One Week ’Til Christmas. Belinda Missen
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BELINDA MISSEN is a reader, author, and sometimes blogger. When she’s not busy writing or reading, she can be found travelling the Great Ocean Road and beyond looking for inspiration. She lives with her husband, cats, and collection of books in regional Victoria, Australia.
‘An awesome read’
‘I fell in love with Belinda’s writing’
‘There is an air of lightness and love over the whole novel’
‘Wonderful heart-warming romance’
‘This is a perfect fun, flirty beach read’
‘Belinda has a warm, witty style of writing that makes characters and emotions leap off the page’
‘A lovely summer read’
Lessons in Love
An Impossible Thing Called Love
A Recipe for Disaster
One Week ’Til Christmas
BELINDA MISSEN
HQ
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by HQ in 2019
Copyright © Belinda Missen 2019
Belinda Missen asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
E-book Edition © November 2019 ISBN: 9780008296933
Version: 2019-10-01
Table of Contents
About the Author
Readers Love Belinda Missen
Also by Belinda Missen
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Epilogue
Acknowledgements
About the Publisher
For the SBG
10 Days ’til Christmas
The bell above my head chimed as I stepped inside from the cold. My hair stopped whipping around my face and I loosened the belt of my coat. The reassuring clack, clack, clack of my suitcase followed me over the tiles like a trusty steed.
‘Here she is!’ Alfred looked up from behind his glossy red coffee maker, tapped the portafilter on the bench and dangled a takeaway cup in the air. ‘Good to see you again.’
‘I’m just like Halley’s Comet,’ I teased. ‘Only I show up more often and I’m not as bright.’
‘I won’t hear a word of it.’ He laughed. ‘How long are you here for this time?’
‘An entire eight days.’ I dug my purse out of my backpack. ‘Well, seven and a half now, I suppose. I’ve just dropped the hire car at Heathrow.’
‘Hire car? You mean you’ve been here long enough to have a road trip, and this is the first I’m hearing of it?’ He feigned disgust. ‘You awful woman.’
‘I probably shouldn’t tell you about Belfast, then?’ I smirked.
Alfred clucked his tongue.
I guess the first thing you should know about me is that I love to travel. There’s nothing more thrilling than the thrust of an aeroplane the moment the wheels leave the tarmac. It says, ‘Here you are, welcome to your next adventure. Enjoy your stay, make sure your tray table is upright, and tip your wait staff accordingly.’
In my decade as a travel writer, I’ve been to places I never thought possible. I’ve been smeared in coloured powders during the festival of Holi in India, bumbled my way through hymns inside St Mark’s Basilica, and watched the Northern Lights on a night so cold it felt like I’d found the dark side of the moon and decided to dance the jig in a polka-dot bikini.
But above all that, I’ve made friends in every corner, crevice,