“The village can charge for a stall and get additional income, too,” Sebastian said.
I hadn’t thought of charging the stallholders, but it would be great to cover some costs of the lighting and the stall itself. Even better.
“Nothing that would directly compete with any of our home-grown stallholders, of course. But there was one stall selling cuckoo clocks and beautiful German weather houses that were just delightful.” I blushed thinking of the gift Sebastian had bought me. “And another selling festive shortbread. I also think it might be a good idea to have Christmas characters mingling with the crowd and taking pictures with visitors. Almost like the ones at Disneyland, but Christmas-themed. Like elves and Santa and stuff.”
Murmurs of understanding and agreement tumbled through the group.
“We just have to keep our nerve,” I said. “These new ideas will make Snowsly even more of a Christmas destination than it was before.”
“Which reminds me,” Sebastian said. “Celia, I’ve taken your idea about having Christmas characters and run with it. I’ve hired some elves to stroll through the market, greet the children, and take photographs. They’ll arrive just before noon.”
That was fast work. No wonder he was so successful in business. He knew how to get things done.
“I just sent a few messages on the drive back,” he whispered, reading my mind. “One more thing,” Sebastian added, addressing the room again. “Tomorrow afternoon, there’s a journalist from Good Housekeeping and another from Rallegra magazine coming over to cover the market.”
“A journalist?” Howard asked. “What on earth for?”
“To get Snowsly coverage,” Ivy explained. “It’s one thing to ensure Snowsly’s the best Christmas market in the whole of Great Britain, but we’ve got to make sure people know about it.” She turned to Sebastian. “You’re a darling boy. Thank you.”
Sebastian shrugged off the blush that crawled up from his collar. “Hopefully, with all these changes, we should see an impact on footfall and profits should start to go up. If this year doesn’t turn around as quickly as we’d like, the publicity and branding should mean that we go into next year really strong.”
If I didn’t want to bang Sebastian before this meeting—which I totally did—I absolutely, one hundred percent wanted to strip him naked and mount him like a horse after what he’d just said and done. He was even sexier than usual when he was taking control and making things happen.
He turned to me and lowered his voice. “You’re not offended that I implemented your ideas? You’re brilliant, Celia—I just wanted to see your visions come to life.”
“Not at all,” I replied. “I’m so happy you did.” It took all my willpower not to crawl into his lap and kiss him.
Whoever would have thought the Christmas-hating, Barbados-bound grinch might have just saved Christmas?
Sixteen
Celia
I wasn’t sure if it was the fact that I hadn’t had much sleep the previous night, or whether it was because I’d barely stopped for breath today, but I was exhausted.
I pulled on my reindeer pajamas and switched on the kettle. Some hot chocolate while I worked on my next idea might keep me awake. I pulled out the large box of unused decorations from under the stairs. I could have sworn the Santa costume from a few years back was in there. I reached down and grabbed something furry. This was it, or else a cat had crawled in and died here. I pulled my arm out and did a little jump when it came to the surface all red and Santa-like.
My phone buzzed with a text from Sebastian, offering to walk me home. For someone so grumpy, he really was very sweet. I texted back, telling him I’d headed home already. I’d barely spoken to him all day as we ran around, attaching the Christmas in Snowsly signs to the stalls, creating the Instagram stations, and making sure everything was as festive as possible in time for our visitors tomorrow. Snowsly’s Christmas market was going to be on the Good freaking Housekeeping Instagram grid, and on Rallegra’s website. Everything had to be more than perfect.
Now I just had to find needle and thread, and get to work sewing the white fur trim back onto Santa’s coat. If I turned up to tomorrow’s committee meeting with the costume, I was hopeful Howard might offer to play the role he was born for.
A knock at the door made me jump. I glanced down at my Rudolph pajamas. Whoever was at the door would just have to understand that I was one hundred percent myself.
I opened the door to a grinning Sebastian. His eyes dipped down to my chest. “You came home to be alone with Rudolph?”
One hundred percent myself.
“What can I say? He’s great in bed.”
He grinned, an unselfconscious, boyish grin I’d not seen on him before. It suited him.
“I’m making hot chocolate. You want some?”