Page 29 of The Secret Holiday Kiss

‘Fair enough,’ Harry called, as she let the dogs out of the kitchen, ‘but you can’t have marshmallows without whipped cream.’

Daisy chuckled, thinking how nice it was to spend time with her brother, and how glad she was that, after their tumultuous childhood, he was genuinely, blissfully content.

Chapter Ten

It was two days later when the echoing doorbell went at just after ten, and Daisy got up from the makeshift office she had created for herself in front of the fireplace in the living room. She smoothed her long blonde hair down her back, wafted her jumper to check her perfume hadn’t completely evaporated, and peered through the spy hole.

It was Avery, in marginally smarter jeans than usual, a green woollen jumper, and his boots. He was carrying a brown paper bag.

She pulled the door open. ‘Hello. Come on in.’ He opened his mouth and she added, ‘The dogs are in the kitchen, with extra blankets.’

Avery’s shoulders dropped. Daisy was pleased that, despite the slight uptick in outfit, his hair was still a disaster and he hadn’t had a close shave. ‘Thanks,’ he said. ‘It’s freezing out here today.’

‘There’s meant to be sleet later.’ Daisy let him in and shut the door. ‘Nothing like last year’s crazy Norfolk storm, according to the weather people, though we’re still a month from Christmas.’

‘I was helping a mate fix a roof in Norwich last December,’ Avery said, then shuddered. ‘We should have finished the moment the snow started, but it was a big job, and the roof deck was exposed, so we had to secure it or the whole upper floor would have been destroyed.’

‘It would have snowed inside the bedrooms?’ She caught his fresh, sea-salt scent, along with something doughier. She had to work hard not to peer into his paper bag.

‘Yup. Like a Christmas nightmare, rather than a fairy tale.’

‘Nothing like Narnia, then. Wasn’t that ridiculously dangerous, being up on a roof in a snowstorm?’

Avery laughed. ‘It wasn’t my most carefree moment.’

‘God.’ Daisy cleared her throat. ‘Do you want tea? Coffee? Hot chocolate?’

‘Coffee would be great, thanks. Milk but no sugar.’

‘I’ll bring it through. You know where the living room is?’

‘Not sure you can call it a living room, but I know where I’m going. Bring plates.’

‘On it.’ Daisy smiled and went to make coffee.

She carried everything in on a tray, which might have seemed over the top, a bit lady of the manor, except she would have dropped something without it.

Avery was on one of the sofas, a faraway look on his face as he gazed into the fire. The light from the flames flickered deliciously over his face, making his stubble glimmer. He’d taken off his boots by the door, and his grey socks were thick, no signs of holes in the toes.

‘Here we go!’ She said it too loudly, trying to cover that she’d been sneaking a look from the doorway.

He sat up, his smile returning, but there was a tightness around his eyes. Except, Daisy had to remind herself, she didn’t know him. She was making things up, inventing worries or concerns where there might not be any.

He took the plates and reached reverently into his paper bag, bringing out two huge, chunky buns, icing on top, either currants or chocolate chips nestled in the dough. ‘Cake,’ he said with a flourish.

‘Amazing.’ They were sticky, delicious-looking doorstops, and she could smell the sugar, and see the glaze of syrup that had been poured over them. ‘Are these from Dexter’s bakery?’

‘Of course. I must have given that man hundreds of pounds since I’ve been here. He makes the best sandwiches, so there’s no other choice for lunch. I stare at the limp bread in the kitchen at home, the cheese, the slightly squashed tomato, then I think of his sandwiches. Hot chicken breast and crispy bacon.’

‘Don’t.’ Daisy bit into her bun, icing sticking to her lip like plaster.

Avery laughed. ‘You’ll have to try one sometime.’

‘I will have to try everything,’ she said, then remembered she was only here temporarily. ‘If you live in Norwich, then where are you staying? Did Winnie and Mary let you have a room at the hotel?’

He shook his head. ‘I’m staying with May. Her cottage is two-bedroom, and she needs the second one for her home office, but the loft was already boarded out and had a skylight, as if the previous owners had started the renovation but given up halfway through. I brought it all up to code, and May said I could have it as long as I wanted, so there’s a bed in there now.’

‘Just a bed?’