Midnight and Mistletoe at Cedarwood Lodge: Your invite to the most uplifting and romantic party of the year!. Rebecca Raisin

Cruz couldn’t have got to the lodge and back in that amount of time… Amory’s eyes narrowed, and I sensed a ploy afoot too. Cruz had always been good at big romantic gestures… A Christmas gift, perhaps? He’d been so keen to get back into the kitchen at Cedarwood, I don’t think he’d even ventured into town since he arrived, he wouldn’t have had time to buy a gift, unless he’d organized it by phone…

      We peeked out the window, Amory watching him intently as he opened the back door of the car and shuffled backwards with something in his arms.

      Realizing it was something important, and definitely not wine by the looks of it, I ushered Amory away. “Let him surprise you,” I said.

      While I was pushing Amory back into the dining room Kai opened the door for Cruz.

      “All right, all right,” Amory said when I shoved her a little harder. “There’s no need to manhandle me.”

      “Oh please,” I said, smiling. Mom and Aunt Bessie stopped what they were doing and waited for Cruz’s big entrance too. What was taking him so long? I was dying to see what Amory’s gift was.

      “Close your eyes,” Cruz called out from the doorway as we all hovered in the living room expectantly.

      Amory duly closed her eyes.

      He tiptoed in, and we collectively put a hand to our mouths to stop awws spilling out. In his hands Cruz held a little fluffball of a pup, with black and tan fur and the most beautiful big blue eyes.

      Putting a finger to his lips Cruz sneaked in and placed the puppy onto Amory’s lap. She gasped, and opened her eyes. “Merry Christmas, Amory.”

      We froze, not sure if this was meant to be a private moment or not, so we just stopped moving and pretended to be invisible. Dropping to his knees (both knees thank god, no chance of a proposal fiasco again) in front of Amory he said, “This little rescue pup needed a home for Christmas, a home for forever, where he’s safe, and loved, and well fed. I told the shelter that we’d show him what real love was and he’d have a happy life with us.”

      “This little guy was going to spend Christmas alone?” Amory asked, her eyes glistening as she stroked his fur.

      Cruz nodded solemnly, “But now we can give him the Christmas of every puppy’s dream.”

      “He’s so beautiful!” she said, and for a split second or two her mask fell away and she looked really quite vulnerable. Her face softened and her eyes shone.