Page 137 of The Twelve Dates of Christmas
“I’m so happy for you, Kate,” he said. “This is a good thing. A really good thing.”
He waved as he walked down the road and called: “I’ll see you at the caroling.”
Kate phoned Laura to tell her the news. She had to get in quick before someone else did. It only took one person to have seen Matt leave her house this morning in yesterday’s clothes for it to becomevillage business. Laura screeched down the phone for so long, Kate put her on speaker while she got on with something else. At first Laura wanted all the details, but then she changed her mind.
“Actually,” she said. “I don’t want to know. It’s a bit like having my sister sleep with my brother.”
“Better get used to it,” said Kate.
“Ewwww!” said Laura.
But she was very happy that Kate was happy and even happier for herself that she got to keep her best friend in Blexford.
Kate had an awkward email to write to Josie, telling her that she wouldn’t be needing the room after all, but she needn’t have worried.
Ahh, my little country mouse!
The winter solstice magic has woven its spells around you! I’m so happy you’ve found your soul mate.
I needed to clear out that room anyway; all the clutter was messing with my feng shui! Luck and love, sweet girl, luck and love!
Kate wrapped Matt’s presents and prepped the vegetables for tomorrow’s dinner. Now there would be four of them in her dad’s cottage for Christmas. Weirdly, after all the years they’d known one another, this would be the first time they’d actually spent a Christmas Day together.
She felt like she was in a sort of bubble. A good bubble, where she felt warm and cocooned. She had other moments where she didn’t believe it was real. But then she’d get a text from Matt and be back in the bubble again.
I can’t stop smiling! People are going to wonder what’s wrong with me. M x
Last night was amazing. I love you. M x
This morning was quite good too!! M x
The caroling would begin when the children had finished their Christingle service in the church. Evelyn had organized the new route and everyone was to meet in the church yard at five p.m.
Matt had warned everyone that he was closing the café at three thirty p.m. today. When Kate arrived at three o’clock to help him get ready for the evening, the café was full. Lots of people—including Laura and Ben—had brought their children in for hot drinks before the church service.
Kate spotted Laura instantly and waved. Mina was in deep conversation with a giant cookie. Charley was sprawled across Ben’s lap,rosy-cheeked and fast asleep. Carla called “Hello, Kate!” and Matt turned from the coffee machine. He smiled broadly when he saw her, and his cheeks flushed as red as Charley’s.
“Gingerbread flat white?” Matt asked.
Kate nodded and slipped out of her duffle coat. She was wearing the floral tea dress she’d worn for the first of her twelve dates. Matt smiled wolfishly.
“And where might you be going?” he asked.
“I’ve got a hot date,” said Kate.
Matt leaned across the counter.
“You want to be careful,” he said conspiratorially. “I hear the owner has a big crush on you.”
Kate grinned. She could almost feel her pupils dilate. She brushed her hands over her dress to make sure her thighs weren’t actually smoldering.
Kate took herself out to the kitchen and started on tonight’s food. She slipped on an apron and began with the orange chocolate chip shortbread. There would also be Marmite puff pastry pinwheels for the children and mince pies and mini Christmas pudding sweets for the adults.
On the hob, two catering-sized saucepans filled with red wine, orange peel, cloves, cinnamon, and bay leaves sat ready for heating later. And two giant slabs of gingerbread cake, which Kate recognized as Evelyn’s handiwork, lay on the worktop, ready to be chopped into sticky fingers.
It seemed like every ten minutes Matt found an excuse to come into the kitchen and steal a kiss, and Kate was only too happy to oblige. Every kiss made her feel a little more confident that this was actually happening.
While the shortbread rested in the fridge, Kate got on with thesweets. She squished two shop-bought fruitcakes into a sticky crumbly mess in a large bowl and stirred in some melted dark chocolate and a good slosh of brandy. She dusted her hands with cocoa and took small bits of the mixture, rolled it into balls, and dropped it into petit four cases. When she had about a hundred walnut-sized sweets, she blobbed each one with white chocolate and topped it with a fleck of glacé cherry and stashed them in the fridge to set.
