All the Romance You Need This Christmas: 5-Book Festive Collection. Romy Sommer

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СКАЧАТЬ the warm, spicy liquid giving me a sense of peace and calm and happiness. The happiness was back, pushing all sadness away. Despite what we’d just been told. ‘That’s why he told me to go to The Ice Tree that afternoon…’

      Zac looked at me and it was his turn to give a home to the confused look now. ‘What… what do you mean?’

      ‘He told me I should go. Because he knew you were going to be there. He knew… and every time I had doubts, every time I thought I couldn’t go through with this he’d appear… he’d turn up, out of nowhere. I’d see him and he’d talk to me and he’d say the oddest things sometimes but…’ I looked at Zac, smiling. ‘But I understand why now. Tonight, when I ran out of the hotel, I told you I’d been talking to someone, didn’t I? I told you that… I told you… I’d been talking to Mikku. And he said I should tell you about Jase. He said I should tell you everything…’

      ‘Jessie, I don’t…’

      ‘He was my guardian angel, Zac. Don’t you see? That first afternoon, just after I’d met him, when he brought me here – I’d thought he was a real-life guardian angel, that’s how I thought of him. And I hadn’t been so far from the truth, had I? Because he was there, when I needed him, guiding me towards you, making sure we found each other, and tonight – tonight he could finally say goodbye. His work was done.’ I couldn’t help laughing, I couldn’t help it, I was just so happy. Yes, it was all crazy, and yes, people may think I was mad or deluded but I really didn’t care. I believed everything that had just happened to me. I believed this special little town really was a magical place where dreams could come true – even if you didn’t even know those dreams existed until you got here.

      Zac pulled me against him, holding me tight, and I knew I never wanted to be anywhere else but in his arms. He’d never replace Jase, and I’d never replace Evie, but together we could make a start on creating new memories, together we could start a life that we both needed to live. Thanks to Mikku, and this wonderful town.

      ‘I don’t want you to go home,’ Zac whispered, kissing me gently, a kiss that tasted of cinnamon and star anise. ‘I want you to stay here, with me. Just until the end of the season. Stay here, with me. Let’s plan our life together, Jessie. Let’s do that, but let’s do that here. Please.’

      I looked at him, and for a brief second I let reality pierce my dream-like existence as I thought about the shop back home and the life I’d left behind. Could I really forget about all that, just for a little while, to plan my new future? Kat would look after the shop, I knew that. And Mum would help, of course she would, after all, nobody had wanted me to find happiness again more than her. So, could I really be that brave and stay here, with Zac?

      ‘Please, Jess. This place; I’m not finished with it yet. I don’t want you to go and leave me alone here because I don’t think that’s what’s meant to happen. I think you’re meant to stay here, we’re meant to be here together and when we leave, I believe we’re meant to leave together. Don’t you?’

      I smiled, reaching out to touch his face, closing my eyes as I kissed him back, a longer, slower kiss that sent a million silent messages between us. Messages that only we could read.

      But what I truly believed was that I had my life back. Zac and I had found each other at a time when we needed one another the most, thanks to a guardian angel and a town I’d fallen in love with. Once upon a time I’d thought Christmas was gone forever – Jase had been my icing on the cake and without him Christmas had meant nothing. But now there was Zac. Now I had another chance to find a happiness that many never find, and I’d been lucky enough to find it twice.

      Once more, Christmas was going to be a time I loved, a time to celebrate – a time to be thankful for everything I’d been given, a time to remember those people I’d loved. My fairytale now had its own happy ending. And never again would I have another Christmas without icing.

      Say it with Sequins

      The Complete Series

      GEORGIA HILL

      A division of HarperCollinsPublishers

       www.harpercollins.co.uk

      For Mum, who loved to jitterbug.

      Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

       Dedication

       The Rumba: A Dance Full of Passion.

       The Waltz: A Dance Full of Romance.

      

       The Charleston: A Dance Full of Laughter.

       The Rumba: a dance full of passion.

       “The rumba is my favourite dance; it’s really sexy. It gives you a great excuse to get up close and personal with your partner!” Bob Dandry, Executive Producer and Director, Who Dares, Dances.

       Step One.

      “You can do this!” she said in her head.

      Julia Cooper, not yet star of stage and screen, bit her lip and tried to follow her own advice – and her partner’s lead. Trouble was, when you were a novice and dancing with a monosyllabic and bad-tempered hulk of a Russian, it wasn’t easy to pick up the steps. Or should that be steppes? Julia giggled and muttered her mantra again, “Concentrate, you can do this!”

      “What?” said the Russian hulk from somewhere above her. “What you say? No, Julia. Have told you. Like this!”

      For the umpteenth time that day, Julia wondered just what she had got herself into. Who Dares Dances was supposed to be a fun dance competition come reality show, wasn’t it? She was supposed to be having fun!

      “We’d better raise a barrel load of money to make this worth it,” she mumbled, as she was swung round so hard her neck ricked. She’d never worked so hard in her life. The charity, Pennies for Pencils, for which the show raised money, had better be grateful.

      “Julia! Have told you. Like this. Concentrate!”

      “That’s just what I’ve been telling myself, Jan.” Julia looked up at her partner СКАЧАТЬ