Chapter 4 #3
He moved over to her, concern filling his eyes. He put his hands on her shoulders. ‘Did he hurt you, are you OK?’
She smiled and reached up to stroke his face. ‘No, but you need to stop being so lovely. You set the bar impossibly high for other men.’
‘You know the answer to that then, date me instead.’
‘Oh, if only life was that simple,’ she said lightly.
‘It can be.’
Her heart ached at the thought, but he was just being nice, he didn’t actually want to date her. She glanced down at Quinn’s Christmas jumper, which was obviously one of Violet’s creations. She hadn’t had a chance to look at it properly earlier. She frowned in confusion.
‘What is that supposed to be?’ she pointed to the Picasso-style creature with arms and legs seemingly everywhere.
‘I have no idea but I couldn’t exactly ask for fear of hurting her feelings.’
‘It looks like roadkill.’
Quinn laughed and glanced down to her jumper. He cocked his head as he tried to work it out. ‘Is that… an aubergine emoji?’
‘Oh my god, Quinn, I thought the same. Dave, my date, probably thought his luck was in when he saw me turn up in this. I might as well have a flashing sign that says I love penis. Violet said it’s supposed to be a whale, because I loved our whale-watching trip.’
He burst out laughing. ‘That’s not a whale.’
‘It’s supposed to be.’
‘What did Dave think of it?’
‘He was too busy scowling at my hot chocolate with all the trimmings to notice my offensive jumper.’
‘What’s wrong with a hot chocolate with whipped cream?’
‘Exactly.’
‘Well, did you at least get your kiss out of this date?’
‘Eww, no. Pretty much the first words out of his mouth after he sat down were that he didn’t like children. He asked if I’d thought about boarding school so we could get rid of Zara and I left after that.’
‘Good lord. What is wrong with some people?’
‘Well, at least I found out now before I wasted any more time with him.’
‘True.’
‘And when one door closes another opens. I have dinner tonight with a man called Oliver, he wants to take me to Alberto’s.’
‘Oh nice.’
‘And before you ask, I’ve already told him about my shellfish allergy.’
‘OK, good. I think Max is working tonight, he’ll make sure the kitchen is careful with your food.’
‘Alberto’s always do. They take very good care of me. Let’s just hope Oliver is better than Dave. It can’t get any worse, can it?’
Quinn looked doubtful and then seemed to force a smile on his face. ‘I’m sure it will be fine. So is Oliver the reason you came in here smiling like a Cheshire cat?’
‘Oh no, I don’t know anything about him to smile about a date with him. I did get another message from Pip, though – I’m seeing him tomorrow night and he seems really nice – but no, I’m excited because I got a message from St Nick.’
His eyes widened in surprise. ‘That’s … amazing. I saw your post on Facebook, I did wonder if anyone would respond.’
‘No response from the public yet but I wasn’t expecting St Nick to reply. He’s set me a challenge and I’m so excited about it. He even called me Barnaby, here look.’ She fished her phone out of her bag and passed it over for him to read.
He took a few moments, his eyes scanning over the words. ‘This is really cool.’
‘I know. I mean, the clue is pretty useless. The fact that he said he doesn’t paint isn’t much to go on, he could be a policeman, fisherman, accountant. But this challenge is right up my street. I’m even more desperate to find him now.’
‘Why do you want to find him?’ Quinn asked.
‘To solve the mystery for one,’ Alex replied.
‘But I really want to thank him, not just for Zara, but for everyone who has received a bauble. And I was chatting to Luke and Flick and we really think that a talent like that should be celebrated and that those people who haven’t received one should have the opportunity of buying one. ’
‘It’s very different thing though, selling them rather than giving them as gifts. He already says he doesn’t want to do that.’
‘Yeah, I get that,’ said Alex. ‘But as he has offered to do a custom bauble if I guess who he is, I’m desperate to figure it out.’
‘What would you get done if you could?’
‘It wouldn’t be for me, it’d be for Immy.
Just as a little thank you for everything she’s done for me over the years.
I’d get one with Jacob on it. Most people have never even heard of a Skye terrier before so you never see it on decorations or any other dog paraphernalia.
She would be over the moon to finally get something with a Skye terrier on it. ’
‘And what would you get done for you?’ Quinn asked.
‘Good question. Probably a whale that doesn’t look like an aubergine emoji.’
Quinn laughed.
‘What would you want on your bauble? If you could choose?’ Alex asked.
‘I’ve never thought about that.’
‘There must be one thing you’d want more than anything,’ she prompted.
‘Oh, there’s definitely one thing I want more than anything. But I’m not sure how to encapsulate that on a bauble.’
‘What is it?’
He shook his head. ‘It’s hard to put into words and stupidly I’ve wanted to say those words out loud for several years and now it’s probably too late.’
‘It’s never too late to go after your dreams.’
‘Well, maybe I’ll share those dreams with you on Christmas Eve, providing you’re not engaged to some amazing hot guy by then.’
Alex laughed. ‘I don’t think that will ever happen, especially if Dave is representative of the calibre of single men out there. But what has that got to do with your dreams?’
Quinn smiled. ‘I guess you’ll have to work that out as well.’
She frowned. ‘Are you worried that me being with someone else will affect what we have? Is that why you were sad when you thought I was happy because of my date? I told Violet you don’t need to worry about that. You two will always be a part of our lives.’
He chewed his lip as he clearly thought how to reply.
‘If you find the man of your dreams, and marry him, I will be happy that you’re happy but this…
’ he pointed between the two of them, ‘will change. How could it not? No man is going to be happy with us hugging, me coming round your house every day, us going on holiday or days out together. Maybe they’ll be OK with me taking Zara out for the day but not this. ’
Alex hated to admit he was probably right and she felt sick at the thought. She simply couldn’t imagine not having Quinn in her life.
‘Well, I’m sure we don’t have to worry about that for a long time yet,’ she said. ‘I don’t honestly know if I’ll ever be ready for marriage again.’
His face softened. ‘After what Liam did I’m not surprised. But if you one day fall in love with the right person, I hope you’ll change your mind.’
She wasn’t sure that was likely but she decided to change the subject before Quinn started digging into what her dreams were. Because he would be at the top of every list.
‘Leaving our hopes and dreams aside for a moment, do you think I should reply to St Nick?’
‘Oh yes, the more you get to know about him the more chance you’ll have of guessing and winning that custom bauble. Ask him everything, let’s see what he comes back with.’
‘OK,’ said Alex. ‘He says he’ll only give me one clue a day but I guess I could ask him some generic questions and see if he answers.’
‘Worth a shot.’
Alex saw someone walk down the corridor towards her shop. ‘I better go. I’ll show you my reply later. Maybe we can work together to work out who it is.’
‘Sure thing.’
She paused as a new thought occurred to her. ‘Do you think I should publish his reply on The Lovegrove Lighthouse Facebook page, open up the challenge for everyone to try to find him? That way everyone gets a chance at the custom bauble not just me.’
Quinn immediately shook his head. ‘If he wanted that he would have replied to your post more publicly, not sent you a private message. He even addressed the message to Barnaby, rather than the readers of The Lovegrove Lighthouse. This challenge is specifically for you so go for it.’
She smiled at that. ‘Why would he want to do the challenge just for me?’
He shrugged. ‘Maybe he likes you, or maybe he just wants to do something nice for you. I wouldn’t read too much into it, just enjoy it.’
She nodded, waved goodbye and headed back to her shop.