Chapter 20
Chapter Twenty
EVIE
‘Wrap up warm,’ had been Alicia’s only instructions for this evening’s excursion, the day after our session in the suite.
Neither Noah nor I had any idea where we were headed, even when we crossed the famous Brooklyn Bridge.
When the car finally pulled up in a distinctly residential area nearly an hour later, we stepped out of the car into the chilly, crisp night.
‘Hey,’ called a gruff voice from across the street. ‘Evie Green.’
I turned and saw an elderly man waving at us from the front of what looked like a horse-drawn sleigh, except it had wheels. Dressed as Santa, he sported a flowing white beard and a broad beam as he waved again.
‘You’ve got to be kidding me,’ said Noah, examining the sleigh, in front of which were four horses, each wearing light-up reindeer horns.
‘It’s adorable,’ I said, nudging him in the ribs.
‘We’ve come all the way out to Brooklyn to have a horse-drawn ride. We could have got that in Central Park.’
‘Don’t be such a buzzkill,’ I said as Santa bellowed, ‘Happy Holidays,’ as we approached. ‘And welcome to Dyker Heights.’
‘Ah,’ said Noah, ‘now I get it. This should be fun.’
‘What is it?’ I whispered to Noah.
‘You’ll find out.’ He laughed. ‘You’re going to love this.’
‘Okay, then.’ I took Santa’s hand and climbed up into the seat in the back of the sleigh, followed by Noah. As soon as we’d both sat down in the very snug seat – clearly the sleigh was built for elves not humans – Santa tucked a thick soft faux-fur blanket around our legs.
‘There’s a flask of mulled wine in the trunk there, help yourself and there are cookies, be sure to save one for me. Ho! Ho! Ho! I’ll give you a minute to get yourselves settled and then we’ll begin the tour.’
I squirmed a little but there was no getting away from the touch of Noah’s leg wedged up against mine.
Thankfully, he seemed totally oblivious as he opened the little trunk to reveal a small star-shaped plate of iced Christmas-tree-shaped cookies and a big thermos jug.
When he opened the jug up, fragrant steam wafted into the air with the enticing scent of cinnamon, cloves, oranges and red wine.
‘Mmm,’ Noah said inhaling. ‘That smells so good. My mom always makes this for us on Christmas Eve when we go watch the church choir in the mall. Like some?’
I nodded and held out the glass mug for him to fill.
‘Your Christmas is starting to sound like something out of The Gilmore Girls.’ In fact, his whole family sounded rather adorable.
‘My mom would love that, she adores that show.’
With a laugh, he cupped my hand with his while he poured the wine for me, and an alarming little frisson ran up my arm.
I kept my face impassive and did my best to ignore it, because it didn’t mean anything.
Except the memory of those hot, steamy kisses yesterday seemed to be playing on repeat in my head.
Just a natural response, I told myself, taking a slurp of the rich, full-bodied wine, feeling the spices warming me inside.
You haven’t had sex in a while, it’s just good, healthy lust. But I knew if that was all it was, I wouldn’t be fighting against it so hard.
I took another slug of mulled wine and cast a sidelong look at Noah.
He was sitting back in his seat, looking relaxed, as if my proximity didn’t affect him at all, whereas I was very conscious of his firm thigh wedged against mine.
I gave an involuntary shiver.
‘You okay?’ asked Noah.
‘Yes, fine,’ I said with what was surely a giveaway squeak.
With a sudden jerk, the sleigh began to move and the horses moved more quickly than I expected. Unfortunately, wedged in as we were, the motion made any attempt to put even so much as a centimetre’s distance between us impossible.
I was grateful when within a few minutes, we rounded a corner and I discovered why we were there.
The huge house in front of us blazed with lights, strings of white fairy lights ran around every window and door and along each of the wrought-iron balconies on the upper floor.
A life-sized and rather realistic Santa climbed a ladder up to one of the balconies, brightly coloured presents tumbling from the sack on his back, all up-lit from below.
A crowd of elves posed, hauling up one of their number over a balcony railing.
A pair of moving reindeer sat on the front lawn, their heads lifting every now and then, with the one on the right sporting a glowing red lightbulb nose.
This, as I quickly realised, was one of the more subdued and restrained displays.
On the next street, the entire garden of one house was full of every style and shape of nutcracker, each carefully lit, while the house had big red bows surrounded by lights at every window, flashing wreaths across the walls and a huge neon sleigh on the roof.
It was loud, exuberant and definitely festive.
Small children ran around the garden taking photos with their parents, some of whom stopped to wave at our sleigh as we passed.
The next house, an enormous mansion, had the entire cast of characters from the song ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’, including seven swans swimming serenely across a pond in the garden.
On the balustrade around the roof, were eleven pipers piping, complete with the sound of bagpipes drifting towards us.
The piece de resistance, looking like a gateway to another realm, was a huge gold ring around the porch.
‘Wow, these people really go to town,’ I murmured.
‘Do you wanna stop and get some pictures?’ asked our driver when we pulled up outside the next house, which was lit with red and green flashing lights outlining every last feature of the house and the garden. I nodded.
Noah stood first and lowered himself to the ground and I got up to follow. Before I could stop him, he put his hands around my waist and lifted me down. I glanced up into his face and our eyes met and locked. He held my gaze as he lowered me to the ground, his hands still on my waist.
‘Thank you,’ I murmured, unable to wrench my gaze away. It was one of those ridiculously cheesy romantic moments that almost never happen in real life.
‘My pleasure,’ he replied, with a smile that almost undid all my good intentions. Why did I want to kiss him so much? Why did he make me want something I knew was bad for me. Getting involved with people was a sure path to heartache and I’d had enough of that to last me a lifetime.
I slipped out of his hold and deliberately held up my phone to take a selfie of the two of us with the house behind.
I knew exactly why Alicia had sent us here.
I owed her for all these fabulous experiences.
If it weren’t for her, I’d probably be eating canned soup on a cold damp night in London instead of enjoying mulled wine and the biggest and best Christmas light show I was ever likely to see.