Page 67 of The Duke Who Saved Christmas
“Thank you,” she said after we’d made it across onto the square onto more stable footing. “I know I haven’t hadthatmuch to drink.”
I laughed and patted her hand on my forearm. “Normally I’d make a joke, but you’re right. You’re walking perfectly fine, but I’m guessing you were inside a lot longer than I was and missed that snow shower earlier.”
“They’ve all blended into one at this point,” she admitted as we stepped around a group of children excitedly hugging cheap stuffed toys that I knew had come from the grotto. “I see Santa hasn’t upgraded his gifts in twenty years.”
I grimaced, chuckling to myself. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it and all that.”
“That’s true. Although it wouldn’t hurt the fat man to stump up for books, would it? Surely, he’s a billionaire by now.”
“I don’t know. Have you seen the price of electric these days? I bet it costs a fortune to heat his house at the North Pole. He probably can’t afford books.”
Sylvie nodded slowly. “Good point. I guess you can’t mass-purchase books at the same price as polyester stuffed animals.”
“Probably not. Plus, you can make the bears in China, and the books wouldn’t exactly be a good gift if they were all in Mandarin.”
“And the bears are lighter to post,” she added brightly, then burst into laughter, leaning against my arm. “Oh, dear. I’m laughing this much at you. I must be drunker than I thought after all.”
“Or I’m just funnier than you thought.”
She snorted. “That’s a good joke.”
“There we are. Funnier than you thought it is.” I pulled the keys from my pocket and unlocked the car, then opened the door for her. “Ladies first.”
She kept her gaze on me as she got in the car, only breaking eye contact to put her bag between her feet. I pushed the door shut and walked around to get in the other side, then started the car.
I pulled out of the carpark and onto the road, carefully navigating the mess on the ground and the one of the people milling about without any care for anything or anyone other than themselves.
I eventually made it through the throngs of people and onto a proper road away from all the people. I navigated my way through town until I was on the path to Sylvie’s grandparents’ house, and neither of us said a word to each other during that whole time.
The only sound was that of Sylvie humming along to the Christmas songs on the radio. The current one wasSanta Claus is Coming to Town, and she was happily bopping along to the beat. Despite my feelings about this whole season, I fought my smile at the sight of her doing her daft little bouncing from side to side while humming every note.
Bloody hell.
She was even tapping her fingers against her knee.
I did my best not to chuckle and shake my head at her little show in the front seat and made the turn to the house, then turned so I could drive up the sweeping driveway that was lined with candy cane lights in red, blue, yellow, and green. There were more decorations than there’d been when I’d brought her home the other night, and the six-foot-tall inflatable Grinch outside the front door really added an extra something to the whole shebang.
Keith had gone all out this year.
Or he’d made someone else go all out for him.
I knew which one I was betting on.
“Nice lights,” I said, putting the handbrake down and looking across the car at Sylvie.
She pouted as she undid her belt. “Tell Julian. He’s the one who put them up.”
Ding, ding, ding.
“I thought as much.”
She opened the door, paused, and looked over at me with a smile. “Thank you. For bringing me home. Again.”
“You’re welcome. If it happens again, I’m going to have to charge you. Petrol is pricey these days.”
“Get a smaller car instead of this gas-guzzling monster and it wouldn’t cost so much,” she retorted smartly, jumping out of the Range Rover.
I wound down the window and leant out of it, instantly regretting it as another rush of cold air flooded the warm car. “If I got a smaller car, it wouldn’t handle the snow, would it? Unless your little zipper over there has finally found itself some snowshoes.”
