His Christmas Acquisition by Cathy Williams Read Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Cathy Williams
for some reason his gesture bothered her.
‘I haven’t got anything for you,’ she said uncomfortably.
‘I’ll live with that. Why butterflies?’
‘My father was keen on them,’ Jamie said awkwardly as another piece of information left her and travelled across to him. ‘Mum told us a lot about him. He loved to travel. He particularly loved to travel to study insects, and out of all the insects butterflies interested him most. He liked the fact that there were so many different varieties of them and they came in so many different colours and shapes and sizes. Mum said that he figured they were a lot more interesting than the human species.’
Her voice and expression had softened as she lost herself in a memory that hadn’t surfaced for years. ‘So I started collecting them when I was a kid. I just keep the better ones on show, but I have a box upstairs full of silly plastic ones I had when I was growing up.’ A sudden blast of music hit her as the kitchen door was pushed open and the moment of crazy reminiscing was lost with the appearance of Jessica, now wearing a shiny party hat and with her arm around one of the computer geeks, who looked thrilled to death with the leggy blonde clinging to him.
‘Enjoy the attention, buddy.’ Ryan grinned at his top software-specialist. ‘But bear in mind the lady’s married.’
Outside, the party of six guests had swelled to ten. Jessica had asked a couple of others ‘to liven things up’. Bottles of wine were ranged on the sideboard in the living room and the chairs had been cleared away to create a dance floor of sorts.
Walking into the room was like walking into a disco, butone where the decor was comprised of a Christmas tree in the corner and random decorations strung along the walls. In the centre of it all, Jessica was living up to her reputation as a party animal.
Swaying to the music with a drink in one hand and her eyes half-closed, she was the peacock, proud of her stupendous figure, which outranked even those of the gym queens at the side, and the cynosure of all male eyes.
When the beat went from fast to slow, Jamie looked away as Jessica draped herself over Ryan.
So what else had she expected? That he would actually be able to resist the allure of an available woman? A dull ache began in her head. She mingled and chatted and even halfheartedly danced with her colleague Robbie who charmed her with an enthusiastic conversation about something he was working on at the moment, something guaranteed to be bigger and better than anything else on the market.
While Ryan danced on with Jessica.
Several of the neighbours began popping in, drawn by the music. On either side, they were young, professional couples whom Jamie had glimpsed in passing. Now, she realised that they were people with whom she could easily become friendly, and the distraction was a blessing. It took her out of the living room and into the kitchen, where they congregated and compared notes on the neighbourhood.
She wasn’t too sure how the matter of eating was going to be achieved. As expected, the bulk of the preparations had been left to her while her sister had stalked ineffectively around the kitchen with a glass of wine in her hand, sighing and making useless suggestions about what could be done to speed up the whole process. ‘Dump the lot and order in a Chinese’, had been one of her more ridiculous offerings, especially considering she had been the one to insist on the full turkey extravaganza.
Flushed from the heat in the kitchen, and nursing enough low-level resentment to sink a small ship, Jamie was fetching the wretched turkey out of the oven when Ryan’s voice behind her nearly made her drop the hapless bird.
‘You need a hand.’
Jamie carefully deposited the aluminium baking dish on the counter and glanced across to him.
‘I’m fine. Thank you.’
‘Just stating the obvious here, but martyrs aren’t known to be the happiest people on the face of the
‘I haven’t got anything for you,’ she said uncomfortably.
‘I’ll live with that. Why butterflies?’
‘My father was keen on them,’ Jamie said awkwardly as another piece of information left her and travelled across to him. ‘Mum told us a lot about him. He loved to travel. He particularly loved to travel to study insects, and out of all the insects butterflies interested him most. He liked the fact that there were so many different varieties of them and they came in so many different colours and shapes and sizes. Mum said that he figured they were a lot more interesting than the human species.’
Her voice and expression had softened as she lost herself in a memory that hadn’t surfaced for years. ‘So I started collecting them when I was a kid. I just keep the better ones on show, but I have a box upstairs full of silly plastic ones I had when I was growing up.’ A sudden blast of music hit her as the kitchen door was pushed open and the moment of crazy reminiscing was lost with the appearance of Jessica, now wearing a shiny party hat and with her arm around one of the computer geeks, who looked thrilled to death with the leggy blonde clinging to him.
‘Enjoy the attention, buddy.’ Ryan grinned at his top software-specialist. ‘But bear in mind the lady’s married.’
Outside, the party of six guests had swelled to ten. Jessica had asked a couple of others ‘to liven things up’. Bottles of wine were ranged on the sideboard in the living room and the chairs had been cleared away to create a dance floor of sorts.
Walking into the room was like walking into a disco, butone where the decor was comprised of a Christmas tree in the corner and random decorations strung along the walls. In the centre of it all, Jessica was living up to her reputation as a party animal.
Swaying to the music with a drink in one hand and her eyes half-closed, she was the peacock, proud of her stupendous figure, which outranked even those of the gym queens at the side, and the cynosure of all male eyes.
When the beat went from fast to slow, Jamie looked away as Jessica draped herself over Ryan.
So what else had she expected? That he would actually be able to resist the allure of an available woman? A dull ache began in her head. She mingled and chatted and even halfheartedly danced with her colleague Robbie who charmed her with an enthusiastic conversation about something he was working on at the moment, something guaranteed to be bigger and better than anything else on the market.
While Ryan danced on with Jessica.
Several of the neighbours began popping in, drawn by the music. On either side, they were young, professional couples whom Jamie had glimpsed in passing. Now, she realised that they were people with whom she could easily become friendly, and the distraction was a blessing. It took her out of the living room and into the kitchen, where they congregated and compared notes on the neighbourhood.
She wasn’t too sure how the matter of eating was going to be achieved. As expected, the bulk of the preparations had been left to her while her sister had stalked ineffectively around the kitchen with a glass of wine in her hand, sighing and making useless suggestions about what could be done to speed up the whole process. ‘Dump the lot and order in a Chinese’, had been one of her more ridiculous offerings, especially considering she had been the one to insist on the full turkey extravaganza.
Flushed from the heat in the kitchen, and nursing enough low-level resentment to sink a small ship, Jamie was fetching the wretched turkey out of the oven when Ryan’s voice behind her nearly made her drop the hapless bird.
‘You need a hand.’
Jamie carefully deposited the aluminium baking dish on the counter and glanced across to him.
‘I’m fine. Thank you.’
‘Just stating the obvious here, but martyrs aren’t known to be the happiest people on the face of the