By the time they were both through immigration and making their way towards baggage claim Kyle added, ‘I do know not to mouth off at an airport. I’m seventeen, I’ve been out in public before.’

  Surrounded by hoards who’d disembarked just like them and were waiting to make sure their luggage had made it as far as they had across the globe, Kyle found both cases on the conveyor belt, yanked them off and it was time to make their way into Manhattan.

  She pulled up the handle on her suitcase so she could wheel it along the ground behind her. ‘What’s making you smile so much?’

  He nodded towards two police officers stood back from the baggage carousel. ‘I thought that was a myth, cops and doughnuts.’

  Both officers were enjoying a sugary snack that looked rather tempting right now. The food on the flight hadn’t been great, although doughnuts weren’t much better, and she couldn’t wait to have something decent.

  ‘Already this city is way more exciting than boring old Cornwall,’ he grinned and Amelia had a sudden pang that as hard as this was going to be, it was the right thing to do.

  ‘Your mum did a lot of travelling after she left school,’ she said. ‘I bet she’d love to help you plan a big trip like she did. She was away for ten months, she saw loads of Europe, far more than I ever have.’

  Kyle let her get away with her subtle way of bringing his mum into the conversation and asked, ‘Why did you never go?’

  ‘I guess I never got round to it. We both got some money when we turned twenty-one, Connie used hers for travel, I used mine to put myself through university and change career.’

  ‘I forget you didn’t always work with lowlifes like me.’

  ‘You’re not a lowlife. But yes, I wasn’t always doing the same job. I was once a telesales exec, which sounds far grander than it really was.’

  ‘Why do it if you weren’t into it?’

  ‘I had no idea what to do so I got a job quick.’

  ‘Not necessarily a bad thing, it’s responsible.’

  ‘I should’ve taken time to think about what I really wanted. But what it did do was show me how much difference it can make when you finally find a profession you enjoy.’

  ‘It’s still work.’

  ‘It is, but the days go a lot quicker if you’ve got a passion for something. Don’t you have any passions, desires to follow a career?’

  ‘Not really.’ His brow creased in frustration. ‘I’d like to see a bit of the world one day.’

  ‘Then you need to start saving.’

  ‘Got to find a job first. Can’t save thin air, can I?’

  She’d forgotten cockiness was a personality trait of seventeen-year-old boys and Kyle hadn’t missed out on that part of his personal resume.

  ‘You could always continue your studies,’ she suggested as they made their way towards the AirTrain that would take them from JFK to Jamaica Station, where they would connect to another train to whisk them to Manhattan.

  ‘I’d rather have the money.’

  ‘Take it from someone who knows, career isn’t always instantaneous, think of the bigger picture.’

  He reverted to grunts and shrugs as they boarded the air train.

  ‘I can help you, you know.’ She rested her bag on top of her case as she held on to the nearest pole for support when the train began to move.

  ‘That’s because you’re a do-gooder.’

  She was about to get defensive but perhaps Kyle remembered some of the special times they’d had over the years, because he was grinning when he said it. When he was ten she’d taken him to a theme park and ridden all the roller-coasters his mum was too afraid to try; before Connie relocated them to Cornwall they’d gone bowling each week or to the movies or for pizza, anything to keep him chatting and try to keep him in the present. And when he started getting into a lot of trouble, rather than shutting him out Amelia had done her best to be there as an outlet if he needed to talk – he certainly hadn’t been talking to his mum at the time.

  ‘I’m not a do-gooder, but I do care.’ She left it at that. They didn’t talk much for the rest of the journey although the second they reached Penn Station, Kyle became more animated. She wanted to take him back to England remade. Perhaps that was a little hopeful, given she only had four weeks, but even if he had a hint of direction after this trip, it would be a start. She’d wondered as their plane climbed higher in the air to cruise above thirty-five thousand feet whether she was treating him like another work project, but one she could be very vocal with when it came to her opinions on how his parent treated him. That kind of behaviour hadn’t gone down so well with one of her most recent cases and when she returned she’d have to remember to maintain a professional distance or she might not get away with being sent on an enforced holiday; if she wasn’t careful it could end up being a more permanent arrangement.

  They hauled their luggage off the train at Penn Station, wheeled it towards the escalators and headed up to the bustling streets of New York City. Iconic yellow taxis honked their horns as they moved the best they could in the traffic, a cyclist courier zipped dangerously in and out of vehicles, crowds filled the pavement and having suitcases in tow was an instant disadvantage. Amelia couldn’t wait for it to be dark later, to venture out into Manhattan to see the Christmas lights. She wanted to see Central Park, the Rockefeller Center, The Plaza hotel, Times Square, Madison Avenue…everything. She wanted to squeal with excitement at all the possibilities in a city that already made her feel as though they’d stepped onto a film set, but she knew Kyle wouldn’t appreciate it.

  ‘Don’t we get the subway or something?’ Kyle asked when she got out her map to check the route to the apartment.

  ‘I’d rather see the city.’

  ‘So do I, but I don’t want to drag my case around with me.’

  ‘Come on, it’s an adventure. This way.’

  He reluctantly followed on, daylight beginning to fade unlike Amelia’s energy. By her estimations it would only take about half an hour to walk to the apartment on East 24th Street, not far from Madison Square Park.

  ‘At least it’s not raining,’ Kyle conceded.

  ‘The power of positivity.’

  ‘Bloody
freezing though.’

  She shook her head. Hopefully by the end of their stay he’d be glass-half-full, talkative and more like his old self, the Kyle she loved dearly rather than this sullen teen with a big, angry chip on his shoulder.

  When Kyle expressed an interest in a refreshment at a nearby doughnut stall, she urged him to carry on walking. ‘Madison Square Park is right near the apartment and I’ve heard they do great burgers at the Shake Shack. We could grab a takeout to eat al fresco.’

  He harrumphed and on they went, manhandling their luggage up and down curbs, across roads, and finally, as the sun began to set and darkness descended, they reached the park.

  A smile spread across Amelia’s face. ‘Look at the tree.’

  ‘It’s massive.’

  High praise indeed. There in Madison Square Park, with the famous Flatiron Building in the background, was the most impressive Norway spruce lit up with hundreds of soft white lights. ‘First Christmas tree I’ve seen this year,’ said Amelia.

  ‘You’ll probably be fed up of them after this trip. And I saw three on the way here.’

  ‘Why didn’t you point them out to me?’ She’d been too focused on not losing her way on the unfamiliar streets, worried in case Kyle wandered off like a toddler rather than the near-adult he really was. It was why she knew she’d have to tread carefully. Push him too much and he’d take off – he’d done it to her sister enough times.

  ‘I’m starving.’ His eyes had already drifted away from the tree and towards the Shake Shack and when they joined the queue they debated whether they’d be able to find anywhere to sit in the park tonight given how busy it was. Picnic-style tables and chairs were plentiful, but not a single one was empty.