Page 134 of Under the Mistletoe with You

‘No.Everyone told us we had to take a day off after cooking yesterday.But maybe, I was thinking, I might take himdown the road to the beach.It’s finally stopped snowing from the looks of things.We can practically drive onto the front with the van so if he’s too tired to walk we can just sit and watch the waves, or toddle about a bit.’

When he looks back at the phone, both Haf and Kit are squished into the screen beaming at him.

‘What?’

‘You’re just cute,’ Haf says.

‘I’m just trying to be ...hospitable.’

‘Mmhmm,’ murmurs Kit, completely unconvinced.‘Let us know how you get on with that.’

They talk for a bit longer about their weird individual Christmases, and he moves the camera so they can see him working away, laying the sides and roof of the house, and then each reindeer down on the baking trays.With the sudden free time, Kit and Haf had watched the entireLord of the Ringstrilogy back to back, only moving to make more food or top up the wine.

‘Not gonna lie, it was much easier than last Christmas with everyone,’ admits Haf.

‘To be fair, last year, you and Lovestruck over here were pretending to be together while you were trying not to snog me, so the stakes were a little higher,’ laughs Kit dryly.

‘Yeah, but this time I got to pick all the best treats and I only cried once.’

‘You cried multiple times during the movies?’

‘Why did you cry the other time?’Christopher asks.

‘Oh, you know, the cutlery was just too loud.’Kit pats her gently on the head.

Christopher nods sagely.Sometimes it is too loud, and sometimes Haf says things that are all too familiar to him.Ever since she got her autism diagnosis this year, he’s been quietly wondering some more things about himself, but his possible...likely...neurodivergence is not something he’s entirely ready to look at head-on.

‘How many times did you cry, Christopher?’asks Kit, dragging him from his thoughts.

‘Not once.’

‘Wow.That’s impressive.But maybe you should have a little cry?You know, a nice little festive one.As a treat.’

‘I think we have very different ideas about whattreatsare, darling,’ Kit says.

They sign off with a chorus oflove yous, determined to get a walk in around the York walls if it wasn’t too icy, or at the very least get some kind of chocolatey delicious thing to eat.They’ll have their time together when the snow is gone, he hopes.Though Lord knows when.He’d have to keep the bakery shut for longer, and he doesn’t know if he can afford to do that, especially when he’s due to reopen in a few days anyway.

‘Morning.’Nash is wrapped up in Christopher’s dressing gown.His golden hair sticks up in a truly impressive variety of angles, and there are deep dark furrows under his eyes.

‘Hi,’ Christopher says breathlessly, trying not to beam at the sight of him.‘How are you feeling?’

Nash blows out his lips and shrugs.‘Mid.Not bad but I don’t feel as sparkly as I might normally do.’

‘You’re sparkly in the mornings?’

‘I might be.’Nash sniffs the air in a move that reminds Christopher of the cat.‘What are you making?’

‘Gingerbread, finally.’

‘How long until I get to eat some?’

On cue, the timer goes off, and Christopher removes several baking sheets of wide shapes and crisp-looking reindeer from the oven, setting them on the wire racks to cool.

‘You have to wait for them to cool or it’ll be all squishy and gross.’

‘I hate the interminably slow passage of time,’ Nash groans.He bends down to closely inspect the reindeer.‘These are cute.’

‘They’re Shaz’s favourites.I thought perhaps I’d drop a few round to people to say thank you for their help yesterday.’