Chapter 17
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Good Friday had been insanely busy in the chocolate shop.
The morning had flown by and it was just starting to quieten down now.
Max had come in to help Immy and Etta while Xander, Logan, Archer and Quinn finished off the flooring in the shop, put up some shelves and added the light fittings.
Immy didn’t see the point in rushing to get it finished if they couldn’t run the egg hunt from the shop but Xander had insisted.
The door opened and Diya and Lizzie came in, brandishing a box.
‘How’s everything going over there?’ Lizzie asked.
It was a quiet lull for a few minutes so Immy took the opportunity to sit down on a stool.
‘I think we’re nearly done. The boys have been hard at work doing the flooring and they are just finishing off all the little things now.
But we don’t have any electricity until next week so we can’t really run the egg hunt from there.
I always have lights on in the main shop as it’s just too dark otherwise.
The community room is lighter but the kids would then have to walk through the dark shop to get to it so it’s probably better to run it from a table outside. ’
‘Oh, that’s a shame,’ Diya said. ‘You could have sold some sweets and coffee to those taking part.’
‘Yeah, I always donate a percentage of my profits from Easter Sunday to whatever charity we’re supporting. So I won’t be able to do that this year.’
‘Well, we made these,’ Diya said, placing the box down on the counter. ‘You can use them to decorate the shop or shop entrance or the table and if anyone wants to buy them you could sell them and raise money for the charity that way.’
Immy smiled at the thoughtfulness and opened the box. Inside were large, knitted versions of all the bestselling pick ’n’ mix sweets: fried eggs, jelly teddies, fizzy cola bottles, chocolate buttons with sprinkles. There were even some knitted Easter eggs and bunnies too.
‘These are wonderful, thank you so much. At least the table will look beautiful, even if we can’t go in the shop.’ She pulled out a long fizzy snake. ‘Thank you for doing this, really.’
‘Our pleasure. We enjoyed doing it.’
‘And you should be able to get back into the community room from next week if you don’t need power and probably by the end of the week if you do.’
‘We’ll be there.’
Just then Xander came in. He quickly gave Immy a kiss on the cheek and passed her a bag.
‘I got you a sandwich, you need to eat.’ He passed one each to Etta and Max too. ‘Etta, Nanny and Grandad want you to come over and stay with them tonight. They want to paint eggs and do Easter activities with you. Do you want to go?’
‘Oh yes please.’ Etta clapped her hands together excitedly.
‘Great, they’ll pick you up about four.’ He gave Etta a kiss on the head, gave Immy a kiss on the cheek, glared at Max when he offered his cheek for a kiss, nodded to Lizzie and Diya, and left, running back across the street to the sweet shop.
Immy smiled after him and then turned her attention back to Lizzie and Diya who were practically bubbling with excitement at this show of affection from Xander.
Diya leaned forward, her eyes wide. ‘We heard rumours about you and—’ She stopped when Lizzie elbowed her and gave a warning shake of the head. They clearly didn’t want to gossip in front of her or about her after last time.
Immy felt sorry for them. They clearly wanted to talk about this with her and she and Xander weren’t exactly hiding their relationship or their baby.
‘We’re together,’ Immy said and they both let out a squeal of excitement. ‘And we’re having a baby.’
Immy thought Lizzie was going to pass out with excitement as she and Diya did a little victory dance. She glanced at Max and Etta, who were watching the proceedings with much bemusement.
‘Are you getting married?’ Diya blurted out before Lizzie could stop her.
‘They don’t know if they love each other yet,’ Etta said, solemnly, then took a bite out of her sandwich.
Lizzie and Diya’s faces fell. ‘You don’t love each other?’
‘We don’t know,’ Immy said, wishing she hadn’t said anything now.
‘It’s very early and the baby was a surprise,’ Etta said.
Oh good lord.
‘Daddy gave her a seed which she liked very much but he didn’t know she would make a baby from it. But she did so now they keep cuddling in bed to find out if they love each other and want to be together forever.’
Immy’s eyes widened at the blunt summary of their relationship. Max was clearly trying not to laugh.
Immy cleared her throat. ‘Yes, something like that.’
‘Right,’ Lizzie said, clearly unsure how to respond to that.
‘We’re happy,’ Immy said. ‘Very happy and that’s enough for now.’
Diya smiled. ‘We’re happy for you.’
Lizzie reached out and gave her hand a squeeze. ‘Yeah, you deserve it, and he’s a good man.’
Immy nodded. ‘I know he is. The best.’
A customer came in then with her twin boys, who looked around the chocolate shop with wide eyes.
‘I better go,’ Immy said, standing up.
They nodded.
‘We’ll see you on Sunday,’ Diya said.
‘Thank you, and for this,’ she gestured to the knitted decorations.
Diya and Lizzie smiled and walked out.
Immy cringed a little at what they must think of her, and her relationship, but she didn’t really care. She and Xander were happy, and that was all that mattered.
Around five, a short while after Etta had been collected by her grandparents, when Immy and Max were closing up the chocolate shop, Xander came over.
He kissed her, wrapping his arms around her. ‘Want to come over and see the finished shop?’
‘Oh yes, of course. We’re done here,’ Immy said.
‘Go on, I’ll lock up,’ Max said.
‘Thanks for your help today, I really needed it,’ Immy said.
‘No problem.’
Xander took her hand and led her across the street. ‘I thought we could have a bit of a date night tonight. I know you’re probably knackered from working all day and I’m pretty tired too, but we don’t have to go out. We can get a takeout, watch a movie, stuff our faces with tasteless popcorn.’
‘Well that sounds perfect.’
She could see a strange glow coming from the shop and frowned in confusion as she got closer. There were lights inside the shop. She quickened her pace and stepped inside.
There were lights everywhere, little Easter egg fairy lights hanging from the shelves and walls. Large standalone Easter eggs, bunny and chick lanterns lined the floors and shelves, and candles stood in storm lanterns around the room. It looked beautiful.
‘The lights are battery operated so we’ll obviously have to change the batteries but they should last the length of the hunt, the candles are battery operated too, so no risk of a fire,’ Xander said.
‘I can’t believe you did this for me, it’s wonderful,’ Immy said.
‘I know you wanted to run the hunt from the shop, well now you can. We can’t do anything about the coffee machine, but you can at least sell sweets and do the hunt.’
‘Thank you, this is everything, thank you so much.’ She wrapped her arms around his neck. ‘I love you.’
He tensed in her arms and she froze at his reaction. She didn’t know what to say. She didn’t want to take it back because it was the truth but it had only been a week since they’d decided to be together.
He cleared his throat. ‘Was that one of those silly off-the-cuff comments, like when you accidentally asked me to marry you when I was massaging you?’
She swallowed. ‘No, I love you, I think I always have. It’s OK if you don’t feel the same, it’s still very early days yet for us, but I do love you.’
He stared at her for a moment then kissed her with an urgency she’d never felt from him before.
He pulled back and looked her in the eyes. ‘Say it again.’
‘I love you. I am completely and utterly in love with you.’
He made a noise that sounded almost as if he was in pain.
‘What’s wrong?’ She stroked across his chest. ‘Have I said the wrong thing?’
He shook his head, his breathing heavy. ‘I just… No one has ever said that to me before. I know my brothers love me, but we’ve never been any good at expressing our feelings.
And my parents made it clear they didn’t love us and of course Brook didn’t love me.
And now there’s you, this wonderful, brilliant, kind woman, and you love me.
I wasn’t expecting it and I don’t feel like I deserve it. ’
‘You do, you’re an incredible man and you’re very easy to love.’
He stared at her in awe. ‘I…’ He paused, clearly struggling to say the words.
She pressed a finger to his lips. ‘Don’t say it. I don’t want you to say it just because I’ve said it. And I don’t want you to say it if you’re not ready. We have all the time in the world to get this right. We don’t need to rush into this.’
He kissed her finger, then kissed her wrist.
‘If I’m not allowed to say it now, then I guess I’ll just have to show you.’
He quickly turned out all the lights then took her hand and walked out the shop, stopping briefly to lock the door. She giggled as he marched across the street, almost dragging her in his wake.
‘OK, are we ready for movie night?’ Xander said, sitting down next to Immy, with a big bowl of popcorn.
‘I love the Jurassic Park films so I’m looking forward to this one.
I can’t watch them with Etta as she finds the dinosaurs a bit scary.
She loves dinosaurs and finding out facts about them and she has so many children’s books about dinosaurs having adventures but she doesn’t like it when they are mean.
So I have to wait until she’s not here to watch these films.’
‘I’d have thought you’d watch them with Archer,’ Immy said, cuddling into his side.