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‘Although if I’d known you’d be driving down with your heating on full and your heated seats on, I may have happily waited a day and came with you.’ Holly laughed. ‘Being squashed before the door and the toilet standing for hours on a train wasn’t particularly my idea of fun.’
‘Ah, sorry. I hadn’t really thought about coming down until we’d waved you off at the station.’ He patted the steering wheel. ‘I’ve got to admit compared to that, my journey was all comfort. Apart from my legs feeling as though they’d cease up due to being scrunched below the steering wheel for that length of time.’
‘And you’re sure you can take the time off from your work?’ She looked across at him.
‘That’s one of the joys of being self-employed and working from home. I’ve not had to take any time off. Whilst you’re working at the bakery, I’ve been sitting next to a roaring log fire in the pub working on my laptop.’
Holly grinned. ‘It’s such a hard life you lead.’
Joe chuckled. ‘It sure is, what with eating the best pie and mash I’ve ever tasted for lunch and sipping coffee between tasks, what can I say? It sure beats being holed up in the spare bedroom at home.’
‘It does sound as though there are a million pluses about being self-employed.’
‘Why don’t you try it? Being your own boss would surely be an improvement from running around after the formidable Mrs Hatton at that craft shop.’
‘Umm, I have a feeling I won’t be having to deal with her bad moods and useless tasks anymore.’ She pulled out her phone from her coat pocket. She still hadn’t heard from her. Holly had sent a quick message after she’d posted the key back to her, but so far all Mrs Hatton had done was to give her the silent treatment.
‘Why? What did you do?’
‘Ha, you automatically think it’s my fault! That I’ve upset her.’ Holly widened her eyes in mock-shock.
‘You haven’t?’ Joe looked at her quickly as he slowed down at a roundabout.
Holly shifted in her seat. ‘Well, yes, I admit on this occasion the fault lies entirely with me.’
‘Go on then...’
‘I brought the key to the shop to Cornwall with me,’ Holly muttered and held her breath, waiting for Joe’s reply.
‘You didn’t? Isn’t that the only key she has?’
‘Yes. In my defence, how many times have I told her to get another key cut?’
‘A lot. I think every day for the past three months since the other key got lost, you’ve told us you don’t understand why she won’t get another cut.’
‘Exactly. I rest my case. I have warned on numerous occasions, but did she ever listen to me? Nope. Well, now she’s learnt her lesson, hasn’t she? She wouldn’t have been able to open up yesterday, and she’d have lost out on all of three pounds and sixty-eight pence because Mrs Potter wouldn’t have been able to pop by and pick up her supplies.’
‘You didn’t take the key on purpose, did you? To teach her a lesson?’ Joe raised his eyebrows as a grin danced on his lips.
‘No, I did not.’ she tapped his arm with the tickets and laughed. ‘I wasn’t that forward thinking.’
‘Fair enough. What did she say? I bet she read you the riot act, didn’t she?’
‘Nope. She’s said nothing. She hasn’t even acknowledged the message I sent her grovelling and explaining what had happened.’ Holly shrugged. ‘I’m guessing I’ve just given her a good enough reason to fire me so I might start thinking about self-employment. Cosying up and working in a pub in front of a log fire and with coffee on tap certainly sounds more appealing than wandering around an all but abandoned craft shop looking for things to do to keep my mind busy.’
‘Don’t you just read when you’ve not got customers? You’re always reading when I pop by.’
‘Well, yes, I do, but Mrs Hatton doesn’t know that. I can’t imagine she’d be particularly thrilled to realise that she’s been paying me these past few years to get through my ever increasing To be Read Pile.’ Holly laughed. ‘If it wasn’t for the fact that she’s always having a moan at me for something and if she allowed me to put the heating on when I could see my breath in the air, then it would be quite a cushy job.’
‘I think she might just entice some more customers if she had the heating on in the winter.’ Joe chuckled as he turned the indicator on. ‘We’re here.’
Holly looked out of the window as they turned down a narrow lane lined with wooden fences strung with fairy lights and wooden decorations hanging from each fence post.
Slowing the car down to a crawl, Joe looked across at Holly. ‘Are you sure you want to do this?’
‘Yep. I need to.’ With her eyes fixed on a wooden fairy hanging from the fence post to her left, she nodded. Yes, even just the word Christmas itself conjured up numerous memories of her parents and the traditions they used to do together as a family, but they were happy memories and that’s she needed to start focusing on. Instead of remembering Christmas as a time when her parents were ripped away from her and her world turned upside down, she needed to focus on the happy memories. Or at least try to. ‘My parents made every Christmas so magical for me. They spent so much time and effort in doing so, I can’t let that go to waste. I know they’d want me to enjoy it still, and that’s what this trip is about.’
‘Okay. I just wanted to check.’
