Cover

Dedication

For my family

Here or gone

Near or far

In my heart

Is where you are

Chapter One

‘So, while I battled round Tesco for the food shopping you went to the craft shop and bought baubles and bits of wire … and a Santa suit?’ Laurel demanded of her fourteen-year-old niece Daisy as they drove the winding road home to Middledip. Her windscreen wipers swished away tiny flakes of snow in the fast darkening afternoon.

Daisy giggled. ‘I know it’s mid-November but I have to start making Christmas wreaths. I can’t make the compostable ones yet or they’ll fall apart by Christmas Day, but I can make the ones that are all baubles and plastic holly. The Santa suit’s for the Year Seven Christmas party I’m helping with at school. It’s only five weeks till the end of term.’

‘I suppose school Christmas events will be starting,’ Laurel acknowledged. ‘Whoa, holy crap!’ She stamped on the brakes as a man loomed out of the snowy dusk and jumped in front of her car, signalling wildly.

‘Where’d he come from?’ Daisy gasped as the SUV fish-tailed and shopping bags slithered noisily off the back seat.

‘There’s a car on the verge. Maybe he’s broken down. Don’t open your window,’ Laurel added hastily.

‘There’s another man with the car.’ Daisy peered through the glass, squinting from beneath her dark, curly fringe. She giggled. ‘That’s weird. He’s holding the car door handle and wearing a coat around his bum. He’s got bare legs and socks without shoes.’

‘That is weird.’ Laurel chewed her lip as she took in the bizarre scene. Should she drive off? They were still three miles from Middledip, on a quiet road with the only illumination coming from her headlights. Visions of car-jackings flashed through her mind. She had a teenage girl in her car.

Then the man who’d leaped out in front of them ran up and knocked on her window. Laurel jumped, as she recognised him.

Grady Cassidy.

Though she was aware Grady still lived in Middledip – because Daisy was buddies with him and his nephew Niall – he’d once occupied a special place in her teenage heart and his sudden appearance was a shock.

At the same moment, Daisy, still staring at the man beside the other car, snorted a laugh. ‘That’s Niall’s dad, Mac Cassidy, our head of year. He’s been pantsed!’

Laurel’s head shot round and she stared at Grady’s brother Mac, frozen – in more ways than one, probably – beside his car, short hair rippling in the gusty wind. It was Mac Cassidy, minus trousers. What the hell?