Free The Unexpected Holiday Gift by Sophie Pembroke

left. We just don’t want to see that happen to you again.’
    Jacob had a horrible feeling that they were going to believe this was all a cunning ploy to win his wife back, whatever he said. Unless...unless he told them about the divorce. He took one glance at his father and dismissed the idea. He couldn’t bear to lay that last disappointment, that last failure, on the old man.
    â€˜I’m sure,’ he said instead. ‘My heart is fine.’
    â€˜Well, I suppose it will be good for you to have some closure at last,’ his mum said dubiously. ‘But are you sure—’
    â€˜Apparently it’s done,’ his father interrupted. Jacob’s mother looked at James in surprise.
    â€˜Well, I only meant—’
    â€˜And I meant it’s decided. We’re all having Christmas in Scotland.’ Jacob couldn’t quite tell if his father was pleased or disappointed by this news until he smiled, a broad grin that spread slowly across his whole face.
    The tension in Jacob’s shoulders relaxed slightly. This was a good idea after all.
    â€˜It’ll be good to see Clara again too,’ James said, casting a meaningful look in Jacob’s direction.
    Jacob wasn’t at all sure that Clara planned to hang around long enough to be seen, but the moment his dad spoke the words he knew he’d try to make it so. His dad had always adored Clara; they’d had a strange connection she’d never quite managed with his mum or sister. Suddenly, Clara was just one more thing Jacob wanted to give his father for his perfect Christmas.
    Even if it was only temporary. After all, Clara had never stayed past Boxing Day.

CHAPTER SIX
    â€˜H AVE WE GOT the decorations?’ Clara asked, checking the list on her clipboard for the fiftieth time. They’d started their final checks at 6:00 a.m., and now it was almost seven. The early start was a pain, but necessary. Nothing could go wrong with this project.
    â€˜Ours or theirs?’ Merry’s head popped out from deep inside a box emblazoned with courier logos. ‘I mean we have both, but which list are you ticking off right now?’
    â€˜Theirs first.’ Organising two perfect Christmases at once had turned out to be rather more work than Clara had anticipated. What with Jacob’s ever-increasing wish list and Ivy’s last-minute announcement that, actually, she needed to send another letter to Father Christmas because she’d changed her mind about the colour of her bike, the last week had been rather more tense than Clara had hoped for.
    Still, it was only two days until Christmas Day and the courier boxes were almost ready to go. Most would be sent to the Highland castle for the Fosters’ Christmas, and one or two would go to the hotel down the hill from the castle where Clara, Merry and Ivy would be spending their Christmas.
    Ivy was still snoozing at home with her usual childminder, who’d come over super early as a favour. Clara had them all booked on the mid-morning train, first class, and planned to be at the hotel in time for tea.
    She had an hour-by-hour plan for the next seventy two hours, much to Merry’s amusement. But there was plenty of setting up still to be done, and Clara wasn’t taking a single chance with the project. Everything had to be sorted, seamless and—most important—all in place before Jacob and his family arrived on Christmas Eve. That way she could be back at the hotel with Ivy and Merry in time for mince pies and mulled wine by the fire, and she wouldn’t have to see her ex-in-laws at all. She couldn’t run the risk of any of them meeting Ivy before Clara wanted them to.
    It was all going to be perfect, as long as they stuck to the plan.
    The plan also had an extra secret page that Merry would never see. A page planning exactly how and where to tell Jacob about Ivy. At the moment, she was opting for January. She’d set up a meeting with him