Christmas for One: No Greater Love (30 page)

‘I think, if it’s okay with everyone, I shall go and buy a pudding. There is no way I’m going to put one of my efforts on the table in front of three competent bakers.’

‘Competent? Talk about damning with faint praise!’ Pru tutted.

Christopher winked at her.

Meg was in full flow. ‘I’ll go and get the other odds and ends we need – crackers, tinsel and any other bits of glittery shite I can lay my hands on! We shall feast like kings and Lucas will have a day that he will never forget! Okay?’ She was practically shouting.

Pru looked at Christopher, who stared at Milly, who nodded. It wasn’t like Meg to give out orders.

‘Okay!’ Pru replied on behalf of the trio, who all looked a little shell-shocked.

‘Great!’ Meg clapped. ‘This is me taking control of my life and making it happen! See you in a bit, Lucas. I shall be back in a little while!’ With that she grabbed her keys and raced out of the flat, wondering where she could find everything she needed to make the day absolutely perfect.

Meg placed her key in the lock and bundled through the door with her numerous bags and boxes. The smell of her roasting turkey crown dressed with bacon and bay leaves hit her nostrils. She breathed in; it was intoxicating.
Oh, Mum, I wish you were here!
She had managed to acquire Christmas crackers at less than half price; three strings of tinsel had cost mere pence and the ready-prepared roast parsnips, minted peas, red cabbage, and cranberry and walnut stuffing had all been marked down.

‘I’m back!’ she called from the door, digging deep to find the happiest voice she could.

The hallway looked lovely. Someone had turned on the lamps and Simon and Garfunkel wafted from the CD player. It was sedate and calm. Meg took a deep breath, feeling a burst of happiness. This was going to be a fantastic day!
This
was the Christmas she had dreamt of; she would smile and make it great! Her family was home and this would have to be enough. There would be plenty of time in the coming months to lament the loss from her life of Lorna, Edd and the future that had seemed to be within her grasp.

Waltzing into the kitchen, she smiled at the sight of the sherry trifle heaped with fresh cream and the chocolate-smothered profiteroles that Christopher had snaffled from downstairs. Lovely desserts – no boxed slices of cake or crumbs for her today. Looking around, she was struck by how busy the three adults were. Pru washed cups and handed them to Christopher who passed them to Milly who placed them on the appropriate shelf in the cupboard. All three worked in an unnatural silence, with almost pained expressions on their faces. The whole set-up was a little odd, to put it mildly.

‘Oh look! A little washing-up production line! Why don’t you just shove them in the dishwasher?’ she wondered out loud.

Milly shrugged and Christopher averted his gaze. Pru hummed. This was the second clue that all was not as it seemed inside her home. It was as if they were afraid to speak.

Meg smiled. ‘Okay, you weirdos, I’ll make a start on the table. Can someone deal with the veg and stuffing?’ She passed the food bags to Milly and gave a little clap as she made her way into the sitting room.

Milly nodded, silently, avoiding her eye.

Meg walked into the sitting room. ‘Oh, Lucas!’ She sighed, half exasperated. She loved watching him play creatively but hadn’t banked on such an extravagant display, not today.

‘Do we
have
to have a pirate ship in the middle of the sitting room?’ Her plans for a fancy Christmas lunch were somewhat thwarted by the presence of his vast sheet-covered galleon. She had to admit that he had done a fine job, not the usual upturned chairs and strewn towels. His trip to the Caribbean had obviously inspired him.

With her hands on her hips, she waited for the sheet to lift and for Redbeard to amble from below decks. When the sheet eventually fluttered and was pulled back, Meg felt her knees wobble as her breath caught in her throat. For a fraction of a second she smiled as she came face to face with the man she had fallen for. He smiled back, briefly. Then she remembered his lies and her smile disappeared, to be replaced by a scowl. Her heart continued to hammer inside her ribcage nonetheless. She placed her hand over it.
Sssshhh…

‘What… what are you doing, Edd?’

‘Oh, it’s quite simple really, basic design principles.’ He ran his fingers through his hair. ‘I’ve left the two chairs the right way up – that’s been their first mistake.’ He turned to face the galleon. ‘We’ve used the broom to gain more height in the middle and thus create useable space at either end.’ He nodded, admiring his work.

‘It’s true, Mum, I can stand up in here now, it’s brilliant!’ Lucas poked his head out into the choppy waters.

Meg grunted. ‘I don’t mean what are you doing with the bloody pirate ship, I mean what you are
doing
? Why are you here?’

‘For you. I came for you,’ he said quite matter-of-factly.

‘Well you have had a wasted trip, as I mentioned in my text. You can leave now.’ She pointed towards the door.

‘I’m not going to do that.’ He shook his head.

‘Can Edd come back inside my ship now?’ Lucas was standing by her side.

‘Why don’t you come and help
us
, little chap?’ Christopher’s voice boomed from the doorway.

‘But I want to play with Edd!’ Lucas shouted, easily impressed by the stranger who had been willing to take on the role of captain and had built the best pirate ship ever.

‘I need some help with chocolate tasting,’ Christopher continued, ‘and I thought you might be the man for the role.’

Lucas ran towards the kitchen. For that kind of job he was always available.

Meg sat at the dining table and let her eyes wander over the unexpected guest. He looked wonderful. His rolled sleeves revealed his strong arms and his hair as ever fell over his forehead, just so. Her stomach knotted.

She spoke quietly. ‘You lied to me, Edd, and I can’t get over that.’

‘Well you need to get over that. And I didn’t lie to you, I just didn’t tell you everything, which I admit was a mistake. I was just trying to figure it out as I went along, trying to hurt people as little as possible. And in the process I hurt the one that mattered the most.’ He sat down in the chair opposite her.

‘I spoke to Flavia. She told me you were here.’ Meg folded her arms across her chest and jutted out her chin like she could care less.

‘Yes, I know. She’s a great girl. And I wish her well, I really do. She’s not a bad person, just not for me.’

Meg thought of Piers. A lovely man, despite his flaws, just not for her. Her thoughts then went to Flavia and her kind offer of coffee that awful day; from one needy, messed-up girl to another. ‘She sounded like she was bring brave on the phone. Is she okay?’ None of this was her fault, after all.

‘Not really, no. But I have every faith she will be. I think things will work out for the best.’

‘How did you know I’d spoken to her?’

‘Christopher told me.’

‘Christopher?’ Meg squeaked.

‘Yep. He came to see me at the hotel. He told me to leave you alone and to get the hell out of town. I was quite shocked. He is so proper and British, he sounded like a James Bond baddie.’

Meg smiled at the thought of Christopher squaring up to drive this Yank home.

‘But I told him the full story and said I’d seen you with Piers, earlier—’

‘You did?’ Meg blushed.

‘Yep – and you were right about the Barbour.’ Edd waved his hand and continued. ‘Anyway, Christopher told me you never loved Piers and that you never properly loved Bill because he wasn’t the one meant for you.’

‘Christopher said that?’
Dear Chris, Bill’s uncle…

‘Uh-huh.’ He nodded. ‘And I told him that I thought I was the one for you and that I wasn’t going anywhere because I love you and I just wanted a chance to talk to you and if that didn’t work I would come back day after day until you believed me.’

‘Well you’ve had a wasted trip because I don’t believe you.’

‘Maybe not, but you will. I won’t give up until I’ve made things turn out right.’ He smiled at her from beneath his fringe.

‘How can you believe that things will turn out right when they are such a mess?’

‘Sometimes I do and sometimes I don’t.’ He held her eye.

‘What about right now? Do you think things will turn out right for us?’ She thought of Lucas on the other side of the wall and of the future, a future with this man.

‘Yes I do, I really do. And deep down, Meg, you know it too. I’m telling you the truth. This is the start of our adventure, remember? It was never going to be easy, coming at it from opposite sides of the Atlantic, but you knew that, right?’

‘I don’t know anything!’ Meg ran her fingers through her hair. ‘I can’t believe you are here. Half of me is over the moon to see you, wants to jump into your arms and never leave and the other half is telling me to keep my guard up and chuck you out.’

‘Jump, Meg. Please.’ He placed his hand over hers and the warmth shot up her arm and spread around her body, weakening her resolve.

‘But you said you were single,’ she whispered.

‘No, I didn’t – you did!’ He was firm.

‘But it was implied by the way you asked me if
I
was single!’

‘Really?’ Edd looked confused. ‘So if someone asks whether you’re vegetarian, you can assume that they don’t eat meat either?’

‘What? No! What’s that got to do with anything? Christ, Edd. You’re being a knob. You lied through omission!’

Edd sighed. ‘I know and I’m sorry. I’m really sorry and, believe me, if I had known what that one omission would do to us, what we would have to go through over Christmas, I would have come clean in a heartbeat. I’m still learning, Meg, and I now know I need to be upfront about how I’m feeling and I promise you I will. You need to give me a chance and we can learn this stuff together, grow together until we are perfect.’

Meg thought about Piers and recognised her own inability to face that situation, knowing it would have been fairer to walk away far sooner.

Edd continued, ‘I did wrong, but for all the right reasons.’ He smiled at her.

‘Don’t smile at me like that. There is nothing funny about this situation. This is my life and it’s Lucas’s life and I have to be so very sure.’

‘You can be sure.’ He raised her hand and kissed her knuckles.

‘I wish I could be.’ This was the truth.

‘I think I’m ready now,’ he said as he stood and reached into his jeans pocket.

‘Ready for what?’

‘To tell you.’

‘Tell me what?’ She tutted, perplexed and irritated.

‘What my most treasured possession is.’

Meg sucked in her cheeks, remembering their conversation from just a couple of weeks ago.

‘It’s this, Meg.’ He used the tips of his fingers to pull a small slip of white paper from his pocket. He unfurled it and handed it to her.

She placed it on the table and ran her fingers over it. It was a till receipt. The date and time were printed across the top – ‘12.08.14, 17.43’ – and there in list form with the amount in dollars by the side was a food order. She read the words aloud. ‘“Swiss cheese on brown, two extras, one pickle.”’ Meg wrinkled her nose. ‘It’s for my sandwich!’

‘Yes, it’s for your sandwich.’ He smiled. ‘There aren’t many couples that can pinpoint the exact day, the exact moment that they met the love of their life. My dad once explained it to me – that single instant when you see a face and you know; you know that you want to spend the rest of your life looking at it. But I can, down to the very minute. It was December eighth at seventeen minutes to six.’

Meg’s eyes were full of tears. She felt like she’d been waiting her whole life to hear this. It was time to stop thinking of herself as poor, unworthy Megan and start believing that someone might love her for who she really was.

‘I’m not going to let you go, Mary Poppins. I will love you and keep you safe, like no one else ever could. I’m not going to let you go. Not now, not ever. And that is just the way it is.’

Meg stood and threw herself into his arms. Edd held her tightly and the two enjoyed the sweet relief of reunion. She felt herself melt against him.

They were aware of the sound of clapping and laughter coming from the other side of the sitting room door. Meg walked over and opened it to find Milly and Pru in tears, clasping each other tightly, and Christopher bouncing Lucas high in the air.

Meg looked at the man who had warned her off Edward Kelly. ‘What about your instinct, Chris?’

‘I like the cut of his jib, Meg. And he knows I’ve got my eye on him.’ He winked at Edd.

‘I won’t let you down, sir.’ Edd looked serious.

She turned her attention to Milly. ‘And I thought you wanted to sock him one!’

‘I did, but he’s straight as a die, Meg. And whilst I can’t bear the idea of you not living here with me, it’s time you grabbed a life. I want you to be happy and I’ve never seen you as happy as you were when you came home from New York and told me how he made you feel. “He’s magic,” you said; “he’s everything,” and you looked like you’d been lit from within.’ Milly squeezed Meg’s hands inside her own.

‘And
you
, Pru! You said he was a piece of work!’ Meg said, smiling.

‘I did. But, Meg, he knows the exact day—’

‘The exact
moment
!’ Milly corrected.

Pru nodded. ‘The exact
moment
he fell in love with you. He’s a keeper, Meg.’

‘And he builds a mean pirate ship,’ Milly added, as though this might be the clincher.

Meg turned to look at her handsome New Yorker. ‘There is just one small problem.’ She twitched her mouth. ‘You did once tell me that due to our lack of enthusiasm for baseball, London was nowhere you could ever live.’

Edd looked at her and frowned as if considering this for the very first time.

ONE
YEAR
LATER

Brenda pottered in the unfamiliar kitchen, searching through the cupboards and peering into jars for a decent tea bag to put into the plain white china mug. She still marvelled at the fact that a property that cost so much money could have so little space and storage. What had Edward said? ‘It’s all about living in the right district.’