Page 33 of Decorated

Dave and Lucy turned towards the stage for a moment, and as soon as they did, Blaine jerked to the side. He most likely would have bolted if Alfie hadn’t caught his wrist to hold him still. As soon as Blaine rocked back, like he was anchored, Alfie adjusted his hand to hold his.

The applause died down and Rebecca announced the next act. As soon as the new batch of kids started some sort of holiday skit, Dave and Lucy turned back to Blaine.

“I’m sorry,” Blaine said, keeping his contrite voice down. “Sue me, but spare Dave. It was my fault. I should have checked everything before leaving the house that night. Bring the law down on me, but let Dave go.”

Dave and Lucy gaped at Blaine for a moment.

Then they burst into laughter.

Alfie tightened his hand around Blaine’s, not sure he appreciated their reaction.

“Darling, everything is alright,” Lucy said, reaching out to touch Blaine’s other arm. “The fault was with the wiring, not anything you did.”

Blaine gusted out a breath like she’d punched him in the stomach. Alfie shifted closer to give him support in case he fell over. He wasn’t at all surprised by what Lucy said, though. He resisted the urge to say, “I told you so.”

“Besides,” Lucy went on, “I had that house insured to the rafters. The investigators have already determined there was no fault in the fire, and they will be paying me a more than generous sum for the damage.”

“They…will?” Blaine asked breathlessly.

“And we have insurance as well,” Dave went on. “In this case, we don’t need it, but even if we did, we’re covered.”

Blaine shook his head. “I forgot to pay the premiums.”

“Yes, you did,” Dave said, “because you were up to your eyeballs in renovations and redecorating. You were so busy engaged in everything that makes our business what it is and in giving our clients the most for their money that of course a little administrative task would slip through your fingers. That’s why I paid the premiums for us.”

Blaine’s mouth dropped open as once again, he went speechless. This time for an entirely different reason.

“Oh, it gets better than that,” Lucy said with a mischievous grin. She slipped closer to Dave, taking his hand. “Thanks to this whole incident, Dave and I have been forced to talk again. At first it was talk about the fire, but then we got around to talking about the past.”

“There were a lot of things left unsaid between us before,” Dave said, squeezing Lucy’s hand and beaming at her like she’d hung the stars. “A lot of misunderstanding led to our break-up.”

“To make a long story short,” Lucy picked up the story, “we got back together.” She leaned into Dave, hugging his arm.

Dave smiled at her, then kissed her lips quickly just as the audience applauded something going on in the kids’ skit. He then turned to Blaine and said, “We never would have talked things through and gotten back together if you hadn’t disappeared and left me to deal with the client.”

“So really, we owe you for patching things up between us,” Lucy finished.

Blaine was still speechless.

“What a beautiful story,” Alfie said, answering with what he hoped Blaine felt, too.

“So wait,” Blaine said, seeming to snap out of his stupor. He shook his head, then said, “You two got back together, everyone has insurance, and nobody’s head is going to roll?”

“No, not at all,” Dave said. “That’s what I’ve been trying to find you all week to tell you.”

“I—” Blaine’s mouth worked for a moment without any words coming out.

“That’s wonderful,” Alfie answered for him again. “I’m so happy that your story ended well.”

“So am I,” Lucy said, sending Dave a love-struck smile.

Another round of applause sounded, and when they all turned toward the stage, the kids had joined hands and were bowing to the audience. From the sound of things, the skit had been a huge success.

Robert returned to the center of the stage as the kids scampered off and announced, “And now we’ll break for refreshments, but stay tuned, because I hear Santa is on his way.”

There was another smattering of applause and a few teasing gasps of excitement from the adults in the room.

The kids were mostly busy rushing to take their costumes off or to be the first ones to the refreshment table, which had just been stocked with sweets of every kind. A few of the kids, including the Christmas fairy girl, spotted Alfie at the back of the room and made a beeline right towards him.

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