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He inhaled a deep breath and crossed his fingers. “He’s sorry and he’ll do whatever you want to make amends.”

“Whatever I want?”

He tightened his fingers. “Yes.”

“Does that mean he’ll wear a Christmas jumper, a reindeer headband and a huge smile as he decorates the tree with her? All while he sings Christmas songs. Without moaning once.”

Damn it, his fingers must not have been crossed tightly enough. “All except for the singing. That’s for your sake, not his.”

A beat later the door opened. Her eyes were puffy, her freckles blotchy. It reminded him of the night her parents had left to catch their flight back to New Zealand. She’d looked distraught then too, her shoulders rising up and down in time with her sobs as she’d waved them goodbye. Not wanting to intrude on her private grief, uncertain if she’d even welcome such a gesture from him, he’d watched uselessly as she’d wrapped her own arms around herself. A desperate need for comfort that he’d been too awkward to provide.

That he was still too awkward to provide.

“He loved Christmas because you loved Christmas,” he told her quietly, stuffing his hands into his pockets. “That’s what I meant to say.

She sniffed. “You need to get better at saying the right words straightaway.”

He gave her a small smile. “Noted.”

“Right, come with me.”

He followed her as she marched towards . . . seriously? “Surely we’ve got everything we need from the grotto.” They had five boxes of shiny/sparkly things to work through already.

“Not quite.” She dived inside and when she came back out, the wobbly smile she gave him caused a funny reaction inside his chest. “Here, this was one of Colin’s Christmas sweaters.” She pushed a terrible acrylic red and white creation towards him that looked an awful lot like the mirror image of her reindeer one. “And you need these.” She reached up on tiptoes and plonked a band of some sort on his head.

She took a step back and studied him. A second later, she started to giggle. “You look. . . .” Another burst of giggles. “Oh my God, you look—”

“Strangely compelling?” He hazarded.

She let out a snort of laughter and he walked into the hallway to find the mirror. His face stared unblinkingly back at him, topped by a pair of glittery reindeers on springs, complete with huge red noses.

“Festive,” she breathed between more giggles. She pointed towards his mouth. “Now you just need the big smile.”

He pushed his lips out in a false smile, yet as he watched the amusement dance in her eyes, saw her whole face light up as she snapped off a few photos, a funny thing happened. His smile became real.

She clapped her hands together and nodded in approval, a glint in her eyes, like she registered the change in him. “Now let’s give this tree its sparkle.”

He had never, in all his life, enjoyed decorating a tree.

But today, he did.

December 3rd

Anna’s heart raced that little bit faster the moment she laid her eyes on what she was supposed to spend the next hour or so doing.

She wasn’t sure, because Luke’s face wore its default implacable expression, but she sensed, from the stiff way he held his shoulders, that her companion wasn’t that enamored with Colin’s instruction for today, either.

“Have you ever skateboarded?”

Luke shook his head. “I prefer my feet on the ground.” He turned to look at her. “You?”

“Why would I want to risk breaking my neck just to do . . . ,” she waved at the guy currently rolling up the curved part of a wall, flipping up in the air while turning round, and rolling back again. “That.”

“For once, we’re in agreement.”

“I thought you were a risk taker?” She glanced back at him. Wearing a baseball cap and a big hoodie, Colin’s skateboard casually tucked under his arm, he looked . . . okay, her first thought was that he looked hot, which was unsettling. But he also looked the part of the confident skateboarder. She was certain she looked like she was about to walk the plank. Into a sea full of hungry sharks. “Don’t you do stuff like rock climbing for a living?”

“I’ve been working as an instructor for an outdoor wilderness center.” He stared over at the skatepark. “We camp, we hike, we climb. All without standing on a board with wheels.”