Page 74 of A Christmas Wish for the Village Midwife

‘Delish?’ Billie rolled her eyes. ‘Who says that?’

‘Me, apparently,’ Zoe replied, determined not to be offended by anything Billie said or did tonight. It was a day from Christmas Eve, she’d finished her shopping and wrapped her presents and got her patient records up to date, and she was going to enjoy herself.

It was then that she happened to glance down and caught sight of Billie’s phone screen. She didn’t speak Spanish, but she recognised it. Was Billie messaging Luis’s parents? It was to be expected that she would, but something about it made Zoe uneasy. She couldn’t even say why, except that every little thing she saw or heard these days fed into the fear that Billie was pulling away from them. In lots of ways, that wouldn’t matter to Zoe. In some ways, so selfish she didn’t want to dwell on them, it was even good for her – if Billie left them, it meant she got to have Alex all to herself. But she knew having Alex to herself wouldn’t be the sunshine and rainbows she’d hoped for if those were the circumstances in which it happened.

She decided not to attach any significance to it. After all, it was almost Christmas and Luis’s parents were practically family to Billie. They were Louisa’s grandparents too, so it was only natural she’d message them.

‘This one’s for you.’ Heath smiled as he gave Billie a glass. ‘I made a non-alcoholic version.’

‘What’s in it?’ she asked, locking her phone to take it from him.

‘Lemonade…’

‘What else?’

‘No, it’s just lemonade!’

Ottilie let out a groan. ‘Heath! It’s only you who thinks you’re funny, you know!’

‘I don’t know,’ Alex put in. ‘Sounds like the sort of dad joke I’d make. And if I say so myself, I think I’m pretty funny.’

‘You’re really not,’ Billie said.

Conversation turned back to everyone’s workload and plans for Christmas Day, and then reminiscing about the previous Christmas when the entire village was involved in one way or another with the plot to rescue Zoe’s Christmas Day after she’d stayed up all night helping Georgia to deliver her baby, and then the spat between Flo and Magnus that had meant Heath and Ottilie couldn’t go to the panto, and then the significant developmental milestones both Anthony and Louisa had recently reached – where Billie seemed to brighten a little as she recalled Louisa laughing like crazy as Alex flew her around the room in his arms – and then to who was up to what in the village, when there was a knock at the door.

Ottilie let out a sigh as she exchanged a look with Heath. ‘I think we know who that’s going to be, don’t we?’

With a grin, he got up and went to the door, returning a minute later with a grumbling Flo, who stopped mid-sentence and surveyed the room.

‘Oh. You’re all here. Are you staying?’

‘No.’ Zoe moved along the sofa so that Flo could sit, but she just stood at the door and stared at the space. ‘We’re off to the panto shortly.’

‘Humph…’ Flo stood at the chair where Heath had just retaken his seat and waited. After a second, he got up to allow her to have it and went to sit next to Zoe.

‘You haven’t forgiven Magnus then?’ Zoe asked.

‘I’ve never met anyone so stuffed full of himself!’ Flo huffed. ‘I won’t be going in that shop to give him my custom again.’

‘No, you’ll just make me go instead,’ Heath said wryly.

‘But Geoff hasn’t done anything wrong,’ Alex put in. ‘So you can still go to the shop. Besides, where else can you go around here?’

‘Nowhere,’ Heath said. ‘That’s why I have to go in for her.’

‘I can’t always get around,’ Flo snapped. ‘You know what my legs are like!’

‘Your legs are good enough to come round here every five minutes,’ Ottilie said under her breath, and Zoe had to stifle a giggle. Luckily, Flo hadn’t heard, or if she had, she chose to ignore it.

‘What are you drinking?’ Flo asked.

‘Snowballs,’ Heath said. ‘Want one?’

‘Too fizzy for me. Can you make me a flat one?’

‘If you give me a day to leave the lemonade out, yes,’ Heath said. ‘So I’ll make you a cup of tea for now then?’

‘No, I’ll have a snowball. It’s Christmas, and I don’t want to be the only person sitting here without one.’