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‘It depends how much you want to get out of cleaning the kennels. You might have been planning to skate off and break your leg somehow.’ Mack raised his eyebrows and chuckled.
‘Well, it’s tempting, but I don’t actually mind cleaning the kennels out that much. Most of the dogs keep theirs clean and when they don’t…’ she lowered her voice and leaned closer ‘… I find it strangely satisfying, making it clean again.’
‘Ha ha, I have no words.’
* * *
‘Yum, this is good hot chocolate, isn’t it?’ Poppy took another sip of the rich chocolatey liquid and savoured the taste in her mouth.
‘It really is.’ Mack lowered his cup and looked at her. ‘Thank you for teaching me how to skate tonight.’
‘It’s fine. You were really easy to teach, probably because you used to roller-skate. You knew instinctively how to do it.’
‘Well, thank you.’ Mack looked behind her.
‘What is it?’ She turned around.
‘There’s a Christmas present lucky dip. Shall we have a go?’
‘A Christmas present lucky dip?’ She’d never even heard of such a thing. ‘Is that even a thing?’
‘Yes. Apparently so.’ Taking her hand, he led the way towards the small stall nestled beneath yet another Christmas tree. ‘What could be a better combination? Christmas and a lucky dip, all rolled into one?’
Poppy laughed as they joined the short queue. ‘What do you think we’ll get? A bag of chocolate coins or a wind-up Santa?’
‘Ha ha, we’ll have to wait and see. I’ll choose one for you and you can choose one for me.’
‘Good idea.’
The family in front of them moved aside, presents in hand.
‘Two lucky dips?’ The man behind the stall held up two fingers.
‘Yes, please.’ Mack passed across the coins before stepping back and indicating the red and green striped lucky dip box to Poppy.
‘Okay, here goes nothing.’ She rummaged through the shredded paper and tinsel mixture until she wrapped her fingers around a small parcel. Pulling it out, she held it up to show Mack and stepped back, letting him take a turn.
‘Ooh, are there any left in here?’ he said as he reached inside.
‘There’re some down the bottom.’ Poppy laughed as he pretended to get his hand stuck as he tried to free his gift from the box.
Mack nodded towards the man behind the stall. ‘Thank you.’ He held up his present. ‘And Merry Christmas.’
‘Merry Christmas to you both, too.’ The man flicked the white pom-pom from the Santa hat he was wearing and turned to the next person in line.
Poppy followed Mack towards the railings that partitioned the ice rink and the small cluster of stalls.
‘Here, you open yours first.’ Mack passed her the gift he’d chosen.
‘Thank you.’ Taking the present from him, she lifted it to her ear and shook it, before squeezing the red wrapping paper. ‘I wonder what it could be.’ After slowly peeling off the paper, she lifted out a small plastic snow globe, with a tiny plastic reindeer sitting inside.
Mack smiled at her and held out his hand, asking to see the globe. He gently tipped it upside down before setting it straight again.
Poppy watched as the tiny balls of ‘snow’ fell from the top of the small plastic dome and floated to the bottom, covering the grass with a fine layer of white, the bemused expression on the reindeer’s face unchanged.
‘Merry Christmas.’ Mack looked at her, their eyes meeting as he passed it back to her.
‘Thank you.’ She smiled and pointed to his present. ‘Your turn.’
