Read Online Christmas at Rosie Hopkins' Sweetshop by Jenny Colgan - Free Book Online

best and get him somewhere nice. No point in everybody’s life being ruined.”
    â€œPoor chaps,” muttered Rosie again, and she put the old man and his son out of her head.
    R OS IE WENT RIGHT on decorating. She had found a box containing some old Christmas decorations in the attic and was considering dragging them out. Among them were a ­couple of lovely old wood carvings that were clearly handmade—­seeing their varying degrees of proficiency, she wondered if they’d been done at school by Lilian’s brothers. Lilian confirmed this, so Rosie saved them while letting the disintegrating tinsel and tarnished baubles head for the bin.
    She made up the vast Christmas order for the shop, and while she was doing so, Tina, who was an online shopper extraordinaire, came in and showed her a picture of the most amazing half-­price Santa she’d found.
    â€œBut online merchants aren’t delivering,” said Rosie. “Because of the weather.”
    â€œYes, they aren’t delivering to normal ­people. That’s why it’s half price before Christmas,” said Tina, who’d nearly gone bankrupt from her bad habit. “But they’ll always deliver to me.”
    Rosie smiled and looked at it again. It really was lovely: a miniature Santa train with empty carriages they could fill with sweets, tootling around a little model village with its roofs all covered in snow and little candles in all the windows.
    â€œIt looks like Lipton,” she said.
    Tina nodded. “I know,” she said. “We must get it. We’ll cause a scrum.”
    Rosie thought briefly of the amazing bright lights and astonishing designer displays on Oxford Street in London. It was hard to imagine a small tootling train being the center of attention. But then, Malik’s was currently displaying a pyramid of discounted tinned macaroni and cheese, so she supposed things could be worse.
    â€œYou’re on,” she said.
    â€œIt whistles!”
    â€œI said you’re on!”
    â€œYay!” said Tina, who wasn’t really allowed to shop anymore. “I ordered it last week.”
    Rosie rolled her eyes.
    â€œSo what are you getting Jake for Christmas?”
    â€œOh, nothing interesting,” said Tina sadly. “I wish I were a millionaire. No offense.”
    â€œNone taken,” said Rosie promptly. “I do too.”
    â€œBut I saw this beautiful Burberry shirt he’d look amazing in, and this really gorgeous cashmere scarf.”
    â€œJake wouldn’t like any of that stuff.”
    â€œNo,” said Tina. “But fantasy Jake I go out with in my head does.”
    â€œI thought Jake was your fantasy Jake.”
    Tina’s face softened.
    â€œOh, he is. he is. But, you know.”
    Rosie did know. Jake was gorgeous and charming and worked as a farm laborer. His usual outfit was a rubber waistcoat to avoid stains and a hacking jacket that Rosie strongly suspected was older than he was.
    â€œWhat do you think he’s going to get you?”
    Tina shrugged. “I don’t know. Last year he got me a pair of socks.”
    â€œBut you’d only been going out five minutes last year.”
    â€œStill.”
    â€œAnd it was a very nice pair of socks.”
    Tina rolled her eyes.
    â€œOkay, okay.”
    Rosie sold two pounds of Parma violets and said hi to Anton, the fattest man in town. Formerly, he’d been going for the fattest man in the country. The fact that he was now only the fattest man in their village was, Rosie felt, a credit to him. And slightly to her, given that she controlled his sweet intake in a way that frankly counted as an act of charitable giving.
    Anton looked around.
    â€œChristmas decorations!” he said cheerfully.
    Mr. Dog came padding up to lick his hand, as he always did. He was growing bigger and hairier by the week but was no less lazy and affectionate. Rosie was madly in love with him, to