Chapter 13 #2
‘It’s true, he was a good man, when he didn’t drink. He was my best friend growing up and I miss that. I’d like to see those videos too, to remind me of the man he really was. Because right now I’m angry that his own daughter grew up thinking he was mean, he should never have put her through that.’
‘I know and part of me now regrets staying as long as I did.’
Quinn shook his head. ‘You stayed to help him and that took a lot of courage, and it was a lot more than what his family did for him.’
She chewed her lip while she thought about how to address the elephant in the room but Quinn got there first.
‘Don’t worry,’ he said. ‘I won’t be packing my bags and moving in any time soon. Also, I’m not quite sure how we would keep the magic of Christmas alive if you and Zara moved into Santa’s house with me.’
‘No, that’s true. Although I’m sure she would love being one of the elves and being in on the secret when she’s a little older.’
‘Well, you are both welcome to move in with me at any time, whenever you’re ready,’ he told her. ‘I reckon we can make the Santa thing work, even if it means we all move back in with Immy at the start of December.’
She looked at him. ‘You’re so blasé about this.’
‘About Santa? I’m sure we can come up with some workaround if she’s living there.’
‘About us.’
‘Oh. I wouldn’t say blasé.’
‘The way you talk, you’re so confident about our future as if you know we’ll be living together, married, happily ever after one day.’
‘I have no doubts about that,’ he said. ‘We love each other, we’ll get there.
And I think you know that too. You told Zara that I would be moving in with you at some point, you didn’t say might, or maybe or deny all knowledge of it.
You know we were meant to be together. And it doesn’t matter if it takes a few years for you to be comfortable with that. ’
‘What if I never get there?’ she asked. ‘What if I’m never ready to move in with you or get married or have babies?’
His face softened. ‘I would love to have children with you. One day.’
Alex’s heart leapt at the thought. She wanted that life with him more than anything. She smiled. ‘I want that too.’
He grinned. ‘Then we’ll get there. When you’re ready. Now let’s go and look at the decorations and the house before Zara picks out which bedroom she’s going to have.’
‘I have a plan,’ Alex said, walking into Quinn’s studio later that morning, just as he was getting ready to head out for the day. She knew he had to drive up to Exeter today to collect some metal for his monsters. He made the journey at least once a month and he’d be gone for most of the day.
‘What kind of plan?’
‘I’ve collated where all the baubles were found, based on all the comments on my Facebook post, and you might be surprised to know that, while a lot were placed near the relevant person’s house, the majority of them were found in Christmas Gardens.’
Quinn raised an eyebrow. ‘Really? The majority? I feel like a lot were found in the high street, the beach and other busy communal areas too.’
‘Thirty-four percent were found on Christmas Gardens.’
‘How is that the majority?’
‘Well, twenty-six percent were found in individual locations, left outside or near someone’s house. Twenty-seven percent were found near or around the main high street and thirteen percent were found near or on the beach.’
‘That doesn’t feel like an overwhelming majority then.’
Alex narrowed her eyes at him. ‘It’s enough that Christmas Gardens is now a place of interest.’
‘It doesn’t mean that St Nick lives near it. Just that he’s picked a busy place to leave the baubles, somewhere he knows the baubles will be found very easily.’
She narrowed her eyes at him again. ‘I never said he lived there, just that it was a place of interest.’
‘Right, OK.’
‘I’m going to do a stakeout tomorrow night after we go ice skating. Zara would love that, especially if there’s doughnuts.’
Quinn shrugged. ‘OK. I’m happy to do a stakeout with you. Although it might be a dull night. St Nick might be anywhere.’
‘Well, at least I could rule you out if there are baubles placed somewhere else that night and you’re in the car with me.’
He smiled. ‘You really think it’s me?’
‘I’m not sure. There is some indication that it is you. But I’m a bit thrown by St Nick mentioning his other half, though. We weren’t together at that point and that’s the kind of thing you say about a wife or girlfriend.’
‘So maybe it’s not me.’
‘And maybe it is.’
‘You could just ask me, if you’re that frustrated by not knowing. I’d never lie to you, about anything.’
Alex frowned. She suddenly didn’t want this to be over, she was enjoying the thrill of the chase.
Like finding out the truth about Santa, she didn’t want to ruin the magic, not yet anyway and she certainly didn’t want to find out like this with no fanfare.
If it was him, she wanted to find out on her own not have it presented to her as a fait accompli.
‘No, I need to find stronger evidence before I accuse you. Just like in Cluedo, you suggest that it might be Miss Scarlett with the dagger in the conservatory, you don’t accuse until you have all your ducks in a row.’
‘You need more ducks.’
‘Yes, and I’m going to find them.’
‘OK, I have to go.’ Quinn moved forward to give her a kiss. ‘I’ll see you tonight for the parade. And maybe after I could come back and hang out with you all.’
‘Zara has her Brownies Christmas party sleepover after – she has a better social life than I do and I have a top secret meeting,’ she laughed.
‘What’s the top secret meeting?’ Quinn asked, pulling his coat on.
‘I have no idea. Cleo wanted to meet and she said it was top secret, so I probably shouldn’t have told you that! Forget I said anything.’
He laughed. ‘I’ll try.’
‘But you could come round after my meeting, spend the night. I don’t have to pick Zara up until nine the next day.’
‘Now that sounds like a perfect plan.’
‘We’ll have to be quiet though, Immy is in the room right next door.’
‘I can do quiet. Can you?’
She laughed. ‘I can try.’
He smiled, gave her another kiss and walked out.
Dear St Nick,
Very clever throwing me a red herring last night with the elf hats and, yes, I suppose I did find it funny that every single person was wearing one. Although as that clue was less than helpful I think you owe me two clues today.
Did you manage to speak to me? I spoke to so many men last night, some for a few minutes, some no more than a hello, so I’m not sure I can whittle it down with that either.
So I’ll ask you a few questions to try to narrow it down some more.
How old are you, or at least can you give me an age range?
What colour eyes do you have?
What colour hair?
Warmest wishes,
Alex
Alex was just finishing off a paper sculpture bauble with an ice skating theme when she saw movement at the door. She looked up and smiled when she saw Violet.
‘Hello, my dear,’ Violet said, giving her a kiss on the cheek. ‘I was just meeting a friend for coffee upstairs and thought I’d pop in and say hello.’
‘Well, I’m very glad you did.’
‘Where’s Zara today?’
‘She’s at her friend Harley’s house. Her mum works from home so she can be there while the girls play.’
‘That’s nice.’
Alex noticed that Violet suddenly seemed nervous.
‘So, how’s the dating going?’ Violet asked.
‘Oh, umm…’ She really wanted to tell Violet about her and Quinn, but she wasn’t sure how she would react.
Violet was trying to be supportive about her dating even though she was worried what it meant for her future relationship with Zara.
At least Alex’s relationship with Quinn wouldn’t jeopardise that.
But Alex had been married to one of her sons and was now having a semi-serious relationship with her other son.
She wasn’t sure Violet would be OK with that.
She decided she would wait for Quinn to be with her before she broke the news.
She also wanted Quinn with her for when they told her about the night Liam died but maybe that could come later.
She thought carefully how to answer the question about her love life so she wasn’t directly lying to Violet. ‘I had two very bad dates and decided I didn’t want to date any more random men.’
‘Oh, that’s a shame. Cleo said you weren’t dating anyone right now but I wasn’t sure that was true.’
‘You and Cleo were talking about me?’
‘She’s worried about you,’ Violet said. ‘She told me she’s going to matchmake you with someone.’
‘Yeah, I really don’t want that.’
‘I tried to tell her that but she insisted she had the perfect man for you.’
‘I’ll talk to her.’ As Alex was seeing Cleo that night, she would very firmly put some boundaries in place.
There was silence then as Violet awkwardly fiddled with the strap on her bag. ‘I wanted to ask your advice actually. Hypothetical advice obviously.’
‘Umm, of course.’
‘So say you meet someone, it goes well, really well actually. At what point would you tell Zara? And how? Hypothetically.’
‘Well, I would probably just invite the man around a lot so Zara would get used to seeing the man around the house – this is obviously once I knew that I was serious about the man. Then once I knew she was comfortable with him, I’d probably tell her then.’
‘Hmm, right. I suppose exposure is key,’ Violet said, more to herself than to Alex. ‘Do it slowly. Maybe Christmas Day.’
‘Sorry?’
Violet blushed and Alex realised this wasn’t a conversation about Zara at all.
‘Violet, are you seeing someone?’
Violet dismissed it with a scoff. ‘Of course not.’ Then she sighed. ‘Yes, yes I am but I haven’t told anyone yet, least of all Quinn. Max sort of knows. I turned up on a date at Alberto’s the other night and he was working, but he knows better than to start telling people my private business.’
‘I thought I saw you there,’ Alex said.
‘There was me thinking I’d got away with it.’
‘Well, I couldn’t be sure as you had your whole face covered with a scarf, but even that looked a bit suspicious. I thought the place was about to be robbed,’ Alex teased. ‘Why don’t you want to tell anyone?’
‘I was married to Henry for fifty-six years, I figured falling in love with someone else only two years after he died, some people might think it’s disrespectful to Henry, that I’m moving on too soon.’
‘I don’t think anyone would think that,’ Alex said, though she knew there were some people in the village who absolutely would. There were some people who thrived on gossip, the more malicious the better. ‘Besides, if anyone does think that, it’s absolutely none of their business.’
Though it was a lot easier dishing out that advice than taking it. She was the one who wanted to keep her and Quinn’s relationship a secret, at least for now.
‘It’s a little more complicated than you think,’ Violet went on. ‘I’m dating Michael, Henry’s best friend.’
‘Ah.’
Alex knew exactly what it felt like to be in a forbidden relationship too, or at least some people would see what she had with Quinn that way. She knew some people wouldn’t be comfortable with her dating Liam’s brother either.
‘I don’t really care what the people of the town will think or say,’ Violet said.
‘I’ve been round the block enough times for that sort of thing to roll straight off my back but I worry mostly what Quinn will think.
He loved his dad very much and he might think I’m trying to replace Henry.
It was never my intention to date anyone, this thing with Michael just sort of happened and…
he makes me very very happy. I’m in love and I never ever thought I’d utter those words again. ’
Alex nodded. ‘I think Quinn will understand a lot more than you think. Plus he loves you, he only wants you to be happy again. He might be surprised but he won’t be angry.
Why not invite Michael to Christmas Day lunch, just as a friend, and see what the reaction is?
If you feel it’s right, you can always tell Quinn then. ’
‘Yeah, that’s a good idea. There’ll be lots of people there, as always. Most people won’t even notice there’s an extra person, or wonder why he’s there.’
‘Exactly.’
‘Talking of who’s coming and who isn’t, is Immy going to be there?’ Violet asked.
‘Of course, she wouldn’t miss it.’
‘Xander is coming too. I think there might be something going on between them.’
Alex certainly wasn’t going to confirm that, she’d take Immy’s secrets to the grave.
Violet looked at her. ‘Hmm, your silence speaks volumes.’
‘Silence can mean many things. I thought they hated each other,’ Alex said, trying to divert Violet from her train of thought.
‘I went to go to Immy’s sweet shop the other day, and the door was locked and I peered through to see if she was in there and saw her and Xander at the back of the shop kissing, then he grabbed her hand and dragged her into the storeroom.’
Alex blinked in surprise. She wondered if that was the day Immy had ended up spending the night with Xander or whether that was a completely separate occasion. She cleared her throat because there was nothing she could say to divert Violet from that. That was stone hard evidence.
She still kept silent though.
‘I think she’d be good for him,’ Violet went on. ‘He needs someone lovely to bring him back out of his shell. I think we should set them up on a date or something.’
‘I think we need to stay out of it and let them forge their own paths.’
Violet sighed. ‘I suppose you’re right. Well, must go, but if you decide to change your mind about dating, I have the perfect man for you.’
Alex smiled. ‘Thank you, but I’m doing just fine right now.’
Violet nodded, gave her a wave and left.
Dear Alex,
My apologies for the elf hat joke. But you can’t have a good mystery without a few red herrings. I did wear an elf hat though, like I promised, I just didn’t specify that there would be others wearing hats too. I’m not sure that justifies two clues. I did come and speak to you, as promised, too.
My clue today: I’m not a huge fan of sweet things, I prefer something savoury, but the exception to that are the crème br?lée doughnuts from Donut Park. They are little bites of heaven.
I’m not sure I can answer your questions without completely giving away my identity but I will answer one. I’m older than thirty but younger than fifty-five.
Snowy hugs,
St Nick