“That’s a lovely frame, isn’t it?” asked Susan.

“Beautiful.” Chloe’s eyes roamed over the faces of her two best friends and she missed them intensely. She promised herself that they would plan the next May Ladies holiday as soon as they were all back home in the New Year.

Chloe levered open the stand on the frame so she could set it on the table. The gift from the Brownings was a beautiful tartan scarf that, Susan explained, they’d got in Edinburgh when they’d been there last summer with Lucy.

For such a quiet, unassuming couple, the Brownings certainly travel a lot, she thought. She had known this about them—she’d met them when they were half a world away in Hawaii and Lucy had inherited her travel bug from them—but voracious travelling seemed a little incongruous with their life in the sleepy hamlet of Penham.

“Now my gift to you!” exclaimed Chloe as she jumped up from her chair and retrieved it from under the tree. “It’s actually two, but I wrapped them together. Who wants to open them?”

“You go ahead, love,” offered Max.

Chloe watched excitedly as Susan carefully peeled open the wrapping to reveal a bubble-wrapped blob. Taking even more care, Susan undid the wrap, then held aloft two Christmas ornaments, one made from porcelain—a spray of gum leaves with a delicate red gum blossom—and the other, a blown-glass banksia. “Oh, Max, will you look at these.”

Max popped his reading glasses on and crossed the room to inspect the ornaments. He took the banksia in his hand and turned it slowly. “That’s magnificent, that is, Chloe. It will have pride of place on the tree, I think. And that one, too. Thank you, love.”

He gave Chloe a warm smile and a wave of happiness shot through her.

Just then, there was a loud knock at the door.

The three of them looked at each other, bewildered. “I wonder who that could be,” said Max, rising and crossing the room. He opened the door to the entry and Chloe and Susan exchanged a look as they heard the front door open, then the murmur of male voices. Max appeared in the doorway. “Uh, Chloe love, it’s for you. It’s Alan—from across the road,” he added unnecessarily.

Chloe, who hadn’t planned on seeing Archer that morning, smoothed her hair, then stood and tightened the belt on her robe. Max crossed the room, throwing a shrug of confusion Chloe’s way, as Archer’s large frame filled the doorway.

“Good morning, everyone. Uh, Happy Christmas.”

“And to you, too, Alan,” said Susan. “Would you like a cup of tea, love? Or some Christmas cake?”

“Oh, thank you, no. I just … might I have a word with you, Chloe?”

She’d been dumbstruck until that moment, then snapped out of her reverie. “Uh, yeah, of course.” She gawped at Susan, who threw her a lifeline.

“How about you two talk privately, and Max and I will go and get a start on Christmas lunch?” Susan jerked her head unsubtly at Max, who harrumphed a little as he got out of his chair again. He gave a tight smile in Archer’s direction and closed the door to the room quietly behind him.