Page 38 of Under the Mistletoe with You

‘We’ve got our first snow-based emergency.’

Chapter Ten

Christopher

Christopher is not convinced that anything happening now could constitute thefirstsnow-based emergency, given all that has happened to him in the last twenty-four hours, but he ushers Shaz over all the same.

‘By any chance do you know Myffy Evans?Nice lady, little older than me.Face like an angel.Rollickingly dirty jokes.Uses a wheelchair when she’s down in town.’

‘No, I’ve never met her I don’t think.’

‘Well, she lives up at the top of the village, and her carer just called in sick for the day.Normally that wouldn’t be a massive issue as her husband Mohan can work from home and help her out, buthe’sstuck in London.Myffy needs someone to pick up her prescription quite urgently, plus probably a little help at home.I can sort the prescription now as it’s just down the road, but ...’

There’s no way Shaz has time to trudge up the village with Gar and the kids.

‘I can take it to her.What’s her address?’

‘Are you sure?It’s a long walk uphill.I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t—’

‘I want to help.And I have hiking boots.’

‘And longer legs than me.Sorry, I’d offer you the car—’

‘You need that just in case for Gar.It’s fine, Shaz.’

Somewhat foolishly, he had left his little car with his parents when he moved to Wales, as he’d had to drive a rental van laden with all of his stuff during the move itself and he’dfigured that he wouldn’t be massively in need of a car when he got here.That was very silly as it quickly turned out he couldn’t really get anywhere without relying on the underfunded, barely there public transport system.

‘If you weren’t being so helpful I’d tell you off for interrupting me.All right, I’m sending her your number, and her address to you.’

The maps app on his phone tells him it’s a twenty-five-minute walk.Given how long it took him to get to the train station and back yesterday, he’s mentally doubling that.At least.He should probably take a thermos.

‘We don’t need to walk,’ says Nash.

The ‘we’ of that sentence throws him, but also, obviously they need to walk.Christopher gestures outside.‘Erm, yes we do?’

‘Well, that’s the thing,’ says Nash, mirroring Christopher’s movement, but in a way that doesn’t feel mocking.‘This morning, I dug out your truck before I did all the, err, ill-advised home gym.’

This gets two raised eyebrows from Shaz, who still hasn’t heard the full story.‘No, don’t tell me,’ she says, stopping him with a hand.‘What I’m imagining is way better.’

‘Thank you for clearing the snow, but that van hasn’t worked for years.’The former owners had called it ‘non-operational’, which he assumed was code for ‘ready for the scrapheap’.He’d never even attempted to look at it, and was just waiting to find someone to come and scrap it for him.

‘Oh.It does now.’

‘What?’

‘That’s what I was doing outside.It just needed a tune-up, some oil and some air in the tyres.And all that stuff was in the little shed by the side of the house – the lock on that is bust, by the way.So yeah, long story short, I fixed it.’

‘And broke into the shed by the sounds of things,’ Shaz adds.

Christopher can’t quite compute what Nash is saying.‘Youfixedthe van?’

‘Yeah.It was really easy.Didn’t need much to get it going.I think it could do with a few new parts but you’re not going to get them today.It’ll last if I keep an eye on it.Will get us to Myffy’s house, at least.It should be able to drive through the snow easier than anyone’s car.’

‘Bloody hell.Thank you.’

‘It’s no big deal.I just needed something to take my mind off ...things.’

Shaz gives Nash an approving look, but Christopher is still barely processing.