Chapter 21
SARAH
Sarah had slept in, but her mum’s bedroom door was shut long after she got up. When she went downstairs, Grumps told her that Chrissie had been with Meg until the early hours.
‘That’s a good sign.’ Sarah had never wanted to say much to her grandparents about their daughters’ falling out, but if the sisters had been together and Grumps hadn’t reported a drama, it had to be a good thing, didn’t it?
Grumps put his arm around Sarah’s shoulders.
‘It is definitely a good sign. Now, breakfast? Your nanna has made French toast. She started beating those eggs as soon as she heard you stirring.’ He steered her over to the table and sure enough Nanna appeared with a big oval plate of French toast. In the middle of the table was a selection of fruit – strawberries, blueberries and raspberries – and a little jug filled with maple syrup.
‘I’m eating like a princess. Tell me you guys didn’t wait for me?’
Grumps laughed. ‘I had a bowl of porridge with your nanna, but that was early. It’s closer to lunchtime now than breakfast. You’ve slept most of the morning away. Jonathan did the paths though, told me not to wake you.’
‘Did he say how Meg is this morning?’
‘He says she’s fine, still sleeping.’
Sarah tucked into the fluffy golden pieces of French toast, and just as Grumps was about to make them all a coffee there was a knock at the door. He changed direction and instead of going to the kitchen went down the hallway.
‘I’ll do the washing up,’ Sarah told Nanna, but before she could pick up the plates a figure appeared alongside Grumps in the hallway.
‘Well, don’t just sit there,’ Nanna whispered as Sarah stood staring at the visitor in shock.
She ran into Rhys’s arms. ‘I can’t believe you’re here!’
‘I’m here,’ he whispered into her hair. ‘You were so upset and worried when Meg was missing that I couldn’t stay away. I want Christmas with you, Sarah. I want every day with you, but I don’t care how. So here I am. In Switzerland.’ His smile made those familiar dimples appear.
She turned to her grandparents. ‘Grumps, Nanna, this is Rhys.’
‘I gathered that,’ Nanna laughed.
‘It’s good to finally meet you.’ Grumps held out a hand for her fiancé to shake, and she kept her hand on Rhys’s free arm as if she was afraid to let him go.
Nanna shook his hand too. ‘Welcome to Winterbruck.’
‘It’s good to be here.’ But awkwardly he added, ‘I hope it’s okay that I turned up.’
‘You are going to be family, of course it is.’ Nanna smiled.
‘I’ve kind of invited myself here around Christmastime, but don’t worry – I’ve booked a hotel room.’
‘That works,’ said Nanna. ‘We’re a bit cramped here. But you’ll be joining us for Christmas, no option there.’
‘I’d listen to her, if I were you,’ said Grumps. ‘And we are over the moon to have you here.’
Sarah loved how excited they both were to see him. So was she, no matter that they still needed to talk.
Grumps picked up some of the crockery. ‘We’ll clear up.
’ He and Nanna made a swift exit, and Grumps only interrupted them one more time to bring them a mug of coffee each as well as a little china boat of full-cream milk next to the mugs on the tray.
Sarah liked that he’d used the posh mugs and the little boat. It meant he liked her fiancé already.
She added milk to both the mugs and passed one to Rhys. They were sitting on the sofa, their knees touching, and it felt so good to be this close to him again.
She updated him on how Meg was, the relief they all felt, the fact that the weather had done an about-turn quick enough. ‘Mum and Meg have been talking too,’ she added.
‘That’s a really good sign.’ He set his mug down and when she did the same, he took her hands in his.
‘Sarah, now we’re alone, tell me truthfully – is it okay that I’m here?
I know you came to get some breathing space.
To get away from me.’ His gaze drifted away from her momentarily and she could see how hard this was for him.
‘I didn’t come here to get away from you. Not really. It was to get away from everything, it all felt too much. I couldn’t think, but being here has made it much easier.’
‘You said on the phone that you think we can fix this.’
‘We can,’ she said urgently. She wanted nothing more. ‘Do you?’
‘I do. But… I suppose my question now is, do you still want to get married?’
‘I’m scared.’ She shook her head. ‘I’m not making much sense. What grown woman is scared of walking down the aisle?’
‘I’d say there are probably a few others.’
‘Maybe scared isn’t the right word – that sounds too dramatic.’
‘Just talk to me. Tell me how you really feel.’
She’d thought about this moment over and over again, rehearsing how she’d start the conversation to get her point across but help him see she really did love him.
‘I do want to marry you. I also think the world of you and your family, Rhys.’ He looked at her with anticipation. ‘They’re kind, they’re generous—’
‘They’re too much. Is that what’s been stressing you out?’
‘Partly. There are a lot of them.’ She looked around the room as if her grandparents, her mum and her auntie were in the room with them. ‘This is a big family gathering for me this year. We’re a sum total of five people. Six, counting you.’
‘I know my family can be a lot, especially all at once.’
‘It worries me… It’s not just your family, it’s everything. My world is small, quiet.’
‘While mine is loud and busy?’
She smiled. ‘You get it.’
‘I do. Because I know you. And it’s okay that we are different.’
‘Maybe.’
‘Not maybe,’ he said.
‘What if it isn’t, though? What if it comes between us?
What if every Christmas you want to have a big family gathering and I would rather it be just the two of us or a smaller group?
And it’s not just Christmas, what about every other occasion?
A few weeks ago, your mum hosted Sunday dinner for fifteen people.
Fifteen! Your siblings talk about joint holidays.
Parties at their houses. They’re all so confident. And I’m not.’
He got off the sofa and crouched in front of her.
He took her hands in his. ‘I love everything about you, Sarah. I adore every part of you, for the way you are. Right now. I fell in love with a girl in dungarees covered in debris, her hair all messy, a streak of paint on her cheek, dust all over her knees. And I’ve never stopped loving that girl since the day she climbed down from the stepladder and said a proper hello to me. ’
‘I’m a painter-decorator and you’re an architect,’ she said.
‘Some might say that’s a perfect match.’
‘You earn a lot more than me. You’ve been headhunted by firms in other countries. What if you want to take a job overseas? You’ve worked hard to get where you are.’
‘Then it will be a joint decision. Mine and yours.’
‘My job would have to take a back seat.’
‘Sarah, when will you see that you are important to me, and that means every part of you? You, your family, your work, your wishes. It all matters.’
She went over to the window and looked outside. It was completely calm and devoid of yesterday’s drama. She felt him come to stand alongside her and she leaned against him.
Tears filled her eyes. ‘It breaks my heart that my dad won’t be at my wedding.’
‘I know it does.’
‘And Grumps and Nanna definitely can’t come.’
‘I wish they could be there too.’
She looked out of the window again, took his hand. ‘I’m glad we’re spending Christmas with them.’
‘Me too.’ He waited before he asked, ‘How are we going to fix this, Sarah?’
‘I don’t know.’ They watched the beauty beyond the window for a moment. ‘I’m twenty years old, Rhys. Can you remember what you were doing when you were twenty?’
‘I was at uni.’ And then he got it. ‘No way would I have settled down then. But I hadn’t met anyone like you, Sarah. That’s the difference.’
When she didn’t say anything else he asked, ‘What do you want to do, Sarah?’
‘I want more time together before we get married.’ The words were out. She hadn’t had to practise them in her head because in this moment she knew it was what she wanted. What she needed. ‘I’m not ready yet. And I hate myself for leading you on and doing this to you.’
He held her closer and whispered into her hair, ‘You haven’t done anything wrong.’
‘But all our plans…’
‘Sarah, do you love me?’
‘I promise you I do. I love you so much.’
‘Then that is all I need to know.’ The way he looked at her made her fall for him all over again. ‘Let’s forget about doing it on New Year’s Eve.’
‘What about the guests, the bookings, the marquee?’
‘Mum will sort it all.’
‘I won’t be very popular.’
He smiled. ‘You will be. She loves you, so does my dad. To be honest, they did both wonder why the rush – my sister asked if you were pregnant.’ At that, Sarah laughed. ‘This will stop her asking and stop her looking at your belly too.’
‘Are you sure this is all right with you?’
‘I am.’ He pulled her closer against his body. ‘Let’s forget about every single thing except us. Deal?’
‘Deal.’
He put his fingers beneath her chin and tilted her face up towards his. ‘Glad to hear it.’ And with a brief kiss – keeping it respectable in her grandparents’ house – he added, ‘Now come on, let’s get out of here and you can show me some of this beautiful town you’ve told me so much about.’
No more questions, not for now. She’d forgotten how good he was at flipping a conversation to take your mind off something.
He’d done it when she was about to have her wisdom teeth out shortly after they met – he’d distracted her so well she’d been giggling by the time they took her in.
And afterwards, despite the discomfort, it hadn’t been long before she was smiling again.
In town, she took him to the same chocolate shop she’d visited with Meg, where they sampled almost as much as she had the first time, and then they took the trail away from town that Auntie Meg had been on and got lost in the blizzard.
It looked so tranquil and peaceful now that it was hard to imagine it any other way.
When they finally made it back to the chalet, ready for a cheese fondue with pickles, vegetables and bread – Nanna had told them it would be on the menu – Rhys paused outside the chalet.
The lack of sunshine made it feel as though the day was about to come to a close, and inside beyond the window, she could see Grumps and Jonathan laughing about something.
Chrissie and Meg were sitting at the table at the far end of the room.
They weren’t so close that Sarah could see their expressions, but she hoped they were accepting and open to getting through what had broken them apart in the first place.
She looked up into Rhys’s gentle blue eyes. ‘What’s the matter?’
He’d taken off his gloves and was running one hand across his jaw. The sound it made on the light stubble was another little thing she’d missed about him.
‘I’m nervous,’ he said as if they’d swapped roles. She’d been the one worrying until they’d talked.
‘Nervous? Why?’ A clump of snow slid from the roof at the right time to land on Rhys’s head with a thud and she started to giggle.
‘Careful. I make a mean snowball,’ he said taking her into his arms.
‘So do I.’ And then she prompted, ‘Anyway, what do you mean, nervous? You’re never nervous.’
‘I am. I just hide it well. I was nervous asking you out for the first time.’
‘Really?’ He’d never told her. But now she remembered he’d made the same gesture, the hand scraping on the stubble, the same scratchy sound.
‘Very. And I was nervous around your mum when I met her too. I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want you thinking I was a wimp. This is the first time I’ve met your grandparents and I’m nervous about being questioned by your entire family now over lunch.’
‘What, all four of them? Five, if you include Jonathan who is coming over as well.’ She put her hands on either side of his face and kissed him. ‘My mum likes you, and there’s no doubt Grumps and Nanna do too, so stop stressing.’ She took his hand. ‘Ready to go inside?’
He nodded. ‘Lead the way.’
* * *
Sarah had planned to bring Rhys over to the Swiss Alps to meet her grandparents in the months after their wedding. She’d hoped he would slot in, and watching him now, it was obvious he did so with ease.
Meg and Chrissie insisted on getting Twister out of the cupboard, a game the sisters apparently hadn’t played since they were teenagers.
Grumps and Nanna bowed out gracefully, but the rest of them had a go, and eyebrows were raised at one of the compromising positions Meg and Jonathan found themselves in.
Sarah wanted to grill her Auntie Meg about their next-door neighbour. She was staying in his spare room, but was it more than that?
‘They loved you,’ said Sarah as she and Rhys left the chalet at the end of the evening to head for the hotel. The fondue meal had been amazing, all of them together, their little family gathering, and she felt closer to her fiancé than ever. But now she was ready for it to be just the two of them.
The hotel was wonderful and even had a spa. They ended up with the sauna to themselves after they’d had a swim, and Sarah lay back on the wooden bench and closed her eyes. She felt Rhys reach down from the bench on the level above and take her hand.
‘Too hot for that,’ she said, but he didn’t let go.
‘Your family are great, Sarah. You’re very lucky.’
She looked up at him, but his eyes were tightly shut. Little beads of sweat gathered on his chest, and she watched a couple of them give up their hold and trickle down over his skin.
‘Yours are pretty cool too,’ she said, closing her eyes again.
‘I’ll marry you tomorrow, next year, the year after, Sarah. Whenever you’re ready. And on our terms, okay?’
‘Okay.’ She knew he meant without such a hefty guest list or any pressure, and for that she fell in love with him just a little bit more.
‘And I won’t force you to have the big family Christmas if you don’t want that,’ he went on.
‘I don’t know, maybe I’ll grow to love it.’ She sat up and Rhys turned onto his side, so their faces were inches apart.
‘I kind of like this sort of Christmas,’ he said. ‘Guaranteed snow. The Alps as a backdrop. Fondue – who knew I’d love fondue? And Twister… there’s a game I’ll never suggest to my family. Can you imagine?’
She sniggered. ‘Nope, not at all.’
‘You’re very bendy.’ He hooked her hair behind her ear.
‘Maybe we can take turns choosing what to do for Christmas from now on.’
‘That sounds like a great idea.’
She leaned closer to kiss him and as the kiss deepened, they left the sauna to head back to his room, barely making it through the door before clothes were shed and kissing turned into a whole lot more.