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He felt like an arsehole.
Mary had looked at him like he’d told her Santa Claus wasn’t real. He wasn’t sure she would ever talk to him again, or forgive him. He looked around the room in dismay, won- dering where to start.
He’d have to ring the insurance broker, and ring a drain- age company to get the surface water off. Then get hold of a carpet layer, which might prove tricky at this time of the year. The piano was probably ruined too, and Dallas’s gear.
The firefighters had suggested it might have been a fault in the electrics causing excessive temperature that set the sprinklers off, so he needed to have that looked at too.
The party was really the last thing he needed to worry about.
Except he couldn’t stop thinking about the look on Mary’s face. How much she loved Christmas and how hard she’d worked. And how he thought maybe he had some pretty se- rious feelings for her. Was there any way to make the par- ty work? Not inside, there wasn’t. And you couldn’t trust the weather on Christmas Day in New Zealand to stay dry enough to have an outdoor party without some sort of cover.
Something niggled in his mind. Then an idea started to form.
A cat meowed down the hallway and Buddy appeared, soaking wet and looking pissed off. Bright took one of the less soggy napkins off the table and used it to dry the cat off as best as he could.
“Poor Buddy,” he said as Buddy purred. “When Bern goes, you can come and live with me. But first, we have to create some Christmas magic.”
He started making some calls.
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It was almost midnight before Bern, Gary and Dallas left. Bright stood and surveyed everything they’d managed to ac- complish. It looked pretty good. It would be even better once
they turned on the snow machine. The guy at the skating rink had been thrilled when Bright had turned up there ten minutes before closing, wanting to buy it. He’d even thrown in the archway for them to use, and the blow -up candy canes. Gary had given them his marquee. They’d set it up on the lawn, placing it near the kitchen’s casement window so they could pass the food out and avoid having people walking through the building. It was just big enough to fit all the ta- bles under it and they’d dragged out all the plastic outdoor chairs from the storage shed and tied ribbons around them. Di had rounded up Lois and Bets to help and they’d thrown the tablecloths into their dryers. Glenda and Jerry had dried
all the glasses and plates and the tables had been reset.
Dallas had been really good about the ruined deejaying gear, shrugging it off as ‘one of those things’. The insurance would cover it, but it could take a bit of time. He’d also helped with getting the tent up, lugging furniture and mucking in. Bright owed him one.
Fairy lights had been strung up along the eaves of the building and the tree had been moved to the patio area. Bright had tried his best to remove all the soggy decorations and had even added some more from the box in Klaus’s ga- rage. He was hoping no one looked too closely at it.
Klaus’s sleigh was now on a small trailer and they’d added shafts to allow them to harness the two ponies that were being dropped off in the morning. That had been the tricki- est part, but Gary’s mate had said his older daughter Tonya
would come with the float and drive the makeshift cart for the right price.
The only thing he didn’t have was music, but he was hop- ing he could use his mini speaker and play something from his phone. He was regretting now that he hadn’t said yes to getting the jukebox fixed.
The whole thing was coming out of Bright’s pocket, but it looked pretty good for a rush job. He hoped Mary would like it.
He wasn’t sure what he would do if she didn’t.
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After a few hours of sleep, he got up to watch the kids open their presents and after breakfast he got dressed, wondering what the hell he had been thinking when he ordered his cos- tume. Then he drove to Mary’s.
CHAPTER 38
Mariah Carey’s classic hit ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’ is the number one holiday song that New Zealanders like to have sex to.