He looks over my shoulder and laughs. ‘Which is lucky because your mother is watching us out of your living room window.’
Chapter Twenty-Four
Iturn to see the living room curtains flicker then quickly close again. I don’t move. The feel of Alex’s arms around me is too precious to lose. I’ve waited so long for this, even when I’ve told myself there was nothing to wait for. I feel as though I could stand in the snow for hours and never feel the cold as long as Alex is with me.
‘We should go inside,’ he says. ‘I didn’t mean to stand out here for so long. I don’t want you to freeze to death now that I’ve finally found you.’
I smile up at him, remembering him saying this once before. ‘I’m not sure what my mother will have to say about this. But I can promise she’ll have something to say. And it won’t be brief.’
‘She’ll be delighted,’ he says, tucking my hand into his pocket and holding it in a firm, warm clasp.
‘Don’t be so arrogant! You have no idea what my mother has planned for my future. It may not include you at all.’
‘I’m not being arrogant,’ he says. ‘Haven’t you realised yet that none of this is our doing?’
‘What do you mean?’
He gestures towards the house. ‘All of this. I mean, none of this. We can’t take any credit for it. The whole thing has been a put-up job between our parents.’
‘I expect you’ll get to the point in your own time,’ I say resignedly. ‘And preferably before I freeze into a solid lump of ice.’
‘I didn’t get it at first,’ he says, ‘but Mum let the cat out of the bag last night. She had rather a lot to drink at the wedding reception, and apparently your parents dropped in on their way home from church and the four of them drank quite a bit more.’
‘What did she say?’ I ask, now totally bewildered.
He tucks a strand of hair behind my ear. ‘To cut a long story short, apparently she and Dad were in despair about you and me. I have no idea how they figured out how I felt about you. Possibly they saw Cuthbert sitting sadly on my chest of drawers. Or maybe it was the fact that I carefully engineered all my visits home around the times I thought you’d be here.’
‘But that’s exactly what I did!’ I say. ‘At least, the other way around. There were so many times when I planned to come home. Then I saw a Facebook post saying you were coming, and I changed my plans.’
‘So, there we were,’ he says, ‘both of us watching the other on social media. Me trying to meet you, and you –’
‘Trying to avoid you,’ I say, feeling my cheeks turn pink.
‘What a lot of time we’ve wasted,’ he says gently, pulling me into his arms again and looking down into my eyes. My arms go around his neck, and he bends to kiss me again. We’re interrupted by a snort of laughter behind us.
I whirl around to see Brandon standing there, a huge grin spreading across his face. ‘Well, this is a surprise!’
‘It isn’t what it –’ I begin, hardly aware what I’m saying.
‘It’s exactly what it looks like!’ says Alex.
‘And to what do we owe this turnaround?’ asks Brandon. ‘If I’m allowed to ask, that is.’
He smiles more gently at my flushed face. ‘I’m kidding. You know that. I’m very pleased for you. It’s a Christmas miracle!’
He looks at his windscreen. ‘What’s all this? It can hardly be a parking ticket on Christmas Day. His Majesty’s traffic wardens can’t be that dedicated to their endless pursuit of justice. Besides, I’m allowed to park outside your house. I’ve been doing it for years.’
He reaches for the paper and unfolds it. ‘Another Christmas miracle! This is from Stephen. It’s his phone number and the address of the place where he’s staying. So, as much as I’d love to stay and hear all about it, I must be off. But I want all the details later. Happy Christmas, Annie.’
He kisses my cheek before raising an ironic eyebrow at Alex. ‘Happy Christmas to you too. I have the strangest feeling we’ll be meeting again quite soon.’
Alex grins. ‘You can count on that.’
‘You aren’t planning to gate-crash a complete stranger’s Christmas Day?’ I say.
‘That’s entirely up to him,’ says Brandon. ‘But it would be only polite to return his message in person, seeing as he’s gone to all this trouble to track me down.’
He unlocks his car and waves to us as he drives off.