Page 37 of Escape for Christmas
He clutched the dog stocking to him. ‘I’m not trying to stop you. I only wanted to explain …’
‘I don’t think you can explain being engaged and—’ She paused while a woman plucked a pouch of reindeer cat food from the shelf. ‘And what happened in the stable.’
As soon as the woman had gone, Brody grabbed the end of her trolley so that she couldn’t move. ‘Nothing happened.’
Sophie didn’t correct him, wanting to put last night to the back of her mind.
‘Sophie, I really do care about you,’ Brody said. ‘And believe me, I want to explain, but I just can’t …’
‘Can’t?’ Sophie hissed. ‘What does that mean?’
‘That I – can’t give you an explanation for my behaviour. Yet.’
‘“Yet?”’ she scoffed. ‘Brody, I don’t think you’ll ever be able to give me a good enough explanation as to why you didn’t tell me you were engaged. Now please, I wouldgreatlyappreciate it if you could let go of my trolley, so that I don’t have to reverse it back around the shelves. I need to get home to my guests and my cats.’
‘You’ll understand one day,’ he murmured. ‘I promise.’ He decided to step aside and create a gap between the cat toys and the kitty litter, allowing Sophie to wheel her trolley past him.
‘Thanks,’ she said and kept her eyes firmly to the front.
The whole charade was so childish, yet she felt awful that he’d lied to her, after everything she told him she’d been through, and she couldn’t help but wonder if something might have happened between them, if Tegan hadn’t surprised him. If not last night, then at some point over Christmas maybe?
Hating the thought of what might have been, she pushed her trolley towards the tills. There were two operators, one with three people queuing and one with two. Sophie chose the shortest one, hoping to get out of there fast.
She soon realised she’d picked the short straw, because the person in front of her had a problem with their payment card, and their pigs-in-blankets were out of date. It all addedto the delay and the tension, as her queue didn’t move when she simply wanted to make a speedy exit.
Then, to her horror, she found herself standing right next to Brody as he joined the other queue beside her. She looked over her shoulder at him, but he was just staring at the floor, holding on to his dog stocking and a large bag of carrots for dear life.
‘Next, please!’ the assistant called. ‘Oh, hello, Brody! What are you doing for Christmas? Not working, I hope?’ The bells on her antler headdress tinkled merrily.
‘I’m on-call,’ Brody told her.
‘But you’ll be able to have Christmas lunch?’
‘Yes, but I’ll have to stay off the wine.’
‘Poor you. Oh, is this stocking for Harold? I do love Harold. And are the carrots for Christmas dinner?’
‘No, they’re for the donkey.’
‘Well, we can’t forget our pets. They’re part of the family, aren’t they? Will you be spending the day at Felltop or at your mother’s.’
‘I’ll be at …’ Brody hesitated. ‘We’re going round to a friend’s.’
Sophie let out a snort of disgust. He couldn’t even say Tegan’s name. Why was it such a secret? Why wasn’t he proud to tell everyone about her. Sophie had an inkling …
Brody tapped his card on the terminal.
‘Have a lovely time, and don’t work too hard,’ the assistant trilled, her antlers jingling.
Sophie watched him scurry away without a glance at her.
‘Next, please!’
‘Oh, sorry.’ Distracted by Brody, Sophie hadn’t noticed it was her turn when her own queue moved on.
Her till operator was the farm-shop owner, Hazel, who after nine months of serving Sophie knew her well enough to chat to. She wore an elf hat with a bell on top and had rosy cheeks painted on with lipstick.
‘Stocking up for the guests, are we?’ Hazel asked, scanning the bar code on the pre-order box. ‘I bet they need a proper Cumbrian fry-up in this weather.’
