Thea felt her heart do that little flipping thing she’d been trying to ignore whenever Nick did something adorable. ‘I’d like that.’ She had a bright idea. ‘Give me a minute, and I’ll whip us up a couple of lattes to take on the walk. I’ve got a couple of decent travel mugs.’
‘Sounds great. Can you put an extra sugar in mine?’
‘You’re sweet enough already!’ Thea quipped and then regretted it as her face grew hot and Cora threw her an enquiring glance. ‘I, er, won’t be a minute.’
As good as her word, within a few minutes they were heading out the front door towards the wooded area that divided the housing estate from the rest of Lower Brambleton. Sipping her coffee, Thea tried not to think about just how lovely it had been to open the door and find Nick on the other side of it. Shrugging deeper into her thick, quilted winter parka, she tried instead to concentrate on the gorgeous surroundings.
‘Well, I think the tree is a hit, don’t you?’
Thea nodded enthusiastically. Even though she was mid-sip from her travel mug. ‘It really is,’ she said after a moment. ‘Thank you again, Nick.’
‘What are friends for?’
There was something about Nick’s tone that made Thea glance across at him. They were ambling down the winding path that led from the edge of the housing estate down towards the small centre of Lower Brambleton. It was a path that had been renovated since the houses had been erected, which made it easier to follow, but there were few other walkers using it on a quiet Sunday morning. The route they were following led to the village, but if they’d walked the other way, they’d have ended up on Buttermere Lane, where Lorelai’s cottage was. Thea had been scanning the path as they’d walked, but Nick’s voice brought her up short.
‘I’m so glad you’re my friend, Nick,’ she said carefully. ‘You and I… we’ve known each other a long time, haven’t we? I mean, I know we’ve only been spending more time together recently, but old friendships count for a lot, don’t you think?’
Nick grinned. ‘Definitely! But you saying it like that makes me feel old.’
‘Me too.’
They walked a little further. The sun was shining brightly overhead, casting a slight winter warmth through the bare branches of the beech trees and dappling the path when the beeches were interspersed by the conifers and pines that also grew in the wood. The heady scent of pine balsam gave the air a festive feel, and Thea breathed deeply. She’d never tire of that scent. It was tied to so many memories of her childhood: long, lazy afternoons with her friends, tucked out of the way of the enquiring eyes of well-meaning adults, walks with Lorelai, both with, and later without, Barney, Lorelai’s rotund chocolate Labrador, and, casting her mind back even further to the hazy days of early childhood, spending time in the woods when her parents had been alive. Often, they’d take a break from their work at the observatory to stretch their legs, and that scent was a reminder of times lost and long past.
‘Penny for them?’ Nick teased, as Thea realised she’d gone silent.
‘Sorry. I was just thinking that I don’t get out here nearly enough any more. Sometimes I forget how much I need just to reconnect with nature, and how lucky I am to have all this on the doorstep.’
‘I can’t ever imagine living anywhere else,’ Nick said. Thea noticed that he looked slightly embarrassed as he admitted that. ‘That probably makes me sound like a boring old fart.’
‘Not at all,’ Thea protested. ‘You’re loyal to your roots. It’s one of the things I’ve always loved about you…’ It was her turn to look embarrassed, and, searching for something to comment on to move the conversation on, she instead took another gulp of her coffee.
If Nick read anything into her turn of phrase, he didn’t show it. Thea was relieved. Things had been a bit odd between them since the incident with Tally and the mistletoe, and she couldn’t get that hug they’d shared on Thursday night out of her mind. It was stupid, really; they had a friendly shorthand, but it seemed as though she’d been struggling to interpret it lately. She was probably just tired and stressed, but it really did feel as though one minute they were behaving like the friends they’d once been, and the next, she didn’t know what to say or how to behave around him.
‘Thea, Nick!’ A voice called to them from up to their left, and as Thea turned at the familiar tones, she felt a maddening combination of relief and frustration. There, standing on the bank above the path were Tristan and Charlotte, and gambolling down the incline towards them was Comet, Charlotte’s adorable cocker spaniel.
‘Oh, hi you two,’ Thea called up to them, before leaning down to ruffle Comet’s ears. ‘What brings you out this way?’
‘Gran offered us Sunday lunch,’ Tristan said as he made his way down the bank. ‘And we said we’d come over early so I could get her Christmas decorations down from the attic. You know how much she hates asking us to do things, but I didn’t want her getting up a ladder with no one else in the house.’
‘I’d have been more than happy to do that,’ Thea replied. She felt guilty that the only time she’d seen Lorelai that week was that brief chat at the late-night shopping evening. She usually popped in a couple of times a week, but she’d been so caught up at work, doing both jobs, that she hadn’t had the chance.
‘It’s fine, sis.’ Tristan, who was dressed in green wellies and scruffy jeans, as well as a thick woolly jumper, smiled. ‘We were going to drop in on you later, anyway, just to see if there’s anything you thought we should buy for Christmas dinner.’
‘Not that I can think of, but I’ll let you know,’ Thea replied.
‘So, what brings you two out here, all alone?’ Tristan’s enquiring gaze shifted from Nick to Thea. ‘Don’t tell me this is finally a first date? After all these years?’
‘Don’t be daft, mate!’ Nick interjected. ‘Your sister’s got much better taste than that.’
Thea shook her head. ‘I could do a lot worse, as we all well know!’ As she explained that Cora and Dylan had thrown them out of the house so they could decorate the tree and surprise her with it, Tristan’s expression softened.
‘That’s so cool. They’re great together when they’re not squabbling, aren’t they?’
Thea nodded. ‘They really are.’
There was a pause, and Charlotte, who’d slithered down the bank in Tristan’s wake, cleared her throat. ‘We should probably be getting back to Lorelai’s, Tris, she’ll be wondering where we are.’
‘Yeah, you’re right,’ Tristan replied. He gave Thea a parting grin. ‘I’ll swing by later before we head back, just in case you can think of anything we’ll need on Christmas Day.’