Only Lucas noticed Danny choking on his turkey as Raffy lifted his glass and said romantically in his Italian accent, ‘To stars, babies, weddings and love. To old friends and new beginnings. Buon Natale and Happy Christmas, everyone.’
A resounding, ‘Happy Christmas!’ filled the room.
EPILOGUE
Despite hiding cameras in the hotel bedrooms, Lucas had always felt too much of a voyeur to look at any of the video footage, but today, full of Christmas turkey, a large helping of Christmas pud and far, far too much red wine, an exception could be made. Half-covering his eyes in dreaded anticipation, he searched for the footage from the time of the hotel inspector’s stay, and pressed play.
‘A terrible mistake, you say,’ Alabaster Anna was saying, as Lucas began watching the action, his eyes wide in fascination…and when a few minutes later she reached, ‘Oh, Daniel. You bad, bad boy. Can’t you make it four?’ Lucas laughed out loud, holding his 4-Star Seaside certificate triumphantly in the air. First, he deleted all traces of evidence from the camera. Then, on reaching for his phone, he began typing a message: Danny mate, about your Christmas bonus…
The End
A message from Nicola
Wishing A Happy Christmas to all my wonderful readers and thank you for your continued support. If you enjoyed this book and have time to leave me a review, however short, I would be most grateful. Just in case you missed them, there are three other books in the Cockleberry Bay series, charting the story from the beginning when Rosa first arrives at the Corner Shop, which has been left to her in a mysterious legacy. In order they are: The Corner Shop in Cockleberry Bay, Meet Me in Cockleberry Bay and The Gift of Cockleberry Bay. These and all my other novels can all be found here:
amazon.co.uk/Nicola-May/e/B004QUBKWW
Happy Reading!
Love from Nicola X
My next book, Welcome to Ferry Lane Market, first in the Ferry Lane Market series, will be published July 2021 – click here to pre-order now!
Here is a snippet of the first chapter to whet your appetite . . .
Chapter One
‘I bet even the real Sid Vicious didn’t shit in his bathwater.’ Kara Moon stared down at the noxious poo floating in the terrapin’s tank.
‘Oh, I bet he did,’ Jago Ellis murmured whilst flattening down his dark brown Beatles-style haircut and patting his khaki jacket pockets in turn. ‘Seen my keys, Moo Moo?’
Kara cringed inwardly at her once much-adored nickname. Then, taking the keys from the orderly rack in the kitchen, she came back through the open archway into their compact living space.
A lone beam of golden sunlight made its jittery mark across the wooden floor as it seeped through the open crack of the balcony door. The sounds of mewing seagulls and creaking yacht masts in the estuary harbour rose up from below, comforting and familiar, yet they did not ease the gnawing feeling in Kara Moon’s stomach. Hoping for a different answer to the one she was expecting, she asked casually, ‘Where are you going this early, anyway?’
As Jago reached for his battered Beatles keyring, Kara caught a whiff of the Gucci aftershave she had given him for Christmas. He looked at her with a perplexed expression. ‘It’s Jobcentre day. You know I always go over to Crowsbridge on a Friday.’
‘How could I possibly forget?’ Kara said sarcastically. ‘Oh yes, maybe because it’s been eighteen months and you still haven’t come back with a job.’
‘Don’t start.’
‘It’s just, James Bond needs his cat-flea stuff and I’m not sure if there’s enough money in the blue pot and—’
Ignoring her pity plea, Jago went to the open hallway, jumped down two stairs at a time, then looked back to say, ‘You actually look quite pretty when you forget to tie your hair up in that stupid ponytail.’
Fighting back tears, Kara put her hand to the back of her long messy auburn waves as her errant beau of eight years stalled again to say nastily, ‘And why aren’t you at work? Or did you stupidly forget about that too?’
The redhead sighed deeply and held her palm up to him. ‘Just go, Jago. You mustn’t be late now, must you.’
She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah. The famous Lennon McCartney lyrics that Kara had chosen for his special keyring followed after Jago as he hurried down the stairs, jumped down the last three and went out, slamming the door.
Click here to pre-order Welcome to Ferry Lane Market now!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Nicola May is a rom-com superstar. She is the author of twelve romantic comedies, all of which have appeared in the Kindle bestseller charts. Two of them won awards at the Festival of Romance and another was named ebook of the week in The Sun. Christmas in Cockleberry Bay is the fourth book in Nicola’s bestselling Cockleberry Bay series. She lives near Ascot Racecourse with her black-and-white rescue cat, Stan.
Find out more at
@nicolamay1
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