Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 121898 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121898 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
I should have been married.
I should have been facing my first Christmas as a married man with my new wife.
But I wasn’t.
I’d never let Sylvie know that her comment about me being single had hurt a little. Of course, she had no reason to know that my then-fiancée had accepted my proposal, set a wedding date, and then four days after my father’s terminal diagnosis, six months after I’d proposed to her, she’d left me.
On Christmas Eve.
Just upped and walked out with no reason whatsoever. To this day, Millie had never explained to me why she’d left that morning.
I’d also never seen the ring again, and I now wished I’d demanded it back before she left. I’d been too fucking shocked to do it at the time. I’d tried calling her only once after she’d left, and she’d already blocked my number.
Of course, now I knew what a bullet I’d dodged.
That didn’t mean that it didn’t hurt.
It was a very big knock on a time of the year that was already bad. Within four days I’d lost the woman I’d planned to spend the rest of my life with and found out that it was probably going to be the last Christmas with my dad.
Christmas…
It was too much loss for me.
Maybe that was why I was so angry at my sister. Not for grieving—she was entitled to do that in whichever way was best for her, but she wasn’t entitled to hurt others in the process. She most certainly wasn’t entitled to encourage her wife to get pregnant and not be there for the process.
It wasn’t as if my sister had impregnated her wife accidentally, after all.
I couldn’t imagine how hard it all was for Beth. Going through IVF virtually alone, both the failed implantations and the successful one, taking the test only for Zara to bail again…
I shook my head and rubbed my hand across my face. Beth was basically my sister after all these years, and I’d failed her, too.
Jesus. What a pit of self-pity I’d wallowed my way into.
My phone pinged from the counter in front of me and I picked it up. I had a text from an unknown number, and I frowned when I opened it.
UNKNOWN: I need Christmas trees.
I went from frowning to my eyebrows shooting upwards in the other direction.
There was only one person in Castleton who would need multiple Christmas trees who hadn’t already ordered or collected them.
ME: That’s the strangest ransom demand I’ve ever had.
UNKNOWN: Do you receive many?
ME: Not since I sent a dick pic to my university fling.
UNKNOWN: Interesting.
ME: Why do you need Christmas trees, Sylvie?
SYLVIE: Darn it. I was hoping you wouldn’t figure out it was me.
ME: The only person who could need multiple Christmas trees this close to Christmas is you.
SYLVIE: That’s true. Do you have Christmas trees spare?
ME: Do you think they’re all sold out?
SYLVIE: Never mind. I’ll find another tree farm.
ME: We’re the only one in a twenty-mile radius. Good luck with those delivery fees.
SYLVIE: Sigh. What a smack in the face having you give you money. It’s like the cricket ball all over again.
I groaned.
Not the cricket ball.
ME: Haven’t I apologised enough for that? I can’t believe you’re bringing that up. It’s been twenty years.
SYLVIE: A woman never forgets.
ME: Evidently. How many trees do you need? How tall? When and where do you need them delivered?
SYLVIE: Uh… Can I just meet you at the tree farm? No offense, but there’s no way I’m letting you choose them.
I laughed. I should have known she’d say that.
ME: Are you free now? I was heading there in about half an hour.
SYLVIE: Let me see if I can borrow Gramps’ car. Mine isn’t made for snow and the council didn’t grit our road.
I grimaced.
No.
Of course they didn’t.
ME: All right. Let me know.
***
Sylvie slammed the door on her grandpa’s old Land Rover and shivered. “Good grief, it’s cold.”
I watched as she walked over all bundled up like she was going on an arctic expedition. “You’ve gone soft living down south.”
“Watch your mouth, Thomas,” she shot back. “I just need a few days to get used to it again, that’s all.”
My lips tugged to one side.
The stupid woman was too gorgeous for her own good.
“Sure, you do. Shall we get the trees sorted out before you turn into a snowman, and I can’t get rid of you until the snow melts again?”
Sylvie sighed heavily and tugged her bobble hat further down over her ears. “Yes, we should. I can’t imagine anything worse than being stuck with you until spring comes.”
“Oh, I can. Being stuck with you wins that fight.”
She stuck her tongue out at me, and I grinned.
“Come on. You’ll be better off buying some that we haven’t cut down yet.” I nodded in the direction of the uncut tree area and motioned for her to follow me.