Free A Yorkshire Christmas by Kate Hewitt Page B

fireplace taking up nearly a whole wall.
    “Nothing else is decorated,” she stated, and then looked at both Noah and Claire expectantly. “Do you have any more decorations up there?”
    “I’m not sure…” Noah answered slowly. “I could look, I suppose.”
    “How about we go outside to cut some holly and evergreen for the mantelpiece while your dad looks?” Claire suggested. “It will smell so nice in here.”
    Noah gave her another grateful look before disappearing upstairs, and Claire and Molly got on their coats and boots before whistling for Jake and heading outside.
    There were some holly trees right outside the farmhouse, and a few evergreens not too far away. In very little time they had armfuls of fragrant greens that they brought back into the house.
    Claire cleared the mantel of stacks of old bills and newspapers, putting the papers in the recycling bin on the porch and the bills in the stack she’d already made in the kitchen. She was, she knew, becoming rather familiar with Noah’s house and its once-messy contents.
    Molly helped her arrange the evergreen and holly, and Claire found some candles in a drawer in the Welsh dresser in the kitchen. When they’d put the candles among the greens, they both stepped back, satisfied with their handiwork.
    “That looks fantastic,” Noah said as he came down the stairs with another box. “I forgot my mum used to do the same.” He sounded surprised and just a little sad, and Claire’s heart twisted again at the thought of his loss.
    “What do you have there?” Molly asked and Noah opened the box.
    “A Nativity set,” he said. “I used to love playing with it when I was little.” He took out all the pieces: shepherds and kings, Mary and Joseph, a sleepy-looking angel and the manger with baby Jesus. “And don’t forget these,” he said with a smile, and took out two sheep.
    “Can I set it all up?” Molly asked eagerly and with a nod Noah cleared the deep windowsill that looked out over the farmyard. “How about here?”
    Molly began arranging the pieces and as she watched her Claire realized with a jolt that it was already getting dark outside. Granted, in Yorkshire that meant it was only four o’clock, but still. She’d spent nearly the entire day with Noah and his daughter.
    And what a lovely day it’s been.
    “I should go,” she said quietly as they both continued to watch Molly. “It’s late, and you’ll want time with Molly…”
    “Don’t,” Noah said quickly, the word, and the urgent tone he’d spoken it with, seeming to surprise them both. “She likes having you here,” he added in a more measured voice. “And I do, too. Why don’t you stay for dinner?”
    Claire couldn’t ignore the sense of happiness ballooning inside her, making her feel as light as air. She pursed her lips with a teasing look. “I think you just want me to cook for you.”
    “That too,” Noah answered with a grin. “I’m not so bad with the basics, but…”
    “I don’t mind.” She wanted to cook for them, Claire realized. She wasn’t much of a cook, but she longed to try. And yet hadn’t she been here before, worming her way into someone’s family because she wanted to belong? But Noah was so different from Mark.
    He wasn’t, after all, Claire acknowledged with a sour churning of guilt and memory, married.
    *
    Noah watched Molly set up the Nativity set a dozen different ways as Claire went into the kitchen to make dinner. He followed her with his gaze, noticing the subtle sway of her hips, the way her skinny jeans clung to her slender curves, her long hair falling down her back in a dark waterfall. The little pulses of attraction he’d felt all day turned into an overwhelming surge of longing.
    This can’t go anywhere. You know that.
    But he wasn’t ready to let the day end. It had been just about the best day he’d had in… well, since he could remember.
    Molly had started playing with the Nativity set pieces as if they were dolls,