Page 58 of The Secret Mistletoe Promise
The moment he sent it the bubbles were pulsing again, and she wondered if he’d been including himself in that: trying to reassure himself of something.
Dexter:You OK after yesterday?
Imogen grinned.
Imogen:More than. I know it’s complicated, but I enjoyed it.
Imogen:A lot.
Imogen:Not the cobwebs or the pigeon.
Imogen:The rehearsal was OK. We need to try again.
Dexter:There’s something else I’d like to try again.
The bubbles bubbled, and then:
Dexter:Sorry, that sounded terrible. But I can’t stop thinking about kissing you. I’d like to do it again, sometime very soon.
Could Imogen’s grin get any wider? Not if she didn’t want to split her face open. She rolled onto her side, snuggled under the duvet, and replied.
Imogen:I would, too. Let’s have a second go at both. Let me know when you’re free. xx
She drifted off with his words,I can’t stop thinking about kissing you, playing over and over in her mind. It wasn’t hard to imagine him saying them in his warm voice, or relive the way he’d touched her, held her,kissedher. She was congratulating herself on asking him to do a scene for the Christmas event with her when sleep finally took her.
Chapter Twenty-Two
On Saturday morning, Imogen was making a list of all her PA attributes for a meeting she had arranged with Winnie at the hotel, because even though working at the community hub was a volunteer role, it wasn’t guaranteed and she wanted to take it seriously.
‘There’s an ice rink covering the green.’ Birdie’s voice drifted up the stairs, and Imogen decided she’d imagined it and went back to typing. When she laid it all out, she’d picked up a whole lot of transferable skills being her dad’s PA.
‘Imogen, did you hear me?’ Birdie shouted. ‘There’s an ice rink covering the green.’
Imogen’s hands dropped from her laptop. She raced down the stairs, pulling her adopted green coat off its hook and following her gran into the street. There was only a short side road between Birdie’s house and a view of the green, and then there it was, being manoeuvred into place by a complicated system of cranes and pulleys: an actual ice rink.
‘Oh my God!’ Imogen loved a Christmassy ice rink. ‘Oh my God,’ she repeated, much more quietly, when she saw that Dexter was talking to a tall man in a high-vis jacket. She assessed him for signs of post-kiss agitation, but he seemed as relaxed as ever, laughing with High-Vis Man as they watched the temporary rink being slowly lowered into place.
Fiona and Ermin appeared and Birdie made a beeline for them, and Imogen decided to stay with her gran rather than go and ogle Dexter.
‘Do you know who’s behind this?’ Birdie didn’t sound upset, quite, but Imogen could tell she didn’t share her excitement.
Fiona held up a hand. ‘The first thing I am obliged to tell everyone – to the point where I might have to get it tattooed on my forehead – is that the green is safe. There’s going to be a protective layer between the grass and the rink, so the land won’t be damaged.’
May hurried over to join them, her smile even wider than usual. ‘Isn’t this brilliant?’
‘I’m guessing you knew about it, then?’ Fiona said. ‘Not until I was included in the message group at whatever ungodly hour it was this morning.’
‘It was Harry,’ Ermin explained. ‘He found a company who hire out temporary rinks, and organized it as a surprise for the village. Then he went on honeymoon and forgot it was arriving while he was away.’
‘Some of us got a panicked message about three o’clock this morning.’ May sounded gleeful. ‘It’s the first holiday he’s taken in years. Married life is already messing with him.’
‘So we have an ice rink. One that is definitely not goingto damage the village green.’ Imogen squeezed Birdie’s arm.
‘He’s come a long way from refusing to hold the Oak Fest on the green because he was worried about the tree,’ Birdie said. ‘Now he’s organizing secret ice rinks and opening up the manor for Christmas festivities.’
‘That’s what true love will do for you,’ May said dreamily. ‘I always knew they would end up together.’
Fiona gave May a pointed look, and she laughed.
