Page 56 of Christmas Ever After
‘You didn’t know if I was going to announce it very loudly and very publicly?’ I say, and then answer my own question. ‘That’s exactly why I didn’t tell you. I didn’t want you to think I was going to tell anyone. You and your grandfather have created something special. A legend that blankets Ever After Street. There’s magic in your snow globes. Not the kind that magically matches random people, but the kind that can make something so beautiful feel so special. Looking into one is an experience. I’ve never felt the way I feel when looking into one of your snow globes. It’s like escaping from the world for a moment.’ I decide to be blisteringly honest. Too honest, probably. ‘And I like you, Raff. You’ve single-handedly saved my business this December. No matter the cause of the accident, neither of us were at our best that day, and you didn’thaveto do everything you’ve done, but you have because you’re the sweetest soul, and you don’t deserve to have your reputation ruined because of me being petty. And your family don’t deserve to have the mythruined either. Sofia genuinely thinks you’ve got a workshop full of magic, and I couldn’t bear to be the one to relieve her of that belief. I’m not going to tell anyone, ever. Your secret stays safe with me.’
‘I… didn’t expect that.’ He sounds surprisingly emotional.
I pull his arm closer to me, turning to press my cheek against it. ‘I can’t work out how no one’s ever known before. Surely someone has broken one by accident over the years and figured it out like I did?’
‘They have, but I’ve persuaded them to keep quiet. People want to believe in magic. It’s like being an adult who knows Santa doesn’t exist, but no one is cruel enough to tell a child that because no one wants to ruin the magic. People are generally good and don’t want to spoil nice things for others.’
I love how Raff sees the good in everything and everyone. I’ve always been cynical and jaded, but he has a sense of childlike joy that makes me look at things in a different way.
‘It did start off organically,’ he says as we continue walking through the grounds. ‘Granddad was never intending to matchmake, but he saw these two people in the shop and justknewthey’d be good together. He told them both to pick up the same snow globe just to engineer a conversation opener, and inside it was a scene of a train running through a forestry, and they both swore they saw the train move along the tracks. I believe that one really was a trick of the light – the shape of the glass made the trees look curved instead of straight, and moving it from one angle to another made the train look like it had moved – but he was right about the match. They got together and they told their friends and other people came looking for the magical moving snow globes and he tried, but he could never recreate the same effect. But people were talking about this magical snow globe and he saw an opportunity to combine two things he loved – his craft, and finding people who hethought belonged together. It was the seventies, and until then, his business had been failing. He was lucky if he sold a handful of snow globes a month, before a national newspaper ran the story of the couple and their magical meeting, and suddenly he had visitors travelling from miles away, wanting his help to find love, and ultimately, he had to give people what they wanted. Hehadto find a way to recreate it. His lifelong dream had been that snow globes would be his full-time job one day, and for the first time ever, they were paying the bills. Who wouldn’t have taken an opportunity like that? He came up with the concept in the early years, and I refined it as technology modernised, and between us, we perfected it over the decades, and then he died, and you know the rest. But you’ve made me want to change things. You’ve made me realise how much the gimmick has changed my attitude to work, how much I now dread something I loved, and if Love Is All A-Round stays, it’s going to be different.’
‘Good. Not because of the love nonsense but because of how unhappy you are. You don’t need to tell anyone the truth about the snow globes. His legacy and yours can co-exist. You can change direction while still honouring what he did. You want to make more custom-order snow globes, so shift your focus towards that. They don’t even have to be festive then. You could do ones with more year-round appeal. Weddings, honeymoons, special places, beloved pets. Things that matter to people.’
‘You could do the same with nutcrackers. I know arguably the point of Christmas Ever After is the year-round Christmas thing, but it wouldn’t hurt to have seasonal displays and a little spring-summer section as well, would it? Two nutcrackers having a picnic on the beach… A nutcracker bride and groom getting married under a wooden floral arch…’
‘That’s a great idea for a spring window display. I’ve never done that before. I’ve never really created scenes with them, justdisplayed them in a “the more, the merrier” fashion, but that would be fantastic. If I clear out the front window… I could put a mat of artificial grass in there, or a pile of sand, or autumn leaves. We could have nutcrackers frolicking in patches of daisies or between gorse bushes, or gathering around a cauldron for Halloween…’
‘Post every window display on social media,’ he adds. ‘Ask people what they think. And you can woodturn other things too, right? Tulips, daffodils, Easter eggs, autumn pumpkins… My snowmen have proved there’s demand for things other than nutcrackers. Mrs Bloom does seasonal gnomes, I don’t know why the rest of us haven’t followed her lead before.’
‘How about Mitch in his Santa grotto? A Hawaiian shirt and flip-flops during the summer holidays, his reindeer in leis with Hibiscus flowers tucked behind their antlers. Grass skirts. Mrs Claus hula-hooping.’
It makes Raff laugh. ‘Oh God. That’s a mental image I can’t unsee. I think we’ve gone too far when we’re thinking of Mrs Claus hula-hooping.’
He swipes away tears of laughter but the harder he tries to stop laughing, the more he laughs, and seeing him so giggly makes me laugh too.
‘Not sure you were joking about being drunk on mulled wine fumes.’
‘It’s you, you make me forget everything and feel like I’ve just downed six mulled wines. When I’m with you, I get giddy and unafraid to hide my painfully uncool side, and I’m so excited for what’s to come. It’s been so long since I felt motivated or positive about the business and now I can’t wait to get back into the workshop, I can’t wait for next year, and it’s all because of you and your nutcrackers.’
‘Me too.’ I bite my lip as I look at him. He’s right and I feel it too. I’d lost my love for everything Christmas until he camealong and reignited it, and sparked off motivation in me, pushed me to think outside the box and look forward to what’s next too.
‘Thank you for inspiring me, Fran.’
‘Thankyoufor inspiringme, and for everything you—’ I squeak as he interrupts me with a kiss.
It’s both completely unexpected and not unexpected at all, because I’ve been getting increasingly desperate to kiss Raff and a sudden flurry of tingles flood my body at the realisation that he’s been feeling the same.
I get lost in the kiss. My left hand curls into the shoulder of his cosy flannel shirt, clinging onto him to stay upright when the force of it makes me wobble on unsteady legs, and it takes a long few moments for the world to come back into focus with the throbbing pain of my hand being trapped between our bodies, and I make a noise of discomfort and pull away.
He jumps back and sobers up instantly. ‘Oh God, I’m so sorry. I don’t… I mean… I… er…’ He scrubs a hand over his face. ‘Have I hurt you?’
‘No, no, it’s fine.’ I look up at him and he looks truly distraught. ‘It’s fine, Raff, my hand just got a bit squashed. I’ve done worse making a sandwich.’
‘I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to do that.’ He nods to my hand and then lifts a finger to trail across his lips. ‘I… don’t think I meant to dothateither.’
‘It would be a shame if you didthatby accident.’ I raise an eyebrow, and when he meets my eyes, his worried lips slowly tip up into a smile as he realises I’m not complaining about the kiss.
‘In that case’ – he leans down until he can touch his lips to the edge of my jaw – ‘I’m not going to do it again until I can be a lot more careful of your hand. I’ve caused you enough injuries for one month.’
He pulls back and takes my good hand again and we carry on wandering until we spot another glass gazebo set up in the castlegrounds. It’s strung with fairy lights and has a bench inside it, and branches of artificial wisteria dangle from the roof, creating a screen of purple flowers that you have to push aside to go in.
Raff sits and tugs me to sit down beside him without letting go of my hand. He leans forward, thinking for a moment before he speaks. ‘I didn’t mean to do that in a moment of madness. I’ve been wanting to do it for a while now, but I didn’t think you’d want me to, so I’ve stopped myself. The hardest time was last night because I couldn’t hide it.’
‘Do you know how hard it was to force myself to get out of the car last night and not snog you until daybreak?’
He lets out a burst of laughter. ‘Hopefully as hard as it was for me not to follow you out of the car and snog you on your doorstep until your neighbours started complaining about public indecency.’
I giggle because public indecency is absolutely fine by me when it comes to Raff.
