Page 11 of The Secret Holiday Kiss

‘Says who?’

‘That wasn’t what I was talking about.’ She dunked her teabag in the mug, watching the colour go from insipid to slightly less insipid. ‘I was talking about Avery.’

‘You bumped into him?’

‘Working on Mary and Winnie’s house behind the hotel. I didn’t recognize him.’

Harry frowned. ‘We were friends, but mostly during primary school. His parents shipped him off to private school because he got into a couple of bad fights, totally out of the blue. His parents decided there were kids that were a bad influence at school – not me, I hasten to add – and everyone at our primary went up to the same secondary, as you know. So off he went, and by then May was hanging out with us. She was the best-behaved child anyone had ever met, so when Avery went she stayed here and we got closer. As friends.’

‘OK, so …’

‘So you’re asking me why you don’t remember someone you knew when you were younger than ten years old?’

Daisy shuffled to the door. She hadn’t wanted scrutiny; she was just curious. ‘He doesn’t seem like the kind of person you’d forget.’

Harry turned on the coffee machine then took cheese, lettuce and tomato out of the fridge. Daisy’s stomach rumbled. ‘Want a sandwich?’

She nodded.

‘You weren’t interested in joining our little gang,’ he said, as he sliced bread. ‘Then Mum got sick, and you weren’t interested in anything except being with her, looking after her.’ He glanced up, his expression softening. ‘I pretended it wasn’t happening, and you decided your love could make her better.’

‘I didn’t—’

‘And you were too young for that. Dad was somewhere in the middle, veering wildly between over-activity, researching her cancer, looking for new treatments, and burying his head and his fears in the bookshop. I spent eighty per cent of my time away from here, and you were left to be the sensible one. It’s no wonder you don’t remember my skinny, badly behaved friend.’

‘He’s not skinny now,’ Daisy said, because she didn’t want to dwell on that time: how desperate she’d been to reclaim the life they’d had before their mum got sick.

Harry sliced the cheese. ‘He came back to do up May’s house at the start of the year. Now Winnie and Mary have their claws in him, and he’s running the project, and I’m not sure he’ll ever go home.’

‘To Norwich?’

‘Right. But he said he’d tied up his other jobs there before starting this one, so I guess it suits him. And Mary and Winnie’s house will be lucrative, and boost his reputation too.’

‘Does May like having him here?’

‘Of course. They were always close, but it’s been one separation after the other. He was sent away to school, then he moved to Norwich and she was in America for a long time. She loves having her big brother nearby.’

‘And he’s better behaved now, I presume?’

Harry chuckled. ‘Much better. No fist fights that I’m aware of. I’m lucky I didn’t get dragged into his scrapes.’

‘You would never. Even when you were six years old, you were set on being the straight-up, moody overachiever.’ She grinned at him to show she was teasing. ‘Except I discovered you hired an ice rink for the village last Christmas, and now the oak tree needs crutches.’

‘The tree would have needed them without it, but I’m not sure it was my wisest decision.’

Daisy sank into a chair at the dining table, and Darkness, the black retriever, put his head on her lap. ‘But you don’t sound distraught.’

Harry brought over their sandwiches and took the seat opposite her. ‘Pat, the tree guy, said it was bound to happen, and that the supports will keep it going for another fifty years. Besides, life is too short not to have an ice rink at Christmastime.’

‘Except you can’t do that now, so what other madcap schemes will my newly relaxed brother come up with for the festivities?’

‘Why don’t you come to the village meeting and find out? Or – better still – why don’t you come up with a few ideas of your own? You should break the habit of a lifetime and immerse yourself in village life.’ He grinned, eyes twinkling, and Daisy decided that Sophie was a benevolent witch, and that Harry was under some kind of love spell.

‘Not a chance,’ she said sweetly. ‘I’ve done enough socializing to last me a lifetime. One little walk and I bumped into Fiona, Jason and Avery Hudson.’

‘What’s so wrong with catching up with everyone? Mistingham’s great because it’s changed so much, but also because the best people are still here.’

Daisy shook her head. She wasn’t ready to tell Harry that it wasn’t the people so much, it was the way being here was making her feel. She’d held onto her sadness for so long, and in some ways it was comforting. She wasn’t ready to have all her safely constructed walls, her beliefs about Mistingham and the past, knocked down. ‘It’s … an adjustment,’ she decided on. ‘I’m going to stay tied to my laptop, visit Lars, and hope my flat is fixed long before Christmas. This is more temporary than Felix’s good behaviour.’