One Hundred Christmas Proposals: A feel-good, romantic comedy to make you smile. Holly Martin

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СКАЧАТЬ just stand in the hall, come into the kitchen where it’s warm,’ called Jules.

      ‘You go ahead,’ Badger said. ‘I’ll give Harry a quick call to see if he wants to come round here instead.’

      Confused, I walked into the kitchen to see my beautiful niece chasing the cat around the dining table. I swung her up into my arms, giving the poor cat a temporary reprieve.

      Bella giggled and planted a wet kiss on my cheek. She was the spitting image of my brother, Jack – every time I saw her she had grown more and more like him. I buried my face into her hair, stifling the grief I felt every time I saw her. How painful it must be for Jules to be reminded of Jack every day. Although she did have the distraction of Badger to take away that pain. I closed my eyes against that sudden uncharitable thought. I hated that I was still angry at their relationship – especially when it clearly made Jules so happy.

      ‘What’s going on?’ Jules said, greeting me with a kiss as she gestured towards Badger speaking quietly to Harry in the hallway.

      ‘Harry’s gone out to meet Badger, Badger doesn’t seem to know about it.’

      ‘That’s odd. Harry spoke to Badger earlier, he certainly didn’t mention anything about meeting up then.’

      ‘Maybe Harry assumed Badger knew.’

      Jules scrolled through her phone. ‘There’s nothing in our diary. Badger is normally really good at putting things like that in the diary as he always forgets things otherwise.’

      ‘Maybe Badger forgot to put it in this time.’

      Jules pulled a face. ‘Unlikely.’

      Badger walked into the kitchen. ‘I forgot I was meeting him, I’m such an idiot.’ He passed Jules a meaningful look as if to say play along.

      Jules stared at him for a moment. ‘Ohhhh yes I remember now, you were meeting at The Rhubarb and Pickle – darts night wasn’t it, with Marv and Leon?’

      It was true that Marv held darts night at his pub once a month, but I was pretty sure that had happened at the beginning of December. What was going on?

      ‘So is Harry coming here?’

      ‘I erm…’ Badger looked back at Jules, clearly panicking. ‘He’s too far away.’

      ‘But the Rhubarb is only down the road. It’s one stop on the tube?’

      ‘He’s not there, we were supposed to meet somewhere else. I think he’s just going to head home once he’s finished.’

      ‘Finished what?’

      ‘Want some chocolate cake? I made it fresh this morning,’ Jules said, loudly.

      Bella tugged gently on my hair and wriggled to escape, distracting me momentarily from the look of pure fear on Badger’s face. I put her down and she ran straight to Badger. He scooped her up and the look of fear was replaced with love as he peppered her face with a thousand kisses. I smiled at them.

      ‘Sure, cut me a big slice, I think I need it.’ I sat down on one of the barstools, feeling like I was missing something.

      ‘So what are your plans for Christmas Day, it’ll be your first proper one with Harry?’ Jules tried to deflect the conversation away from my boyfriend’s absence.

      ‘I just want to make this one special for him – he’s not really had any good Christmases, certainly not as a child. Last year was… well it was my first without Jack so I was pretty miserable, we both were. This one will be special for both of us.’

      ‘Are you guys going to get some time off with all these Christmas Proposals?’ Badger said, around Bella’s fingers that she was shoving in his mouth.

      ‘We’re definitely having Christmas Day off. We might get a last minute rush between Boxing Day and New Year’s but most people will have already booked our services for New Year’s Eve and all the other proposals will be organised by then, so hopefully we’ll have a quieter patch – but we’ve got our holiday in January so we can relax then.’

      ‘Oh yes, the honeymoon,’ Badger waggled his eyebrows playfully.

      ‘Hardly, we need to be married for that.’

      Badger buried his face against Bella’s belly and blew a loud raspberry on her stomach. She squealed with delight. ‘I just meant, erm… your first proper holiday together… as a couple.’

      ‘Well yes,’ I frowned with confusion. ‘But we spent three months in each other’s pockets, travelling the world.’

      ‘Yes but this will be the first time you’re going on holiday specifically to have sex.’

      I laughed.

      ‘You do realise that Harry has no intention of doing anything else. If you’ve got any notion of going for walks or eating out in fancy restaurants, you can forget it. Harry said that once the food is delivered, he’s locking the door and hiding the key.’

      I laughed again. ‘We have sex all the time Badger, it’s not like I deprive the poor sod. It’s pretty much two or three times a day.’

      ‘Oh I remember those days, eh Jules, couldn’t keep our hands off each other.’

      I closed my eyes and clamped my hands over my ears. ‘Nooo that’s way too much information.’ That was way too much information, especially considering how quickly after Jack’s death that Jules and Badger had got together.

      Realising that Badger had overstepped some boundary, Jules plonked the biggest slice of cake on my plate. ‘Cream? Or ice cream? Or both? I could do both? I’ll do both.’

      I smiled at her. This was Jules’s coping mechanism. When things went wrong she made cake or she served cake. When Jack was first diagnosed with leukaemia, Jules was making nearly a cake a day. She couldn’t eat it though. While Jack, Badger and Harry were stuffing their faces with cake, Jules didn’t eat a thing. She went from a healthy size twelve to a gaunt size eight in a month. I was glad to see she was back to normal again now.

      ‘I’m just going to the loo,’ I said, standing up and moving out into the hall. I stopped to look at a new photo hanging up of Badger and Bella, both grinning inanely at the camera. There was another of the three of them, the happy little family unit. The ones of Jack were still there but some of them were faded slightly. Life was moving on without him.

      ‘Just stop talking Badger,’ I heard Jules hiss. ‘Jeez how many times are you going to put your foot in it tonight?’

      ‘I’m rubbish at secrets, you know that.’

      ‘I know, just stop talking about Harry and honeymoons and sex.’

      ‘I will, I promise – but to be fair, I had no idea Harry was going to use me as an excuse tonight. He should just tell her, it would make it easier on all of us, stop all this sneaking around.’

      ‘Oh god, I don’t want to be there when he does tell her. She’s going to kill him. It’ll be grounds for divorce even before they walk down the aisle.’

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