Page 98 of Under the Mistletoe with You

‘Who is Eve?’Dai asks, confused by the chaos he’s unwittingly unleashed while warming up puppy number six, who is completely bone white, like a tiny ghost.

‘All About Eve?Low-key movie about superfans turned maybe evil,’ Nash laughs.‘And don’t worry, Christopher.I’m just impressed that you know the plot intricacies of one of my least successful films.’

‘Channel 5 runs all the Hallmark movies,’ Dai explains.‘I’m a sucker for a good Christmas movie, but I’ll take what I can get the other ten months of the year.Gethin got me onto this.’

Nash sighs.‘I never knew I’d have a fan group amongst Welsh farmers.Marketing are missing a trick.’

‘Which Kardashian?’Thelma asks.

‘Khloé.’

She makes a noise that Christopher reads asfine, but not my favourite one, just as puppy number seven arrives screeching its little head off.Thelma cleans it off and sets it right against Nessa with its siblings, along with Nash’s now-poopless puppy.Dai still clutches his all-white puppy in his hands and Christopher is almost certain he hears Dai tell the puppythat she is now named Khloé.Perhaps they’ll all be named after Nash’s co-stars at this rate.

‘So all this time you’ve been, what, a superfan?’Nash needles, this time looking directly at Christopher.

‘I didn’t want to be weird!’

‘But that’s your natural state.This makes the last twenty-four hours even wilder, Calloway.’

‘What happened in the last twenty-four hours?’Dai asks, and Thelma shrugs, eyebrows raised.

‘Never mind,’ huffs Christopher, holding out his hands for the last puppy, who seems to be slowly making an appearance, much to Nessa’s relief.Oh God, is this that bad?Worry bubbles through his body.‘You knew I’d seen your movies,’ he says, trying to keep the whine out of his voice.

‘I just had you pegged as being a casual embarrassed viewer hiding his Netflix history, not a connoisseur of the romance genre.’

‘Well.They’re good movies,’ says Dai, coming to both of their defences.

Is Nash angry with him?Did he cross a barrier by not being upfront about exactly how much of Nash’s cinematography he’s seen (a lot) before they slept together?Is that the sort of thing you’re supposed to disclose to an artist, because that seems like the worst possible option and biggest turn-off.Oh no, did he not tell himbecausepart of him knew it was a turn-off?

This is the worst possible outcome, really.

‘Can we just move past this?’Christopher asks, trying to ignore how much it sounds like begging.

‘Not a chance.’Nash doesn’t sound angry as much as amused.Though, Christopher still isn’t sure where the line is.Where does fun joking end and being angry at each other in the snow begin?

‘I was hoping we could be grown-ups about it.’

‘Oh, you have no idea how muchworseI am going to be now,’ Nash laughs, arranging all the puppies alongside Nessa’s tummy.

‘Quiet a moment,’ barks Thelma, lifting the final puppy to her chest.

The three men crowd closer, as Thelma strokes the puppy’s soft head.

‘My hands are too stiff,’ she says handing the puppy to Christopher.The puppy is cool in his hands, a little too cool.Oh god.Does he have a puppy in trouble in his hands?A literal life in his hands?

‘You’re the baker, right?Good at kneading?She needs rubbing, firmly and quickly.’

Transferable skills, he hopes.Without another word from anyone, Christopher rubs at the puppy’s back, mirroring Thelma’s suggested movements.

Well, that’s one way to find something more important to worry about than accidentally seducing someone on false premises slash being an embarrassing superfan.Sure, this situation with Nash is mortifying, but he might be responsible for this tiny creature taking its first ever breath.Or ...not, as it currently seems.

Nessa raises her great, exhausted head and looks squarely in his direction.

‘I won’t let her go,’ he whispers.

The room is a held breath as he rubs and rubs, and then at the last minute does a second check of her mouth.In one sweep, his fingers pull away a thick plug of mucus-y something.

And to his delight, she takes a breath.