Page 53 of Snow Going Back

‘Why don’t you want Coreaux Roots?’

Sam shrugged. ‘I just don’t. It’s a wonderful place and I love it, but it was my uncle’s dream, not mine.’

‘But don’t you want to look after it forthem?’ she asked. ‘After everything they’ve built, everythingyouinvested? Matthew told me the wood fibre plastic stuff was all you – don’t you want to keep it going?’

Sam frowned. ‘No. I don’t.’

Kate frowned, too, confused. She cast her gaze forward, trying to understand him and failing. It was such a gift to have been left. And one he’d clearly been heavily involved in.

‘The Coreaux Roots family means a lot to me,’ Sam told her. ‘But the idea of going in there every day, sitting in an office to continue someone else’s dream kills me on the inside. It makes me feeltrapped. Like I’d be stuck in a cage while the life I really want is still out there, you know?’

Kate looked away into the darkness. ‘Yeah, I do,’ she said quietly. It was something she understood all too well, in fact.

They passed the bandstand, and Kate nodded at a half-built stage beside it. ‘What’s that for?’

Sam glanced over. ‘That’s where the nativity scene goes each year. Santa’s grotto usually sits behind it. Mike’s Santa this year.’ He grinned.

‘Ohwow,’ Kate replied with a laugh and a look of joking concern.

‘Actually, he’s surprisingly good at it,’ Sam told her. ‘Calls it his missed calling in life. Likes to tell people that if the police gig doesn’t work out, that he’ll?—’

‘What?’ Kate cut in with a grin. ‘Become a year-round Santa?’

‘I think more just a general actor,’ Sam answered, his expression matching hers. ‘Like, a really good local Z-lister. I mean, there’s always a call forsomesort of seasonal character. You’ve got the Easter bunny…’

Kate nodded. ‘True.’

‘Cupid.’ He raised an eyebrow as if to jokingly suggest this as a perfect fit. ‘I can see Mike as a cupid, spreading the love in a toga and wings.’

‘It’s the baldness that makes it work,’ Kate agreed with mock seriousness. ‘That and his height.’

‘It helped Danny DeVito’s career,’ Sam added.

Kate laughed, reaching up to tuck her hair back behind her ear, then lowered her hand to see Sam staring at her with a small smile. ‘What?’ she asked, giving him an odd look.

‘Nothing, you just look really nice when you’re happy,’ he replied, his tone warm. ‘When you smile – yourrealsmile, I mean, not that other one you do – you look, well, beautiful.’ He held her gaze, and for a moment something changed, and she felt a strange skitter run through her core. Then suddenly he turned to look forward again with a shrug. ‘Almosthuman.’

Kate forced a laugh. ‘Almost,’ she agreed.

They carried on down the road to the corner.

‘You know, Mike could always hire himself out for parties between seasons, too,’ she said.

Sam nodded, glancing sideways at her with an unreadable expression. ‘True. Plus, there’s bar mitzvahs and funerals.’

‘I really don’t know why he’s still wasting his time on the force,’ Kate replied with a grin. ‘Oh, look at that.’ She stopped. ‘They must have decorated this while we were out tonight.’

She stared up at the large freshly decorated fir tree in the front garden of the house next to them. The twinkling lights reflected off the bright shining baubles and a golden-haloed angel looked down from the top. The quiet tones of ‘Silent Night’ drifted across the night sky from somewhere nearby, and as it filled the air, Kate smiled, feeling like she’d stepped right off the path and into Christmas Day itself for a moment.

‘I love Christmas,’ she breathed. ‘It’s so full of magic.’

Kate closed her mouth suddenly, realising she’d let her guard down. She didn’t usually share such fanciful thoughts with people. She’d clearly had more to drink than she’d realised. But Sam didn’t laugh at her words, the way she’d expected him to. The way most people would have hearing those words coming from the mouth of a thirty-five-year-old woman. Instead, he just stared up at the tree with her.

‘My aunt and uncle always saw the magic in everything,’ he replied. ‘And they taught me how to see it, too. Something I’m eternally grateful for, having spent my earlier years thinking all there was in this world was cold, hard reality. Life’s pretty grey for those who can’t find the magic.’

‘I always thought that, too,’ Kate said, turning to look at him.

Sam stared up at the tree, the lights reflecting brightly in his blue eyes and a ghost of a smile lifting the corners of his mouth. A dimple creased into the dark stubble between his strong jaw and cheekbones, and for a moment, Kate caught a glimpse of the boy inside the man. The boy filled with the same wonder and joy she still felt for Christmas, too. She smiled softly, feeling a sudden warmth towards him she hadn’t before.

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