Page 31 of Meet Me Under the Mistletoe
“How are the boys?”
At the mention of his children, Thomas’s face split into a huge grin. “They’re great. Literally counting down the days till Christmas now, of course. The excitement will crank up to ten when they wake up in the morning and find the advent calendars sent down by Aunty Nory.”
Nory smiled. She remembered that feeling. Truth be told, she’d never really lost it. She sent her nephews advent calendars every year. Not a chocolate one, but one of the old-fashioned kinds, with beautiful Christmas scenes and proper pictures behind every door. Jackson and Lucas were two of the few things Nory and her brother could talk about without sniping at each other.
“I can’t wait to see them, hopefully this week sometime.”
“If you can break free of your busy schedule of quaffing champagne and devouring caviar.”
And the cease-fire is over.
“I work too, you know, Thom, and I’m as entitled to a holiday as you are.”
“Entitledbeing the operative word.”
“I’m not entitled! How am I entitled?”
“Perhaps it’s just reflecting off the company you keep.”
“Sinceyourbusiness is benefitting handsomely from thecompany I keepthis week, not to mention the wedding, maybe you could try to be a little more gracious toward my friends?”
Thomas’s face darkened.Sooo the wrong thing to say, Nory!
“We are earning every penny of the money from this job.”
“I didn’t say you weren’t.”
“So, I’ll treatyour friendslike any other customers.”
“Oh, you mean you treat all your customers with disdain? Well, that’s okay, then, so long as your sucky attitude isn’t only limited to my friends.”
The door opened, and Shelley walked in.
“I could hear you two all the way down by the cold frames! Hello, Nory, babe.” Shelley pulled Nory into a hug. Nory could smell the cold on her. “How’s it going up at the castle? Are you having a lovely time?”
Out of the corner of her eye, Nory could see Thomas shooting daggers at his wife. Shelley ignored him. She never rose to his bullshit, and her brother idolized her for it.
“It’s lovely to be a guest,” said Nory. “The food is amazing, and the bedrooms are lush! Your garlands look fantastic, by the way.”
“Thanks, sugar. I’ll be up in a day or so to take them down, and then I’ll be up again Friday to do the ones for the wedding. I think Jenna wanted to make an impression on you when you arrived.”
“They did that, all right. It was like something out of a film set!”
“She’s so nice, she was chatting to me like she was a normal person.”
Nory laughed. “She is a normal person, it’s just that her job is on the TV.”
Thomas snorted.
“What was that, babe? Did you say something?”
But Thomas only shuffled his chair in closer to the desk and squinted at the screen.
“It was lovely to meet her. And I got a lot of compliments from Pippa too. She was saying she could use me to help create some of her events.”
“Over my dead body,” muttered Thomas.
Without breaking her stride Shelley retorted: “If needs be, babe. So, obviously I said yes. It would be a great experience and the money wouldn’t go amiss either, plus it would really get our name out there as a business. The floristry side of what we do has always been viewed as a bit of a sideline, really, but it’s where the money is, and how many nurseries can say they offer the full service, right from seed to finished bouquet?”
