The Mistletoe Pact by Jo Lovett
Now – August 2022
Dan
Dan plastered a smile on his face and stood up to move his four spaces along the table, to what felt like a hot seat.
The last time he’d seen Evie had been in the car after the quiz night, and he wasn’t sure where to go from there. Plus, he wasn’t precisely sure why, but he didn’t particularly like the idea of Evie and Hannah meeting tomorrow. However, they were adults, and this weekend was all about Sasha and they could absolutely behave normally.
‘Hey, Evie,’ he said, sitting down next to her. ‘Good to see you.’
‘Hello. Thank you for your help the other day.’
‘Always available to offer advice on bodily functions. Sasha said that you were surprisingly fierce with the woman in the boutique.’
‘Yes, I was very proud of myself. Turns out that someone telling your best friend to effectively poison themselves before their wedding makes you pretty angry.’
‘Yeah, you sounded quite stern even on the phone to me, and I was pretty sure that I’d done nothing wrong. Sounds like everything’s okay now dress-wise? I’m looking forward to seeing it tomorrow.’ He suddenly wondered what Evie’s bridesmaid dress was going to be like. This evening she was wearing a light-blue silky top and her hair up so that he could see the line of her neck, and, if he looked at her too much, he felt his throat go dry, which was insane, given that she had a boyfriend apart from anything else.
‘The dress really is beautiful. And Sasha’s going to look amazing.’
‘Yeah.’
There was a slightly too long pause and then Evie said, ‘I haven’t congratulated you in person on the birth of Katie. So… congratulations!’
‘Thank you. Yeah, it’s huge being a father. I mean, obviously. Goes without saying. Yeah, she’s amazing.’ He should say more, keep the conversation going until it felt like any awkwardness from their last meeting had gone. ‘I can spend hours just watching her. She can smile now, and it’s like every smile is the most precious thing you’ve ever witnessed.’
Evie smiled, properly, at that and Dan found himself thinking that her smiles were pretty precious too, actually.
‘I remember,’ she said, ‘from when Autumn was born. You get that feeling of immense, uncomplicated, almost slightly desperate, love, that you hadn’t even known existed.’
‘Yep. You’d do anything to protect them from the world.’
‘Exactly.’
Dan looked along the table at his mother. And then thought about his father.
‘Obviously not every parent feels like that,’ he said. ‘Like my father. Kind of him to grace us with his presence briefly. It’s Sasha’s wedding tomorrow, for God’s sake, and he’s buggered off.’
‘He did come, though? Maybe he felt awkward being here because he isn’t the most popular family member ever?’
‘Or maybe he’s a total arse.’
‘Maybe a combination of all of those? Not to be rude about your dad.’
A waiter clapped his hands right behind them and Evie squeaked and then laughed.
‘That was loud,’ she said.
‘Dessert orders,’ the waiter said.
‘Oops, I haven’t chosen yet.’ Evie picked up the menu.
‘I have. I’m going cheese.’
‘I really can’t decide.’
‘I actually think I know what you’re going to have.’ Dan had been at enough dinners with Evie over the years to be pretty sure that he knew what she liked. Of the available options, she was going to go sticky toffee pudding, after a lot of deliberation.
‘Hmm. I don’t think it’s a compliment when someone implies that you’re predictable.’ She narrowed her eyes at him.
‘Predictable in a very nice way.’
‘Hmm.’ She mock-pouted and, God, he felt something inside him actually lurch.
‘What would you like?’ asked the waiter.
‘Could you come back to me last?’ she asked. The waiter visibly blossomed in response to her smile. She sat back and stared hard at the menu and then at the wall opposite, like all the horse paintings hanging on it might give her pudding inspiration.
‘Okay, yes, I’ve decided,’ she said when the waiter finally came back to her. ‘The lemon tart.’ What? Maybe Dan didn’t know her as well as he thought he did. ‘No, sorry, sorry, sorry, I’m changing my mind. Sticky toffee pudding, please.’
‘You sure?’ asked the waiter, laughing with her.
‘Yes, certain. Definitely.’
‘I’m a genius,’ Dan said. ‘I knew you were going to go sticky toffee.’
‘It was the caramelised popcorn on the side that swung it.’
‘I knew that.’
Evie shook her head, smiling. He wondered if, like him, she was suddenly thinking about how well they knew each other in so many ways. And yet not in others.
When their puddings were placed in front of them, they both said in the same moment, ‘Wow.’
‘Those are enormous plates of food,’ Evie said. ‘I know now that I’m not going to finish mine, or we’ll be having a bridesmaid-dress-too-tight disaster tomorrow morning. You have to stop me if I look like I am going to finish it. Because it does look delicious and I will be tempted and I don’t want to have to consider last-minute laxatives.’ She turned her attention to Dan’s cheese. ‘So instead of bringing you a cheeseboard so you could choose, it looks like they’ve just given you the entire cheese board.’
‘Pretty much.’ He had five massive wedges of cheese, two crackers and one grape on his plate. ‘Good job I like cheese. I think I’m up to the challenge.’
Evie shook her head. ‘You’re going to have weird dreams tonight if you eat all of that.’
Dreams. Dan suddenly wanted to tell her about his nightmares. The one where he pushed Max into the road and Max got killed. The one where his father was a serial killer and Dan didn’t tell anyone and more people got murdered. The one where he was at work and forgot everything he’d ever known. And the new one, the enormous wall in the Atlantic with Katie on one side and Dan on the other. God, he wanted to know what Hannah’s decision about New York was going to be. And he wanted to tell Evie everything. He was pretty sure that if he did she’d listen and care.
No. He wasn’t going to go there. He couldn’t talk about the accident.
‘Nope, I’m going to sleep very well tonight.’ He cut a slice of blue cheese, put it on a cracker, looked up at Evie and thought about sleeping with her. Christ. What was wrong with him? Yes, they’d slept together in Vegas, but you could be around someone you’d slept with – and only once – without constantly thinking about it. And, as far as he knew, she still had a boyfriend.
‘Is Matthew coming straight to the wedding?’ he asked, and then immediately despised himself. It sounded truly pathetic asking about him.
‘He’s away on a golfing holiday.’ Evie didn’t meet his eye.
‘Oh, right,’ said Dan, trying not to feel pleased.
Evie looked up at him and their gazes snagged. And neither of them said anything.
‘Can I interrupt?’ said Greggy, turning towards them from Evie’s other side. ‘Evie, I hear there’s a laxative story for you to tell me.’ And the moment, whatever it was, was broken, definitely a good thing.
Fifteen minutes later, Sasha finished her fruit salad and stood up and said, ‘No speeches this evening other than to say thank you all so much for being the most wonderful family and bridesmaids and best man, and my nearly-husband and I can’t wait to see you at our wedding – which is tomorrow – and now you all need to go and get a very good night’s sleep so that you can enjoy the day. Taxis will be here for us all in five minutes.’
Dan ended up in a cab with Evie, Max and Greggy going back to Melting.
‘You take the front seat,’ Evie said.
‘No, you take it.’
‘I’ll feel guilty. Your legs are longer.’
‘Evie, just bloody get in the back and close the door so that we don’t all freeze,’ Max said. Evie laughed and bundled in with Max and Greggy.
‘So it’s a big day for the three of you tomorrow,’ Greggy said. ‘Bridesmaid, walking the bride down the aisle, and doing the reading. There’s a lot of responsibility there.’
‘Way to make us all nervous,’ Evie said. ‘Honestly.’
They all laughed and joshed each other all the way back to the village. Dan was genuinely looking forward to the wedding now. There was something about having Evie and Greggy there that made things easier between Dan and Max.