Chapter 22 MIA #2
‘Because they keep dropping their needles!’ Aunt Gertie calls out, and everyone groans in unison.
‘That’s terrible,’ Penny says. ‘Ooh, look! I got a little stretchy toy! So cute.’ She hums merrily while unfolding her paper crown and setting it on her head. The green decoration hangs cheerily on her carefully coiffed hair.
‘Bet all the prizes are junk from China again,’ Martin grumbles good-naturedly.
Molly and Charlie share a cracker, and Molly wins, much to her delight. She empties the contents on to the table and picks up the crown first. ‘Ah, a pink one.’ Looking at Charlie, she gives him a sweet smile. ‘I’d really love to see you wearing this. Would you mind?’
Charlie is already smiling at Molly and he reaches out to take the crown, much to Mia’s surprise.
As her brother sets the silly hat on his head, Mia glances over at Sam, who’s watching the couple.
He’s clearly enjoying the banter and light-hearted objections.
His smile is a tad wistful, and Mia wonders if he’s missing his own family.
Then Sam looks at her, and she is lost in the emotions swimming across his expression.
In that moment, she doesn’t care about the hurt he caused her all those years ago, or that he ignored her text last night.
She only wishes they could have a clean slate to begin again.
Martin jostles Sam, breaking the moment. ‘Sam, pull one with me.’ Sam gives Mia a rueful smile and turns towards her father, but Martin manages to drop the cracker before Sam can grab it. As he goes in search of it on the floor, Aunt Gertie and Charlie pull a cracker on the other side of the table.
‘Who is the preferred Christmas ghost?’ Molly calls out, studying her tiny paper. Charlie spins a top on the table beside her, and the toy balances precariously along the edge.
Aunt Gertie raises her hand like a little schoolgirl. ‘Oooh, I know this one! The Ghost of Christmas Presents!’
This sets the whole table into a round of laughter, and Mia has to wipe her eyes once they calm down again.
‘Well, is that everyone, then?’ Martin asks, looking around the table. ‘Everyone had a chance to pull a cracker?’
‘Mia and Sam haven’t,’ Penny calls out, wiggling her eyebrows.
‘Well, come on, then!’
Sam extends his cracker towards Mia, and she copies his motions with her own. They each take a firm grip on the other’s cracker, and the rest of the table counts down.
‘Three … two … one!’
There’s a simultaneous pop, and Mia leans backwards, surprised to find that she’s holding both crackers with the middles intact.
She looks up at Sam, who doesn’t seem bothered in the least. He grins at her, that crooked one that makes all the noise and laughter around them fade away.
Longing threads through her. What would it be like to have Sam look at her like that for the rest of her life?
To spend every Christmas with him, just like this – surrounded by family and enjoying the jolly banter and silly hats and terrible jokes?
‘Well, you have to wear both hats then, Mia,’ Penny declares.
Grateful for the reprieve from her newest revelations, Mia unfolds both crowns – a yellow one and a blue one – and places them on her head.
They’re a little large, and her family giggles as one drops over her eyes.
Mia pushes the crown back up and adopts her most royal of demeanours.
Then she reaches for the jokes. Clearing her throat, she calls out, ‘What did the rosemary say to the thyme?’
‘Aw, that’s the perfect joke for you!’ Charlie replies, chuckling. ‘How did they know?’
‘Well, tell us!’ Penny urges, and Mia flips the paper over to read the answer.
‘Season’s greetings!’
‘The perfect one to end on,’ Martin declares. He signals the others to help him clear the table. When Mia tries to pitch in, he waves her off. ‘No, no, you did all the work of feeding everyone. Us old folks will clear the table, and Charlie and I will do the washing-up.’
‘What about me?’ Sam asks. ‘I don’t think I fall in the category of old folks, but I certainly didn’t make this feast.’
‘You stay here and make sure Mia takes it easy,’ Penny says, reaching up to adjust her crown, which has got even more askew.
‘Otherwise she’ll try to sneak back in the kitchen and help.
’ Penny herds the others out of the room, everyone’s arms full of dishes and leftovers.
As they make their way down the hall, Mia can still hear them chattering to each other.
She listens until they’ve moved out of earshot, and then returns her attention to the man sitting across from her.
‘That was wonderful. I haven’t laughed so hard in ages.
’ She reaches up to remove the paper crowns and folds them carefully, setting them on the table in front of her.
‘Thank you for going along with my family’s nonsense. ’
Sam leans towards her, resting his elbows on the edge of the table.
‘It was my pleasure.’ He hesitates for a moment and looks as though he’s having some kind of internal battle, and Mia leans back in her chair, doing her best to wait while he figures it out.
‘Ah, I’ve been trying to decide when is the best time to give this to you.
I had thought this morning with all the others, but then you were so upset with me.
I thought you might throw it away without opening it. Anyway, I – I brought this for you.’
Sam draws a small, neatly wrapped gift from the pocket of his cardigan and slides it across the table until it rests in front of Mia. The paper is a cheery red foil with silver glitter dusted across it, and he’s even tied a ribbon around it.
‘Why did you get me a present?’
Sam looks troubled. ‘Just open it, Mia, and you’ll understand.’
Mia carefully pulls the ribbon loose, and then slits the tape holding the paper together.
This reveals a black cardboard box, and when she lifts the lid, she gasps.
‘Gran’s earring!’ She lifts the piece from its velvet bed.
‘How did you know – wait, did you have this replicated somehow? Or did you just take the one from my room – is this some sort of joke?’
‘Not at all,’ Sam hurries to assure her. ‘I found it recently.’
Mia shakes her head. ‘I’ve combed every jewellery store and flea vendor in London. There’s nothing even close to a replica.’
‘It’s not a replica,’ Sam explains. ‘It’s the one you lost.’
‘How is that possible? I lost it the night that I met you at the swimming—’ Mia looks up at him, anger filling her all over again. ‘Did you hold on to this for years? How could you keep this from me? When you knew how much it meant to me?’
Sam holds up his hands in self-defence. ‘I swear to you I didn’t know I had it.
I told you when I arrived here, I’ve just moved flats.
I found it while I was unpacking a few weeks ago.
’ He bites his lip. ‘That’s partly why I accepted Charlie’s invitation up here, I wanted to return it to you in person.
’ Sam drags a hand through his hair, looking off into the distance for a long moment.
Then his gaze snaps back to her and she feels the force of it, like a physical blow.
‘It was tangled in the hem of the shirt I gave you by the pool. I hadn’t worn it since that night, but something made me hold on to it.
It’s just been stuffed in the back of my drawer until I threw it into a box to move.
When I took it out at the new place, the earring fell on the floor.
’ Sam looks at her earnestly. ‘I’m so sorry, Mia.
I know how much those earrings meant to you.
How they were a piece of your gran. I promise if I’d found it sooner, I would have returned it right away. ’
Mia turns the earring over in her palm. The amber stone sparkles in the light, nestled against the sapphires and emeralds.
Miraculously, each of the fragile gold strands are still intact as well.
What a gift, to receive her gran’s earrings all over again.
Her heart swells with emotion, and as she meets Sam’s gaze once more, the last of her defences topple.
Maybe she’s had it all wrong after all.