Page 69 of Escape for Christmas
Brody cringed.
‘Come and sit down,’ she said, leading him by the hand to the armchair. ‘I’ll make you a drink and find some food. No wonder you look shell-shocked.’
‘Thanks, but I’m OK, really,’ Brody insisted, desperate to downplay his part in the proceedings. He’d already begged Kev not to mention his name in the incident report they’d be sure to post on the rescue team’s website. The fewer people who knew about it, the better. He just wanted a hot drink, dry clothes and to go to bed. However, he had some news to break to Tegan first and he was pretty sure she wasn’t going to like it.
He sat down heavily in his dad’s chair, soothed by the hollow that both father and son had created. Very softly hemurmured, ‘Between us, that was a close one, Dad.’ He seriously needed a shower and longed simply to close his eyes and decompress after the past few tense hours, but he owed Tegan some time first.
She came back in, with a tray of hot drinks and mince pies. Even though it was half-past midnight, Brody was starving and very grateful.
‘Thanks,’ he said, devouring two pies while he answered Tegan’s many questions about what had happened.
‘You’ve earned a break tomorrow. You can sleep in late, and then it’ll be just the two of us together. I’ll cook dinner. It might not be turkey, but I noticed that your fridge and freezer are well stocked.’
‘Thank God for mum’s over-ordering, plus all the leftovers from the party we had the other night,’ he said. A well-stocked freezer was a tradition going back to his parents’ time. They’d had too many times when storms and snow had cut off the house. Now he thanked his lucky stars that his mother had badgered him into topping up the diesel to the generator the other day too.
Tegan tucked her knees under her on the sofa and pulled a blanket over her. ‘I’ll miss Mum and Dad, but it’s going to be quite cosy here with only the two of us.’
Brody put down his plate to broach the subject.
‘Well, it actually isn’t going to be only us for Christmas Day. The power in the village isn’t likely to be on until Boxing Day, so I invited Sophie and her guests to come here. It seemed wrong to make them stay in a dark house when I’ve got so much space.’
Tegan’s mouth fell open. ‘What? All of them?
‘Yes, plus the rest of the Nowaks – Pete and the two children.
‘B-but so many of them?’ Tegan spluttered. ‘Can’t they go to the pub or something?’
‘It will be closed on Christmas Day. It’ll be a difficult Christmas for all the villagers after this heavy snow has knocked out the power and blocked the roads.’
‘Oh, why don’t you ask the whole village then!’ Tegan said, flopping back against the sofa in a huff.
‘I’m not leaving Sophie and her guests to freeze, when we have power and light. I’d invited the Nowaks to stay with us tonight, but the kids were already asleep, so we decided not to disturb them and bring them out in the cold. They’ll be here in the morning, however,’ Brody said firmly, surprised to see that Tegan was being so selfish about this.
‘Right. Well, I suppose we’ve no choice.’
‘Idohave a choice. And I’ve made it.’
It was, he thought, the first time he’d seen her taken aback by something he’d said. Perhaps the first time he’d truly surprised her because he’d not let her have her own way.
Tegan looked very annoyed and he half expected her to flounce off to her room in disgust, but instead her frown melted into a smile.
‘Wow! Is this the new Brody? Decisive, determined, stubborn.’
‘I’m only interested in doing the right thing by people. The practical thing.’
She shook her head and sighed, with another smile. ‘You know your problem, Brody McKenna? You’re too damn nice.’ She pushed off the blanket, came over to his chair and planted a kiss on his cheek. Then she yawned and stretched her arms above her head. ‘I suppose I’d better go and get some sleep if I’m going to have to play hostess.’
Brody watched her go, but her words chimed in his head like the midnight church bells: ‘Too damn nice.’
He didn’t think of himself as ‘nice’, just an ordinary man doing his best. A best that hadn’t been good enough for Tegan, and certainly not for Sophie. While he cared about the children and the guests, he had to admit he’d mainly invited them for Sophie’s sake. He was determined to make amends to her, in any way he could.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Sophie woke with a crick in her neck the next morning, a cat kneading her stomach and total disorientation. Why was she in her tracksuit on her sofa under a spare duvet? Why was it already light? She should have been up in the darkness, preparing breakfast … now it was almost 9 a.m.!
Belle licked her toes, which were poking out of the duvet. Slowly the events of last night came back to her, along with snatches of children’s voices from the hallway.
Miaow!
