Page 62 of Snowflakes at the Little Christmas Tree Farm
After what seems like hours, the local mayor is ready to announce the winner. He taps his microphone to make sure all eyes are on him. ‘By a clear margin, the winner is … Roscoe Farm’s Cinderella pumpkin tree.’
Noel cheers and I shriek and jump on him without thinking, so excited that I don’t know what to do with myself. He catches me easily and my legs encircle his waist and my arms wrap around his shoulders. ‘You did it!’
He pulls me tight to him and spins us around. ‘Wedid it.’ His voice is muffled against my shoulder, but I can hear the unsteadiness in it. He genuinely didn’t expect to win. It makes my arms tighten around him because I’m so proud, I could burst.
By the time he puts me down, the mayor has announced that Fiona’s tree has come second and the pet supply shop is in third place, and is looking at us, saying, ‘If Mr Roscoe is quite ready …’
My lips are throbbing where they were pressed against the skin of his neck, and I have to grip onto one of the tables for support as he goes up to shake the mayor’s hand and thank all the kids for their votes. He gives a speech about loving this community, thanking everyone for their help in pulling the competition together, and finishes by saying how much he hopes everyone will continue supporting the market even when Christmas is over. He points me out and mentions that I supplied the trees and invites everyone to visit Peppermint Branches and starts talking about the hot chocolate and roasted nuts, and Santa and the sleigh. Despite the fact that Fiona, Fergus, and Glenna are all watching me like a bird of prey might watch a mouse before they swoop down and carry it away in their claws, I can’t help thinking how sweet it is that he’s usinghiswin as another way to pushmybusiness.
The mayor steps back up onto the makeshift platform and promises the council will have the bare tree at the other end of Elffield decorated in a replica of the winning tree before next weekend. Noel thanks everyone again and jumps down, and he’s enveloped by a crowd of well-wishers. He meets my eyes over the swarm of people between us and gives me a wink as another little old lady pulls him down and pinches his cheek.
I’m totally distracted as the crowd starts to disperse and people come over and quickly snap up the last of my trees. I’m brimming with pride as I watch the polite and patient way he talks to everyone who stops him as he makes his way back over. Everyone here loves him. Every customer, every trader, all the teachers who gather round to congratulate him and the children who nervously come up to shake his hand and ask him questions about pumpkins. Everyone is so happy for him, and I feel it bubbling over in me too. He deserves this so much. A win, a boost that someone other than me thinks he’s amazing at every aspect of his job, some recognition of all the effort he’s put into trying to save this market.
He’s done so much for me. I have no idea what I would’ve done without him. Even when I thought he was a twat – on that first day, he gave me the courage to try to prove him wrong, and then on that first night, he gave me the confidence to stay and really make something of Peppermint Branches. What would I have done if he hadn’t been there? Would I have chickened out because it was too difficult? I wouldn’t have known where to begin without his advice, and now it feels like the start of something special – with the farm and with Noel, and I’m not sure which one I’m more excited about.
***
Noel packs our display trees away and loads the back of the truck with empty crates, even more now than when we started because Iain arrived mid-afternoon with more trees and pumpkins, and another crate of Glenna’s goodies, and they all sold out too.
There’s one bunch of mistletoe left from the second batch and I hang it over Fiona’s stall on my way to the winning tree to turn off the fairylights and the tealights in the pumpkins. I kneel down and crawl underneath the tree and feel around until I can reach the battery pack disguised at the back, trying to avoid taking my eye out with the scented needles, and nearly scream in surprise and bang my head on a branch when I emerge to find Fergus and Fiona behind me. The tree must get a fright too because it chooses that moment to drop a load of needles, most of them into my hair.
‘Oh, sorry, lass, we didn’t mean to make you jump.’ Fergus thrusts a gingerbread wheelbarrow at me to make up for the scare.
‘So thereissomething going on between you.’ Fiona folds her arms across her chest. She’s trying to look serious but there’s a smile playing on her face. ‘I knew I wasn’t imagining it, stubble rash or no stubble rash.’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ I open the gingerbread biscuit and nibble a wheel off, trying to keep a straight face and not give anything away, because just the thought of Noel makes me grin uncontrollably.
‘I was having a lovely chat with Glenna earlier,’ Fiona says. ‘She happened to mention that he didn’t come in untilverylate last night, and that she heard him talking to someone – a female someone – when the snow started falling,andthat he was singing to himself as he got ready this morning.’
If gingerbread and bathbombs fail, they can definitely turn to a career in surveillance. ‘We were both up late working. He was telling me to make sure I set my alarm because we needed to be on time this morning, and he knew I’d have brained him with a pumpkin if he’d honked his blasted truck horn outside my window one more time.’
‘I suppose that’s why neither of you can get the smiles off your faces, no matter how hard you try,’ Fiona says.
‘That’s just because he’s won the competition.’ I bite another gingerbread wheel off to stop myself smiling.
‘You look happy in a way that you didn’t when you first got here.’ Fergus shares a glance with Fiona. ‘And he seems happy in a way that he never has before. He’s been protecting himself so hard since his last relationship that I didn’t think he’d ever trust anyone again, but I’ve never seen him as relaxed around someone as he is with you. We were just trying to say that we think those two things are probably related. And we’re really happy for you both. It’s so nice that you get on so well after everything that’s happened between you.’
I cock my head to the side in confusion. What exactly does he think has happened between us? Fergus must’ve eaten too many gingerbread Hoovers today because he’s not making any sense.
‘After all what?’ As I say the words, a stone of dread immediately settles in my stomach. Things never go right for me, and so far, everything has been wonderful with Peppermint Branches, and meeting Noel has been a gorgeous, sexy bonus. Somethinghasto go wrong at some point, and I suddenly have a crushing and irrevocable feeling that I’m about to find out what.
‘After losing Peppermint Branches, of course,’ Fiona says. ‘He put on a brave face and said he wasn’t bothered, of course, but he was devastated. You could see it in his whole demeanour. I don’t think he smiled again until he brought you along to the market. We were so pleased that you two liked each other and were able to put it all behind you or it would’ve been so awkward.’
‘Losing it?’ I ask as the confusion builds. Maybe he was supposed to inherit it or something … He speaks about Evergreene like a beloved grandfather, but there’s obviously a history between him and the son, so maybe something happened there andthat’sthe vague feeling I keep getting that there’s something he isn’t telling me.
Fergus gives me a look likeI’mthe one not making sense here.
‘In the auction, obviously,’ Fiona says with a giggle. ‘You’d expect someone who works with their hands to have much nimbler fingers, but you won fair and square, and he knows that. I think it says a lot about his character that he’s been so gracious about it. You must’ve been worried that he’d be a bit funny with you when you first met him.’
The gingerbread turns to stone in my mouth. R-five-hyphens-81. I can’t believe I didn’t see it before. Those hyphens hide the letters ‘oscoe’. Everything that didn’t quite make sense suddenly adds up perfectly. ‘I must’ve been worried because I was moving in next door to the other bidder?’
They nod along, unaware that they’ve confirmed my greatest fear. They have absolutely no idea that I didn’t know. I sink back on my knees and look up at the unlit tree, and I feel like the whole market is falling down around my ears. Tears form in my eyes and I blink them furiously, trying to stop myself crying. I can’t let Fergus and Fiona know that they’ve just revealed a secret that Noel’s obviously been trying very hard to keep.
‘Nooo.’ I do an overexaggerated handwave and force the tightest smile in the history of the universe. ‘I wasn’t worried. He’s … well, he’s Noel, isn’t he? The friendly pumpkin farmer with a heart of gold. I knew he’d be a gentleman about it.’
‘Well, it doesn’t matter now you’re together, does it? What a lovely story to tell your grandkids one day.’
I almost laugh at the absurdity of that statement. Never mind grandkids because we are most definitelynottogether now I know that. Now it all makes sense.
