The Mills & Boon Christmas Wishes Collection. Maisey Yates
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to, and she clicked on #Evergreen and found me. And so did thirty others, but so far we haven’t spoken. I will, though. I’ll introduce myself to them tomorrow, tell them a little bit about my artisan donuts and how much I love baking.”
“That sounds… great, Aunt Bessie.” I tried to keep my laughter in check. “It is called social media, so introducing yourself is part of it, I guess.” They wouldn’t know what hit them. Aunt Bessie could win anyone over with her affable personality and I bet they’d order donuts just because she wooed them with her zest for life.
We were still laughing about my techno-phobic aunt embracing Instagram when Amory clapped her hands and said, “Now, what’s the protocol here, is it too early for wine?”
“It’s actually a little late,” Aunt Bessie winked, reaching for some glasses. “We’ve got mulled wine steeping away on the stove, or take your pick with something else. Just make yourselves right at home, we’re all friends here.”
Amory poured everyone a glass of mulled wine, the scent of cloves, cinnamon and orange rind spicing the air, and I made a mental note to get the recipe. Surely I could throw a few ingredients into a vat of wine without ruining it?
Just when everyone had settled down again, a car pulled into the driveway and we all turned to look. Cruz couldn’t have got to the lodge and back in that amount of time. Amory’s eyes narrowed, and I sensed a ploy afoot too. Cruz had always been good at big romantic gestures. A Christmas gift, perhaps? He’d been so keen to get back into the kitchen at Cedarwood, I don’t think he’d even ventured into town since he arrived, so he wouldn’t have had time to buy a gift, unless he’d organized it by phone…
We peeked out of the window, Amory watching him intently as he opened the back door of the car and shuffled backwards with something in his arms.
Realizing it was something important, and definitely not wine by the looks of it, I ushered Amory away. “Let him surprise you,” I said.
While I was pushing Amory back into the dining room, Kai opened the door for Cruz.
“All right, all right,” Amory said when I shoved her a little harder. “There’s no need to manhandle me.”
“Oh, please,” I said, smiling. Mom and Aunt Bessie stopped what they were doing and waited for Cruz’s big entrance too. What was taking him so long? I was dying to see what Amory’s gift was.
“Close your eyes,” Cruz called out from the doorway as we all hovered in the living room expectantly.
Amory duly closed her eyes.
He tiptoed in, and we collectively put a hand to our mouths to stop awws spilling out. In his hands Cruz held a little fluffball of a pup, with black and tan fur and the most beautiful big blue eyes.
Putting a finger to his lips, Cruz sneaked in and placed the puppy onto Amory’s lap. She gasped, and opened her eyes. “Merry Christmas, Amory.”
We froze, not sure if this was meant to be a private moment or not, so we just stopped moving and pretended to be invisible. Dropping to his knees (both knees, thank God; no chance of a proposal fiasco again) in front of Amory, he said, “This little rescue pup needed a home for Christmas, a for ever home, where he’s safe, and loved, and well-fed. I told the shelter we’d show him what real love was and he’d have a happy life with us.”
“This little guy was going to spend Christmas alone?” Amory asked, her eyes glistening as she stroked his fur.
Cruz nodded solemnly. “But now we can give him the Christmas of every puppy’s dream.”
“He’s so beautiful!” she said, and for a split second or two her mask fell away and she looked really quite vulnerable. Her face softened and her eyes shone.
“Amory, I know we both had different visions about starting a family, and about marriage, but we got through that hurdle by being open and honest, and if we can get through that we can get through anything, together. So when I spotted this little guy, I just felt like he was right for us. The same way I knew, as soon as I saw you, that day in Manhattan when we first met, that you were the one for me. It was like my soul recognized you, and I had that same feeling with this fluffball. And I hope you do too.”
I cast my eyes to the floor, feeling like I was intruding, but my heart was beating fast for my friends. Their love was so strong, so evident in everything they did, that even huge dilemmas couldn’t force them apart. Cruz’s gift of a rescue pup was perfect.
“I love him already,” she said, holding back tears. “And I felt the very same way about you, but of course, I couldn’t tell you that. I’m a born and bred New Yorker, we don’t share our feelings so easily.” She tried to joke about it, but it was clear Amory was letting down the defenses she’d built in the past. “I love you, Cruz, I really, really do, and I don’t care who knows it,” she said as she reached for his hand and then looked down at the new addition to their family.
I exchanged a quick glance with Kai, who was trying to contain a smile too; Mom and Aunt Bessie were grinning behind their hands. It was a beautiful thing to witness, two people so in love.
Then the puppy glanced up and licked Amory’s nose, provoking a giggle which he took as a sign to pee in her lap, lightening the mood instantly. “Oh,” she laughed. “We need to housetrain him.”
The puppy jumped, his front paws landing on her chest, and licked her chin as if he was saying hello. She threw her head back and laughed. “OK, you’re forgiven.”
Mom came back in with a wet hand towel so Amory could clean herself up, which she took gratefully and uselessly wiped at her jeans.
“Do you want to borrow something of mine?” Aunt Bessie asked.
I stemmed my own giggles, picturing Amory in one of Aunt Bessie’s sparkly ensembles. Amory laughed too. “That would be great, Bessie, if you don’t mind.”
“Be right back,” she said, leaving the rest of us to coo over the puppy.
He was a ball of energy, and jumped and rolled on Amory’s lap. She lifted him to her face and kissed him on the nose. “Oh, he’s adorable. Thank you, Cruz. He’s a little ray of sunshine.”
“What are you going to call him?” Cruz asked, bending down to pat him.
She gave Cruz a peck on the cheek. “I don’t know, I’ll have to think about it. Get to know him first.”
As Amory went off to change, Aunt Bessie bustled to the kitchen. The scent of roasted meat and crispy potatoes had my mouth watering, despite the amount of food I’d already eaten.
“Stir the gravy, will you, Clio?”
“Sure.” She trusted me with the gravy? Yikes.
The turkey came out, roasted golden, then the root vegetables, which were crisp and glistened with butter. Aunt Bessie parboiled some green beans, drizzled them with olive oil and mixed through some pomegranate seeds that resembled shiny rubies. My old childhood nemesis, Brussels sprouts, were crumbed and deep-fried, and served with a melted cheese dipping sauce. They were disguised so well I was eager to try one and see if I really was a grown-up now – didn’t you achieve the highest level of adulting when you could eat Brussels sprouts?
Cruz wandered in. “Do you need a hand?”
Aunt Bessie threw him a grateful look. “Can you carve the turkey?”
He nodded and set to work.
She dusted her hands on her apron, and wrinkled her brow. “What am I forgetting?”
“The carrots?” I ventured, noticing that the neat julienned stems Kai had chopped were now swimming in a pan of garlic butter.
“Yes!” she laughed. “Also I made bread and butter sauce this year. Now don’t turn your nose up at it, it goes very well with the richness of the turkey.”
I held my hands up