Christmas at Rosie Hopkins' Sweetshop Read Online Free PDF Page B

three strange Australian children in the house. She had suddenly stopped looking forward to Christmas quite so much.
    S HE WAS SLIGHTLY cheered by her friend and colleague Tina, who arrived with six boxes of candy canes.
    â€œI thought we could hang them all around the doorframe,” said Tina. “Start to make the place look Christmassy”
    â€œYes,” said Rosie. Then she frowned. “Wouldn’t that be basically inciting children to nick them?”
    â€œIt’s Christmas,” said Tina. “I think we can probably lose a few to sticky fingers. Oh, and let’s get the super-­duper expensive chocs, the really crazy Belgian ones. In boxes.”
    â€œWhy? Do ­people like those for Christmas?”
    â€œIt’s not a question of like,” said Tina. “The nearest supermarket is an hour away and shuts early on Christmas Eve. If we stay open late right up to the very last minute, we’ll be able to sell every single piece of stock in the shop, no matter what we charge, to lazy ­people, or farmers who don’t get the chance to leave their farms before then. You see it every year. It’s what keeps the boutique afloat too.”
    â€œYou’re an evil business genius,” said Rosie, leafing through the catalogue. “I don’t know why you stay with me instead of going on The Apprentice .”
    Tina smiled shyly and blushed a little bit.
    â€œAre you staying here for Christmas?” asked Rosie. Actually, it was a bit of a daft question around here; of course they were. It was different in London, where everyone was from their own different places and went home to their extended families. London emptied out at Christmas time, leaving the few stray locals born and bred, plus lots of ­people who didn’t celebrate it anyway. When Rosie told ­people shops and cafés in London were open on Christmas Day, they looked at her as if she were a heathen Martian.
    â€œYes,” said Tina. “Jake’s coming over.”
    Jake was the handsome local farmhand Tina had fallen for last year. He was something of a well-­known rake about town who’d always liked the girls—­and they’d liked him back—­and no one was more surprised than Jake himself by how hard he’d fallen for Tina, a single mother of twins, in return.
    â€œSo it’ll be us and my mum, you know, and Kent and Emily, and Jake’s mum and dad. It’ll be lovely and we’ll have a big lunch down at my mum and dad’s—­my mum does everything, she loves cooking for Christmas. All I have to do is watch the kids open their presents, get drunk and watch telly.”
    â€œThat sounds BRILLIANT,” said Rosie, enviously. Then she explained what she was doing. “It is wonderful they’re coming,” she said. “I’m just a bit worried about what we’ll all do, where we’ll all fit . . .”
    â€œNo, it’ll be great!” said Tina, who lived two streets away from her mother and wished they were closer.
    â€œI don’t know what Stephen wants though,” she added. “Plus, we’ll have to see his mother, and—­”
    â€œIt’ll be fantastic!” said Tina. “It’s nice to have children at Christmas! Can’t you have it up at the big house?”
    â€œHmm,” said Rosie. “I don’t think so. Shane and Meridian will have broken the lot by first kick.”
    â€œDon’t worry so much,” said Tina. “It’ll be fine.”
    â€œYou think?”
    R OSIE MEANT TO tell Stephen straight away that night, but he looked so happy and full of himself that she made him tea in front of the fire instead.
    â€œHow was it?”
    â€œAmazing!” he said. “They were great. So keen and nice and of course I know half of them. They all wanted to know what happened to my leg.”
    â€œDid you tell them?”
    â€œOf course I told them.