Two Purple Gloves (A Pear Street Christmas #2)

CHAPTER SEVEN

“I’m getting wrinkles.”

LISA

“W hy don’t you boys go be sociable for a while, find out what board games everyone wants to play and start setting up. I need to speak to Nel for a minute,” I say when we all step back from our little group hug.

Jake looks down at Nel, his arm still secure around her shoulders and brow raised quizzically. “You’re in high demand tonight, little elf, anything I should know?”

“Just that I have the best family in the world,” she looks up at him with a glazed look and a goofy smile.

“Oh, little elf.” He chuckles. “You’re two cocktails and two glasses of wine in, it’s showing.” She smacks his chest lightly and they kiss sweetly before Jake slaps Harry on the shoulder. “Come on dude, best follow orders.”

Harry’s eyes flit between me and Nel, a panic in his eyes that I don’t quite understand. “Uh, yeah,” he mumbles and in a move I’m certainly not expecting, he takes my face between both his hands and kisses me, not a quick peck or even a lingering press of his lips to mine, but a firm kiss, lips parted and tongue swiping along the seam of mine. I melt into him because I always melt in Harry’s kisses. He pulls away before it gets too inappropriate for company—although shocked faces pointed in our direction from the door suggest it was less than PG—and I blink up at him.

“I love you, Angel,” he whispers, looking so intently into my eyes I feel like everything that isn’t us just falls away.

“I love you, too,” I breathe .

He nods once, pecks my lips, and leaves with Jake. I’m left gormless and shell-shocked when I turn to see Nel looking at me with amusement.

“That was…promising.” She beams.

“Uh, yeah,” I say, still all breathy and shaky. Physically shaking myself out of it, I turn to her with a smile that’s only half faked to cover the nerves brewing in my belly. “Did you, uh, did you bring it?”

Nel makes a show of patting herself down in her fancy outfit that hugs her curves in a way that makes it obvious she isn’t hiding anything. “You know, I must have left it in my other dress.”

I glare at her with the sass that impertinence deserves. “Jake is really rubbing off on you.”

“Well, not right now but maybe when we get back to the hotel—”

“Okay.” I start walking toward the garage door, but she grabs my hand laughing.

“Sorry, sorry, okay, I’ll be serious.” I try to hide my smile behind an unimpressed glare, but it doesn’t work. The truth is, Nel and I became a lot closer this year as she spends more time with us, and I have the sister-in-law relationship I’ve always wanted. One like my mum and Auntie Hen. “It’s back at the hotel. I didn’t want to walk in with it because I figured Harry would be there to greet us. I was going to ask if you want me to wrap it?”

“No!” I say a little too sharply. “I mean, no,” I continue with a false calm. “I need to see it before I give it to him.”

She narrows her gaze. “You need to check my work?”

I slump in defeat, knowing she’s being purposefully obtuse. “Nel,” I whine.

She tilts her head and gives me a sympathetic smile, taking my hand. “Lisa, I told you when we were doing the shoot, you have nothing to worry about. I know you’re feeling a little self-conscious but you really don’t need to.”

Before I can respond to that, the door flies open, and Rhiannon flusters in. “My god, what are you two doing in here? I’ve been out there waiting for someone fun to talk to for ages.” She looks at us and frowns. “What’s going on?”

Nel looks at me expectantly and I sigh. “I did a boudoir photoshoot with Nel a couple months ago.”

Rhi looks excited and shocked as she comes to stand with us. “Oh my god! Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because I’m terrified,” I whisper shout.

“Of what?” My cousin looks genuinely confused.

“I’m basically naked in the photos, Rhi,” I tell her in a low and serious voice.

She takes my hands in hers, stealing the one Nel was still holding. “I know, Lis,” she says, brows high and voice soft and patronising. “I do understand the concept of a boudoir shoot. My question is, why is that scaring you?”

I look to Nel for help, but she just gives me an encouraging nod. I hate the unexpected tears that swamp my eyes, but I try to keep my voice steady when I say, “I’ve been feeling a little insecure lately.”

Rhiannon looks at me like I’ve grown a red nose and antlers. “Why?”

I roll my eyes because I feel like she’s deliberately being dumb. “I have a belly overhang.”

“Who the fuck doesn’t?” She huffs. “Honestly keeping a perfect figure into your thirties with two kids was kind of creepy. A little belly is actually more attractive, if you ask me.”

“My boobs don’t sit anywhere near here,” I say pointing to each of my boobs where they’re safely nestled in the loving embrace of my grandma bra that harnesses enough strength to keep the girls high and dry. “At the end of the day, they’re let loose and hang somewhere around here.” I hold my hands palm up at the bottom of my ribs.

“Babe,” Rhiannon says with little to no patience. “You’ve had three kids. So, you don’t have the tits of a twenty-year-old anymore, who gives a fuck? They’re still pretty epic.” To punctuate her point she gives my boobs a little squeeze in a honker-honker gesture .

I don’t bat her away because, honestly, I can’t count how many times she’s copped a feel over the years, it’s just run of the mill at this point. “I’m getting wrinkles,” I argue.

“You’re really not, but even if you were, that’s a completely natural thing and would make you no less beautiful. Lis, you’re a complete smoke-show.”

Nel nods in agreement and my eyes burn. “I—” I hang my head as I try to voice my biggest worry without sounding completely pathetic. “I’m worried Harry isn’t attracted to me anymore.”

They both frown at me. “What would make you think that?”

“Has Harry said something?” Nel asks, concern on her face.

“No,” I say sadly. “The opposite, he tells me I’m beautiful.”

“Then what’s put this in your head?”

“We haven’t had sex since Mary was born,” I mumble out very quickly, but they still manage to hear me.

“But she’s ten months old,” Rhiannon says, blinking.

“Yes, thank you, Rhiannon. I am aware.”

“I don’t really want to go into too fine a detail because it’s my brother we’re talking about but, how is this possible?” Nel looks like she’s trying to do mental arithmetic.

“Well, with the boys we were basically waiting for the all-clear after the six weeks rest period to jump each other but after Mary I felt like I needed a little time to recover. Then this year has just been awful with sickness bugs and colds and general grossness from the boys’ school and Mary’s playgroups and what not. Then Harry’s been working away on that big project he had in Germany. Mum decided to come and stay while he was gone at one point but didn’t leave when he came back. I don’t know,” I sigh. “There’s just been a lot going on, but I feel like if he really wanted me, we would have made the time.”

The girls look at each other, a silent conversation I’m trying to interpret when they turn their eyes back to me .

“Have you talked to Harry about this?” Rhiannon asks gently.

“No,” I say grumpily. “I don’t want to bring all the changes to my body to his attention.”

Nel exhales a laugh without humour and we both look at her as she tilts her head to give me a sympathetic smile. “You sound like me.” When I just frown at her, she explains. “Last year, when Jake and I had to share the hotel room, but we weren’t together yet—”

“Because you had a Christmas like a frickin’ Hallmark movie,” I say, smirking at her.

“But with a lot more kinky Santa and his little elf sex,” Rhiannon adds with mischief.

Nel rolls her eyes. “Remind me not to drink too much around you guys again, apparently I get too chatty.” We both grin and she gives us a berating pout but her eyes are smiling. “ Anyway ,” she says pointedly. “When we were in the room, he called me Nelly-Belly and I just kind of snapped and told him not to call me that and then I had to explain why, and I felt mortified that I had to bring to his attention that I had a big belly. But the thing is, he’d never even thought about it, Lis, and when I did point it out, it just made him angry that I’d ever been made to feel less than because of my body. I bet you anything that Harry won’t see what you’re seeing and even after you say something, he’ll just be horrified that you’re not seeing your beauty as he does.”

I blink several times to clear the sting in my eyes and swallow over the lump forming in my throat because I know what she’s saying is true. Harry would feel terrible that I was getting myself so worked up about this. “I should talk to him,” I sigh.

“Well now, there’s an idea,” Rhiannon says with an exaggerated eye roll. I shove at her shoulder, but she pulls me in for a hug. “Honey, you are seriously beautiful, belly flap or not.”

I laugh into her neck. “Thank you. ”

We break away and I hug Nel as she tells me I have nothing to worry about. “Your pictures are stunning, Lis. Have a little faith.”

“Thanks, Nel. I appreciate you.”

“I honestly think it’ll be a weight off both of you if you just sit down and have a chat.”

I nod before it clicks what she’s actually said. “Both of us?”

She looks away and says nothing.

“What has Harry said to you?”

“Nothing,” she answers too quickly.

“Nel,” I warn.

She huffs out in frustration. “God, you two are infuriating. He’s noticed that you’ve been off and he thinks you’re mad at him.”

“Why would I be mad at him?” I ask, my brow creasing.

She looks at me with wide, annoyed eyes. “He doesn’t know, Lisa. That’s why he’s freaking out.”

“He’s freaking out?” My poor, anxious baby.

Her shoulders slump. “He just wants to fix it, Lis. Give him a chance to, yeah?”

I nod and hug them both again, thankful for these beautiful women.