‘Told you it was good.’ Zander smiled as he sat in the chair opposite. ‘So how did the chat with your friend go? Was she relieved to hear you weren’t holed up with a mad axe-man?’
Livvie finished her mouthful and nodded. ‘Mmhm. She was very relieved to hear that but, as I guessed, Donny had been round, putting on a very convincing act of the concerned boyfriend by all accounts; that’s why she told him where I was.’
‘Ah. I bet she regretted it straight away.’
‘She did, though I can’t blame her.’
‘And had she heard from your family? Don’t they know where you are?’
Livvie snorted. ‘My family don’t know where I am because they don’t care where I am. Bry knows that. Which reminds me, I must call them to tell them I’m not going to be there, for Christmas dinner at least. I’ll do it later though, I’m enjoying this flapjack and hot chocolate way too much to spoil it.’
‘They’ll be disappointed you’re not joining them?’
‘Are you kidding? The only thing that they’ll be disappointed about is not having anyone to rip apart for being a failure and our Cheryl will have no one to look down her nose at and feel all superior.’ Livvie picked a pink marshmallow off the top of her hot chocolate. ‘Not everyone’s family is as close and loving as yours.’ She popped the marshmallow into her mouth, chewing slowly.
‘I’m sorry to hear that’s how your family make you feel.’
The look in he gave her made her heart flip; he was so bloody gorgeous. Oh, those eyes…
‘If it’s any consolation, I’m really happy to be spending Christmas with you and I promise not to make fun of you or look down my nose.’
His words made her cheeks burn and her insides turn to mush. ‘Thank you. I’m happy to be spending it with you, too – and that gorgeous boy.’ She looked across at Alf who had flopped in his bed, keeping his one eye open on the off-chance a stray marshmallow should find its way over to him.
‘Ah, don’t worry, I’m not fooling myself, I know it’s Alfie boy who you’re really pleased to be spending Christmas with,’ Zander joked.
‘Well, he is very special.’
‘He is.’ Zander glanced fondly over at him.
And so are you, Livvie thought. She was struggling to make eye contact with him; the way he was looking at her was having a serious effect on her heart rate and making her stomach do some pretty reckless somersaults.
Zander cleared his throat. ‘So what’s Bryony been up to?’ He was obviously conscious of the sparks that were flying between them.
‘She had some news actually. She didn’t want to share it at first, but I wheedled it out of her.’ Livvie was glad of the change of subject.
‘Oh?’
‘Yes, I think I told you her boyfriend had booked a special night out for them?’
Zander nodded. ‘You did.’
‘Well, because of what had happened with Donny, she didn’t want to tell me, but I finally dragged it out of her that Josh had proposed and she accepted.’
‘Congratulations to Bryony and Josh.’
‘Yeah, they go really well together. There’s more.’ She took a quick sip of her hot chocolate. ‘Mmm, this is so good. Anyway, Josh has been offered this amazing job in London; it’s his dream job apparently, so he’s accepted, which mean’s Bry’ll be handing her notice in at Blushing Brides when we get back in the New Year and she’ll be moving down with him as soon as she can.’
Zander sat back in his chair and folded his arms. ‘Which is bittersweet for you.’
Livvie nodded and stirred her drink, swirling the marshmallows into the cream, her heart suddenly feeling the impact of Bry’s news. ‘Yeah, it is. Bry’s the best friend I’ve ever had, and she’s the only thing that’s kept me working for the dreaded Mrs Harris.’
‘Look at the time! It’s nearly one o’clock in the afternoon and I’m still in my pyjamas.’ Livvie had drained her hot chocolate, right down to the squidgy melted square of Dairy Milk Zander had popped in the bottom.
‘That’s okay, you’re on your holidays; and you’ve had a bit of a peculiar morning.’
‘True, but I should really go and get dressed. I think I’ll put off having a shower and have a soak in the bath later tonight, if that’s okay?’
‘That’s fine with me.’ Zander shrugged. He peered out of the window. ‘The sky’s still nice and clear, how do you fancy getting a breath of fresh air with Alf and me? I’ve brought his frisbee and he looks like he quite fancies a game.’
Livvie gave Alf an appraising look and giggled. ‘He does, doesn’t he? And I absolutely love frisbee. Count me in.’ She jumped up and went to the sink to rinse out her mug.
‘I’ll do that, you go and get yourself ready, we don’t want those snow clouds moving in and taking us by surprise.’
‘You sure? I don’t mind rinsing my own cup.’
‘Positive.’
Livvie wasn’t used to a male doing stuff around the house. If Donny had a cup of tea, he’d leave it wherever he’d finished it, even if he headed to the kitchen straight after; it wouldn’t cross his mind to take the mug with him and put it in the sink, never mind clean it. That was woman’s work as far as he was concerned. Bloody chauvinist! He was the last thing she wanted on her mind just now.
She hurried to her bedroom and quickly changed into warm clothes. Running a brush through her wild mane had been as painful as she’d expected, especially the patch where Donny had pulled the hairs out by the roots. Jesus, that could’ve been so much worse, she thought as a shiver ran through her.
28
Zander
Zander felt his heart squeeze as Livvie walked into the kitchen. She was wearing skinny jeans and a burnt orange jumper that emphasised her stunning eyes and her lustrous auburn hair which framed her face in glossy waves. His mind shot back to the moment he first laid eyes on her; it sent a twitch to his crotch. The Goddess!
He cleared his throat and reined his wayward thoughts in. ‘That was quick.’
‘It’s the promise of a game of frisbee.’ Her broad smile lit up her pretty face and Zander felt himself smiling back.
‘Right, let’s go for it while we can.’
As soon as Zander reached for his coat, Alf was on his feet, dancing his way to the door, his claws clicking on the flagstones.
Livvie laughed. ‘Someone’s keen.’
‘Just a bit. Looks like he’s put his horrible memories of you-know-who to the back of his mind.’
‘Best place for them, or the local dump.’
‘If only.’
The air outside was crisp and fresh while up above the low winter sun shone down, bouncing off the gleaming white landscape, the bright blue sky showing no hint of the blizzards the weathermen had forecast. Livvie noted her little car was still wrapped in its blanket of snow; it wasn’t going anywhere in a hurry.
She shielded her eyes with her hand and took in the panorama of Great Stangdale. ‘It’s so beautiful out here, it’s exactly the sort of place where I wish I’d grown up.’ Her breath came out in a plume of condensation. ‘Can you imagine having all this space as your playground?’
‘Yeah, it’s pretty amazing.’
‘Did you grow up round here? Is that why you bought Dale View?’ she asked, as they made their way along the lane and further into the moors.
Zander threw the frisbee and Alf tore after it, kicking up snow as he went. ‘No, I grew up in the suburbs of Leeds, but we always visited this way whenever we got the chance, and my parents would rent a holiday cottage several times a year when Steff, Toby and me were younger; until they discovered the south of France and fell in love with Carcassonne and its glorious sunshine, then we’d head there. It was Beth getting a job out here that rekindled my love of the area. She kept inviting me to stay with her and her boyfriend Liam, said she knew I used to love it; she wasn’t wrong.’
Alf came charging back, the frisbee clenched between his teeth. He dropped it at Zander’s feet. Zander pi
cked it up and he threw it again. ‘There you go, fetch that.’
‘So have you ever brought Mel here?’
Zander gave a half-laugh, an image of Mel’s face at the suggestion looming in his mind. ‘Trust me, if you knew Mel, you’d know that the countryside and her don’t mix; she told me so in fact, just before I came here. She’s got a key to the cottage, but she’s never used it.’
‘Oh, right.’
They walked along in silence for a few moments.
‘What does Mel do – for a job, I mean?’
‘Not much; not these days, at least. But when I first met her she was a very successful life-style blogger – or “vlogger”, I should say. She was vivacious, driven and ambitious to be the best in her field, always jetting off here there and everywhere.’
‘Excuse my ignorance, I mean, I know what blogging and vlogging is, but I’m not really sure how you earn a living from that.’
‘I’m not exactly a hundred per cent sure about the finer details; she didn’t tell me exactly – I think she earned money every time someone viewed her posts on YouTube – but I do know that she was given things like free holidays, hotel stays, meals in fancy restaurants, clothes, make-up perfume, shoes, on the condition she would blog or vlog about them. You name it, she was sent it. And because she’d got such a high profile, her endorsements generated a lot of business for the brands she blogged about.’
‘Wow! That sounds amazing, I had no idea that’s what happened.’ Livvie bent to pick up the frisbee Alf had dropped at her feet and threw it for him. ‘Go fetch, Alfie.’
‘It was great for her, until things went sour.’
‘Oh, what happened – if you don’t mind me asking?’
Zander shook his head. ‘I don’t mind you asking. Things started to go awry when Mel stopped blogging about the things she’d been given. I should say, no one’s obliged to blog about the things they get sent for free, but it’s kind of hoped for, especially when it comes to the big stuff like pricey holidays to the Maldives and that sort of thing.’
‘I think I can see where this is going.’
‘Another vlogger arrived on the scene. She was doing the same sort of stuff as Mel but, from what I can gather, with a quirkier twist. Suddenly, Mel was no longer the golden girl whose lifestyle and image followers couldn’t get enough of. Unfortunately, instead of it spurring her on to try harder, she just seemed to lose interest. It didn’t help that she was involved in a number of arguments on social media; some of them got quite nasty by all accounts – once Mel starts having a go at someone she doesn’t know when to stop – and she was accused of trolling. She tried to deny it all, of course, but it was there in black and white for all the world to see and she couldn’t wriggle out of it.’
‘So what happened?’
‘She was dropped like a hot potato; her work dried up almost overnight.’
‘Goodness, that must’ve been a shock for her.’
‘It was, but she still didn’t accept she’d done anything wrong; blamed everyone else, but she’s the one left with no work and no money coming in to fund her extravagant lifestyle. She’ll have gone to London to do a spot of networking, get her face seen, something she couldn’t do at Carcassonne.’
‘Have you heard from her since you got here?’
‘Not a word. I’ve sent her a text, but I don’t expect a reply – unless things aren’t going her way. This latest escapade of hers has made me wonder if we’re just going through the motions. If I’m completely honest, I don’t know how we ended up together; we’re not exactly compatible, but it just sort of happened, she moved in, bit by bit, without us ever having a discussion about it.’
‘Opposites attract.’
‘I suppose.’ In truth, Zander had initially been attracted to Mel because she was tall, blonde and beautiful; his usual type. At the time, it suited him to ignore that she was a little too self-absorbed and cold. Ughh! What a fool I’ve been. He was conscious of his mood sinking as he thought about Mel. He didn’t want it to rub off onto Livvie after the morning she’d had, and he wanted to enjoy his time with her; she felt good to be around.
Just then a rabbit tore out of the hedgerow, its bobtail disappearing through a gap in the drystone wall. It was hotly pursued by a stoat, resplendent in its winter coat of ermine – a stunning white all but for a lightning flash of chestnut-brown down the centre of its face.
‘Wow, they were fast,’ said Livvie, her eyes following their path.
‘Yeah, I don’t fancy the rabbit’s chances; despite their diminutive size, stoats are pretty lethal hunters.’
‘Oh, poor rabbit,’ said Livvie.
‘I doubt the farmers share your point of view.’
‘Ah, I hadn’t thought about that, though I still don’t like the idea of an animal being hurt, Mother Nature or not.’
‘Same here.’ Despite his best efforts, Zander was still struggling to lift his mood.
Livvie seemed to be aware of it. ‘Looking at that blue sky, I’d say the weather forecasters have got it slightly wrong. It may be absolutely freezing, but I can’t see a hint of snow up there.’
Zander looked heavenwards. ‘I see what you mean. I’ve noticed Lytell Stangdale seems to have its own unique microclimate and regularly thumbs its nose at what the weathermen say it’s supposed to do.’
The low thrum of a tractor caught their attention. ‘I wonder who this is?’ Livvie squinted along the track in the bright sunshine.
Zander followed her gaze; he recognised the tractor as belonging to John Danks, son of Hugh and Madge. It had a huge bale of hay fixed to a spike on the front of it. ‘That’s John Danks from Tinkel Top Farm.’
John’s flock of sheep had clearly heard it too and hurried over to the gate in a cacophony of bleating. John came to a halt and hopped out, his cheeks ruddy from years of exposure to the harsh moorland winters. Alf ran over to him, wagging his tail.
‘Ey up, lad, how’re you doing?’ He gave Alf a quick fussing. ‘Now then, Zander, enjoying the fresh air?’ He left the Labrador and hefted the bale off the tractor and rolled it towards the gate.
‘Hi, John, yes, thought we’d get a walk in before the weather changed.’
‘You do right. Mind, I think they’ve got it wrong about snow getting dumped here today.’ He looked at Livvie and nodded. ‘Now then.’
Zander could tell what was running through John’s mind.
‘Hi,’ she replied. ‘That’s just what we were saying.’
‘This is Livvie, by the way; she’s staying at the cottage with me.’
‘So I’d heard,’ he said. ‘Enjoying your visit?’
‘Yes, thanks, it’s a beautiful part of the world.’
‘Aye, it is that. Right, well, I’d best get on. Enjoy your walk, and I might see you in the Sunne sometime.’
‘No doubt,’ said Zander. ‘See you, John.’
‘Bye, nice to meet you,’ said Livvie.
‘I’d hate to have a secret round here,’ said Zander as they watched John manoeuvre his tractor and rumble off back down the lane.
‘I reckon that would be impossible,’ said Livvie.
The pair continued their walk, taking turns to throw the frisbee for Alf, chatting away about their respective jobs. Just as he was thinking about suggesting they should head back, Zander felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He stopped and took it out, his heart sinking as he saw Mel’s name on the screen.
‘Everything okay?’ asked Livvie.
He pressed his lips together, as a voice in his head screamed, “no”. He was struggling to quash his disappointment. ‘It’s Mel; she’s left London.’
‘Oh.’
‘She’s in Leeds.’
He felt Livvie’s gaze on him. ‘And wants to join me.’
‘Okay, and is that what you want to do?’ Livvie’s eyes had suddenly lost their happy sparkle.
Zander released a heavy sigh in a huge puff of condensation. ‘I don’t know what the hell I want to do.’
But Zander knew exactly what he wanted to do; he just didn’t know if he had the guts to do it.
29
Zander
Outside the back door, Zander kicked the snow from his wellies, heeling them off on the doormat. Since his text from Mel, he and Livvie had made their way back in relative silence, their only words directed at Alf who was oblivious to the slump in their moods.
‘Coffee? Tea?’ Zander asked, hanging his coat up.
‘Tea would be lovely, but I’m happy to make it if you like?’
‘Would you mind? I think I’m just going to go into the living room and call Mel, see what the score is.’ Since the original text, he’d been bombarded with more from her, as well as four or five calls he’d decided not to pick-up while he was with Livvie.
‘Of course, that’s fine.’ He sensed her watching him as he walked away.
With a heavy heart, he flopped into the armchair and called Mel’s number. It was picked up almost immediately. ‘Zander! Where are you? I’ve been trying to get hold of you. Anyone would think you’ve been ignoring me.’
‘Hi, Mel, what’s the problem? And I haven’t been ignoring you by the way, it just wasn’t a good time to take your calls.’ He couldn’t hide the lack-lustre tone to his voice and he didn’t care
‘Oh, right. Well, the problem is that my London trip was not at all what I was promised.’ She paused, seemingly expecting a response from Zander. When none came she continued. ‘What’s the matter with you? You could at least sound pleased to hear from me.’
Zander sighed. ‘It’s just a bit unexpected, that’s all, after what you said and how you left.’ Was her voice always that annoying, he wondered?
‘Oh, you’re not still sulking about that are you?’
He rolled his eyes. ‘I’m not sulking. As I said, hearing from you is just unexpected.’
‘I thought you’d be happy for me to grasp an opportunity like that; who knows where it could lead?’
A Christmas Kiss Page 19