Page 73 of The Merry Christmas Project

‘Not soon enough,’ he began and then paused. ‘Hey, did you hear that ?’

I strained to listen. ‘No ?’

And then suddenly I heard Cole scramble to his feet.

‘Hello ? Olek ?’ he shouted. ‘Is that you ?’

‘Yes, I am here,’ Olek replied.

I let out a breath of relief at the approach of his heavy footsteps.

It took Olek several minutes to dismantle the lock and break into the bathroom while I sat on the toilet out of the way. Finally, the door swung open and I blinked at the sudden bright light from Olek’s torch.

‘You all right ?’ Olek asked gently.

‘Yes, thank you,’ I said, relief flooding through me, but my eyes slid past him to Cole who was standing behind him, his brown eyes intense and a look of concern on his face.

Had he meant it when he said he wanted to give me a hug ? Because right now that was what I needed more than anything.

‘Merry ?’ Cole opened his arms wide and without a second thought I hurled myself from the bathroom and straight into them. His embrace tightened and I leaned into him, burying my face into his chest, my cheek resting on his jumper. I caught the faint smell of his aftershave and I realised how much I’d missed this, being held, being cared about, by a man. He rested his chin lightly on my head and rubbed my back. ‘You’re OK now. I’ve got you.’

I nodded. I was safe. Cole had me, and I was safe.

Chapter 23

Cole

25 NOVEMBER

Cole fixed the forklift attachment onto his dumper truck and drove it to the corner of the site where thousands of bricks were sitting on wooden pallets waiting to be used. His team were getting through them fast today ; the cold weather made everyone want to keep moving to stay warm. He lifted a pallet-load and delivered it to plot number four where Josh and one of the lads were installing layers of mineral wool insulation between the inner and outer walls.

They were feeling the pressure now ; the man who’d called in on spec last week had been back with his girlfriend on Saturday and they had decided to go ahead and buy. It was to be their first home together and Cole had really got a kick out of seeing how happy they were about their future. Now, he had just two left : the ones which the sisters had originally shown an interest in. He’d splashed out on some advertising in the local property press and was confident that this would generate some interest. He only needed to sell one ; whichever one was left he’d keep for himself. Providing the costs didn’t escalate any higher, that was. The flooding had unnerved almost all of his buyers and rather than continue to insist that the risk was minimal, Cole had suggested installing additional drainage channels. It had pacified his purchasers but had taken a big chunk out of his contingency fund.

He jumped down from the truck, noticing how solid the ground felt ; the sun wasn’t out today, which meant that the frost hadn’t thawed all morning.

‘This cold weather is a bit of a pain,’ he said, as Josh came to join him.

Josh took off his hard hat and scratched his head. ‘I know, but I’d rather not pull the lads off the job if I can help it.’

The temperature had plummeted this week, dropping to minus figures at night. At the moment it was only five degrees above freezing. If the temperature dropped much further the mortar wouldn’t set properly, which would be a disaster for the integrity of the build. Cole bent down to inspect the brickwork and nudged the edge of a brick with the end of a trowel, setting it straight.

‘I’m selling these houses as high spec,’ Cole reminded him. ‘We can’t take any risks with the quality of the brickwork. I think we have to err on the side of caution.’

‘Understood, but two of the houses are almost there,’ said Josh. ‘One final push and we’ll be at roof height.’

The roof trusses had already been delivered ; Cole had the bill for them on his desk. With a bit of luck a couple of the houses might have their roofs on before Christmas.

Cole pulled on his gloves. ‘Let’s get cracking then. Let’s see who can lay the most in an hour.’

Josh grinned. ‘You’re on.’

Cole once spent a summer working as a brickie for a house builder on the Costa Blanca. Cheap beer, brilliant social life and the deepest suntan of his life. Cole didn’t do much bricklaying these days, no point when the lads he employed were so much better and faster than him. But he was happy to muck in when he had to.

The lads whistled when they found out Cole was lending a hand.

‘Watch you don’t break a nail, boss,’ one of them shouted, resulting in raucous laughter from everyone else.

‘Yeah, yeah, very funny.’ Cole grinned and climbed the scaffolding to begin work.