Hot Revenge Box Set 2

Chapter 24 Kirstie’s Christmas

Three Days Before Christmas

The clouds, low, dull and grey, match my mood, and I stare out of the passenger window, not wanting to show my disappointment. Sleet spikes down, spitting onto the windscreen and the wipers squeak, leaving white streaks as they arc across the glass.

Ryan, from the driver’s seat, lays a hand on my thigh. “Cheer up. There’ll be others.”

“I know…” My throat is unreasonably tight. “It just looked so good in the ad. I’d thought maybe…”

He cuts in, but the cheerful tone to his voice sounds forced. “Vendors are always going to overegg the cake. It did say, Needs Renovation.”

I huff. “Needs complete demolition and rebuilding would have been nearer the mark.” Then, at his answering silence, I realise how waspish I must have just sounded. “Sorry, I didn’t mean it to come out like that. It wasn’t aimed at you.”

He squeezes my knee. “I know. Hey, tell you what. We’re not far away. Let’s go say Hi to the happy family. You can deliver your balloon and your card and whatever else it is you have stashed in the back. They’ll dose you with wine and mince pies and we’ll all get into the Christmas spirit.”

I hesitate.

Do they really want my gloomy mood there? Right now?

“I’d like that, but...”

Ryan persists. “We’ll be looking at properties again in the New Year. Who knows what we’ll find then? There’ll be something.”

paint on a smile, conscious that it’s a bit watery, but also that

I love you…

nice to see them. Charlotte will want

gets another squeeze. “And

my leg to steer; towards a turn-off that will take us to the home of James, Michael and Charlotte. As he

their house, yes, I should think so.” Even here on the low ground the road is sheened white and black. “You

I’ll turn around, but the salt truck should

corners slowly on the zig-zag mountain road. When we left the City this morning, it was already cold, with the tang of frost in the air. Now, ascending all the time, the temperature

hangs low over the fields. At ground level, the grass and shrubs are thick with rime. But it is stunningly beautiful. Frost picks out individual twigs and stalks, like some spectacular cake icing,

“What have they called her? The baby.

the last minute, Charlotte changed it to

lets out air. “That sounds like one family reconciliation

final corner and Michael’s spa hotel swings

slowly in through the gates and past a parking lot occupied

he had a head-start with being able

the hotel and to the rear, pulling up

is. I think Richard and Beth are here more or less permanently now. Michael said that Beth and Charlotte keep each other company and Richard’s happier that way because it keeps

sniffs. “Don’t blame him.

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