“But now I get to build my own home. And I get to be next door to you.”
She glanced up at me. “Is that okay?”
I pulled her into a hug, being careful not to knock her off her feet. “It’s more than okay. It’s the best present I could have hoped for.”
“You’ve always had a place to call home in Snowsly. And you always will.”
“Thank you, Granny.”
“Thank you for making me so proud.”
Snowsly was like one of those friends that you hadn’t seen since school but picked up like you’d seen them yesterday. It was constant. Familiar. It was everything I needed from the place I wanted to call home.
It was almost midnight by the time we got back to Delphinium Row from the Manor. I finally let go of Celia so we could get through the gate.
“I’m surprised our breath didn’t freeze in the air and then fall to the ground and shatter,” she said. “It’s so cold.”
“You know we need hot chocolate.”
She unlocked the door and I followed her as quickly as possible so I didn’t let any more cold air in than I had to.
“Or sex,” she said, checking her watch. “By the time we’ve gotten all these layers off, it will technically be Boxing Day.”
“And Boxing Day is now officially Sex Day?” I toed off my boots and unbuttoned my coat.
“Sex and Leftovers Day. Though preferably not at the same time.” Celia pulled off her Santa hat and hung it on the coat hook, like she might get one more wear out of it tomorrow. It was going to be Sex Day, after all.
I wasn’t sure I’d heard of anything so bloody fantastic. Cold pigs in blankets and sex with Celia? I might have died and gone to heaven. “Oh, and there’s something else we need to do.”
Celia turned to me, scrunching up her nose in protest.
“I’m hoping you’re going to be excited.” I pulled out the papers from my inside pocket, hung my coat on the hook, and then followed Celia into the kitchen. “Granny gave me the meadow next to the Manor, and all the necessary permissions to build a house.”
“You’re going to build a house?”
I nodded. “In Snowsly.”
We had talked about logistics of me juggling my work in London with being in Snowsly, but we hadn’t talked about where I was going to live. It was still early days in my relationship with Celia, but there was no need to prevaricate. The house I wanted to build on the meadow was for us.
“I thought we could think about what we might like that house to look like. Number of bedrooms, whether we want a formal dining room, an orangery, that sort of thing.”
She tilted her head. “What we want the house to look like. Isn’t that up to you?”
I tossed the papers on the dining table and pulled her toward me. “I hope it will be our house. That we’ll live there together when it’s done.”
She glanced around at the kitchen as if she was considering whether or not she was prepared to give it up. An instant later, her face lit up in a smile. “Yeah, I think I’d like that. On one condition.”
“Name it.” I’d take her on whatever terms she offered.
“I get to go full throttle Santa’s grotto on the Christmas decorations.”
“I would be disappointed with anything less.”
This year’s festive season wasn’t at all how I’d pictured. It had been a thousand times better. I was already looking forward to next Christmas. With Celia. In our new home. In Snowsly.
* * *
Three months later
Celia
A fizzle of excitement bloomed in my chest as I glanced around Ivy’s sitting room at Howard, Barbara, Jim, Keely, Ivy, and of course, Sebastian. “It’s so good to see everyone,” I said.
Howard frowned. “You see us all the time. I said hello to you this morning when I was out for milk and yesterday when you were walking across the green and—”
“I know, I just mean, it’s good to be meeting as a committee again,” I said. “It means Christmas isn’t that far away.”
“It’s March,” Sebastian barked. “The spring equinox to be exact. Christmas is almost as far away as it can be.”
I couldn’t dampen down my grin even if I wanted to. I enjoyed this grumpy side to Sebastian as much as I enjoyed the joyful side and his downright sexy side.
We only had nine months to plan for Christmas. We had to focus.
“First order of business,” Ivy said. “Lemon and Griffin. Lovely people. What are we thinking?”
“I like them,” Jim said.
“That Griffin is a very funny chap,” Barbara said. “And Lemon—her name’s absurd of course, but she’s lovely, and they seem very well suited.”
Was I missing something? We were here to talk about planning for next year’s Christmas. Why were we talking about mine and Sebastian’s best friends?
“I’m sorry, but why are we talking about Lemon and Griffin? This is a Christmas committee meeting that I’ve been dragged along to. Shouldn’t we be discussing Christmas?”
“We are,” Keely said, with a gently scolding look to Sebastian. “Bringing people together is a key thing at Christmas. Creating happiness and wonder.”
“It’s what we do,” said Howard. “Look at you two.”
I glanced at Ivy and then at Sebastian. “Yes, Sebastian and I are very happy. But we weren’t designed by committee. We found out we liked each other—”
“By spending time together,” Ivy said.
“By banding together in a crisis,” Barbara added.
“By thinking up solutions to problems together,” Jim said.
“Don’t forget a trip to Snowsville,” Howard said, chortling. “Do you know how long it took me to syphon off the petrol in your tank while you were going around the Snowsville Christmas market? You could have left it half-empty!”
“What?” I yelped. “You drained the petrol from my Mini?”
“We had to find a way of getting you two together. You needed a little push,” Ivy said.
It had all been a conspiracy. Sebastian and I had been purposefully put together.
“Granny,” Sebastian said with a growl. “Did you even have a sprained ankle?”
She frowned as if she wasn’t quite sure how to answer the question. “I have sprained it before. Last summer. Only had to stay off it a couple of days.”
“I remember,” Howard said. “That’s when we thought up our little matchmaking plan.”
“The website hack was genius,” Keely said. “It really added to the idea that Snowsville was out to get us.”
I should be furious about being hoodwinked by these people. Lied to for all these months. But when I gazed up at Sebastian, all I could think was, thank goodness. Whether by fate or interfering neighbors, we had found each other. I had the best man I could ever hope for by my side. I couldn’t be angry.
“You lot are incorrigible,” Sebastian said. “But all’s well that ends well.”
Ivy nodded and Keely gave three little claps, like she was happy it was all out in the open.