Read Online Christmas Eva by Clare Revell - Free Book Online

it rang and dashed into the hall to answer it.
    Eva sighed and shoved more bread into the toaster. She’d never hear the end of it now. She could hear Felicity getting irate on the phone and listened to the heavy footsteps returning. “What’s up?”
    “That was April. We’ve got problems at work. The head makeup woman has walked out over this issue with Matthew, and no one else will touch him, in case he decides to sue.” She looked at Eva. “Please…you are a great makeup artist. You’ve worked with this stuff before. You know what to do. Please, help out at least just until the panto is finished if you don’t want a permanent job. April says she’ll give you the going hourly rate for a makeup artist, and you’ll only have to do Matthew.”
    Eva hesitated.
    “I’ll drive you there and back. Unless Matthew does. You won’t get wet, well, not unless it’s pouring between here and the car, because the theatre has an underground car park for staff, and we need you. Please. And no, she doesn’t know you two know each other. Not yet anyway.”
    “OK. As it’s Harry. However, there is one condition.”
    “Name it.”
    “I want to use my own makeup set. I’ll need new brushes, pads, the works. Stuff I know he won’t come out in a rash with or that’s had other makeup on it in the past.”
    “I don’t see why your own brushes and so on should be a problem. We already have the hypoallergenic makeup, and it makes sense to use new brushes as well. Let me call April back and ask. Can you get it in town?”
    Eva nodded. “Yeah.”
    “Watch the bacon while I ring her.” She picked up her phone and moved over to the side of the room.
    Eva rolled her eyes. “As well as the toast?”
    Dad laughed. “Your mother keeps telling me all women can multitask.” He paused. “You’ve got the twinkle back in your eyes, Eva. Is it the thought of going back to work or working with a certain actor?”
    “I don’t know,” she said honestly. “It’s like I’m slowly waking from a dream or walking from a pitch dark room into bright sunshine. It’s almost too much to take in all at once.”
    “Little steps, Evie,” he said as the doorbell rang. “I’ll get it.”
    Felicity put down her phone. “April says buy what you need and give her the receipt when you go in later. I’ll take you shopping, and we have to be in work by one thirty. It’ll be a tight schedule this afty. Matthew finishes the show at four-thirty, has to be changed and in town for the tree lighting at five, and then back on stage at seven thirty.”
    “We’ll manage.” A familiar voice spoke from the doorway. “Though I don’t much fancy the idea of someone changing me. I’d rather do that myself, thank you.”
    Eva turned. “Harry…”
    Harry moved over to the chair and squeezed her shoulder in greeting. “I’m not interrupting anything, am I?”
    “We’re just about to eat, but I’m sure there’s enough if…” She looked at her father.
    “Your dad already asked me on the doorstep if I was hungry and I never turn down bacon,” Harry said. He sat next to her, shrugging his coat over the back of the chair. “How are you this morning?”
    “Doing OK. I just got offered a job. And I accepted.”
    His eyes clouded for an instant, then he smiled. “That’s great. Doing what?”
    She tilted her head. “Makeup at one of the local theatres. Haven’t signed anything yet, but I start this afternoon.”
    “Is this going to mean you can’t come to the tree lighting with me?” His face fell.
    He looked so comical, Eva almost told him. “Not at all. I said I’d come, and I will.” She put the toast in the toast rack and then looked at him critically. “You look dreadful. Looks like you got in a fight. Your makeup person will have her work cut out this afty.”
    Harry sighed. “I know. She refused point blank to use the new stuff again. And then insisted using on several layers of the stuff that makes me itch. I seriously might