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

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.

      The words came out super-naturally considering it was the first time she’d said them, but as Daniel inhaled sharply, tears made glistening pools of her eyes, which was why she didn’t see Oscar swiftly pulling a goggle-eyed Juliet out of the room to give her and Daniel some privacy.

      ‘Sorry,’ Kate started babbling. ‘Totally the wrong time to drop the L-bomb. At work of all places. I couldn’t pick somewhere romantic? All the times you’ve said the words to me and I haven’t said them back. Oh—,’ she broke off as Daniel closed the distance in one easy stride, swept her up into his arms and kissed her.

      As his mouth sealed across hers, a familiar buzz lit across nerve-endings and ignited to spread through her veins. As his lips rubbed, coaxed, revered, she felt more of the slippy-slidey, twisty-tangled conflict inside of her settle.

      ‘Wow,’ she said.

      ‘Wow,’ he echoed with a grin. ‘And then there’s also this,’ he held up the key he’d had cut to Myrtle Cottage.

      He’d given her the key to his place, Mistletoe Cottage, weeks ago. Presented it as a point of practicality and with his matter-of-fact tone that she found so sexy, how could she refuse? Even as she’d worried exchanging keys was moving fast, she’d still taken that key and let herself in with it that night and stolen into his bed to surprise him.

      Yesterday she’d found herself buying his favourite brand of bread. The one with the sixty-three different types of seeds that dropped down the grill of the toaster and worked their way into the strangest of places. The one he liked to wolf down when he returned from his morning run before he got into the shower. Before then getting back into bed with her, claiming he was the perfect wake-up call.

      He was, but that was beside the point.

      The point was they were leaving more and more bits of themselves at each other’s places … and, well, what did that all mean?

      Only this morning she’d realised that the coat she’d been vaguely thinking of wearing today, was probably still at his place.

      Had he hung it up?

      Did he care that it was there?

       Did he want to move in with her?

      Wait! What?

      This past summer had been a crazy spectacular rollercoaster of competing with Daniel for The Clock House while falling for him, hook, line and sinker. There was still so much they were finding out about each other and now – already – to be thinking about moving in together?

      Kate swallowed and stepped out of his arms. It was enough they had keys to each other’s cottages.

      Moving in together would be, well, three words: Way, way too soon.

      Okay, that was four words, but you get what she’s thinking, right?

      To cover her pounding heart, she reached for her pen and her ever-present pad of post-it notes.

      She’d be totally cray-cray adding more pressure to their relationship. They hadn’t even opened The Clock House yet.

      Leaning down she forced herself to concentrate on what she should really be thinking about, and proud that her handwriting didn’t show any sign of “moving-in-together” shakiness, she wrote: Find someone to manage Cocktails & Chai, and underlined it four times.

       Chapter 2

       Crouching Dragon, Hidden Bartender

       Emma

      Emma Danes blew a strand of rapidly frizzing blonde hair out of her eyes and looked on in horrid fascination at the human pretzel facing the class.

      ‘… And as you bend your body down to the earth,’ the yoga instructor drawled, ‘bring your palms to the