Page 46 of A Billionaire for Christmas

BARKING MAD

The following morning Molly woke from the deepest, most restful sleep of her life wrapped in Levi’s arms, with a delicious ache all over her body.

She felt an inner glow. She would never be the same ever again.

Last night had changed her. It felt like a new beginning.

For the first time since Ava’s death, she felt hopeful .

For the second time that week, she found herself in bed with the man of her dreams wondering what effect last night’s soulful union, their life-changing, mind-blowing sexual experience, would have on him.

She propped up on her elbow and nudged Levi awake, keen to find out.

He opened his eyes and smiled at her. ‘Jeez. What a night. That was so great. So, so unbelievably great.’ Levi rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands.

Encouraging start.

‘I’ve never experienced anything quite like it.’

Even better.

‘I feel incredible.’

Molly looked at him, beaming from ear to ear, and tutted playfully. ‘You’re talking about sleep again, aren’t you?’ She glanced at her phone charging by the bed. ‘Before you ask, it’s almost ten o’clock. You’ve had nine whole hours.’

Levi reached over to kiss her. ‘You are so good for me.’

She wriggled out of his arms. ‘Time to get up. We have a lot to do.’

‘Have you always been this bossy? How did I not notice?’

‘Too busy working and being grumpy?’

Levi feigned heartbreak.

Molly rang the solicitor’s office as soon as she was dressed.

‘It’s me, Molly Johnson. I’m ringing to let you know I’ll be completing the rest of the tasks today and emailing the signed papers, photos of the journal and witness signatures to you before the deadline at 6p.m.’

For once, Monsieur Fournier sounded a tiny bit compassionate. She quickly clicked off the call and raced through to the kitchen to find Freda poking in cupboards, gathering pans.

‘I’m only trying to help speed up breakfast,’ she joked. ‘I have everything under control.’

Molly looked in the pedal bin to see a pile of broken eggshells.

Freda held her hands up. ‘I only broke four eggs. That’s it. And I dropped the flour. Why do pancakes have to be so difficult to make?’

By the time Molly had taken her through the three basic steps to making the perfect pancake, steps that a six-year-old could master, Freda was squealing with delight.

Levi and Lucca gathered round the table to tuck feverishly into Freda’s stack of warm pancakes, drizzled with maple syrup, topped with crispy bacon and a side jug of hot melted chocolate.

‘These are delicious,’ exclaimed Levi.

‘Freeds. You’ve nailed it!’ Lucca said with his mouth crammed full. ‘You’ve found your true calling.’

Freda was beaming. ‘Do you really think so? I mean, I do love the restaurant business. Who doesn’t like to eat out every night?’

‘There’s a bit more to it than that,’ chimed in Molly as she flitted around collecting plates, refilling dishes.

Freda gasped. ‘I could help you run your restaurant. If you’ll let me. I have a business degree. I’m sure I could put it to good use.’ She looked pleadingly at Molly.

In that moment, Freda reminded Molly of Ava. Bubbling over with enthusiasm. Was she ready to open herself up to new friendships and a new business partner?

Closing her eyes and taking a calming breath, Molly heard herself saying, ‘Okay. Sure. Why not?’

Freda shrieked with joy as Molly put the dishes down on the table, her body trembling. ‘But I can’t pay you for a while. Not until my funds are released and we get some business in.’

Lucca wiped his lips. ‘I can help you there. Who do you need?’

Molly shrugged. ‘I’ve always dreamed of getting endorsement from the Bisette sisters but they’re impossible to get hold of. Ava and I tried for years.’

‘Sophie and Magda?’ Lucca said, whipping out his phone. He tapped a few buttons and handed it to her. She could hear it making a call. ‘Do it now.’

Molly thought she was going to die. She was about to speak to her culinary icons.

Everyone listened silently as Molly took the phone with shaking hands and, somehow, managed to explain who she was and ask whether the Bisette sisters would be interested in giving her a chance to show them what she was capable of.

Sophie Bisette agreed to visit the restaurant in the coming months.

She instructed her to get back in touch, and that any friend of Lucca LeRoux’s was a friend of theirs.

‘Oh. My. God. Lucca, thank you so much,’ Molly whispered, giving him the phone back.

Levi slapped him on the back. ‘Who knew you were so well connected?’

‘You would, bro, if you’d only hang out with me a bit more than once a year.’

‘Fair point,’ said Levi sheepishly.

‘Okay, what do we need to do now, Molly?’ Freda said, wiping her hands on her apron just like she’d seen Molly do. ‘Looks like we have a restaurant to save.’

They all stopped eating to look at Molly. She reached into her pocket and laid the list flat on the table, smoothing it out with her hand. Seconds later, they were all howling with laughter.

* * *

As she was about to clear away the breakfast plates, the first of the challenges was almost ready to be ticked off.

‘Sorry, what was that, Molly?’ Levi asked, grinning at her.

Molly repeated herself.

‘Molly,’ laughed Freda. ‘Would you like some more pancakes?’

Molly felt her cheeks burning as she responded.

‘What is happening?’ asked Toby, walking in late and eyeing the pancakes eagerly. ‘Molly, why are you barking? What’s going on?’

Poor me , thought Molly as Lucca’s eyes widened mischievously. He waved the list around, laughing. ‘Molly, you absolute sweetheart. I’ve always admired you, Molly. So, which one do you want to tick off next, Molly?’

Molly barked repeatedly. ‘Can everyone stop saying my name, please?’

This made everyone say her name even more until Levi, choking with laughter, ticked it off the list. ‘Where’s the journal? I’ll do a witness signature. Toby, can you take a photo of us round the table, please?’

‘I think Ava and I would have got along very well,’ said Freda, looking down the list. ‘She sounds really good fun. You must miss her.’

Molly closed her eyes and took a deep breath. ‘Every single day.’

‘Let’s eat up and crack on,’ said Levi, taking the piece of paper in his hands. ‘I think we can combine a few of these. And to be fair, you’ve done most of the really hard ones already.’

Again, Molly felt her cheeks flame as she looked at the first item on the list.

* * *

By teatime, Molly had solved the mystery of the missing hat, spent the day blindfolded and was completely and utterly exhausted by constantly referring to herself in the third person.

‘Can Molly take a quick break now, please?’ she asked, shivering as she felt along the wall back to where she hoped Levi was waiting.

‘What happened?’ she heard Levi ask her. Until five minutes before, he’d stuck to her like glue since blindfolding her after breakfast.

‘Molly somehow managed to lose her personal bodyguard. The one who swore to stick by her side all day. And now she’s tired. She needs an alcoholic beverage, and she needs to change out of these wet clothes.’

There had been a slight incident when she’d gone to the bathroom downstairs, come out, taken the wrong turn and ended up in the spa where she accidently pulled on the cord that released the bucket of ice-cold water.

‘She would also like to know where the hell you were when she needed you?’

Levi chuckled. ‘So sorry. I took a call from the hospital. I literally turned my back for a second and you’d gone.’

‘Can you untie Molly now, please? She’s fucking fed up with being blindfolded and no longer gives two flying shits about the bucket list.’

Levi tried not to laugh as he untied the blindfold. ‘Christ. This is a bit tight, isn’t it?’

‘Well, it certainly is headache-inducing,’ said Molly through tight lips.

She had never felt so exhausted. ‘Okay. That’s got to be almost everything on the list by now, surely.

’ She’d decided not to tell Levi about conquering her fear of highly-strung, overly controlling American mothers.

She wasn’t 100 per cent sure that would ever happen, but Monsieur Fournier didn’t need to know that. She glanced down at the list. ‘Except…’

That eighth challenge was becoming a huge elephant in the room. A woolly mammoth.

‘Let’s see it.’ Levi held out his hand as Molly, with her eyesight fully restored, handed the list over.

‘Your friend was certainly looking out for you, wasn’t she?’ he said quietly.

Molly stared at the list. She hadn’t dared to cross out Fall madly in love . She quickly folded it back up, hoping he hadn’t seen it. ‘These were supposed to be for her to do.’

Levi gave her a tender look. ‘But I’m not sure they were meant for her to finish.’ He took her hand. ‘For what it’s worth, I think you can cross off number eight.’

Molly melted. Properly melted.

‘Come on. We don’t have long to go before the deadline. Let’s send these photos of you falling over the sofa blindfolded to the solicitor.’

Molly sat wrapped in a towel next to Levi as they quickly uploaded everything to the laptop, including the one of the camel, the sausage-meat face and a signed affidavit from Levi testifying that Molly did indeed complete the remaining tasks, with the exception of photographic evidence for those requiring nudity, on the grounds of common decency, and he even invoked some clause in the Human Rights Act.

Just as she went to press send, the Wi-Fi died. ‘Don’t worry. It’s been dropping in and out all day. It’ll come back on.’

Toby, Freda and Lucca came to join them. ‘Have you sent everything across? Did you get your business and house back?’

‘The Wi-Fi is out. Mobile data isn’t getting a signal.’ Molly was starting to panic.

‘Don’t worry,’ agreed Toby. ‘It’ll come back on soon.’