Chapter 14
Quinn let himself into Alex’s kitchen later that night as Alex, Immy and Zara were all busily getting layered up with hats, scarves and gloves ready for the parade.
‘Hey,’ Zara said, noticing him first.
‘Hey Rocket, how was your day with Harley?’
‘Good, we made the world’s biggest snowman. Jake helped.’
‘That’s great, you’ll have to show it to me before it melts,’ Quinn said.
He could see that the idea of having a new dad was definitely appealing to Zara right now.
He hoped he could be that for her one day and he vowed if he ever got that honour he’d make damned sure he would do a better job than his brother ever did.
He glanced over at Alex who was watching him. He so wanted to walk over and kiss her right now. Immy knew about them, Zara sort of knew, but he wasn’t sure how Alex would feel about such a public display of affection, so he settled on a little wave.
‘Are we all ready? We don’t want to miss Santa,’ Alex said, ushering everyone out of the door. Immy and Zara went first, chatting away at a hundred miles an hour about Santa, the reindeer and the Brownies Christmas party sleepover. Immy was so good for her.
As Alex ushered Quinn out, she stroked her hand up his back and leaned up and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. He was looking forward to doing so much more that night.
Zara took his hand as they started walking down the hill and he quickly pushed any dirty thoughts about what he’d like to do to her mum out of his head.
‘I’ve drawn some monsters for you,’ his niece told him. ‘Maybe you can turn them into real-life monsters.’
‘I’d love that. I’m always looking for inspiration for new monsters.’
‘I think I’d like to be an artist like you and make monsters when I grow up. That’s the coolest job ever.’
‘It is a cool job. I love it.’ Quinn didn’t want to tell her it didn’t pay particularly well.
It paid enough to cover his bills, just about, but some months paid more than others and he was able to put money in savings for those months that he didn’t make enough.
But he wasn’t going to do anything to dampen her dreams, especially as he knew her career choices would change a hundred times between now and when she turned eighteen.
And if she still wanted to make monsters for a living when she was older, he’d do everything he could to help her.
If she wanted to be an astronaut he’d do everything in his power to make that happen too.
‘Look, there’s my snowman.’ Zara pointed excitedly to the huge snowman standing in the middle of a large garden belonging to the little pink house on the corner. She dragged him over to have a look. ‘Isn’t it brilliant?’
‘This is really cool,’ Quinn said.
‘Literally,’ Immy laughed.
‘It’s massive,’ Alex said. ‘It has to easily be eight foot tall or more.’
Zara was beaming. ‘It took us hours to build it and Jake had to get a ladder out so we could put the buttons and carrot on the face.’
‘You’ve done a fantastic job,’ Quinn said. ‘He’s really smooth and he has a great shape. If you’re going to be an artist you have to take the time to get these little details right and you’ve done this perfectly.’
‘Like St Nick,’ Zara said, as they started walking back down the hill towards Christmas Gardens. ‘He takes time to get the little details right, like knowing that purple is my favourite colour.’
‘Yes, that’s right,’ Quinn said.
‘And knowing that peonies are Mum’s favourite flower.’
‘Yes.’
‘Not many people would know those things,’ Zara said.
‘That’s true, they wouldn’t,’ Alex said, looking over at Quinn.
He smiled.
‘Maybe it’s someone we know,’ Immy said.
‘We live in a small town, everyone knows everyone,’ Quinn said.
‘Zara wears purple a lot so a lot of people would have seen that. Alex often has peonies in a vase in the front window so people would have spotted that too. It’s someone who pays attention, I’ll give you that, but I wouldn’t necessarily be looking that close to home. ’
Alex stared at him and he knew he’d said too much.
‘But I feel sure we’ll catch them on this stakeout. They won’t be expecting someone to be watching out for them,’ Quinn said.
‘They might be in disguise,’ Zara said.
‘They might be,’ Quinn said, an idea forming in his mind.
‘We could go in disguise too,’ Zara suggested.
He wasn’t sure what the point of that would be but he’d happily sit in a car dressed as a clown or whatever disguise Zara wanted, if that made her happy.
They joined the crowds that were lining the streets ready for Santa’s big arrival.
He was coming from the direction of Mistletoe Farm, just up the hill, so a few people had already gathered along the roads from that direction, to get a clearer view of him and the reindeer, but most people wanted to see him arrive at Christmas Cottage so were surrounding the roads around Christmas Gardens.
As Quinn also lived in the cottage, he had set up the best spot to welcome Santa. They were going to stand in the doorway of the little shed next to the house so they could watch Santa pull right up to the house.
He ushered the women through the gardens and up the driveway and then unlocked the shed so they could stand in the doorway, out of the way of reindeer hooves but close enough to feel the warmth from their breath.
As the town clock chimed five o’clock, everyone fell silent, listening for the tell-tale sound of the jingle bells on the reindeers’ harnesses.
After a minute or two, someone yelled that he was coming and the crowd of people waiting to get a glimpse of the big man started whispering excitedly among themselves.
Then Quinn heard it, the soft jingle of the bells which grew louder as Santa got closer.
People started cheering, shouting and waving.
Then he saw the tops of the reindeers’ antlers and Santa’s hat, peeping out above the heads of the crowds.
He quickly lifted Zara up to sit on his shoulders, hoping she would get a better view from up there.
Santa did one complete circuit of the road around the outside of Christmas Gardens before coming up the driveway and they got their first unhindered view of him and the reindeer.
The sleigh was bright red with gold edges.
A huge sack full of beautifully wrapped presents sat in the back behind the big man himself, who was dressed in a deep red velvet suit lined with white fur and accented with gold buttons.
There wasn’t quite enough snow for it to be dragged along like a real sleigh, so there were wheels secreted inside the sleigh runners – you’d have to look really closely to see them but Quinn knew they were there.
But the most impressive thing was the eight real reindeer marching along, heads held high, their velvet antlers glistening in the Christmas lights.
They were wearing red and gold leather harnesses that had bells all over.
The whole thing looked utterly spectacular.
Santa waved at the crowds as he pulled the reindeer to a stop right outside Christmas Cottage. One of the workers from the farm, dressed as an elf, stepped forward to take control of the reindeer and, with a wave and a big ‘Ho, ho, ho,’ Santa stepped off the sleigh and walked into the house.
None of the children would be meeting Santa that night because those meetings were smaller, quieter, more intimate moments when Santa took the time to chat to all of the children, so there were scheduled meetings over the next few days for that.
But the children were allowed to come up and say hello to the reindeer, who would also be there for the next few days, under the careful eye of the farm workers who owned the reindeer.
Some people were already making their way up the drive to meet the reindeer so Quinn quickly ushered Zara forward to stroke them before the crowds descended.
‘They’re beautiful,’ Zara said reverentially, holding out a hand to stroke one of the creatures’ velvety necks.
The farm worker handed Zara a handful of lichen and directed her to hold her hand flat. Her eyes lit up with pure joy as the reindeer whiffled it out of her hand.
More people came up to stroke the reindeer and Quinn took a few steps back to allow other children room to meet these majestic beasts. But he kept an eye on Zara, enjoying how much she was loving meeting them.
Just then Max walked over and clapped him on the back. ‘Hey mate, are you free tonight?’
‘Yes, for a few hours anyway.’
‘Great, can you do me a huge favour?’
‘Of course, whatever you need. Although I was going to ask you to do me one, so maybe I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine,’ Quinn said.
‘Yeah sure, I’m happy to help.’
‘You haven’t heard what I need from you yet,’ Quinn pointed out. ‘You might run a mile once you hear.’
‘Whatever you need, I’m there,’ Max said.
Quinn smiled. ‘OK, let’s deal with your favour first. How can I help?’
‘Can you be Cleo’s plus one on Alex’s date tonight? I said I’d do it but I have to work.’
He’d obviously misheard, there were a lot of people around.
‘On Alex’s what?’
‘Her date. You and Cleo will be double dating them. You’ll be Cleo’s date while Alex and this dude are on their date. That way, if the bloke is a weirdo, you’ll be there to look after her.’
Quinn’s heart dropped. ‘Alex is going on a date tonight?’
He thought back to earlier when she’d told him she had a top secret meeting. Was that the date?
‘Yes, it’s all set up.’
‘But Alex doesn’t want to date anyone right now.’
‘Trust Cleo, she says she has chosen the absolutely perfect man for her.’
‘Does Alex know?’
‘No, she just thinks she’s meeting Cleo.’
‘Shouldn’t we tell her?’
‘And give her a chance to come up with a million reasons why she can’t make it? No way. She needs to get back on the horse, or so Cleo says, and she can’t let those two bad dates put her off.’
‘I don’t think that’s fair,’ Quinn protested. ‘She should be the one to choose who and when she dates, not Cleo.’