Read Online A Little Christmas Magic by Alison Roberts - Free Book Online
Authors: Alison Roberts
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Dinner will ready in no time.’
There was no recrimination in her tone that she’d been left with the children all afternoon and that they’d been left without their promised walk or time with theirfather. No … Both the tone and the way she was looking at him gave him the odd feeling that she knew exactly how hard his day had been. He didn’t have to say anything about what had happened but she was still willing to try and make it better.
Even more oddly, it
was
starting to feel better. He could almost dismiss the edge of panic at seeing how Christmas was invading his house again. Maybe that was because the decorations were so obviously made by children with their wobbly shapes and sizes. Tania might have gone overboard with decorations but she would never have tolerated something so far less than perfect. Even the bunch of holly on the table was real instead of a perfect, plastic replica.
This was different. This was Emma, not Tania. Couldn’t be more different, in fact. Maybe it would even be okay.
‘Thank you.’ It felt like the first time Adam had ever smiled at Emma but surely that wasn’t the case?
Maybe it was because he’d never seen
her
smile quite like that. A slow, delighted curl to her mouth that lit up her face and gave her a faint flush of colour on those pale cheeks.
She was pretty, he realised. Not flaky looking at all. Too young for her years, still, and too thin, but … yes … pretty.
Beautiful even.
CHAPTER FIVE
E MMA HAD A lot of time to herself on Sunday because Adam didn’t get called out, although he seemed to spend a lot of time on the phone and she overheard a snatch of conversation about a sick baby who was in Intensive Care. The children—and the dogs—got their long walk to see whether the pond was frozen and Emma was glad of the time on her own.
She sat in her room, with her laptop and her guitar, working on her Christmas gift for Sharon. She was writing a song about friendship and the strength it could give someone to get through hard times, and she intended to record it as a background to a slide show of all the best photos she and Sharon had taken over the last few years. She might even use the very private ones—like the one in her hospital bed where she’d been so swollen by the steroids she’d been taking and completely bald from the chemo. Sharon had insisted she needed a photo so that Emma would be able to look back and see how far she’d come and then she’d said something about eggheads and made Emma laugh, and that was the moment she’d captured.
She’d been so right. It was hard to believe how far she’d come. And maybe—Emma squeezed her eyes tightly shut for a heartbeat—she would be able to lookback from the distance of many more years. But if she couldn’t, Sharon would have this gift from her heart for ever.
Back in the routine of the school week again, Emma was delighted to feel so at home with the routine of her new job. She was loving her time at the school, helping with the music classes, and the new friendship with the junior-school teacher, Caitlin, promised to be something special.
It was a bonus that Oliver took so long to find everything he needed to take home after school because it gave the young women a few minutes extra to chat.
‘I was telling Moira Findlay that you have one of the most amazing voices I’ve ever heard,’ Caitlin confessed on Monday afternoon. ‘She said they might consider offering you an invitation to join the village choir.’
Emma grinned. ‘I take it that’s a huge honour?’
‘You’d better believe it. Normally you have to be second-generation Braeburn, at the very least.’
‘Did you tell her I’m only here till Adam’s mother gets back?’
‘No.’ Caitlin’s face fell. ‘I’m kind of hoping you’ll fall in love with the place and decide to stay. He’s still going to need a nanny, isn’t he, and the last few have been disasters—especially that Kylie, who was far more interested in
There was no recrimination in her tone that she’d been left with the children all afternoon and that they’d been left without their promised walk or time with theirfather. No … Both the tone and the way she was looking at him gave him the odd feeling that she knew exactly how hard his day had been. He didn’t have to say anything about what had happened but she was still willing to try and make it better.
Even more oddly, it
was
starting to feel better. He could almost dismiss the edge of panic at seeing how Christmas was invading his house again. Maybe that was because the decorations were so obviously made by children with their wobbly shapes and sizes. Tania might have gone overboard with decorations but she would never have tolerated something so far less than perfect. Even the bunch of holly on the table was real instead of a perfect, plastic replica.
This was different. This was Emma, not Tania. Couldn’t be more different, in fact. Maybe it would even be okay.
‘Thank you.’ It felt like the first time Adam had ever smiled at Emma but surely that wasn’t the case?
Maybe it was because he’d never seen
her
smile quite like that. A slow, delighted curl to her mouth that lit up her face and gave her a faint flush of colour on those pale cheeks.
She was pretty, he realised. Not flaky looking at all. Too young for her years, still, and too thin, but … yes … pretty.
Beautiful even.
CHAPTER FIVE
E MMA HAD A lot of time to herself on Sunday because Adam didn’t get called out, although he seemed to spend a lot of time on the phone and she overheard a snatch of conversation about a sick baby who was in Intensive Care. The children—and the dogs—got their long walk to see whether the pond was frozen and Emma was glad of the time on her own.
She sat in her room, with her laptop and her guitar, working on her Christmas gift for Sharon. She was writing a song about friendship and the strength it could give someone to get through hard times, and she intended to record it as a background to a slide show of all the best photos she and Sharon had taken over the last few years. She might even use the very private ones—like the one in her hospital bed where she’d been so swollen by the steroids she’d been taking and completely bald from the chemo. Sharon had insisted she needed a photo so that Emma would be able to look back and see how far she’d come and then she’d said something about eggheads and made Emma laugh, and that was the moment she’d captured.
She’d been so right. It was hard to believe how far she’d come. And maybe—Emma squeezed her eyes tightly shut for a heartbeat—she would be able to lookback from the distance of many more years. But if she couldn’t, Sharon would have this gift from her heart for ever.
Back in the routine of the school week again, Emma was delighted to feel so at home with the routine of her new job. She was loving her time at the school, helping with the music classes, and the new friendship with the junior-school teacher, Caitlin, promised to be something special.
It was a bonus that Oliver took so long to find everything he needed to take home after school because it gave the young women a few minutes extra to chat.
‘I was telling Moira Findlay that you have one of the most amazing voices I’ve ever heard,’ Caitlin confessed on Monday afternoon. ‘She said they might consider offering you an invitation to join the village choir.’
Emma grinned. ‘I take it that’s a huge honour?’
‘You’d better believe it. Normally you have to be second-generation Braeburn, at the very least.’
‘Did you tell her I’m only here till Adam’s mother gets back?’
‘No.’ Caitlin’s face fell. ‘I’m kind of hoping you’ll fall in love with the place and decide to stay. He’s still going to need a nanny, isn’t he, and the last few have been disasters—especially that Kylie, who was far more interested in
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