Page 72 of Chasing Dreams at Wagging Tails Dogs' Home

‘I’ll go and see who it is.’ Gulping down the last of the dregs of her coffee, Poppy pushed her chair back and headed out into the reception area. ‘Hi. How can I help you?’

‘Hi, I’m Nick from the Christmas tree farm over by Penworth Bay. Paige is a friend of mine and she mentioned you didn’t have a Christmas tree over here? So, I’ve brought one over for you. I hope you don’t mind?’

‘Nick? Is that you?’ Flora’s voice filtered out from the kitchen. ‘Come on through, lovely.’

Poppy indicated Nick to go through.

‘Hello, Flora. How are you feeling?’ he asked as he bent down and hugged Flora.

‘Oh, I’ll be as right as rain soon enough. You know Mack, and this is my niece, Poppy.’

‘Hello, Nick, mate.’ Standing up Mack gave Nick a hug, patting him on the back.

Nick turned to Poppy. ‘Lovely to meet you, Poppy.’

‘And you.’ Poppy smiled back.

‘Now, what’s all this talk about a Christmas tree?’ Flora tapped Nick on the hand.

‘I got talking to Paige at the pub quiz yesterday evening and she mentioned you didn’t have a Christmas tree, so I thought I’d bring you one over.’

‘Oh, you didn’t?’

Nick chuckled. ‘I did. It’s outside.’

‘Poppy, lovely, pass me my crutches, would you?’ Flora held out her hand.

‘Sure.’ She and Mack helped Flora to stand before they all followed Nick outside.

And there, sure enough, lying on the bed of his truck was a large Christmas tree.

‘It’s huge!’ Flora paused to catch her breath.

‘It is.’ Nick nodded and began to unstrap it from the truck. ‘Where do you want it?’

‘Here, I’ll give you a hand.’ Mack joined Nick.

Flora looked back towards the reception before scanning their surroundings. ‘How about right here, in the middle of the courtyard? I can imagine with a few lights on, it’ll look quite spectacular.’

‘Great idea.’

With Mack’s help, Nick began to drag the tree into position.

‘I’ll go and get you a chair, Aunt Flora.’

* * *

‘Help! I’m tangled! I’m completely tangled.’ Alex shrieked with laughter as he attempted to unravel himself from the string of fairy lights.

‘Hold still, Alex. You’re making it worse.’ Susan tutted as she began to unwind the wires from around his middle. ‘Here, duck down.’

Doing as he was instructed, he ducked beneath a wire. ‘I’m still tangled. I’m going to be here forever. Strung up like some reindeer bauble.’

Poppy laughed as she ran to help. ‘You might well be if you don’t keep twisting that way.’

‘There you go. Free as a bird.’ Susan lowered the string of fairy lights, letting him step out.

‘Thank you both, you’re my saviours.’ Alex planted a huge kiss on Poppy’s cheek before turning to Susan.

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