Page 33 of The Secret Holiday Kiss

‘Avery.’ She laughed. ‘Of course your work is good. May hasn’t got any complaints, has she? Your team aren’t always pulling you up on stuff? I hope you’ve realized that you can do it.’

He turned his mug around on the table. ‘Let’s wait until it’s finished to make that declaration.’

Except she wouldn’t be here when it was finished. She’d be in London.

‘If my eyes go stormy,’ he said, ‘yours are doing a tornado thing.’

‘Doing a tornado thing?’

‘I know what I mean. You look … conflicted.’

‘My whole life is a series of conflicted thoughts.’ She held up her arms, gesturing to the room they were sitting in. So familiar, so full of memories that were good and bad. So entirely new. ‘But if you’re going back to Norwich to check on your flat, maybe we could combine our trips? Go at the same time?’

Avery rubbed his jaw. ‘Maybe.’ But he didn’t sound convinced. ‘We could try and make it work.’

‘No need to sound so enthusiastic.’ She said it lightly, but he was gazing into the fire again, as if it held all the answers. She thought there was a story there, and she wanted to find out what it was. ‘It’s helped, talking to you.’

‘It has?’ He turned back to her. ‘I’m glad.’

She nodded. ‘We might need to pretend, to the good people of Mistingham, that we’re mortal enemies. But that doesn’t mean we can’t … you know.’

‘Do I know?’

‘Don’t make me say it.’

He shifted forwards, so his knee was almost touching hers. ‘Say what?’

‘We can … hang out.’ She wrinkled her nose. They were both in their forties, and that was such a teenage expression. But see each other sounded too much like a date.

‘We’ll need to liaise about the festivities anyway. Make sure we’re not copying each other.’

‘Because I’m likely to create some wooden statues for my ball, and you might end up draping your treasure hunt route in upmarket paper chains?’

‘Now that is a great idea. Upmarket paper chains.’

‘OK. We clearly need to stay in touch.’

He stood up. ‘And I’ll take you on that tour. If Mary and Winnie agree to your proposal but you’re not going to be here, we can discuss commissioning you for the design, even if I end up overseeing it. There are all sorts of ways it could work.’

Daisy stood up too. ‘Thank you.’ She didn’t want to let him know how much it meant, that he was over being annoyed at her, that he had faith in her work. ‘Thanks for coming, and for the cake.’

‘Any time. I mean it.’

She waited while he put his boots on, ignored the low, plaintive whine from one of the dogs in the kitchen. They probably needed a walk.

‘Right then.’ Avery opened the door and stepped outside. The cold wind slunk into the house, and grey clouds were clustering ominously over the sea. The air smelt fresh and crisp, and Daisy sucked in a breath.

‘See you soon,’ she said.

‘See you soon.’ He turned again and stepped towards her. Then, before Daisy had a chance to react, he brushed his lips over her cheek. She was overwhelmed by his scent, a more concentrated version of the sea-salt air, the feel of his soft lips and the graze of stubble. His large hand was on her shoulder for a beat, and she wanted to lean into him, to drink him in, to press her lips against his skin. But then he was stepping back, running a hand through his hair and striding off.

Daisy would not stand on the front step and watch him walk away like a lovelorn teenager. Not for long, anyway.

Chapter Eleven

Over the next few days, the weather got colder and more unpredictable, squalls hitting when moments before the sky had been blue, a day thick with cloud opening up into an afternoon of wall-to-wall winter sun.

Daisy finished her proposal for Lars, and arranged to meet in Norwich on Friday to discuss next steps once he’d had a chance to look at it. She moved onto working on the ball, wanting to have a solid plan ready in the next couple of days to show Sophie, May and Harry, and to help them recruit more villagers for their team.