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“You don’t need to do that,” she said, self-consciously gesturing to his waiting hand as she stepped out.

He laughed and took her hand in his. “Let me,” he replied simply, sending a little shiver down her spine as his eyes met hers and her mind seemed to go blank.

She was speechless as she stood and he closed the car door and locked it.

They walked side by side into the garden centre.

“The Christmas trees are in the outside area, over there.” Lucy pointed to a sign directing them.

She smiled as his pace quickened.

Half an hour later, Lucy’s good mood was evaporating somewhat. Dylan was still measuring trees and debating the benefits of the various varieties available (which all looked suspiciously similar to her) with a man dressed as an elf. It was cold and Lucy was trying not to be too obvious about her fixation with the elf’s pointy shoes.

“Dylan, you need to choose,” she hissed from next to him. “The life is draining from me.”

“Sorry. I’ve . . . never chosen a Christmas tree before. It never seemed worth getting one just for me, and I guess I’m feeling the pressure.”

Lucy put an arm around him and gave a little squeeze.

Dylan sighed. “What do you think?”

“It’s your first Christmas tree, I want you to choose, but I want you to do it soon!”

His attention fell on her and he looked mortified as he seemed to realise how cold she’d got. He turned back to the trees, obviously planning on making a snap decision, but froze. Lucy managed not to laugh.

“You will have other Christmas trees,” she reminded him, quietly. “Our little one shouldn’t be without a proper tree every year.”

Dylan gave her a grateful smile and pointed to a seven-footer. “We’ll take that one, please.”

Lucy heaved a sigh of relief as the elf took the tree to wrap and they moved inside the store. When she saw the size of the Christmas section, she felt a feeling of dread come upon her. They were going to be here until the shop closed . . . but, she reminded herself, the outing had been her suggestion, and it was Dylan’s first opportunity to do anything like this. She had so many special Christmas memories of things like going to see Father Christmas and coming down to a huge pile of presents waiting for her under the tree. She could still remember the excitement of going to bed on Christmas Eve and not being able to sleep while she listened out for sleigh-bells. Dylan had never experienced any of that. The least she could do was let him take as long as he wanted choosing some decorations for his first ever Christmas tree. And so, without saying a word, she went and got a trolley and settled in for what promised to be a long slog.

It was an hour later before they were loading up Lucy’s car. He kept peeking in the bags and grinning at what they’d got. He’d taken the choosing of decorations very seriously, deciding on a gold heavy colour scheme early on, and sticking with it fairly rigidly until he saw that a set of nutcracker dolls had caught Lucy’s eye and insisted upon buying them for her. “You don’t think they’re sort of creepy?” he asked, as he placed them in the trolley.

“I love them,” Lucy explained with a shrug.

“What if they terrify the baby?”

Lucy threw him a glare. “It’ll be fine. No child of mine wouldn’t appreciate a nutcracker doll.”

Dylan put his hands up in surrender. “I hope you’re right.”

“I don’t suppose you fancy fish and chips?” Dylan asked as they got in the car.

“What happened to you cooking for us?” Lucy teased, rubbing her stomach.

Dylan went to defend himself, but Lucy showed mercy. “I’m just joking,” she said. “I wouldn’t keep you from your decorations. Fish and chips sounds great, actually.”

Dylan drove them back to Castle Cove and managed to pull in just down the road from the fish and chip shop. He’d hopped out of the car before Lucy had the chance to offer to go or at least to pay. She watched out of the car window as the women behind the counter fawned over him. She was sure he’d end up with bigger pieces of fish and more chips than she would have. He returned to the car with a smile on his face and handed her the bag full of food.

“Had fun, did you?”

“Aw, are you jealous of me talking to Bethan and Cathy?”

“Of course not, don’t be ridiculous,” Lucy retorted.

“Good, because I’ve known Bethan since we went to school together, and Cathy’s old enough to be my mum.”

“Nothing to do with me,” Lucy said, lightly.