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‘Cupid.’
‘Dancer and Prancer.’ Daisy tapped the table as she began humming ‘Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer’ song.
‘Vixen and Comet.’ Ollie leaned forward.
‘I knew you’d been studying that Christmas book.’ Daisy grinned as she looked at Ollie.
Ollie shrugged. ‘It’s all part and parcel of dad duty, sent it? To know the reindeer’s names.’
‘What’s the other one?’ Diane tapped the open against her chin.
‘Dasher,’ Lauren whispered across the table.
‘Great.’ Counting the names she’d written down, Diane gave the table a thumbs up.
‘How about Rudolph? Are we including him?’ Teresa took a sip of her drink.
‘Oh I don’t know, do you think we are?’ Freya looked around the pub.
‘Hey, Gerald, are we naming eight or nine reindeer?’ Danny called above the quiet chatter of their competitors.
‘Nine, of course!’ Gerald raised his eyebrows.
‘Cheers.’ Danny grinned back.
‘Brilliant, we’ve got them then.’ Diane laid the pen down.
‘Right, you lovely lot, you’ve had enough time to answer that one so onto the next. Question number two: Which fictional character created by Dr Suess stole Christmas?’ Gerald looked around the pub.
‘The Grinch!’ Ollie grinned.
‘Good one, Ollie. You’re on a roll tonight.’ Diane wrote the answer down quickly before turning the answer sheet over.
Holly looked across at Joe as he took a sip of his drink. Catching his eye, she smiled. He looked as though something was bothering him. Plus, he’d hardly said two words to her or anyone else at the table and normally he was the first one to answer the pub quiz questions at their local.
‘Holly, do you fancy getting a bit of air?’ Putting his glass back down, he pulled at the collar of his jumper.
Holly shrugged. ‘Yes, okay.’ Standing up, she followed him outside and pulled her coat tighten around her as she closed the door behind them. ‘Are you okay?’
‘Yes. Sorry, I just wanted to speak to you.’
‘Oh, okay. What about?’ She searched his face. Was everything okay? He did look a little worried.
Sitting down on the picnic bench closest to them, Joe leaned forward, his hands clasped together on his knees.
Holly perched on the cold wood of the bench next to him and rested her hand on his arm. ‘Is everything okay? You’ve been really quiet this evening.’
‘Yes, it is.’ Joe leaned back and looked at her. ‘Or I hope it will be.’
‘What do you mean?’ She frowned. She had no idea what he was talking about.
‘I need to speak to you about something, but I’m not quite sure how you’re going to feel about what I have to say.’
‘Okay?’
He shifted on the bench to look at her. ‘Maybe I shouldn’t say anything, but Ian popped into the pub at lunchtime today and we got speaking.’ He shrugged. ‘What he had to say has made me think that maybe I need to be upfront with you.’
‘Right.’ She swallowed. Was he going to tell her that she wasn’t the only one who had started to view him as more than a friend? She shook her head. Of course he wasn’t. Yes, Ian might have told him what Elsie had spoken to her about. That she had felt she and Ian had wasted years by not owning up and speaking up about how they felt towards each other. But that could so easily describe Joe and Lara, too. And that was more likely, wasn’t it? It was Lara who he’d been speaking to all morning, it was Lara who he’d been spending more and more tie with.
