The Twelve Wishes of Christmas by Ruby Basu

Author:Ruby Basu [Basu, Ruby]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2021-09-17T17:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

Strong smells of meat and spices filled the air as the contestants bustled around putting the final touches to their entries for the Chilli Cook-Off that Tuesday evening. Sharmila caught the hopeful glances some of the contestants threw in her direction. Thank goodness she would be making her decision blind – the one good thing about being roped in as a guest judge.

Mayor Jackie was determined to involve her in all of the Pineford WinterFest events. She’d clearly appointed herself Thomas’s helper in giving Sharmila a Christmas to remember. Although Sharmila had resisted on several occasions, she finally agreed to judge one of the WinterFest contests.

Her tolerance of alcohol was at the bottom of the staying-sober scale, which automatically excluded her from judging the hot toddy drinks competition. Judging the ice sculpting competition would have been safer on her taste buds and digestive system, but unfortunately for her, that was left to professionals. She would have gladly judged the Gingerbread House Competition, but since it was on Thomas’s Wishlist, that wasn’t an option. Which left her with the Chilli Cook-Off.

Penny nudged her. ‘Your fellow judge has arrived.’

Sharmila furrowed her brow as Lucas walked towards them. Penny told her he’d volunteered to be an additional judge after discovering she was also on the panel. She still didn’t understand why Lucas had entered the snowman competition but, Penny was right, she had to stop seeing shenanigans where there weren’t any.

At least Zach wasn’t with him. She hadn’t seen Zach since he ran from her after the snowball fight. She’d relived that moment often though – both of them falling over, the way he gently rubbed his thumb across her face, her pounding heart that had nothing to do with their recent run, all her attention focused in on his lips as they moved closer to hers. Then he had leapt away.

Was he about to kiss her or had that only been in her imagination? Had she invited a kiss? She wasn’t ready to face those questions yet.

‘Hi, Lucas,’ she greeted warmly, determined not to think about Zach for the rest of the evening.

‘Evening, ladies,’ he said, rubbing his hands together. ‘This is going to be fun. I’ve barely eaten all day waiting for this.’

‘That was probably a good idea,’ Sharmila replied. ‘I wish I’d done that. I’m worried I’ll like one dish so much I’ll keep eating it and then I’ll be so full I won’t be able to judge the rest.’

Lucas threw his head back and laughed. A complete overreaction to her feeble joke. He was trying too hard. Or was she being unnecessarily critical? He was Thomas’s nephew and Thomas spoke about him affectionately despite his frustration about not feeling able to retire.

As they walked together towards the judging area she overheard, ‘It’s not right that she’s judging. We don’t even know if she eats this kind of food. They eat curry, not chilli, where she comes from.’

Sharmila’s shoulders sank as she recognised Angie’s voice. It didn’t come as a surprise she had some grievances about a certain guest judge.

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