Christmas at Cwtch Cove: A cosy festive romance by Rachel Griffiths

Author:Rachel Griffiths [Griffiths, Rachel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cosy Cottage Books
Published: 2022-07-25T04:00:00+00:00

Ryan plodded down the stairs with the basket of used towels and bedding and paused in the hallway. The front door was open and cold air rushed in. He went to the doorway and looked outside. Carrie was leaning into the van. She wasn’t leaving already, was she? Had he been upstairs for too long and she’d got fed up and decided to go?

Disappointment flooded through him. He’d been looking forward to speaking to her, to finding out more about what she’d been up to over the years. Perhaps he shouldn’t be so keen to speak to her after how low he’d felt all those years ago, but then, they were both older now and a lot of time had passed. And it hadn’t been Carrie’s fault that she’d fallen for Grant. It had simply been life; one of those things.

He watched for a moment, wondering if she would leave without saying goodbye but then she closed the van and headed back to the cottage. She had something in her hand.

‘Hi.’ She came inside. ‘I needed to get this from the car.’ She held up a small rectangular tin.

‘What is it?’

‘My sewing kit.’

‘Fancied doing some embroidery while you were here, did you?’ He laughed.

Carrie worried her bottom lip. ‘Not exactly. See… I was playing with Eric and his rabbit and we both tugged a bit hard and—’

‘Rabbit’s leg came off?’

‘Yes. How did you know?’

‘It’s not the first time.’

Carrie’s eyes widened and she placed a hand on her chest. ‘Thank goodness for that. I felt terrible. We had a little game of tug of war and next thing I knew; Rabbit was… partially legless.’

They both laughed hard and Carrie leant over, clutching her stomach. ‘This… is… too funny. I was… so worried…’

‘Don’t be worried. These things happen. The amount of times Eric has licked, chewed, humped and shaken that rabbit until a piece of it has fallen off are too many to count. There’s probably nothing other than a few pieces of cotton holding it together. Somewhere around here is a teddy bear that only has one leg although he might have left that one upstairs when we came down this morning.’

Carrie straightened up and wiped at her eyes with the back of a hand. ‘I felt so bad for Eric. He looked horrified.’

‘Probably worried it’s his fault.’ Ryan put the basket of washing down. ‘Shall we go and check on him.’

‘Please. And I’ll see if I can perform emergency surgery on Rabbit.’

‘Thank you.’

In the lounge, they found Eric sitting in front of the sofa with Rabbit. He looked up at them, blinked his big brown eyes and pawed at the rabbit.

‘Oh Eric, I’m sorry.’ Carrie knelt down and picked Rabbit up. ‘Let me have a look at him and see if we can sew his leg back on.’

She located the leg and sat on the sofa with the soft toy on her lap.

‘How about if I go and make some coffees and you and Eric can put Rabbit back together again?’ Ryan said.

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