AllFreeNovel
Share Us
12
CERYS
Outside,the snow on the pavement is thicker than when we arrived although flakes no longer fall from the sky. I wrap my blue scarf around my neck and burrow my nose into the wool.
Liam pulls on his black beanie and rubs his hands together. “A white Christmas would be awesome.”
“A week to go, maybe we will have one.”
“Christmases should be white, makes them magic,” he says and grins.
“You’re a sentimentalist, aren’t you?” I say. “Very odd for someone like you.”
“There you go again. ‘Someone like me’. Am I a different species?” He pouts and buries his hands in his jacket pockets.
The Christmas lights cast a multi-coloured glow along the rooftops and the tree in the centre of the town stretches toward the grey clouds, snow settled on the branches. He’s right; it is magical. As a kid, I came here every Christmas Eve, a family ritual after the church service. We pause by the metal railings and I gaze up at the green and red light bulbs.
“I’ll bring Ella on Christmas Eve,” I say. “We can watch the carol-singers, too.”
“That would be cool for her; I bet she’d love that. Could I come along?”
I turn to him in surprise. Liam is back to scrutinising me, and this whole situation grows weirder. “If you don’t have anything better to do on Christmas Eve.”
“Sit in with the parents or get drunk with Louise? It’s not every day I get to watch other people performing.” He winks at me.
“Maybe you could offer to join in?”
Liam laughs and the sound echoes through the quiet streets. “Sure, maybe I’ll bring the rest of the guys over and we can give them a carol performance St Davids has never seen before.”
The idea of the spectacle amuses me almost as much as the weird comfort from Liam’s presence. When we were growing up, he wouldn’t give me the time of day, especially as a teen when I was his kid sister’s annoying friend. The three-year age gap meant more back then, but narrowed the night he kissed my star struck seventeen-year-old self. This is reversed today—I’m the one with responsibilities while he’s young and carefree.
“That’s a serious face,” says Liam.
A snowflake drifts down and lands on his beanie. I tip my head to the sky. There’re only a few flakes now but the dark clouds warn more will come soon.
“The serious isn’t far away,” I say quietly.
The soft look of concern in Liam’s green eyes squeezes my heart because Craig never looks at me this way. How can someone who has no comprehension of what my life is like also hold understanding and sympathy toward me and my daughter?
Liam’s leather jacket gathers snowflakes that melt as they settle and we remain with the snow falling in the space between us. A flake lands on my mouth, another on my eyelashes. I lick away the snowflake and Liam steps closer. With his index finger, he brushes the snow from my face. His fingers are warm against my cold cheek; and instead of withdrawing, he leaves his palm cupped around my face.
“Lucky snowflakes,” he says.
“Why?”
“They get to kiss your skin.” He looks at my mouth. “Your lips.”
I hitch a breath. Liam should step back and let me go, not rewind my thumping-hearted self to summer five years ago. Does he remember the last time we were at the pub together, when I drank illegally and thought I wassogrown up? I threw myself at Liam that night and would’ve had sex with him if he’d offered. Liam was drunk too and we shared a kiss but no more. The next day he’d gone.
Two months later, I fell pregnant by Craig and had to grow up fast.
Reinforcing his point, more snowflakes settle onto my cheeks and Liam touches my lips. “You deserve to be covered in a snowstorm of kisses by a man who sees the strength and beauty in you.” Intense eyes drag me further into the moment. “There’s a man who craves the love held in your eyes when you look at your daughter, Cerys. He wants to pull you into the storm and show you how to love yourself by being passionate about everything you are.”
The strange poetry of his words wrap around my heart, melting with the snow on my heating skin. If the only thing hovering in the space between us was the sexual spark, I’d pull a face at his smooth talking, but the Liam I’ve met over the last few days isn’t smooth talking.
“You’re a sweet guy,” I say.
Liam pulls a pained face. “Do you know how insulting that is? Lollipops are sweet, kittens are sweet—”
