Girl At Christmas (eBook)

An interracial holiday romance

Rhoda Baxter (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2017 | 1. Auflage
92 Seiten
Rhoda Baxter (Verlag)
661000014988-9 (EAN)

Infos

'It's perfect reading for a cozy holiday night.' Amazon review
Tammy is normally at her happiest at Christmas, but she's been dumped by her long term partner, with no real explanation... and her Christmas looks pretty bleak.
Lawrence has just been told he has an inherited heart condition... and he's not allowed to eat too many mince pies. Not exactly a recipe for a great holiday.
With time running out for Lawrence, will he tell Tammy how he feels before it's too late?
Girl At Christmas is a standalone novella in the award nominated Smart Girls series. If you like heartwarming, sweet romance and an unusual chubby hero, it's the perfect book for you. Buy Girl At Christmas and reclaim the holiday spirit today!

Textauszug

November 15th

Tammy burrowed her hands into her pockets and hurried the short distance between the bus stop and the house. It was dark and frosty, Christmas was coming. The ‘Secret Santa’ at work was already being organised so that people had lots of time to find a silly present for someone else for under a tenner.

Time to rescue the Christmas lights from under the bed. It was too early for decorations, but lights ... well, they cheered the place up a bit. Technically, she was a Buddhist and didn’t do Christmas, but it was fun. Her parents had always let them have a tree, so Tammy always had one too. Jeff’s family did a sort of serious Christmas lunch thing, which was fine, but Tammy preferred the little private Christmas they had together a couple of days later. Just the two of them. With tinsel and music and Christmas pudding which was half price from Boxing Day.

She reached the drive and strode up the path. A bit of down time together would be most welcome, she reflected. Jeff had been working so hard - he was always sitting downstairs working on his laptop, even at the weekends. She hadn’t spoken to him properly, let alone had a cuddle, in months, even though they lived in the same house. It couldn’t be good for a person to be so tense all the time. She smiled. Yes, Christmas would be the perfect chance to get him to unplug and relax a bit. Maybe reconnect with his fun side.

She put her key in the lock. She had to think about what she might do to make their days over Christmas extra special. Maybe a special dinner. With a gift to go with it. Letting the door click shut behind her, she hung up her coat. She hadn’t bought anything for Jeff’s parents yet. She added that to her mental to do list.

Jeff’s coat was already hanging up and his hat was on the bannister. She threw her own woolly hat on top of it.

“Hello!” she called as she went straight into the kitchen and put the kettle on.

Jeff made an indistinct noise from the living room. He was probably working on his laptop already.

“How was your day?” Tammy called. “I’ve got a heck of a week coming up. Walter and his student are coming back from their research trip and I’ve got to make up all the media and buffers for their samples before they get here.” She popped a tea bag in her mug and reached for Jeff’s favourite mug. It wasn’t there. He must have made himself a drink when he came in. They used to have their tea together, sitting side by side on the sofa, catching up on each other’s day. Tammy sighed. They definitely needed to work on spending some quality time together. Well, what better time than Christmas. It was the one holiday that was all about togetherness and renewal.

“I’ve been wondering ...” she took the tea and ambled into the living room to find him “... have you any idea what we can get for your mum for—”

Jeff was standing in the middle of the living room. His hands in his pockets. Brow furrowed. The look on his face made her blood chill. “Jeff? What’s wrong?”

He gave her a look that seemed full of pain. “Um ... Tam. Sit down. There’s something I have to tell you.”

Worst-case scenarios whirred through her mind. Something was wrong. Now that she had stopped talking, she could feel the wrongness in the air. Something was different. Was he ill? Was it someone in his family? Obediently, she sank down into an armchair. Her eyes strayed to the cushions with elephants embroidered on them that her mother had brought back from the last trip to Sri Lanka. Was it her family? Her heart picked up a notch. “What’s happened? Who’s ill?”

Jeff blinked. “No one’s ill.”

She relaxed a fraction. “That’s good. What’s wrong then?”

“I ... don’t know how best to say it ... so I’m just going to come out and say it.”

People always said that. Which was stupid, because they were specifically not coming out and saying it. Tammy frowned. “What?”

Jeff looked at his feet. “I’m leaving ... you.”

“You’re leaving me what?” The penny dropped. “Oh. But ... but—”

“I’m sorry, Tam. I don’t know what else to do.”

She felt like she’d been slapped. She clutched the handle of her mug tighter. “Why?” Six years they’d been together. Why was he leaving? An answer immediately popped up. Another body blow. “You’ve met someone else, haven’t you?” She couldn’t look at him.

He knelt down beside her. “No! God, no. It’s not like that at all.”

She turned away.

Jeff gently tried to take the mug from her hand. She held tight. He sighed. “Tam ... I’ve ... we’ve ... not been ... happy ... for a while now. I tried to remember what brought us together and ... I just can’t. I haven’t met anyone else. I wouldn’t do that to you, but I can’t carry on like this either.”

It took her a second to process that. She turned round to look at him. “But why didn’t you say something? We could have worked it out. We still can ... can’t we?”

He shook his head, slowly. He was the same Jeff she’d met when they were both students. The same blue-green eyes, the same cheeky smile ... except they weren’t the same. Suddenly, they belonged to a stranger. A man who had pretended that they were a happy couple. A man who had let her believe that things were okay, that they might even get married some day. A man who had lied to her with tiny everyday acts.

“How long have you felt like this? What happened?” There were other questions now. Queueing up. There was something else too, stirring underneath the questions, a Kraken waking. But first, there were the questions. They were easier to deal with.

Jeff sighed again and shook his head. “I can’t answer that,” he said. “It was all so gradual. There isn’t an easy way, Tam.” He stood up and brushed his hand over his knees, like dust on his trousers mattered at a time like this. “I’ve cleared out my stuff. I’m going to go stay with a mate for a few weeks. I’ll be in touch about the rent and the lease and things in a few days ... when you’ve had a bit of time to absorb things.”

He leaned over her and, for a minute, she thought he was going to kiss the top of her head. He seemed to change his mind and patted her gently on the shoulder. “I’ll be in touch.”

Tammy stared at the mug of tea in her hand. From somewhere far away she heard her own voice say, “What did I do?”

“You didn’t do anything, Tam. It’s not you. It’s me. I just don’t love you any more.” With that, he left the room.

She sat, feeling numb, and listened to him take his hat off the bannister. Put his coat on. Shut the front door. He didn’t take a bag. Which meant he’d moved his stuff out in advance. He had planned this for a while and she hadn’t noticed a thing. How did this happen? It wasn’t even as though he’d been tempted by someone prettier than her. How did a man who had been her soulmate for six years, suddenly stop loving her? What was it about her that made him so eager to leave?

LAWRENCE SAT ON THE edge of the hospital bed and buttoned up his shirt. The patch of skin where they had ripped off the sensor pads still smarted. At least the wretched thing was off now. He’d worn it against his heart for a few days. He really, really wanted to have a shower right now.

The doctor, a different one from the one who gave him the monitor in the first place, frowned at the report on his clipboard. He scribbled something and looked up“It says doctor here, are you medical?”

Would it make a difference? Would his ECGs and blood results look different if he had been a different sort of doctor? Lawrence shook his head. “No. Microbiologist.”

A nod. The doctor lowered the clipboard and leaned against the bed. “Well, as you know, you’ve got a heart arrhythmia.”

Lawrence nodded. Yep. He knew that. He got that from his father. Thanks Dad.

“And it looks like you’ve had a silent heart attack ...” A quizzical eyebrow.

Lawrence sighed. He knew that too. He had been expecting it for years. So when he had his peculiar wobble a few weeks before, he’d known to take it seriously. “I know. Does that mean I’m going to have a proper heart attack sometime soon?”

“It depends,” said the doctor. “Here’s what we’re going to do,” he said, as though he were speaking for a whole team. “We’re going to put you on a course of beta blockers, a low dose to start with – you’re still quite young. And I’m going to refer you to the dietician.”

“The dietician ...” Lawrence looked down. He had a bit of a tum, sure, but he wasn’t exactly obese. “Is that strictly necessary?”

Another frown. “Your BMI is outside of the healthy range, Lawrence. We really need to get you back into the healthy range. To be honest, even a five per cent reduction in weight can really make a difference.”

Lawrence stared. It was...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 30.10.2017
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Romane / Erzählungen