Page 110 of Make You Mine This Christmas

‘I can’t believe you haggled me down from my first condition,’ Kit mutters before taking another sip.

‘What’s condition two?’

‘I’m working on it.’

‘I’m not sure you’re in the position to demand quite so much when you kissed my girlfriend,’ he sniffs, a tiny grin on his lips.

‘Yeah, yourfakegirlfriend. I don’t think that counts.’

‘You didn’t know that at the time,’ Haf points out.

‘Hang on. Why are you mad at me and not your fake girlfriend over here?’ Kit says with a smirk. ‘She was busy putting it about!’

‘Hmm. That’s a good point,’ he says, arching an eyebrow as he turns to Haf. It’s now, as they both give her the same look, that Haf finally sees the sibling resemblance.

‘Hey, hey, I thought we were having a beautiful moment of sibling reconciliation,’ Haf protests. ‘And I was notputting itabout. You’d know if I was putting it about.’

‘What a terrifying proposition,’ says Christopher.

‘How did I not realise you guys weren’t dating? You have the sexual chemistry of a pair of salt-and-pepper shakers.’

‘Also, to be fair to Haf, I did actually know that she knew you already and that she had feelings for you.’

‘What? Really? And you were just fine with that?’

‘He was not fine about it,’ Haf scoffs.

‘She’s right. I was in quite a tizzy over it.’

‘A tizzy?’ Haf practically chokes on her whisky from laughter.

‘Yes, a tizzy. That’s a fine word. And I was only feeling that way because you forgot to tell me straight away.’

‘When did she tell you?’

‘Last night.’

Kit gives her a knowing look.

‘Look, it was only because I didn’t want you to like throw me out or something. And I was trying really hard to repress everything. You know, just keep it all inside until I just die.’

‘Your combined lack of sense is absolutely horrifying to me,’ drawls Kit. ‘You two are more alike than I thought – emotionally stunted and horrendously repressed.’

‘Says you,’ Haf quips. ‘Andyouwere the one who kissed me.’

Kit makes a series of angry little noises but is interrupted as Christopher laughs. It’s body-shaking, near-hysterical laughter. Relieved laughter.

‘Oh dear, Christmas madness has set in,’ Haf says, shaking her head.

‘No, I’m just,’ he says, wiping a tear from his eye. ‘What are the chances that you fell in love with each other?’

Both Kit and Haf go various shades of red at the word ‘love’. They both start to mumble protests, but he holds up a hand to silence them. ‘You know what I mean. It’s kind of lovely.’

‘That’s alarmingly grown-up of you,’ says Kit. ‘I swear you were twelve a blink ago.’

Christopher rolls his eyes playfully, a perfect copy of Kit just a few moments before. He gets to his feet, waking the dogs, who look up at him, waiting for the moment he says it’s bedtime.

But instead, what he says is this.