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.”

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

I love you…

would be nice to see them. Charlotte will want to show

squeeze. “And she’ll want to see you,

James, Michael and Charlotte. As he

the low ground the road is sheened white and black.

around, but the salt truck should have done its work up there by

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 is falling

At ground level, the grass and shrubs are thick with rime. But it is stunningly

a while Ryan says, “What have they called her? The baby.

Cara. But when I rang and asked Beth, she said that at the last minute, Charlotte changed it to ‘Cara

like

the final corner and Michael’s spa hotel swings into view: Life and

slowly in through the gates and past a parking lot occupied by top-end models. “It’s looking good,”

making a real success of it. Mind you, I think he had a head-start with being able to call on Beth Haswell’s rich buddies to get

be friends with the City High and Mighty.” He drives past the hotel and to the rear, pulling up to the side of another vehicle parked in

Charlotte keep each other company and Richard’s happier that way because it keeps Beth calm. After she

sniffs. “Don’t blame him. But she’s okay

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