Page 57 of Christmas for the Village Midwife
‘Right then…’ Alex blew into his hands. ‘What now? Do we wait here for a reply? Go back to the party?’
‘Maybe we should give it a minute,’ Zoe said.
She held up her phone as if she could invite Georgia’s reply to fly into it. But after a couple of minutes of Alex stomping his feet and rubbing his hands together, it was clear she wasn’t going to get one any time soon. ‘We ought to go back. I can keep an eye on my phone just as well there.’
‘What if she says she does need you?’
‘I’ll have to sneak off again. Or make an excuse to leave…I can always say I’m tired. Nobody will miss me.’
‘I think they will, but it sounds like the best plan for now. There’s no point in standing here freezing to death if nothing is happening.’
‘Come on then – let’s get back to the party. You’re right, at least it will be warm. Thanks for coming out with me,’ she added as they started to walk.
‘You’re worried about your friend – why wouldn’t I come?’
‘I don’t know…’ She shrugged. She wanted to say that her doubt came from the marriage she’d recently walked away from, because Ritchie, her ex, wouldn’t have come with her. He’d have told her to ignore it, that it wasn’t her problem, that she shouldn’t get involved in other people’s lives. She’d have been persuaded to step away too because he had a way of making her feel he was right, even when she knew he wasn’t. That was the thing about Ritchie – everything was good as long as his world was good. Alex was nothing like that, but she wasn’t used to being with a man who cared as much as he did. She couldn’t say it, though, because she didn’t want to remind herself of Ritchie, and she didn’t want Alex to think she was comparing them in any way because he might not understand it.
‘Uh-oh,’ he said, holding out his palm to catch a flake of snow. ‘Looks like we’re going to get another dose. The forecast said it was coming.’
‘Do you think we ought to go back up the hill in case it gets bad?’
‘We’ll give it an hour, eh? If we go back now and Georgia texts you, wanting you to go over, we might struggle to come back down. At least if we’re close by, it won’t be so bad. We’ll keep an eye on it, eh? If the snow gets heavier and she hasn’t messaged you in an hour or so, we’ll make a decision then.’
‘OK,’ Zoe said, reaching for his hand and glad of the warmth there. She wished she could tell him her thoughts about Ritchie and how different they were, because she wanted to tell him how much his support meant to her. Instead, she simply repeated those three words, the ones they’d shared for the first time that day, and then he smiled down at her with snow in his hair and said them too, and that was enough.
18
Zoe should have known that any attempt to sneak out of the party and then back in without being noticed would fail spectacularly. They’d hardly pushed open the door when there was a cheer from the other side of the room. Zoe looked to see Magnus with his hands in the air, grinning at them.
‘And just where have you two been? Sneaking away for romance, eh?’
Zoe glanced at Alex and then smiled at Magnus. ‘Ah, you caught us! Sorry for running out, but…’ She gave a helpless shrug. ‘Did we miss anything?’
‘You missed my “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables”!’ he said, laughing.
‘Huh?’
‘You know,’ Geoff cut in. ‘The song. FromLes Mis.’
‘Sorry,’ Alex said. ‘Not really a musical theatre fan.’
Magnus mimed an arrow shooting him through the heart. ‘No! And I was singing it just for you!’
‘Were you?’ Zoe looked bemused.
‘Of course! Because you had gone and your chairs were empty!’
‘Ah…’ Zoe gave a little laugh, exchanged another brief look with Alex and then took her coat off. Magnus rushed to take it and then waited patiently for Alex’s before staggering into another room with them.
Ottilie came over, rosy-cheeked, nibbling a cheese straw. ‘If you’d have said you were going out, I’d have come. It’s boiling in here, and I could do with some air.’
‘It’s just started to snow, so it would definitely cool you down,’ Zoe said. ‘Want me to come with you?’
‘I’ll get Heath in a minute…if I can find him. Last time I saw him, he was deep in conversation with Simon about something. Looked a bit serious, but then, isn’t Simon always serious? Anyway, wheredidyou two go?’ she asked. ‘And I only need the clean version.’
Zoe smiled. ‘It was nothing like that. I was a bit hot too.’
Ottilie raised her eyebrows. ‘So you could have stood in the garden to cool down, but I looked and I didn’t see you there.’
