Page 57 of A Winter Wish

Theo sighed. “What Mike wants varies from day to day. He’ll want in again if the profit projections are good, but out if it looks like too much of a gamble. Speaking of which—it’s looking tight, but if Vienna and Belgium sell out, I think we’ll make our targets—and we might even have enough to revisit the investment idea, if it’s something you’re still open to.”

“Of course,” Lexie said, though she felt a twitchiness settle over her skin. If she got her way and they agreed to sell the company, it wouldn’t be her business whether the investment idea went ahead, would it? Wouldn’t be Theo’s business either—unless he was kept on. Maybe he would be, she told herself. Surely whoever bought it would need a manager to run the whole thing. Lexie dipped her bread into the runny part of the poached eggs to distract herself. “So what do you need from me?”

“Well, I wanted to run an idea past you.”

“Really?” The word was out before she could think about it.

He laughed a little. “Don’t act so surprised—you told me yourself not all your ideas are inherently terrible, so maybe you can tell me whether this one is terrible.”

In France—hadn’t she said something like that at the Lemon Festival? She was surprised he’d remembered such a passing comment. “OK, so what’s the idea?”

“So, it’s looking like we’ll get thirty people booked in for Vienna—”

“Which is actually pretty awesome for a first year, according to Ange.”

“Which is indeed actually pretty awesome for a first year. Anyway, it’s not too big a group, so I was thinking, to sort of try it out, we could do like a Secret Santa.”

“A Secret Santa?”

“It’s where—”

“Theo. I know what a Secret Santa is.”

He ran a hand across the back of his neck. A nervous tic. “Right. Well, the Christmas markets are one of the main attractions in Vienna so I thought as part of it we set a limit, and pull names out of a hat, the whole lot, and send everyone off one afternoon to get their present.”

“What if some people don’t want to spend money on a stranger? I think it’s a fun idea, but some people—”

“Yeah, so we should actually have some money in the budget for the holiday left over after the discount on the hotel, so we can cover something small with that.”

She took a sip of her iced latte. “And then everyone could open them on Christmas Eve? That’s the big day in Austria.”

“Right, exactly.”

“I think it’s a great idea,” she said decisively.

“Really?”

Lexie smiled a little at the fact it was now him asking that. “I can give credit where it’s due.” But she realized he’d genuinely been asking her opinion—and she remembered how he’d talked about the investment idea in the first place—how much he’d reassured them all that Richard, too, had thought it was a good idea. Like he needed the validation, to know that his idea was worth something. Was this another reason Richard had put the two of them together, because they could help each other? Or was she just looking for reasons when there were none?

“So that’s what you wanted to talk to me about?” she asked as Theo finished the rest of his mushrooms.

“Yeah. That—and…We’ve got the Christmas party in two weeks. Plus ones encouraged, by the way.”

“I don’t have a plus one,” she said without thinking.

“I know that.” He grinned in a way that made her flush. “But bring a friend. Or your mum or whatever.”

“OK,” Lexie said slowly. “But, you know it’s July in two weeks, right, not December?”

“Yeah, we’re doing Christmas in July. It’s a thing. The Christmas period is always a bit hectic for us, so we never have it in December. It was a tradition your dad started,” he added, his smile softer now, “and I think it might be cool to carry it on—for this year at least.”

“Can we afford it? The company, I mean?”

“Yeah, I mean—it might have to be drinks and ‘snacks’ rather than a full-on three-course sit-down dinner, but given the year we’ve had…I think it would be good for us all to get together and celebrate.”

“OK. Yeah.”

“You’re so agreeable today.”