Christmas at the Little Clock House on the Green. Eve Devon

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      Looking at the three people who were helping to make The Clock House a reality, Kate felt the pressure to get everything perfect rise up and shaking her head in dismay, whimpered, ‘No-el.’

      ‘The angels, are in fact, genuinely crying, Katey-Did,’ Daniel said softly and then hesitated and swallowed. ‘Hang on – are you crying? What’s happened? Why are you sitting here crying Christmas carols?’

      ‘Not singing carols,’ she hiccupped miserably.

      ‘See?’ Oscar whispered to Juliet, ‘I told you that wasn’t singing.’

      Kate stared at them all as she picked back up the invitation she’d opened and flapped it about manically. ‘No “L”,’ she tried again and when three faces stared back at her uncomprehending she banged her head on the desk and wailed, ‘No “L”, No “L”.’

      ‘Is it possible the stress of opening this place has made her regress to some sort of primitive communication?’ Oscar muttered.

      Daniel took the invitation from her and began reading aloud: ‘This Christmas, you are cordially invited to the grand opening of the—’ his eyes got round. ‘Holy—’

      Juliet and Oscar came to stand over his shoulder.

      Kate’s head came up from the desk, pleased to have finally made herself understood.

      Juliet gasped as she finished reading. ‘Oh my God, the letter “L” is missing the whole way through?’

      A throaty laugh rumbled out of Oscar.

      ‘It’s not funny,’ Kate insisted.

      ‘It’s a little funny,’ Oscar said, grabbing the invitation to check for himself. ‘Cock,’ he exclaimed. ‘I love it,’ and at Juliet, Daniel and Kate’s raised eyebrows added, ‘Wait – that didn’t come out right.’

      Kate snatched the invitation back from him. ‘This is going where it belongs, in the round file,’ and with dramatic flair she slam-dunked it into the bin, then, with a pout, moaned, ‘It never misses in films,’ and fishing it up from the floor, she stuck it in the bin. ‘I don’t know why you’re laughing,’ she said to Daniel. ‘Or have you always wanted to run your business out of a cock house?’

      ‘See when you put it like that …’ Daniel moved behind her to pluck the invitation out of the general waste and move it into the recycling bin.

      ‘You do realise we’re going to have to kill Crispin for this,’ she muttered. ‘I’ll need a plan on my desk by the end of the day.’

      ‘How about we don’t but say we did,’ Juliet offered soothingly.

      Crispin Harlow, head of the Whispers Wood Residents’ Association believed whole-heartedly that it took a village to raise a village. He put the “e” in pedantic, the nosy in parker and could also be completely sweet and terribly caring, but for the purposes of allowing herself to get justifiably riled up, Kate was going to ignore that. ‘As if I have the time to sort out this kind of error. I should never have let him badger me into giving his friend the order.’

      ‘He didn’t badger you,’ Daniel reminded her. ‘He didn’t even needle you.’

      ‘Didn’t need to, did he, when he can do the whole,’ she waved her hand about wildly over her head, ‘wig-mesmerising thing.’

      Another laugh rumbled out of Daniel. ‘What, you think Crispin sort of “hair-brained” you into placing the order via the magical mesmerising properties of his wig?’

      ‘I really do,’ she sulked, a little shocked to find herself still so close to tears. Maybe it was that she’d spent so much time thinking about the moment when all the invites went out. That excited-nervous, no-going-back, what-did-we-do-all-this-for-if-it-wasn’t-to-actually-open-our-doors-to-paying-guests moment that had seen her through all the other completely scary times this last couple of months.

      ‘We’ll just have to trust this guy to make the correction,’ Juliet suggested.

      ‘But what if he does it wrong again?’ Kate worried. ‘I don’t think Crispin and my relationship would survive it. Honestly, I think I’d rather start from scratch.’

      ‘I suppose we’re only losing our deposit,’ Daniel said.

      ‘And on the bright side,’ she ventured, feeling a little of her earlier joy creeping back in, ‘We just got our food and alcohol license … so we could add that to the invites. Even if we get the spelling corrected, Cocktails & Chai wording won’t fit on the existing invitations and what’s the betting if we correct the spelling, something else will go wrong with them. We’re cutting it close to get the invites out in time as it is.’

      ‘But that’s brilliant we got the licence,’ Juliet said. ‘We’re really going to add one more business to the mix, then?’

      ‘I think we’d be passing up a great opportunity if we didn’t,’ Daniel replied. ‘To try opening up Cocktails & Chai once we’re already open would be really disruptive. What about it, Oscar? Do you think you could finish up the building work in time?’

      ‘Sure,’ Oscar said. ‘It’s quiet at this time of year and I can give some of my other projects to my team for the chance to build that custom-made bar.’

      ‘I was hoping you’d say that,’ Kate said. ‘So now we just need someone to do the new invites, choose new card-stock, get them to the printers and then—’

      ‘You could always send an e-vite,’ Daniel said.

      ‘Actually that’s not a bad idea,’ Kate said as possibility roared to life.

      ‘I do have them occasionally,’ he murmured with a wry smile. ‘We could ask Jake Knightley’s sister, Sarah to design it for us.’

      Kate considered. ‘So you think she’s still doing graphic design, then?’

      ‘She had a baby, not a lobotomy,’ Juliet laughed.

      Kate’s gaze shot to Juliet. The way she’d said baby. All dreamy and … Kate’s insides did a sort of double-tuck, full lay-out, gymnastic thing. Were Juliet and Oscar thinking babies? Already? Juliet had only moved in with Oscar and Melody five minutes ago. How would she manage a new business with a baby? And Kate didn’t know anything about maternity employment law! Nervously she reached for her pile of sticky notes and then paused. Maybe she should actually check with Juliet before she immortalised or even italicised the words ‘Juliet’ and ‘Preggers???’ on neon pink.

      ‘So,’ Daniel said, grabbing her attention again. ‘We give Crispin’s friend of a friend the swerve and ask Sarah to design the e-vite, and we announce the opening of Cocktails & Chai along with the other businesses?’

      God, he was good for her, she thought. He was never frightened of the dramatic streak that ran through her and was perfectly trusting that she knew when to let logic overrule emotion in business decisions. He totally had her back. And she’d never felt more able to be herself…

      ‘I love you,’ Kate said.

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