31 Days of Winter (29 page)

‘No need, already done.’

‘
Dan
… God, I wish I knew your last name so
I could chastise you for being so out of order.’

‘You have emails in your inbox.’

‘Invasion of personal privacy,’ I scolded with a scowl
as I marched over and snatched my iPad from him.

‘You let me have it. You really should put a
passcode in to lock it.’

‘O believe me, I’ll be doing one any minute.’

‘You have no logs,’ he observed with a flick of
his head to the side of the fire.

‘No.’

‘When did you run out?’

‘About three days ago.’

‘Why didn’t you call me for more?’

‘Because I didn’t want to talk to you, you were
being a jerk.’

‘Not an arsehole?’ he asked as he raised an
eyebrow in amusement at me.

‘No, but it’s a short journey from jerk to
arsehole, you’d do well to remember that.’

‘I’ll go and get some for you,’ he volunteered as
he rose effortlessly from the sofa. ‘Is there anything else you need?’

‘Yes, a Christmas tree please if you can dig one
up from on the island. I’d like to spend the day decorating the house and your
place.’

‘Do you have to?’ he asked with a roll of his
eyes.

‘Yes, it’s only four days away and it’s my
favourite time of year. It reminds me of family.’

‘How many trees?’ he sighed.

‘Just one for in here, over in this corner,’ I
replied as I skipped over to where the lounge wall met the glass window.

‘How big?’

‘As big as you can handle.’

‘I’m used to handling big, Ellie. Are you sure
you
can handle it?’

‘You’d be amazed at what I’m prepared to try,’ I
smiled.

‘I need to leave. Now,’ he groaned. ‘Plus I need
to put some boxers on.’

‘O God, you’re commando under those jeans?’ I
gasped as my eyes were drawn to his crotch.

‘Well, I wasn’t putting dirty boxers on after a
nice shower.’

‘Please tell me you haven’t left them for me to
clean? There are limits.’

‘No, they’re in my back pocket. Eyes, Ellie,’ he
laughed and I blushed as I realised I was still looking between his legs.

‘Sorry,’ I laughed. ‘You’re just like a Christmas
present, I know something good’s in there but I haven’t seen it yet.’

‘
Yet?
That’s a bit presumptuous.’

‘A girl can dream. Can we please change the
subject?’ I asked as I ran a hand over my hot forehead. ‘Why don’t I decorate
your place while you sort your wood?’

‘O my God, “sort my wood?” I thought you were
changing the subject,’ he laughed.

‘Everything comes out wrong around you, from the
first time we spoke,’ I groaned as I covered my face.

‘Get your coat and boots on, it looks cold out.’

Within five minutes, I was ready to go and had
sorted out the decorations for his place into the one bag and was clutching the
small fibre optic tree. He opened the front door carefully, as snow was stacked
up against it almost to my knees.

‘I’m going to get soaked,’ I sighed as I looked
down at my jeans over the top of my ankle boots.

‘Climb on board,’ he smiled as he held out his
left arm, just like he did that first night.

‘You’re not taking me over your shoulder again?’ I
smiled.

‘Would you prefer that?’

‘Not after a big breakfast, no.’

‘Then give me the tree, you hold the bag and jump
up,’ he ordered. I did as I was told and hopped up onto his hip and wrapped my
legs around his waist with one arm around his neck, as I clung to the
decorations bag with the other.

‘To the boathouse please, James,’ I ordered.

‘James?’ he asked as he easily climbed over the
snow bank and pulled the front door behind him.

‘Well, posh people with personal chauffeurs always
say things like that,’ I teased and saw him smile.

‘Are you going to miss Zac?’

‘Wow, talk about going off on a tangent,’ I
laughed as he carefully made his way down to his. I felt happy again this
morning, it was fun being with him when he was like this and being so close to
his insanely perfect body and smelling his fresh scent didn’t rank low on my
moments to remember list.

‘You had a fairly affluent lifestyle while you
were with him.’

‘It’s not like he had a luxury yacht and fleet of private
planes, Dan. We ate out in nice restaurants and had holidays to places like New
York, Australia and the Bahamas, and yes he had a Porsche. I enjoyed the perks
while I was with him, but my world’s not going to end without them.’

‘Will you be able to afford to keep that sort of
lifestyle now that you’ve left him?’

‘Ermmm, hello?! I’ve just accepted a Junior
Partner job with much better money, which means I can save a bit each month for
an annual holiday and be able to afford to eat out somewhere nice now and
again. I have my own little sports car, which I worked hard and paid for myself,
and thanks to you I have the most amazing bargain house in one of the poshest
areas of Knightsbridge, so I’m going to be just fine.’

‘You really liked the house then?’

‘Didn’t you look at the details? It’s gorgeous!
I’d never in my wildest dreams have ever imagined having a house like that and
there
too. This Oliver Davenport has some serious money. That’s a five million
house,
easily.’

‘You
are
impressed by money,’ Dan laughed
as he stepped up onto the jetty.

‘You make it sound like I’m really shallow,’ I
objected. ‘I never had any growing up so yes, seeing things like that, it’s
like another world and it’s exciting, but I came from virtually nothing and if
I had to live with virtually nothing again I’d be fine. I mean look at your
boathouse, I love it. I’d happily live in something like that, maybe with a
small wardrobe extension. But it’s what you do and who you have in your life
that’s important, not all the flash stuff.’

‘You are one impressive broad, Miss Baxter,’ he
smiled as he released his grip on me and I reluctantly let go and slid down.

‘I can wait out here if you’re embarrassed and
need to tidy up.’

‘It’s a small house Ellie, I can’t afford to be
messy. It’s already tidy, come on in. I’ll make us both a coffee, get the log
burner going and then leave you to it for a while,’ he opened his front door
and gestured for me to enter. I smiled as I was hit with the cosiness of it
again. I loved it in here. I took off my coat and boots, while he stamped the
snow of his and shut the door.

‘If you do the log burner, I can make the coffee
if you don’t mind me being in your kitchen?’

‘Of course I don’t and if you need the bathroom,
it’s the door on the far right, not that you could get lost in here,’ he
laughed. He was right, it was small but perfectly formed. It had a small
L-shaped kitchen that opened up to the lounge, with the table and two chairs
opposite. I rummaged in his cupboards and shook my head as I saw the stacks of Pot
Noodle, Super Noodles and instant rice. I had two weeks to try and teach him to
cook a bit better and suddenly regretted having brought my flight forward. This
was a good day with him and I wanted more. He soon had the log burner pumping
out heat and I had to strip off my jumper and cursed when I realised what
t-shirt I’d got on. It was a tightly fitted black one with white writing saying
You’ve been a very bad boy, now go to my room
. I heard him chuckle as he
saw it. ‘I’ll see you later,’ he smiled.

‘See you later,’ I smiled back. ‘Promise I won’t
snoop.’

‘I trust you,’ he replied, then let out a
surprised
hmphhh
and left. I set to work stringing up the fairy lights,
which was made so much easier when I realised the ladder up to his loft bed
moved on a rail from one side of the house to the other. I couldn’t resist
crawling over his seriously comfortable large mattress to hang one of the cream
tea light metal hearts above his pillow at the apex of the roof, and the fairy
lights were so long I managed to go all across the edge of the mezzanine and
around the bed and back again. I climbed back down and turned them on and clapped
my hands, they looked lovely and made his bed area even more romantic and
inviting.

It only took me another fifteen minutes to hang up
the remaining decorations and lights and plug in his fibre optic tree.
Everything looked tasteful and in keeping with the Scandinavian theme. I turned
off the main lights and was really pleased with the effect. I headed to the
back of the cabin and went into his wet room to use the toilet and wash my
hands. It was tiled out from floor to ceiling in large travertine cream tiles
and had a modern toilet, and white basin unit and the wet room section on the
back wall had an enormous overhanging power shower head. Like the rest of the
cabin, the exposed floorboards of the mezzanine above were all painted white. I
made another coffee, curled up on the sofa and checked the emails on my iPad.
Three of interest, Captain, Brooke and unbelievably Zac again, I decided to
open them in order.

Ellie, you have no idea how happy I am to hear
that you’re accepting. I’m interviewing for the Senior Editor position this
week and I’ve attached a few resumes. I’d be interested to hear your opinion.
If you won’t accept the company car, then we’ll increase your annual salary by
£3,000 per annum. I forgot to mention we’ll provide you with the office
equipment for at home as well, furniture, IT equipment, etc. Looking forward to
welcoming you back and you may need to find a new nickname for me ;-) John. PS
I’m sorry to hear about you and Zac. I understand your sudden need to take off
now.

I burst out laughing, had Captain Crank seriously
just put a winking smiley face on an office email to me? £3K p.a. extra was
great, that would pay for a really nice annual holiday and I could afford to
take Brooke with me too.

Thanks John, I’ll get back to you by Monday
regarding the resumes, and the contract alterations are much appreciated.
Looking forward to starting a new challenge in January. Ellie.
I decided to
end my email with a smiley face, I needed to try and keep him in this frame of
mind and was pleased he was making the effort.

Hey Babe, that’s another two days of no emails,
what has hot pants man been doing to you???? Me thinks the wall has been
breached ;-) Steve arrived last night so we had a long chat and he’s cool with
the threesome as he’d like to experience it, but says it’s a one off, I need to
choose between them after and Molly’s said the same. I don’t know what to do,
they’re both skilled in their own way. Help me!!! And you better rub your cheek
from the stinging insulted slap I just gave you for even thinking I’d discuss
your private business with Zac. Imagine I’m now slamming down my phone, storming
out of the room and slamming the door as well. I’ve never been so outraged in
my life, Ellie Baxter. It’s going to take a lot of effort on your part for me
to forgive you. PS LYMY xx

Brooke Hanson, I apologise, you’re right, it
was a very well deserved slap and I’m still smarting. Stop looking at Steve and
Molly like just sexual beings there for your convenience. Who do you enjoy
spending time with? Who do you want to put their arms around you after a shitty
day and make it all seem better? Who do you want to wake up with every morning?
Who makes you feel good about yourself? Pick the person you can spend the rest
of your life with, not the one who simply gives great head!! I’m slapping you
back to get a bit of sense into you and boy is my palm stinging :-) Hot pants
man is still hot and cold, mainly cold the last few days, we hardly saw each
other. Then I rang Zac last night to tell him it was officially over and he
started crying and giving me all the bullshit about how he couldn’t live
without me and I was feeling sorry for him until I heard a woman yell him to
get back to her in bed. I had a complete meltdown after I put the phone down
and Dan turned up to apologise for being so mean, found me in tears and carried
me up to bed and we fell asleep in each other’s arms. Brooke, you’ve no idea
how hard it was to get up and walk away. How can he make me feel so safe and
cared for one minute and so vulnerable and hurt the next? Anyway, today is a
good day. We’re back to being friends, he’s getting logs for the fire and a
Christmas tree with roots. I’ve just decorated his boathouse and will do the
house later and we’re having dinner together, too. I have a new better paid job
and a fantastic new house, so today I’m really happy. LYMY too xx

I read for about an hour, unsure if I wanted to
read Zac’s email, then relented, took a deep breath and went to open it and
paused again, with my finger over it as Dan walked back in, shaking himself
down, he was covered in snow. I shoved my iPad on the coffee table.

‘You look like you just got back from Narnia,’ I
laughed.

‘You try lugging a six foot snow coated tree with
roots in that,’ he complained as he nodded out of the open door before closing
it and turning around as he unzipped his coat. He froze and I watched his eyes
go wide as he took in the decorations. He seemed upset all of a sudden.

‘You don’t like them. I can take them down,’ I
quickly stood up and he shook his head in the way I did, when I needed to shake
myself out of my thoughts.

‘No, no don’t. I’m sorry, it’s just … I don’t
really do Christmas and it just brings back lots of memories.’

‘Do you want to talk about it?’ I asked,
hesitantly.

‘Nothing to say. I used to enjoy it, I haven’t so
much the last few years. It looks really … nice. Thank you.’

‘You’re just saying that to be affable.’

‘No,’ he replied as he hung his coat on the back
of the door and kicked off his boots. ‘It’s really minimal and tasteful. I
think I can grow to really like it, it will just take some getting used to.
Thank you for doing all that.’

‘Thanks for hefting trees for me.’