Chapter 16
CHRISSIE
Chrissie and Sarah had wanted to walk into town and find a café for lunch but by the time Sarah had got cleaned up, the winds were howling around the chalet, and as they reached the end of the street they decided it might be best to turn back and go to her parents’ instead.
‘The weather has turned nasty,’ said her dad when he opened the door to his chalet for them. ‘You two go in the lounge, the fire has made it lovely and warm. I’ll be in the kitchen helping.’ And he shuffled off to give them their privacy.
‘He’ll get in her way, you know,’ said Sarah as they hung up their coats on the hooks in the hallway.
At least Sarah was still talking to her after the way she’d been with Meg.
She’d been so surprised to see her sister standing there at Jonathan’s front door and Sarah happy and smiling in the background that the only thing she’d felt was hurt, the same hurt that had wounded her on her wedding day.
And so she’d lashed out with nasty words.
‘Mum will give him something to do so he’s useful.’ Chrissie pulled her phone from her pocket. ‘I have some photographs of Tessa. Do you want to see?’ It felt easier to talk about their dog right now rather than anything else.
Her final shift at work had only been over for a couple of hours before she’d booked her flight to come here and gone next door to see Nolan.
He’d stepped in to take Tessa – apparently, he was thinking of getting a dog so it would be good practice.
The man honestly had a heart of gold. He’d even driven her to the airport and she’d hugged him goodbye, a move that felt nicer than she’d ever imagined especially when he didn’t pull away quickly.
Sarah sat down next to her on the sofa and took the phone. ‘Do you think looking after Tessa will put Nolan off dogs for life or convince him to actually get one?’
Chrissie’s lips twisted in thought. ‘I think it will convince him to get one, but I did warn him Tessa isn’t a puppy. I’m not sure he understood that as a good thing though.’
‘He probably thought you meant she can’t walk long distances or go on a run with him.’
‘Exactly. What I really meant was a puppy would be a lot harder. Remember when we first got Tessa?’
‘You said it was like having a baby again.’
‘I was up all night for quite some time.’
‘She’s good as gold now though.’
It was good to hear Sarah chat normally and even nicer to see the smile on her face as she scrolled through the photographs. Nolan had sent quite a few.
‘It was good of him to take Tessa,’ said Sarah when they’d seen the last picture of the beagle on the beach with him. He must have driven down to the south coast for the day.
‘I would’ve put her in the kennels but it was so last minute I’m not sure that would’ve even been possible. I didn’t really think when I booked the flight.’
‘Nolan to the rescue.’
Chrissie smiled. What Sarah didn’t know was that Nolan had recently suggested a dinner date and Chrissie had said yes.
Chrissie and Nolan had become good friends since he first moved in six months ago. They’d met when Tessa managed to find a weak spot in his garden fence and escaped into his garden.
‘I’m so sorry,’ she’d said to her new neighbour after she raced round and knocked on his front door. ‘My dog is in your garden.’
‘This dog?’ he’d asked as Tessa appeared behind him looking as innocent as ever.
‘Oh no, you let her inside? Tessa, come here. Naughty girl.’
He was amused rather than annoyed. ‘She’s very friendly. I assumed she belonged to you and I was about to bring her over.’
‘She’s never got through before.’
‘Ah, the previous owners took away a greenhouse. I thought the fence looked a bit iffy.’
Tessa came to her side and Chrissie stroked her head. ‘Whatever it costs to replace the fence panel, I’ll pay.’
But he was swishing the suggestion away with a wave of his hands. ‘The whole fence needs replacing. It’s on my to-do list. For now, I can put something temporary in the way to stop her coming through.’ Down on his haunches, he fussed Tessa around her face and chin.
‘She likes that; you’ve got a friend for life.’
‘Well, what better welcome to the neighbourhood could I ask for?’
He had a gorgeous smile. She thought he had to be about her age or perhaps a little older. He was tall and stubble grazed his jaw, though she wasn’t sure if it was always there or whether it was a side-effect of being busy moving house and not having time to shave.
His attention on Chrissie, he held out his hand. ‘I’m Nolan, by the way.’
‘Chrissie.’ He had a firm handshake, one she didn’t mind at all.
‘And this is obviously Tessa. Just us two living next door now.’ In case he thought she was telling him that she was single, she added, ‘My daughter, Sarah, moved out recently.’ Not that that really clarified her relationship status, she realised.
‘We’ll let you get on. Once again, very sorry Tessa invaded your space. ’
They waved at each other after that day, called out the odd hello as each of them went about their business, but slowly a hello had turned to a cup of coffee at one of their houses, then that coffee had turned into a dog walk, and their friendship had blossomed.
They shared casual lunches; he took Tessa on walks sometimes when Chrissie was at work.
She’d helped him dig up the flowerbeds after his new fence went in; he’d come and fixed her washing machine when it sprang a leak.
And then a week ago he’d suggested they went out properly to the local Italian, and although he hadn’t said it was a date as such, that was what it would be.
There would be no dog at their side, no messy boots from the garden, no distractions that came when you were in your home, and she’d said yes, she would like that very much.
But then the situation with Sarah had escalated and before they had a chance to do it, all of a sudden, she was coming here.
When Sarah handed Chrissie back her phone, Chrissie mentioned the Jungfraujoch again and it worked, it got Sarah talking.
‘It was an amazing experience. All the way up there, at high altitude, looking down on the towns and the landscape.’
‘I went with Mum and Dad when I was a bit younger than you are now, but when I went up there with your dad it gave me a whole new appreciation of its beauty. The stillness, the sheer vastness of the mountains.’
‘Is it okay… being here in winter?’
‘You mean without your dad?’ She smiled.
‘It’s actually better, and easier, than I expected.
I had a distraction when I first got here, seeing Meg and you together, but then once I took in the Christmas decorations and the warmth of this place, it wasn’t so bad.
Your dad loved Winterbruck, especially when the snow fell and cocooned us all inside, and remembering that felt comforting. ’
‘That’s how I feel when I’m here.’
‘As the taxi drove through town, I could almost hear your dad berating me for not coming here again in the winter until now. Winter was his favourite season. He loved the cold, having an open fire. He was an old romantic, really.’ She smiled. ‘And your dad proposed to me here in Winterbruck.’
Sarah sat up straighter. ‘How come you never told me that?’
‘I’m not sure exactly. I thought I had once, but perhaps that was when you were really little.’
‘How did it happen?’
‘We came to Switzerland one winter right before Christmas. We’d already spent a couple of nights in Geneva, two in Zurich.
We saw the dramatic scenery and waterfalls in Lauterbrunnen, and then we came here.
’ It felt good to tell Sarah, to share the romance, the happiness she’d felt with Anthony.
‘I was head over heels in love. I knew your dad was the man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. I didn’t expect a proposal so early on in our relationship, but one day as we walked back here to the chalet he stopped at the end of the road and got down on one knee in the snow.
He’d picked a ring already, he’d planned it. ’
‘It sounds so romantic.’
‘It really was. And it was completely your dad. No fancy dinner, no ring at the bottom of a champagne glass – just me and him in the snow.’ She looked down in her lap. ‘After your dad died… I hated it when it snowed. It took me years not to moan about it.’
‘Well, it is kind of a pain.’ Sarah smiled; she was trying to make her feel better by saying, ‘Everything grinds to a halt, the roads have all that horrible grey slush once the cars get at it, and it makes travelling anywhere a nightmare.’
‘After a while I wasn’t quite as negative,’ said Chrissie. ‘Your dad saw the beauty of the snow and eventually I could stand to watch it falling outside the window at home. You know he would’ve wanted to relocate here to Switzerland eventually. He loved it that much.’
‘I’m not surprised.’
‘Our last family Christmas here was so wonderfully special.’
‘It really was. And I’ve always known you didn’t want to come here for Christmas again because of those memories.’
‘It wasn’t just that. I also never wanted to be away from home. My home.’
‘But this is home too, in a way.’
‘It is, but I remembered all the Christmases we hadn’t had with my dad.
I remembered how some Christmases we were consumed with worry about him and missing him so much it hurt.
Home was safe, Sarah. Home was where you and I had settled and found happiness again.
I clung on to the stability of a routine, the familiarity.
Hearing the heartbreaking news about your dad at Christmas, here, knocked me sideways.
I needed an anchor, and that anchor became you and our house, our little family of two. ’
‘We will always be that, Mum. Even if we don’t agree on something.’
Her voice caught and she looked upwards to stem the tears. She and Meg had made a similar promise to each other as young girls, that the moving around, the never having a proper home, would never drive them apart. And then look what had happened.