Firefighter's Christmas Baby. Annie Claydon

scared to be in our bedsit on my own. We got back on our feet but it was a struggle for her.’

      Callie spoke almost dispassionately, as if she didn’t care that she’d lost her father and then her home. In Ben’s experience that meant she cared a great deal.

      Nothing he could say felt enough. He reached for her hand, feeling a deep thankfulness when she didn’t snatch it away.

      ‘Here...’ He guided her hand to the steering wheel, wrapping his over it. ‘How does that feel?’

      She gave a nervous laugh. ‘That feels pretty good.’

      ‘Try the other one.’ He reached across, taking her coffee from the other hand, and Callie took hold of the steering wheel and gazed out ahead of her. Suddenly she laughed.

      ‘Okay. You’ve made your point. I’m sitting on top of...how many horsepower?’

      ‘About two hundred and fifty.’

      ‘That much? And I’m looking over everyone’s heads. It feels good.’

      ‘Is powerful the word you’re looking for?’ Ben remembered the feeling of sitting behind the wheel when he was a child. Of being able to do anything, meet any challenge. That seemed to be the ultimate safety.

      ‘That’ll do.’

      Suddenly he wanted very badly to kiss her. If he really could meet any challenge then perhaps he could meet this one? But Callie took her hands from the steering wheel and the spell was broken. She reached for her cup, wrapping her fingers around it again, and sipped the hot coffee.

      Large snowflakes began to fall from the night sky, drifting down and melting as soon as they touched the pavement. Ben ignored them in favour of watching her face. It tipped upwards as the snowfall became heavier, a sudden taste of the magic of Christmas. Callie wasn’t as unreachable as she tried to make out.

      ‘There’s always one, isn’t there?’ She quirked her lips down suddenly, and Ben could almost see the real world taking over from the imaginary. He followed her gaze, looking towards a couple of men in business suits and heavy overcoats, clearly involved in a drunken argument.

      ‘Yep.’ He wanted to tell her to disregard them. To come back with him to the world where it always snowed at Christmas, and where it was still possible to make up for all the things Callie hadn’t had during her childhood. But one of the men suddenly took a swing at the other.