Page 71 of Only for Christmas

‘Have you thought about reporting him?’

She settled onto a pink steed, leaving him with the slightly garish purple one. ‘Yes, but I’ve decided to get tomorrow night out of the way first. I don’t want to cause any issues for the fundraising ball; the event is too important to risk ruining it. After the Christmas break, I’m going to lodge a formal complaint. You’re right, I can’t allow his behaviour to continue. He needs to know his actions are unacceptable.’

The music grew louder and they started to move. Sarah gripped hold of the pole.

‘It’s the right thing to do,’ he shouted over the music. ‘I just wish I’d still be around to support you.’

She frowned. ‘When are you leaving?’

‘I have a flight booked from Heathrow on Tuesday.’

‘That soon?’ Her smiled faded and for a moment she looked sad… but then her expression brightened. ‘Nice horse!’ she shouted, patting the animal’s wooden mane. ‘Are they all this well-behaved?’

‘Sadly not!’ he shouted back.

For the next few minutes, they bobbed up and down, drowned out by the fairground music and the sound of kids screaming, until eventually the ride slowed.

‘Are you flying straight to Houston?’ she asked, as the carousel ground to a halt.

‘I’m flying to Minneapolis to spend a few days back home sorting things out, and then I’ll fly to Houston later in the week.’ He climbed off the horse and offered Sarah his hand.

‘Are you excited about your new job?’

‘Not as much as I should be,’ he admitted, catching a waft of her fruity body lotion. It reminded him of massaging her feet last night. For all his talk about it being for her sake and helping her unwind, in truth, he’d just wanted to touch her. He still wanted to touch her. ‘I guess I’m feeling sad about leaving. I wasn’t expecting that.’

Her eyes met his. ‘With everything that’s going on with Harper, it’s understandable. It’s always tough saying goodbye to family. You’ll miss her, the boys too.’

His gaze dropped to her lips. ‘Not just them.’

She blinked, and then shook her head. ‘You won’t miss me… or if you do, it’ll be fleeting.’ She broke away and climbed off the carousel.

He followed her, waiting until they were back on the main walkway before asking, ‘Why do you think I won’t miss you?’

‘We’ve only known each other a few weeks. Hardly enough time to get attached. Give it a month, and you’ll be like… Sarah who?’ She was trying to make light of it, he could tell.

‘You underestimate yourself.’

She stopped by the ice-skating rink. ‘I’m a realist. I’m nothing special; I’m not delusional.’

‘If you can’t see how special you are, then you are delusional.’ He manoeuvred her towards the entrance. ‘Can you skate?’

‘It’s been a while.’ She pulled a face. ‘And you would say that; you’re a nice polite man.’

‘Now you’re underestimating me.’ He headed for the boot rack. ‘What size are you?’

‘Five.’ She took the boots from him. ‘How am I underestimating you?’

‘You assume because I look on the positive side of things I’m shallow, and that’s all there is to me, but you’re wrong.’ He sat on a bench and removed his trainers.

She sat next to him and laced up her boots. ‘Have I offended you?’

‘A bit.’ With his boots secured, he stood up and offered her his hand.

She took his hand and stood up. ‘I didn’t mean to.’ She looked puzzled, as if she couldn’t work out what she’d said wrong.

‘Don’t worry about it. Ready?’

‘To fall flat on my face? Sounds like fun.’ When he rolled his eyes and turned away, she caught his arm. ‘Sorry, that was me being negative again. I believe I can ice skate, and I will be good at this. How’s that? Torvill and Dean have nothing on me.’

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