Christmas in Peppercorn Street by Anna Jacobs

Author:Anna Jacobs [Jacobs, Anna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780749024680
Publisher: Allison & Busby
Published: 2019-11-15T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

The shopping centre was crowded, with small children dashing about and slowing people down, since it was the weekend. Claire kept an eye on Gabby, who hadn’t been in a big place like this since they left Martin. But her indomitable daughter took it all in her stride, watching wide-eyed, asking questions.

She still held tight to Dee’s hand, however.

Luke nudged Claire. ‘It’s so crowded, you’d better hold onto me. We don’t want our group to get separated. Dee, you two stay close behind us.’ He took Claire’s hand and they set off.

How long was it since she’d held a man’s hand? Too long. This was … nice.

They found the perfect tree in one of the big superstores, and all right, it was artificial, all silver tinsel, but it was still going to be beautiful once they’d dressed it up.

Claire watched in amazement, feeling literally breathless at the amount of money Luke was spending. But when she tried to protest that a smaller size of tree would be fine, and they definitely didn’t need that many ornaments and strands of tinsel, he laughed and told the two girls to carry on choosing things.

In the end she gave up protesting and relaxed, allowing herself to enjoy every single thing about the day.

As they moved from shop to shop, everything was like a dream come true, right until the moment when a woman’s voice called, ‘Claire? Is that you?’

She stopped dead, clutching Luke’s arm as well as his hand now as she stared in horror at a former neighbour from her time with Martin. What on earth was Lindsay Corton doing here, so far from home?

Lindsay came right up to her. ‘Surprised to see me, Claire? Well, I’m even more surprised to see you. I thought you and Gabby had dropped off the face of the earth. Darren, look who’s here!’

A man who’d been paying for something at the till turned round, saw them and hurried across to join the group. He studied Gabby intently and smiled at her, but gave Claire only a curt nod, not looking at all happy to see her.

Claire clung to Luke’s arm, trying to hide her terror at the sight of them. The two girls seemed to pick up her anxiety and moved to stand close behind them, as if for protection.

Darren Corton was as close to a friend as Martin had ever had. They’d grown up together, worked in the same company for a time, gone for drinks after work together. Both had very rigid ideas about the world.

She couldn’t get a word out, didn’t know how to deal with this.

Luke half turned and bent to say something to Dee, then put his arm round her shoulders. ‘Claire is so surprised to see you here that she hasn’t introduced me. I’m her new husband, George.’

‘Pleased to meet you.’ But Darren didn’t offer his hand and looked even more disapproving, clearly in no way pleased at this introduction. ‘I must tell Martin we bumped into you – both of you.

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