Mills & Boon Christmas Delights Collection. Rebecca Winters

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СКАЧАТЬ you should get rid of them.’

      His sleepy eyes widened. ‘I can’t! The amount they cost, I should be using them for the next thirty years at least!’

      ‘Michael,’ I said, sitting back and scooting my legs out to the side a little as I started getting pins and needles. ‘Everything we’re doing here is about making your life better, making your home somewhere you enjoy being, whatever room you’re in. Making you happier. This room is one of the main living spaces, so I hope you’ll be using it more once we’re finished, because it really is quite lovely. But if the first thing you’re going to think every time you come in here is how much you hate those curtains, then they have to go. It’s as simple as that. There are places that you can take designer curtains like these and they’ll sell them on so you get some money back – a bit like second-hand designer clothes agencies – so it wouldn’t be a total loss.’

      He frowned. ‘I’m not…I hope you don’t think I’m being tight, or anything, when I say that.’

      ‘Not at all. They were expensive and getting rid of them seems wasteful to you.’

      ‘It does.’

      ‘I’ve been doing this a long time. Don’t worry. And I don’t think you’re being a Scrooge, don’t worry about it. Even if I did, that’s your prerogative. It doesn’t matter what I think.’

      ‘It matters to me.’

      I looked up, surprised.

      With perfect timing, Michael’s phone began to ring.

      ‘Hi sis,’ he answered.

      I finished off arranging the photo frames he’d wanted to keep out on a shelf on the dresser, having given it a good clean first. Although I’d told Michael in our first, rather heated discussion that I wasn’t a cleaner, that wasn’t entirely true. There was no point putting things back if the place they were going back to was dusty or dirty so generally the houses I helped organise also got a damn good clean. Having said that, I wasn’t about to clean anyone’s toilet but my own. I often went above and beyond, but I had limits.

      I tuned out of Michael’s phone call and instead concentrated on the pictures I was putting on the shelf. There had been a couple of him with his wife that had obviously survived an initial onslaught of being got rid of and he had pulled those out of the frames and put them in a pile. Most of the ones left were of family. It was clear from spending time here just how important family was to this man. I turned my attention back to the photos – I recognised Janey’s husband in one with Michael, their arms round each other’s shoulders, both caked with mud and holding aloft some sort of trophy. There were a couple of rugby team ones, and another of him sat, his shirt open and catching the breeze as his legs dangled over the edge of a boat. My eyes kept drifting back to this one. It was tricky to ignore the fact that under the shapeless, worn clothes Michael now seemed to live in, there was an extremely hot body. It was kind of a shame he covered it up most of the time. Running my gaze over the rest of the photos, it was obvious that, at one point, he’d taken more pride in his appearance. Not in a vain way, just that he’d perhaps taken a little more care and interest in it -his hair was shorter, his clothes tidier, his face more inclined to smile.

      I’d been honest before when I’d said I didn’t care what he wore. But I did want him to care a little more about what he wore because I knew from years of experience that feeling good in your clothes could make a real difference to one’s mindset.

      ‘Who’s the dog?’ I asked, as I sensed Michael’s presence approaching.

      Reaching my side, he picked up one of the photos which featured him with a Heinz 57 type dog.

      ‘Monty.’

      ‘Whose is he?’

      Mikey took a breath and shifted his weight, the painkillers apparently beginning to wear off.

      ‘He was mine. Daft dog. Passed away.’

      ‘Oh no! Oh, I’m so sorry. I wouldn’t have said anything – ’

      Michael shook his head and smiled, the sadness in it evident, no matter how he tried to disguise it.

      ‘It’s fine.’

      ‘Have you never thought of getting another? I mean, you’re at home most of the time? And there are doggy day-care places if you needed to go out for longer than you’d want to leave him.’

      He peered down at me. ‘Doggy day-care?’

      ‘Yes.’

      ‘Do I really look like someone who would use the phrase “doggy day-care”?’

      I rolled my eyes at him. ‘Call it what you like then, but I’m just saying maybe getting another dog would be something to think about.’

      ‘I have thought about it, and I thought no.’

      ‘Oh.’

      Michael replaced the photograph. ‘This looks really nice. Thank you,’ he said, standing back from the dresser to study it better.

      ‘I’m glad you’re pleased. Lots more to do yet though.’

      We stood in silence for a moment.

      ‘But going back to the dog thing,’ I said, immediately hearing Michael sigh, ‘it would be great company for you. This is a big house and I think it could be nice for you to have another being here. I volunteer at a rescue centre just outside London. I could get them to keep an eye out for you, if you wanted?’

      ‘Kate It’s very kind of you, but I am not interested in getting another dog, OK?’

      ‘OK,’ I said, chewing the inside of my mouth as my thoughts wandered off in another direction. ‘I’d better be off then. You could take some more painkillers now if you wanted,’ I told him, glancing at my watch, ‘it’s been over the time.’

      ‘You’re leaving?’

      ‘Yes. Why?’

      ‘Do you have another appointment?’

      ‘No. Not this evening, thank goodness.’

      ‘Meeting the boyfriend?’ He raised an eyebrow.

      I raised my own in reply.

      A smile flickered. ‘Point taken. It’s just the Janey and the crew are coming over. I texted my brother-in-law about not going to rugby training. The daft sod told Janey I’d come off my bike so now she’s insisting on coming over to make sure I’m still in one piece and it’s turned into a family expedition.’ The smile on his face when he said this showed just how much this meant to him. It was the same joyous smile they all wore in the photographs I’d been arranging so carefully earlier.

      ‘Oh that’s lovely. It’ll be nice for you to have them here, and there’s even space of a sort now too.’

      ‘I know. They won’t believe it. They’ll have you up on sorcery charges.’

      ‘Hardly. Well, I’d better get going then. I don’t want to interrupt your family СКАЧАТЬ