A Family This Christmas by Sue MacKay Page B

spread out a bit.’
    ‘A bit?’ Cam choked on his wine. She patted his back hard until he held a hand up and drew a deep breath. ‘If I didn’t know better I’d say a tornado had passed through the kitchen.’
    ‘You do tend to exaggerate.’ Reluctantly she withdrew her hand, trailing it across his shoulder blade and upper arm. The warmth Cam radiated hit her deep inside. A rare warmth from touching another human being. That joint hug of Cam’s had been the first in a long time.
    ‘Who? Me?’ His smile was tight, his breathing a little rapid.
    Because of her hand on him? Oh, great. Now what had she done? Did he fancy her? More to the point, did she want him to fancy her? ‘Yes, you.’ Now which question was she answering? Total confusion reigned in her head and she looked away.
    Cam did that finger under her chin thing and tipped her head up and sideways so she couldn’t avoid looking into his eyes. ‘Thank you for telling the boys your story. I know it’s very different from their mother walking away, but they seem to have picked up on something with you, and being twins that’s helping them.’
    ‘It must be difficult for you every time they think they’ve seen their mother. Is that what happened on Saturday? One of them said something about seeing her.’
    ‘You got it in one.’ His hands clenched and his body tensed. ‘Some days I could strangle her for hurting them. All Marcus and Andrew ever asked for was to be loved. What’s so wrong with that?’ Spinning on the balls of his feet, he stared across the lawn, seeing who knew what.
    ‘How long has she been gone?’ Would he tell her to mind her own business?
    ‘Two years and five weeks.’ The desolation in his voice rolled her heart. She wanted to wrap her arms around him in a return hug, to take away that misery, but she couldn’t move. What if he rejected her gesture?
    Why would he? Why wouldn’t he? They hardly knew each other, despite the fact she’d told him very briefly, via the twins, about Alison—something she never told anyone.
    Did he still love his wife? Did he look for her in shops, too? Probably, if that far-away gaze was an indicator. Which meant she had no right feeling anything about him other than that he was a nice guy being very kind to her. Time to move on in case she started feeling something stronger for him. She’d talk about that after dinner when the boys were tucked up in bed. Tomorrow she’d head to a motel in Blenheim.
    Dinner. The barbecue had waves of heat coming off it. ‘Cam, I think you need to turn the barbecue off for a while or we’re going to be eating charcoal.’ Clomping inside, she retrieved that vegetable bin he’d taken off her earlier. She’d make the salad before cleaning up the mess she’d created.
    It took for ever to wipe down all the surfaces, get that pot looking more or less how it used to, and make a salad.
    By the time they’d all eaten and the dishes had been rinsed and stacked in the dishwasher Jenny was ready to take the weight off her foot.
    Cam sat at his computer. ‘Monthly health department requirements,’ he muttered over his shoulder in answer to her query about why he was still working.
    ‘You don’t have an office person to deal with that?’ Filling the kettle, she flicked it on and found the teabags. ‘You want tea?’
    ‘Please. We do have office staff but the partners insist all of us check the figures pertaining to our own work. Pain in the backside at times.’ Cam leaned closer to the screen. ‘Especially when my receptionist never makes mistakes.’
    ‘You’ll have to come and get your tea. I’m done with cleaning up my messes,’ she quipped, as she placed a plate of chocolate-chip cookies by his mug, ‘I’d have baked a cake but you’re out of flour.’
    ‘You got these at the bakery.’
    ‘Hope you like them.’
    ‘They’re the best. Don’t tell the boys you bought some or they’ll be gone.’
    Guilt flared for leaving them out of the treat.