‘Oh my God, stop! My bladder has gone the other way and shrunk to the size of a pea. Last one down buys the cream teas.’ Rosa started running at full pelt down the hill.
CHAPTER 53
Rosa rushed inside Gull’s Rest and rubbed her hands together in front of the log-burner.
‘Bloody freezing out there,’ she said, her teeth chattering.
‘You’ve been ages.’ Josh was stretched out on the sofa, with Hot stretched next to his legs and Little Ned sound asleep on his chest. ‘How was the baby?’
‘SO beautiful. They’ve called her Elizabeth Rose, the Rose bit after me, which is such an honour. She will be Lizzy for short. She looks like a Lizzy too.’
‘Aw, that’s lovely. I can’t wait to meet her.’
‘It’s made me excited for our new little one now.’
‘Come here and lie with us.’ Rosa took off her coat and squeezed in next to her husband, stroking Little Ned’s soft dark hair gently as she did so.
‘I saw you on the beach with Lucas. How is he?’
‘He’s feeling better now. It seems Davina fleeced him, and it was her secret lover, that horrible Joe Fox, who was dressed up in the Grotty Grotto moonlighting as Father Christmas. They were sleeping together and collaborating in bringing Lucas down. She also put a prawn in the hotel inspector’s dinner at the Ship Hotel and nearly did for her.’
‘What!’ Josh’s face tightened. ‘I’m glad I didn’t know that about that bastard being there.’
‘Danny hit him hard enough for all of us by the sound of it.’
Josh shifted restlessly. ‘He’s had that coming for years. I don’t condone violence of any kind but, well, if anyone deserves it, Joe Fox did. That Davina – what a piece of work. Who needs criminals with police officers like her around! She was so wrong for Lucas, anyway.’
‘I agree. He’s meeting the woman who does his marketing for the Ship tomorrow, and I have high hopes for the pair of them. She’s one of us, Josh. She’s kind and I think she will be good for Luke.’
‘Happy to hear that. Poor Lucas, he’s had a bad run of it. It’s sickening about the Seaside Stars too, but that will soon be forgotten and if this woman keeps on top of the marketing, he will always do well with that beach location.’
‘Especially if she keeps on top of him too. Ever the businessman, aren’t you?’ Rosa nestled into her husband’s sturdy frame, curving her arm around the baby and Hot so she had all her three boys in one embrace.
Josh gave her a kiss. ‘Talking of that,’ he said, ‘do you think the Carol-oke concert will give the charities a boost?’
‘For sure. In fact, it’s so good you are back early as I need to get cracking on sourcing some decent raffle prizes and liaising with the radio and local paper to make sure we get maximum coverage.’
‘I have got a bit of work to do to finish off this project, as that was the deal for me being allowed to come home early, but I can work around you with that and I want to make up for missing time with this little fella too; so you are both my priority, OK? Not forgetting our four-legged boy, of course.’
‘We are a good team, me and you.’ Rosa kissed his neck.
‘We are, and we will have the football team I want if you keep having babies at this rate.’
Rosa was thoughtful. ‘Who’d have predicted, when I moved into your flat in London all those years ago, that we would now be living in a beautiful beach house with the sausage dog I stole, or rather rescued, our first baby and another on the way?’
‘You are OK about it – the new baby I mean – aren’t you?’ Josh asked, a little anxiously. ‘I know I’m the one pushing for a big family.’
‘I am actually. A month ago, I was happy with just Little Ned, but now Christmas is coming, and I’ve seen families at the fireworks and at the grotto, and now we are parents anyway, well, I like the idea. I grew up as such a loner. I don’t want that for our lad. Are you desperate for another boy?’ Rosa asked, and squirmed to get herself comfortable.
‘No. I only joke about a football team. A mini-you would be perfect, or for Little Ned to have a brother. As long as they are healthy and happy, it’s all good.’
‘Something else I need to ask you.’ Rosa yawned.
‘That sounds ominous.’
‘I would like to do Christmas here with Kit, Mum, Nate, Jacob and Raff and Luke, the Greens, Titch and her lot and oh, Amira and Zaki too, if you don’t mind.’
Josh started counting on his fingers. ‘So that’s thirteen adults including us, five kids and six dogs, Rosa – if I’ve got the maths right.’
‘I know.’
‘Our table isn’t big enough – and who’s going to do the cooking?’
‘Raff is the best chef, Nate and Danny are pretty handy too. We can get everyone to bring stuff and all muck in.’
‘You’ve thought about this good and hard then,’ Josh laughed, his chest going up and down, causing Little Ned to murmur his disapproval at being disturbed.
‘We will make room. Queenie once said to me that if the home is a body, then the table is a heart. I love that. And what’s the point of having this lovely big house and not filling it with joy and laughter?’
Josh hugged his wife tightly to him. ‘And you, my gorgeous wifey, fill me with joy and laughter every day. And I promise I shall never leave you again.’
CHAPTER 54
‘Oh yeah, I have a message from Danny,’ Lucas addressed Amira, who was busily preparing coffees for him and Carly, who had just popped into the loo at Rosa’s Café. ‘He says not to eat before he gets in, because I’ve just given him the night off and he would like to cook dinner for you.’ The woman flushed pink. ‘Is that OK?’ Amira’s head nodded furiously. ‘Good, I’ll tell him.’
With a huge smile on her face, Amira began to hum to the tune of ‘Jingle Bells’ as she finished off what she was doing.
‘Well, hi there.’ Carly flirted with her eyes as Lucas put her cup of coffee down in front of her. He hadn’t noticed that Amira had finished it off with a heart on top. She winked secretly at him as she walked past to clear a table behind them.
‘Aw, that’s so sweet!’ exclaimed Carly on seeing the heart.
Lucas shrugged, then noticed that Amira had done the same for him too.
‘How are you?’ they both said at exactly the same time and laughed.
Lucas spoke first. ‘Well, I don’t have a girlfriend any longer, there is the chance we may lose and not gain a Seaside Star and we have a new Father Christmas on his way as the other one was stealing the takings.’
‘All going just great then.’ Carly smiled. ‘I phoned yesterday as your mobile was off and Tina did give me a little bit of a rundown. So, who’s the new beardy man in town then?’
‘I’ve no idea. Rosa told me to leave it to her, so I’m sure this one won’t be a lying cheating scumbag. Danny punched the other one. I mean, we were all glad about that as Santa had it coming – but can you imagine if anyone had seen him do it! Another great article for the South Cliffs Gazette.’ Lucas put on a BBC voice. ‘So, not content with poisoning the hotel inspector, according to new reports coming in from the Ship Hotel in Cockleberry Bay, Father Christmas is also now lying dead in his grotto there, felled by a single hard punch.’