Page 11 of Christmas for the Village Midwife
Zoe grinned. Corrine and Victor had been the first people in Thimblebury to find out she and Alex were dating, and rather embarrassingly it was because Victor had caught them in a steamy kiss at her gate the first morning after the first night before. And she still wasn’t used to calling her nearest neighbour apart from them her boyfriend, though that was what he’d become. It seemed that the rest of Thimblebury, as they gradually found out, were as surprised and pleased as she was, and it never took long for the conversation to turn to him, especially here in Daffodil Farm, given Victor and Corrine liked him almost as much as she did.
‘He’s fine,’ Zoe said coyly.
‘Only fine? Well, that’s disappointing.’
‘Very fine,’ Zoe added with a giggle. ‘Very fine indeed.’
They both started to laugh but were interrupted by a bemused-looking Victor at the kitchen doorway.
‘What’s so funny?’
There was more laughter, and even if she’d wanted to explain the joke to Victor, Zoe was pretty sure she wouldn’t be able to.
5
The nearby town of Keswick already looked festive, and Zoe couldn’t wait to see how pretty it would look once the Christmas lights had officially been switched on. There was an air of expectation in the crowd that had gathered to see a local radio celebrity that Zoe wasn’t familiar with do the grand lever pull. There was also a symphony of wonderful smells, of mulled wine and sizzling meat and tangy melted cheese and spiced sugared treats on sale at brightly lit stalls and vans parked around the perimeter. Christmas hits were blasting over a sound system, and Zoe grinned as Alex began to sing along.
Though she was warmed to see it, there was a touch of melancholy too. A couple of weeks previously, and not long after they’d got together, had marked the anniversary of his wife’s death, and though he seemed positive now, at the time he’d struggled. He was so upbeat today that Zoe worried he was forcing it so he wouldn’t ruin the night for her. She was simply happy to be there with him, and if he was a little sad in the background, she didn’t mind him admitting it. In fact, she wanted him to because she wanted to support him in whatever way he needed, and she’d said as much, but he’d insisted hewas fine. He was more than fine, he’d said, looking forward to a happier Christmas than he’d had since his wife Jennifer’s last one, and he felt that his daughter Billie was too.
There was another reason he was upbeat, and it worried Zoe almost as much as the first one she’d been fretting about. His twenty-three-year-old daughter Billie, who’d announced some months before that she planned to have her baby adopted, seemed to be softening on the idea. Or rather, she didn’t mention it as often, which had given Alex hope that she was going off it. Zoe felt the situation was far too complex to be so certain and that not talking about it didn’t necessarily mean it wasn’t going to happen. She was afraid of the bitter disappointment for Alex if Billie did follow through on her adoption plan after all.
‘It’s getting cold,’ he said, fishing a pair of gloves from his coat pocket.
‘But it looks so lovely with the snow everywhere. I know some people hate it – mostly me if I have to drive in it – but right now I don’t want it to stop. It’s making me feel very Christmassy.’
‘I know what you mean. There’s almost three weeks to go – it’ll probably be gone by Christmas Day as well.’
‘And if we’ve had it all now, that means no more until January, I expect. That’s usually how it is, right?’
‘We’ll just have to make the best of it while we have it.’ He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and kissed the top of her head. ‘Want a hot chocolate while we’re waiting for everything to start? I could go and get us one.’
Zoe glanced towards the trailer. ‘The queue looks massive. The switch-on might happen while you’re waiting to be served.’
‘I’m sure it will be fine. I’ll keep one eye on my watch, and if it looks like I won’t get served in time, I’ll abandon it and come back over.’
‘Or I could come with you…’
‘But you’ve got a great spot here. You said yourself you never get a decent view of anything at events because…’
‘I’m vertically challenged?’
He grinned, reaching to smooth a lock of her dark bobbed hair behind one ear. ‘You said it, not me. I’d say you’re small but perfectly formed.’
‘Just not perfectly equipped to see anything at a concert. Do you know what? It’s just nice to be here. If I get a good view, that’s great, but if I don’t, I’ll be happy just soaking up the atmosphere, so I’ll come and queue up with you. I’d rather be with you when the lights go on than standing on my own. And the last thing I want to do is lose you in this crowd. Or you lose me, which is more likely because I make Thumbelina look like a giant.’
‘I love that you’re so tiny. It’s adorable.’
‘I’m hardly going to grow now, so you’d have to say that whether it’s true or not.’
‘Come on then…’ He offered a hand, and she took it.
As they walked, her thoughts turned again to his wife, Jennifer. There were many questions she’d wanted to ask about her but hadn’t felt able to. Silly things really, of no real consequence. Was she anything like Zoe? What were the things that had made Alex fall in love with her? She’d seen a photo on the wall in his house, but it hadn’t really told her much, except that she’d had huge blue eyes and she’d been willowy, like Billie. She’d had a luminous smile – Zoe could see that even from an old photo. She looked like someone who’d loved life. And something in the way she looked at the camera, something coquettish, told Zoe that she’d probably had a sharp sense of humour too. Had she been smarter, sexier, funnier than Zoe? The thing with Alex was so new that, while she enjoyed being with him, there was still so much uncertainty that it sometimes caught her unawares, and then she’d doubt everything.
She tried to push the niggles away. There would be other, better days to deal with them, days that wouldn’t be ruined by their presence. This was an evening she wanted to remember in a good way. Their first Christmas together was something she wanted to be a happy memory for them both in years to come.
Alex’s hand closed around hers, and in that instant every doubt was banished. He looked down at her, those dark, generous eyes filled with not only love, but admiration too. He’d told her often enough how proud he was of her, how proud he was to be with her, and if she had doubts about anything else, she had none about that. It was in everything he did.
She’d asked him what it was, what she’d done to make him feel that way, and he’d told her she hadn’t done anything but be herself, which, in his eyes, was as perfect as a person could be.
