In The Bleak Midwinter
Blurb:
The
Adelphi Theatre has been the centre of drama in Headley Cross for one hundred
years. Interim manager, Flick Anderson, does her best to juggle running the
theatre and directing her first play, Home Is Where The Heart Is. Flick
is overjoyed when her best friend and ex-boyfriend, Will Reid, takes on the
main male lead—especially as she wrote the role for him.
BAFTA
winning actor Will Reid prefers stage work to anything else. When the job he
should have been doing over Christmas is unexpectedly cancelled, he leaps at
the chance of working with Flick. Could this be a new beginning for the two of
them?
But
life is never that simple. Just as Flick begins to thaw, a spanner is thrown
into the works that could wreck things forever.
Extract:
Flick sighed. Maybe somewhere in
the desk was a list of who to call to fix this kind of mess. She headed back to
the office with no idea where to look. Twenty minutes later, she’d turned the
office into a bombsite, completely upending every file she could find. Nothing.
Seriously considering just calling
the first builder in the phone book, Flick reached for the phone.
“Hello, Gorgeous!”
As she spun around, a huge smile
lit her spirit and probably, her face. She couldn’t see it, but she felt it. They
might no longer be an item, but her love for Will had never dimmed. Something
about seeing him made the darkest of days instantly brighter. “Rogue!”
Will dashed across the room and
swung her into his arms. He whirled her around three times before setting her
back on her feet. He kissed her cheek in his usual fashion. “I missed you.”
“Missed you back. But maybe if
you’d answered your phone or email once in a while, you’d miss me less. It’s
been too long.”
“It has.” He dropped into her chair
and put his feet on her desk. “I see housekeeping is slacking off around here.
Place looks like it took a direct hit from a bomb.”
“Looking for something I can’t
find. How did you get here so fast?”
“Fast?” He frowned. “It’s almost
three in the afternoon. I spoke to you around five hours ago. Did you work
through lunch again?”
“Must have.” She drank in his
appearance, not even mad at him for putting his feet on her desk. “I can’t
believe you’re really here.”
He pinched her gently. “Yup. Not
only am I in your office, live and in person, I hasten to add, I’ve been home,
dropped off the dog, and seen my parents. Who incidentally, decided that if I
wanted my old room, then I wanted my old duvet set as well. You know, the one
with the train?”
She laughed, gathering up her
papers from the floor. “You still have it?”
“Apparently so.” His droll tone and
sad expression made her laugh even harder.
“Oh, no,” she gasped between
giggles. “Please, whatever you do, don’t tell my mother. Or my Billie the Elf
quilt might make an appearance.” She scowled as his eyes glinted. “Anyway, I
have a shed load of work to do.”
“Looks like it. Let me help you
tidy up, whilst you carry on looking for whatever it was you needed. Or we can
blow off this disaster and go for coffee.”
Flick raised an eyebrow. “And leave
the theatre whilst the matinee is in full swing? April would have my guts for
garters for merely thinking of that.”
“May I remind you that April isn’t
here? You’re the boss. And I say you need a break because you are no good to
anyone if you pass out due to lack of a nutritious meal. And I don’t just mean
a doughnut from the bakers on the corner of the road.” He grabbed her hand.
“Come on, this chaos will still be here when you get back.”
She dragged her feet. “Let me grab
the phone on the off chance April returns my call. She hasn’t called in weeks
and tends to text instead. Eventually.”
“Pfffttttt!” he snorted. “Let her eat static and leave messages on
answerphones. It won’t kill you to go without your phone for five minutes.” He
tugged her to the door, grabbing her coat on the way.
She eyed him. “It might. And then
what would you do?”
He smirked, giving the reply she
was expecting. “Buy self-raising flowers and throw the biggest, most expensive
party the world has ever seen.”
“Planning on inviting me, I hope?”
He chuckled. “Only if you come back
and haunt me.”
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bleak-Midwinter-Christmas-Holiday-Extravaganza-ebook/dp/B09J1NYWBW
https://www.amazon.com/Bleak-Midwinter-Christmas-Holiday-Extravaganza-ebook/dp/B09J1NYWBW
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