Chapter One #2
Immediately, Lottie stopped crying and turned to see. Michelle threw Jen a grateful look as she managed to soothe the baby.
‘What’s that? In the sky?’ Jen asked.
Lottie pressed her face to the glass, completely absorbed now, the hat forgotten.
‘I thought I saw Father Christmas.’ She wasn’t a fan of getting excited for Christmas early – or at all, these days – but the situation called for desperate measures.
Lottie turned to her, laughing. ‘That’s silly! He’s not in the sky yet.’
‘Isn’t he? I thought he might be bringing my present.’
‘No. You have to wait and be patient, even though it’s difficult.’ Lottie was serious now, and Jen worked hard to stop her lips twitching into a smile; this was obviously what her parents had told her.
‘Oh no, do I?’
Lottie nodded enthusiastically, placing the hat on the table and focusing her full attention on Jen.
‘Yes, because he’s very busy now with all the elves and they’re working hard to make all the presents for the girls and boys.
’ She looked Jen up and down. ‘And – and ladies.’ She glanced at her mum, a question, and Michelle nodded, supressing a smile.
‘Yes, and ladies, but he can’t bring them till Christmas Eve and that’s why you have to wait and then he’ll come but only when all the girls and boys are asleep.
And the ladies, the ladies have to be asleep too. ’
Again she looked to her mum for confirmation, and again was given a small nod.
‘Oh,’ Jen said. ‘OK then. Thanks for telling me.’
‘That’s all right.’ She patted Jen’s hand, and the sweetness of the gesture ignited a fuzzy feeling in Jen.
It was followed by memories of a pair of blue eyes, and then swiftly by a stab of pain that brought tears to her eyes.
She blinked them away. Lottie cocked her head.
‘Did you forget that? Old people forget things, don’t they?
’ She looked at her mum, nodding wisely, and Michelle looked mortified.
Jen laughed. They were celebrating her thirty-second birthday this weekend; she didn’t think that qualified as decrepit just yet.
‘I know a song about Santa,’ she said. ‘About him getting stuck in a chimney.’
‘I know that too!’
‘So do I,’ a voice said from across the aisle.
Surprised, Jen turned to see the handsome man grinning, his book face-down on the table.
Lottie was bouncing up and down in her seat. ‘Let’s sing it!’
And so they did – Lottie, Jen, Michelle and the guy across the aisle, three times in a row and complete with actions. When they’d finished, Lottie was beaming, all upset forgotten, and she didn’t even notice when Michelle gently pushed the hat back to Jen.
Jen gave her handsome fellow passenger a questioning look, and he shrugged, smiling. ‘I have nieces.’
Babblebrook was announced as the next stop, and Michelle began to gather their things. ‘This is our stop.’
‘Oh, mine too.’ Jen stood to lift the bag down, then shrugged on her coat and hat.
She looked over her shoulder hopefully, but the man across the aisle made no move to get ready to depart.
Swallowing her disappointment, she helped Lottie down from the seat and followed the family to the door, where Michelle strapped Max back into his buggy.
‘Are you visiting someone?’ Michelle asked as they clambered down, managing the buggy while Jen heaved her bag out and then helped Lottie jump off.
Jen watched wistfully as Book Guy waved at her through the window as the train pulled away. A man who read her favourite book and knew the actions to ‘When Santa Got Stuck Up the Chimney’. Not to mention had the looks of a film star. And she hadn’t even got his number.
She shook her head, dragging her gaze from the departing train to Michelle.
Of course Babblebrook was the kind of place where everyone knew each other.
Of course Michelle would know Jen didn’t live there.
Jen thought briefly of Julia and her family, who lived in the row of cottages next to the station.
She ignored the stab of guilt. ‘I’m just staying in an Airbnb with some friends for the weekend. ’
‘Oh, the converted barn?’
Jen nodded. Clearly Babblebrook was the kind of place where everyone knew which house did Airbnb. It must be a nightmare to have everyone knowing your business all the time, she thought, taking in the spotless little station with wooden flower troughs and the gleaming, green-painted metal sign.
‘Well, I hope you have fun. And thanks for your help with this one.’ She glanced fondly at Lottie, who was fussing over Max’s blanket. ‘Perhaps we’ll see you around.’
Jen hoped not. No offence intended, but she was planning to hole up for a weekend catching up with her friends, and with a bit of luck the rest of Babblebrook wouldn’t even know she was there.
Still, she’d developed a soft spot for the family, especially Lottie. She crouched down by the little girl, taking her hat off her head and holding it out to her.
‘Do you think you can look after Mildred for me?’ she asked. ‘I think she wants to come home with you.’
Lottie’s eyes widened and her face took on a solemn expression as she took the hat, cradling it. She nodded. ‘I’ll take so good care of her.’
Jen stood up, grinning and ruffling the girl’s hair. ‘I know you will.’
‘That’s so kind of you, you didn’t have to do that,’ Michelle said, smiling. ‘Lottie, what do you say?’
Lottie opened her mouth, but her response was drowned out by a cacophony of shouting and whooping. Jen’s friends had arrived.