“Well, if you’re offering, I’d love some toast.”

Nate clutched at his chest as though she’d wounded him. “Toast.” It came out as a ragged whisper and Lucy giggled. “How about an omelette instead?” he suggested.

“I don’t want to be a bother.”

He waved off her weak protestation and started assembling his omelette making tools on the counter. “Two, Dad,” said Will.

“Two omelettes coming right up.”

Lucy watched Nate in quiet awe, enjoying the sense of family togetherness and the hot chocolate. As two omelettes cooked in side-by-side frying pans, Nate topped her up with a wink. Will held his mug out too and when it was full again, offered it to Lucy in a toast.

“Here’s to peeing in the snow.”

Lucy let out an exasperated sigh. Nate laughed, his back to them, then took both pans off the hob and slid each omelette onto its plate in perfect sync—a little breakfast-for-dinner theatrics.

He chatted with them while they ate, doing most of the talking while Lucy and Will replied with nods and “Mmm-hmms”. When he was finished, Will leant back. “Great omelette, Dad, thanks.”

“My pleasure.”

Will raised his arms above his head and stretched his neck from side to side, his T-shirt lifting to show a strip of bare stomach—bare, muscular stomach. Lucy gulped down her bite and took a sip of her hot chocolate.

When she glanced at Nate, it was clear that he’d seen the little episode. If she’d been embarrassed by Will sharing the outdoor weeing episode—and she was—this was several notches higher on the mortification scale.

Stop perving on Jules’s brother, Lucy—especially in front of their dad!

Chapter 9

Chloe

Chloe woke with a head that felt like it was stuffed with cotton wool. She wasn’t sure what to blame, the sherry or the jet lag, but as she lay there looking up at Lucy’s garish light fitting, she knew one thing for certain. She was now Acting Co-chair of the town’s Christmas Fair and it was only two days away.

Why on earth had she said yes?

She threw an arm over her bleary eyes, blocking out the weak light seeping through the curtains, and indulged a long groan. Then she peeked at the clock on the bedside table. She had precisely thirty-five minutes to get up, get dressed, and head to the planning meeting. Good thing it was being held across the road.

Chloe prided herself on being good with names, but as Susan went around the circle and introduced everyone on the committee, she struggled to remember all of them.

“And this is Cecily,” said Susan, pointing to a stout woman with a particularly sour expression. She’d remember Cecily, though, with that “cat’s bum” face. Chloe nodded in greeting and Cecily’s lips pursed even tighter. Then, along with the other five committee members—Susan included—she stared expectantly at Chloe.

She was only supposed to be Co-chair, right? With Cecily? She scanned the group—five women and one man. She’d expected a grateful reception and to be looped in on the plans to date, but no, the stares continued. She wasn’t even sure if Susan was actually on the committee, or if she was just there to spectate.