Page 27 of Could It Be Magic?
‘Sure. See you later.’
As Tristan and Charlotte headed in the opposite direction, back to Nightshade Cottage, Nick looked thoughtfully after them. ‘I still can’t believe that your twin brother fell head over heels for someone after all these years. I could have sworn he’d have been a sad bachelor like me for the rest of his days!’
‘Neither of you is sad,’ Thea protested. ‘You’ll find someone, Nick, just like Tris has, and when you do, you’ll be as happy as he is, I know it.’
Nick didn’t reply. The silence stretched between them as the mellifluous carolling of a blackbird harmonised with a robin just above their heads in the branches of a sleeping beech tree. He took a step towards her, but just as he did, the rather less harmonious trill of Thea’s phone broke the mood. Whipping it out of her jacket pocket, she read the screen and swiped immediately.
‘Hello? Oh, great, yes, darling, we’ll head back and see. In a bit. Bye.’
Putting her phone away, she looked at Nick again.
‘Sorry,’ she said. ‘What were you saying?’
‘Never mind.’ He gave her a slightly crooked smile. ‘Was that Cora?’
‘Yup. Tree’s all ready for the ceremonial placing of the retro plastic angel!’
‘You’d better get back to it, then. Wouldn’t want to keep the angel from her rightful place.’
As they walked back towards the house, Thea yet again wondered if she was reading things wrong. Nick, who’d always been so open with her, was giving her some very confusing signals lately. The problem was, if she didn’t start working out what he meant soon, she was going to run the very real risk of making a complete idiot of herself and perhaps losing his friendship in the process.
Soon, they were at the front door again. Thea paused. ‘Would you like another coffee?’
‘No thanks, I’m good.’ Nick passed her his cup. ‘I promised I’d look in on Mum and Dad before lunch and see if there was anything they needed doing. Dad’s still moaning like hell about his back, and although Mum’s hip’s on the mend, she’ll break it again if she doesn’t rest, so I’m going to go and mediate for a bit.’
‘Sounds like fun!’ Thea quipped weakly. Damn. There’s that pause again.
‘Well, I’ll see you at work on Thursday, if not before,’ she said, eventually.
‘See you.’ Nick leaned towards her, and Thea felt her knees going wobbly. The feeling of his hand on her forearm, warm even through the layers of her coat, sent a dizzying tingle up to her shoulder. As his lips gently brushed her cheek, she closed her eyes in reflexive pleasure.
‘See you,’ she replied, wishing she was brave enough to turn her head a little to the right. But it would appear that neither she, nor he, had the confidence to make that chaste kiss of friendship into something more. Not just yet, anyway. As she let herself into the house, her hands were still a little shaky.
23
The dazed look on her face must have registered with Cora as her daughter gave her a broad grin when Thea poked her head around the living room door.
‘Nice walk?’
Thea nodded. ‘Great, thanks.’ The expectant looks on her children’s faces needed a better response, though, and she turned her full attention to the Christmas tree.
‘You’ve done a brilliant job!’ she exclaimed, taking in the coloured riot of lights, baubles, decorations the children had made at primary school and even further back in nursery, and the tinsel that they’d wrapped around the Christmas tree stand. She turned back to them. ‘I don’t think we’ve ever had such a lovely looking tree.’
Cora grinned at her. ‘Thanks to your good friend, Nick, of course.’
‘Yeah,’ Thea admitted, ‘but you’ve both done such a great job making it look so festive.’ She slid an arm around them both. ‘I feel really Christmassy, now.’
Cora handed her the angel, which was waiting patiently on the table. ‘You can do the honours, Mum.’
Thea, touched, nodded. ‘Let’s do it together, like we always do.’ They all put their hands on the angel and guided it to the top of the tree. Dylan had recently had a growth spurt, and Thea felt a pang when she realised she didn’t have to lift him up for this particular family ritual any more. As she hooked the angel’s cord over the top spur of the tree, she wondered how much longer they’d keep doing this. Someday, when they’d grown up and left home, Christmases might not be spent this way.
Shaking off that maudlin thought, she smiled down at them both. ‘How about a massive mug of hot chocolate each, and I might even have a stash of marshmallows I’ve been saving for Christmas to float on top?’
The children whooped, and Thea went to the kitchen to make the drinks while they bickered over which film to watch.
Upon her return to the living room, Cora and Dylan had flumped on the sofa and were arguing the toss between the latest Marvel offering and a young-adult romcom. Thea took a sip of her own drink. ‘Do I get a say?’
‘Nope!’ Cora and Dylan chorused. Shaking her head, she was about to toss a coin between them to settle it once and for all when Cora, who’d wrestled control of the remote from her brother again, grinned at Thea.
