Chapter 21
21
Right in that moment, Dylan didn’t think it was possible to be happier, but then his sister went and proved him wrong by pushing open the front door and ushering out a team of staff carrying trays of steaming mugs. They weaved between the guests offering them a choice of mulled wine or a spiced apple warmer, which they assured him was alcohol free. Not being a huge fan of mulled wine, he took a mug of the apple warmer along with the kids. In what proved to be perfect timing, the guests quietened as they sipped their drinks just as the carol-singers moved into the arc of lights cast from the front of the hall. As well as carrying lanterns, the four singers were dressed in period costume, thick overcoats and top hats for the two men, long dresses and hooded capes for the two women.
As they sang the opening lines of ‘The Holly and the Ivy’ Sadie squeezed his hand and leaned closer to murmur, ‘Oh, my favourite.’ When the singers reached the chorus, she wasn’t the only one who gasped as many more than four voices joined in. More golden lanterns flickered into life as around two dozen other carollers processed across the circular driveway to join the original four in a large circle around the fountain. When the carol ended, Dylan wasn’t the only person who bent to place his mug down on the steps in order to give them a round of applause.
The carollers worked their way through a range of familiar tunes: ‘Hark! The Herald Angels Sing’, ‘God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen’, ‘Once in Royal David’s City’. They finished with a rendition of ‘O Holy Night’ that had Sadie sniffing and rooting in her pocket for a tissue. Dylan pulled out his clean handkerchief and handed it to her, earning a glistening smile as she dabbed at her eyes. The staff reappeared from inside the hall, bearing refill jugs as well as trays of fresh mugs, which they distributed amongst the carollers as they came to mingle with the guests.
‘If I can have your attention, folks,’ the ruddy-cheeked man who had been one of the original four singers called out. ‘We hope you enjoyed the show—’ A ripple of applause interrupted him and he held up a hand with a smile. ‘You’re very kind, thank you. Now, before we head off, we’ve got one more song we’d like to perform and we are going to need your help for this one, so my colleagues are going to help divide you up into groups, so please follow whoever approaches you.’
A plump, cheerful blonde lady in a bottle-green cape turned and smiled at Dylan. ‘Do you want to come with me?’
Dylan exchanged a look with Sadie, who had been approached by another woman. The kids were already laughing and joking with a younger man as they went with him and a couple of other guests. ‘Lead on, I guess,’ Dylan said. He wasn’t a huge fan of audience participation, but he supposed if everyone was involved then it wouldn’t be too bad. The woman took him and a few others to stand at a point somewhere to the left of the fountain.
One of the male singers joined them with a couple of other guests. ‘Right, folks, my name’s Jim and this is my wife, Grace.’ The blonde woman grinned and gave them a little wave. ‘And all you need to know about us is that we are very competitive. We don’t care about precision, it’s all about the volume, okay?’
‘Thank God for that,’ one of the other guests muttered. Dylan laughed and felt his shoulders relax.
Jim grinned at the joker. ‘Now, as soon as I tell you that we are seven swans a-swimming, I’m sure you’ll get the idea. Our friends over there—’ he pointed to where the original four singers had resumed their position at the front of the fountain ‘—they’re going to lead the song. All we have to remember is to come in at the right time.’ He looked around the small group. ‘Everyone happy with what we’re doing?’ Dylan nodded along with the others. ‘And what do we want?’
‘Volume,’ they replied.
Jim rolled his eyes. ‘You’ll have to do better than that. Don’t let me down now.’
It was clear the other eleven groups had received a similar briefing because things grew ever more raucous as they worked their way through all twelve days of Christmas. A couple of the groups had added actions to their lines, which wasn’t so bad for the leaping lords and the dancing ladies, but some of the gestures by the milking maids were downright obscene in Dylan’s opinion. By the end of the last round he was hoarse from a combination of shouting the lyrics at the top of his voice and laughing at the antics of everyone else. The snow was still falling, his feet were blocks of ice and his fingers were numb even after he’d tucked them in his pockets. He didn’t care a bit about the cold, not when the kids came running over to find him, their faces full of joy at the silliness of the past few minutes. ‘Did you enjoy that?’ he asked as Avery snuggled into his side.
‘It was great! Can we go and do the illuminated walk next?’
Dylan wiggled his feet, trying to get feeling back into his toes. He hadn’t anticipated them being outside this long and hadn’t bothered with his boots. ‘I think we should go inside and dry off.’ When the kids protested, he held up a hand. ‘Come on, guys, you’re both freezing cold already and we haven’t had anything to eat. Let’s do it tomorrow when we’ve had a chance to plan things properly.’
Theo nodded. ‘My feet are wet.’ They all glanced down at the ends of his trainers, which had turned dark and soggy.
‘And we don’t want to risk getting sick and spoiling the rest of Christmas, right?’ Dylan added, nudging a still pouting Avery. ‘If you don’t put your face straight, Santa won’t come and visit.’
She burst out laughing. ‘Santa isn’t real, Dad.’
‘He’s not? I can’t believe it!’ They turned to see Sadie standing behind them, her face a mask of pretend shock, one hand pressed to her chest. ‘So I’ve been a good girl for the whole year for no reason? How disappointing!’ They all laughed.
‘Come on, let’s go in and at least change our shoes before dinner,’ Dylan said, urging them all towards the beckoning warmth of the hall.
As they walked up the steps Avery linked her arm through Sadie’s. ‘We’re going to do the illuminated walk tomorrow evening. Do you want to come with us?’
‘If I’m invited, then yes, I’d love to join you.’
‘Great, then it’s a date!’ With a grin, Avery unhooked her arm and skipped forward through the front door.
Theo groaned. ‘Subtle, Avie, real subtle,’ he grumbled as he followed her through the door.
Sadie’s eyes met Dylan’s as he reached out to hold the door open for her. ‘Did you put her up to that?’ she asked, eyes sparkling with mischief.
Dylan shook his head. ‘Oh no, that was Little Miss Matchmaker acting all on her own.’
She smiled. ‘Well, I think it’s sweet of her.’ Sadie paused in the entrance hall and turned towards him, her face turning serious. ‘She won’t get her hopes up, will she?’
It was Dylan’s turn to frown. ‘About what?’
‘About us.’ Sadie placed a hand on his arm. ‘I like you, Dylan, and your kids are fantastic and I am very happy to spend time with you over the coming days. But while we both know there’s no future in this, I don’t want the kids getting the wrong idea.’
Dylan stared at her for a long minute before nodding. ‘I’ll speak to them and make sure they understand.’
Her expression brightened. ‘Great. Well, I’m going to hang my coat up and change my wet shoes. I’ll see you back in the lounge?’
‘Yeah, I’m going to do the same. The kids will probably want to have a quick chat with their mom so we might be a few minutes, but we’ll find you in time for dinner.’ He watched her disappear into the ladies cloakroom then turned in the opposite direction to go and hang his own coat up. It wasn’t only the kids he’d need to have a word with because, if he wasn’t careful, Dylan might find himself getting the wrong idea about what could happen between him and Sadie as well.
Dylan returned upstairs to find the kids already changed and on the iPad chatting to Jen. He left them to it to change his shoes and socks, leaving his wet shoes tucked behind the heated towel rail in his en suite to dry. He retrieved the kids’ wet things and hung them up in the main bathroom. Once he’d started tidying up, he decided he might as well carry on and soon had a pile of washing ready to put into the hotel laundry. By the time he’d finished listing and bagging everything up, the kids were off the call to their mom and both nose-deep in their phones. Dylan dropped the bag outside their door before he returned to sit in a chair facing the kids on the sofa. ‘Hey, guys, can we talk a minute?’
They both peered at him over the top of their screens. ‘Are we in trouble?’ Avery asked.
‘No. Come on, phones down a minute. This is important.’
They both complied, Theo sitting up a little straighter, his brows drawn together in a frown. ‘Is something wrong?’
Smiling to reassure them, Dylan shook his head. ‘No, far from it, I just wanted to talk to you about the Sadie situation.’
‘It’s called a situationship,’ Avery interrupted him.
‘A what?’
‘A situationship, like a relationship but you don’t know where it’s going or you haven’t made an official commitment to each other.’
Dylan considered it for a moment. ‘I guess that fits where we’re at apart from one important thing – Sadie and I both know it isn’t going anywhere. We’re just hanging out with each for the next few days, okay? Once the holidays are over, we’ll be heading back to Florida and Sadie will be going home to her family.’
‘So more like a friends-with-benefits arrangement, then?’
Dylan closed his eyes for a long moment, as the two sides of his brain went to war with each other. The primal, protective bit of his brain was shrieking that Avery was still a baby who shouldn’t even have the vaguest of understandings about this kind of thing. The sensible, rational part was reasoning that it was only natural for the kids to be curious and it was a good thing that they felt comfortable enough to joke about it. Wishing he’d tried harder at those meditation classes Jen had persuaded him to try back in the day, Dylan opened his eyes and forced something he hoped approximated a smile. ‘No, not that either. Let’s forget about trying to label it as anything other than a surprise friendship, okay?’
Avery nodded her head, her expression solemn. ‘I was only messing around. Sadie seems really nice, is all, and I like that you smile more when you are around her.’
‘I do?’ Dylan considered that for a moment. He hadn’t considered himself particularly in need of more smiles, but he couldn’t deny that being around Sadie made him feel good in a way he hadn’t in a long time. ‘I don’t want you to think I’m mad at you in any way, and I’m really glad you like Sadie too. I just want you both to understand that, while I don’t mind you teasing me, please just be mindful of the way you speak to Sadie. She’s had a really tough year and all I want to do is give her the best Christmas possible, okay?’
‘Okay.’ Avery came over to sit on the arm of his chair and Dylan put an arm around her waist as he looked over at Theo.
‘You’re very quiet, pal. Don’t hold back if there’s anything you want to say.’
‘Avie’s right, you do smile more when Sadie’s around.’
Dylan laughed. ‘You’re going to make me paranoid. Was I such a grump before?’
Avery put her arms around his neck and kissed his cheek. ‘Of course not. Well, apart from in the morning before you’ve had a coffee.’
Dylan scrunched his face up in a tight scowl, then immediately relaxed his features. ‘Yeah, I’m going to have to give you that one.’ He gently scooted her off the arm of the chair and stood. ‘There’s one more thing I need to say before we go down to dinner.’
Theo and Avery looked at each other, and Dylan didn’t miss the way they rolled their eyes. He grabbed a scarf Avery had left draped over the sofa and flicked it at them, making sure the end had no chance of touching them. ‘I was going to say that the two of you are still my priority above all else, but you can forget it.’
‘Aw, Daddy, that’s sweet.’ Avery came over and hugged him.
Theo joined them, sliding an arm around Dylan’s waist and resting his head briefly against his shoulder. ‘You’re our priority too, Dad.’