Page 2 of Christmas for the Village Midwife
‘But you get it, straight away. I don’t know how, but you just look at a situation and you’ve worked it all out.’
‘That’s definitely not true!’ she said with a self-conscious laugh.
‘Well, things are better between Billie and me, and that’s down to you.’
‘It’s down to you and the work you’ve both put in. I only said how I saw it, but you made the changes. Take some credit.’
‘I will, when you start taking some too.’
Zoe laughed again.
‘I love that,’ he said.
‘What?’
‘Hearing you laugh. I hope I hear it every day for…’ He blushed and cleared his throat. ‘This one then?’ he asked, going over to the tree.
Zoe smiled. ‘What were you going to say?’ she asked. ‘Just then. You were going to say something and you stopped yourself.’
‘I wasn’t,’ he said. ‘It was nothing, just chat. You know what I’m like.’
‘It wasn’t nothing.’
‘I don’t even remember now,’ he said, and whatever else Zoe did or didn’t know, she could see when someone was trying to move a conversation on.
She hoped the thing he’d stopped himself from saying was a good thing. She was convinced of it. This relationship was so new, and they were both so uncertain of one another that it was all at once thrilling and yet fraught with possible pitfalls. There were things Zoe wanted to say that she hadn’t dared for fear he’d think it too soon, and she was almost certain he felt the same. She was about to put it to him when she noticed a man in a puffa jacket and snow boots striding down the row towards them.
‘Seen anything you like?’ he asked cheerily.
Alex turned to Zoe. ‘I think we’ve decided, haven’t we?’
‘Yes,’ she said, going to the tree they’d chosen. ‘I like this one.’
‘Right,’ the man said. ‘I’ll get it felled and wrapped for you, and I’ll meet you back at the office to take payment. You know the way back, don’t you?’
Zoe was trying hard not to laugh at every exclamation, but she didn’t understand how someone could prick their fingers so badly every single time they went near a tree. The fir they’d chosen was wrapped in netting, and all they had to do was load it into Alex’s car, but somehow they couldn’t even do that.
‘Ow!’ he cried, yanking his hand away and almost letting the tree fall on top of her. ‘Bloody thing! I swear it’s out to get me!’
‘Probably because you had it chopped down. It wants revenge.’
‘I wanted you to have a nice tree.’
‘I wanted a nice tree too but not at the expense of your fingers. Here, let me…’
‘I’ve got it,’ he said, wincing as he wrapped his arms around it and a branch poked through the netting and got caught in his hair.
This time Zoe couldn’t help but giggle.
‘My hero,’ she said, clasping her hands to her heart and fluttering her eyelashes like a cartoon character as he finally got it into the boot.
Dusting off his hands, he grinned now too. ‘We got there in the end!’
‘Yes, we did, and well done.’
‘Are you being sarcastic?’
‘Only a bit. Thank you,’ she added, reaching to kiss him. ‘I can’t wait to get home and decorate it.’
