Home for The Holidays by Ellen Faith Also by this author: Perfume & Promises
Published by Self-Published on 1st November 2014
Genres: Chicklit, Christmas, Fiction, Love & Romance, Romance
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When Lexi and Ryan make the decision to venture home for the Christmas holidays, neither of them can wait to catch up with their families. What the pair don’t anticipate is the series of life changing events their families have been going through while they’ve been continuing with their American adventure, including a newly nudist father.
As they try to weather the storm, they discover that being back in the UK is creating more questions than answers for them as a couple and their American dream is beginning to fade. Fast.
*This novel can be read as a follow on from The Story of Us or as a standalone*
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Excerpt
By the time we’ve fought our way through every item on the list, I am exhausted. It’s nearly two in the morning and we have to face the queues at the till yet. Ryan seems completely relaxed now that we have the coffee machine, reduced by 65% if you please, and if I’m being honest, looks like he’s had a full nights sleep. Men are so lucky.
I’m just about to choose a line that looks like it has the most alert checkout assistant when something shiny catches my eye. I squint to make sure I’m seeing it right, catching Ryan’s attention as I start muttering to myself. It can’t be real. They have to have been dumped there as some kind of trick, like a Punk’d special, Black Friday edition.
“What have you seen?” He sighs.
“Shoes.” I just about manage to croak out. These particular shoes have been on my wish list for the last four months, ever since I saw them in Vogue. Rosie said she’d try and get me a pair but she hasn’t mentioned it since, which probably means she hasn’t been able to do it and feels bad.
I walk slowly across to the abandoned shoes resting on top of some leopard print fleecy blankets in a daze.
Just as I’m within touching distance, a blonde flash of hair appears in front of me, swiping my beloveds out of my reach.
“Noooooo!” I wail. Nobody flinches. I’m not surprised after the things I’ve witnessed tonight.
“Sorry but you snooze you lose. Sucks for you.” She grins smugly and turns to walk away as I grab her arm. I don’t know what comes over me, I really don’t. I think they must pump something into the air vents to up the crazy in here because I do something I’m not proud of at all.
I wrestle her into the stand full of the fleecy blankets, much to her surprise, and manage to grab a shoe from her vice like grip. One shoe is no good without the other after all.
“Oh you did not just do that?!” Blondey picks herself up remarkably well considering, and launches herself at me, knocking me straight into the gathering audience as the shoe clatters across the gleaming white tiles. We both look at each other and lunge for the shoe at the same time. She grabs my ponytail to hold me back and I curse myself for not listening to Ryan’s advice, that a topknot was the safest style for this trip.
Speaking of Ryan, I manage a quick glance in his direction to see him looking both horrified and amused at the same time, arms folded across his chest as he shakes his head.
As we both get our grubby little mitts onto the shoe, we give each other the death stare. She has the heel and I have the toe. This could all go terribly wrong if one of us pulls the shoe too hard.
“Let. It. Go!” She snarls through gritted teeth.
“You let go!” I shout in response. I feel like I’m at school again, fighting for my chocolate bar at lunch time that the bullies always tried to take from me. I have always been a fierce protector of chocolate.
The struggle carries on for a good ten minutes, neither of us relenting, my heart pounding against my chest.
Finally, we have a breakthrough.
“Oh fine! You have them you crazy British freak.” Blondey throws the other shoe at me, aiming for my head, which is a little bit uncalled for, and huffs off in the other direction. Not before swearing at me though. Lovely.
A round of applause breaks out as I get to my feet, my knees creaking as I stand making me wince.
“Thank you, I’ll be here all night,” I laugh taking a bow, trying to hide the embarrassment.
I make my way back to Ryan who has moved down considerably in the queue now and clearly lost interest when we were just staring at each other in the great mind war of the designer shoe.
“Happy?” He laughs as I pop them into one of the overflowing baskets.
“Very.” I beam. I’m ecstatic if I’m being honest and want to shout from the rooftops about my new shoes, but Ryan’s a man and doesn’t really get my obsession.
As he looks down at the shoes of the Gods, he frowns.
“Lexi?”
“Ryan.”
“These shoes aren’t your size.”
“What?!” Crap. I never even thought to look at the size. I quickly grab one of the shoes and my heart sinks.
Ah fudge.
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