‘Neither can I,’ Tansy said.
Cathy smiled at her. ‘I can always rely on you to keep my feet on the ground.’
‘Someone’s got to do it,’ she said. ‘Don’t want you getting all famous and big-headed.’
‘I doubt a few YouTube followers will make me famous,’ Cathy said.
‘It makes some people famous,’ Tansy replied.
‘Youngsters maybe. I haven’t been one of those for a long time.’
‘Loads of people on my catering course have watched you.’
Cathy looked up from her drink. ‘They have?’
‘Yeah. They know I know you, see?’
‘I bet they’re having a right laugh too,’ Cathy said with a wry smile.
‘No, they like you.’
‘They’re going to say that to you, aren’t they?’
‘Some of them have the recipe book too. I hate that photo of me, though; I wish you hadn’t said they could use it.’
‘It’s a great photo of you,’ Matthias said.
‘It’s alright for you,’ Tansy replied, ‘you don’t have to be in a book for the whole world to see.’
‘I would have if someone had asked me.’
‘You’d have been labelled as the only man in the world who’s completely unteachable when it comes to baking,’ Cathy said. ‘You’d have come with a health warning.’
He grinned. ‘I did try to tell you.’
‘I’m going to phone Mum before lunch,’ Tansy said.
‘Tell her we said hello,’ Matthias called after her as she left the room. They could hear her footsteps as she went upstairs and then the sound of her bedroom door shutting.
He turned to Cathy. ‘She won’t. And even if she did, Michelle wouldn’t care.’
‘Do you think they’ll ever be able to get along properly again?’
‘I don’t know. I think Tansy’s changed too much.’
‘Yes,’ Cathy agreed. ‘I suppose she’s a woman now with her own opinions and ideas and they don’t seem to be very much aligned with any of her mum’s. At least they’re talking a lot more now.’
‘It might be the most they ever do.’
Cathy paused, caught by that now familiar feeling as she fell into his eyes. They’d been together for a year but that feeling had never been less than all-consuming. She loved it and she craved it, but at times it had made her very afraid that she might not have it forever.
‘So…’ he said. ‘We’re alone…’
‘Yes, we are…’
He leaned in to kiss her. ‘Do you want your Christmas gift now?’
Cathy giggled. ‘Depends what it is. Don’t you think Tansy might have something to say about it?’
‘Oh, your mind is filthy!’ he said, chuckling before kissing her again.
‘I thought we’d already done presents this morning anyway,’ Cathy said.
‘We did, but I was saving one for later.’
‘Then give it to me later.’
‘I can’t wait… I want to give it to you now.’
‘There you go again with those double entendres…’
He leapt up from the table and went to the hallway. A moment later he was back with a small gift-wrapped box in his hand. He placed it in front of her with a broad smile.
‘That’s cheating,’ Cathy said. ‘I feel bad now that I don’t have anything else for you.’
‘I don’t care about that. Everything we opened this morning was supposed to be my lot too, but I saw this last-minute and I knew I just had to get it. I only wrapped it first thing if I’m honest.’
Cathy laughed. ‘Did Tansy wrap the others by any chance?’
‘It’s that obvious?’
‘They’re a lot neater. For someone who appears to be this clumsy, I don’t know how you rehabilitate people for a living.’
‘That’s funny, that’s what people say at the hospital too!’
Cathy laughed, but then she turned back to the box, her heart beating just a little faster. She tore off the paper, and then her face lit into a huge, beaming smile as she opened the box.
‘Oh, it’s beautiful!’ she cried. ‘It’s just perfect!’
‘As soon as I saw it, I just knew I had to get it for you,’ he said.
Cathy reached into the box and took out the bracelet. It was a charm bracelet, the chain sparkling silver, and every little charm that hung from it was a baking utensil. There was a tiny spatula, a mixing bowl, a whisk, a recipe book, a chef’s hat, measuring spoons and even a food processor.
She looked up at Matthias. ‘Oh, I love it so much!’
He reached for it, and Cathy held out her arm as he unfastened it and then did it up around her wrist. Then his hand slid to cup her face.
‘I’m glad,’ he said in a low voice as he moved closer. ‘I’m glad you love it, because I love you.’
‘I love you too,’ she said. ‘More than anything. I love you so much my chest hurts just to think about it.’
‘Hmm,’ he said, ‘I think I know a physiotherapist who can help with that.’
‘There’s no cure for what I’ve got,’ Cathy said. ‘And I hope I never find one.’
‘In that case,’ he said, ‘we’ll just have to live with it.’
‘Fine by me,’ she said, melting into his embrace, breathing him in and knowing that if she could survive right here in his arms for the rest of her life, never moving, never sleeping or eating or doing anything else, she would.
If you fell in love with Cathy’s Christmas Kitchen, then your heart will be stolen by Tilly Tennant’s bestselling book, Hattie’s Home for Broken Hearts.
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Hattie’s Home for Broken Hearts
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Escape to the daisy-strewn windswept Dorset cliffs, to the donkey sanctuary at Sweet Briar Farm, where Hattie Rose is about to find, that in this world, the most unlikely opposites can sometimes attract…
Hattie was once thrilled to call the beautiful city of Paris her home. But when her heart is broken by her boyfriend and she loses her dream job, she bids farewell to the city of love and hurries home to Gillypuddle, a sleepy village on the Dorset coast. But as she returns home she finds her parents struggling to cope with a terrible family tragedy.
In a desperate search for a new start, Hattie takes a job at the donkey sanctuary nearby on Sweet Briar Farm where Jo, the taciturn owner, certainly loves her animals far more than humans. Hattie can’t help but fall in love with the donkeys (and the opportunity to get close to dreamy Canadian vet Seth) but Jo is harder to get to know and when she finds her boss sobbing in her sleep one stormy night, she knows that her new friend is hiding a dark secret.
And when handsome newspaper reporter Owen does some digging into Jo’s past he finds something that connects her to Hattie on a whole new level. Can Hattie trust what Owen says, especially when he seems intent on standing in the way of her blossoming romance with Seth? And can Hattie help Jo to start healing and the donkeys of Sweet Briar Farm?