The Chocolate Lovers' Diet by Carole Matthews Page B

need you as the project manager.’
    ‘Give me my apron back and you can put your feet up for a minute while I sort everything out.’
    There was a tear in Toby’s eye as he said, ‘I don’t know how I’ve managed without you.’
    Slipping her arms round him, she gave him a hug.
    ‘I’ve tried to think of everything,’ Toby told her. ‘I’ve bought parsnips, bacon rolls, fancy napkins and a box of your favourite chocolates from that place you go to with your friends.’
    ‘You went to Chocolate Heaven?’
    Toby nodded.
    ‘You shouldn’t have.’
    ‘I wanted it to be perfect.’
    ‘There’s only one thing that I want you to do,’ she said.
    ‘And I’m doing it. I’m on the straight and narrow now. Honestly.’
    ‘It’s good to hear it. I really hope that you mean it.’
    ‘I swear,’ he promised. ‘You and Lewis mean the world to me. I don’t want to see you walk out of my life. I’d rather die than let that happen.’
    Putting her fingertip to his lips, she said, ‘No more talk of it now. It’s Christmas, we should forget about our troubles for today.’
    ‘I agree with that wholeheartedly,’ Toby said with a grateful sigh.
    ‘Then let’s get this lunch sorted out, shall we? Otherwise we’ll be eating it on Boxing Day.’
    Nadia set to and was pouring boiling water on the packet of stuffing that Toby had bought when he told her, ‘I’ve invited my parents to come along for lunch. I hope that’s okay. They wanted to see Lewis – and you, of course.’
    ‘That’s fine.’
    ‘They’re really missing him,’ Toby told her.
    ‘They can see him any time they want,’ Nadia said. ‘They know that.’
    ‘But it’s not the same, is it?’ Her husband gave her a sad, self-conscious smile. ‘Anyway, I thought it would be nice for us all to be together. Christmas is a time for family.’
    That was true, and all of the celebrations at this time of the year never ceased to make Nadia feel the absenceof her own relations even more keenly. There was always the hope in the back of her mind that one day, something might cause them to put their bias against Toby to one side, and take them all back into the fold. Her mother and father hadn’t even met their grandson, though she continued to send photographs of him to their home every year on his birthday, but their receipt was never acknowledged. In her culture, family was everything – unless you shunned your parents’ choice of husband for you, of course – and it was a continuing sadness in Nadia’s life that she was estranged from those she cared for most of all. Now that she was back here with Toby, she realised how much she’d missed the closeness of her own small family unit. It had been especially nice that her husband had put so much effort into making today special – despite the expense. Maybe things really had turned a corner and they could both look forward to a brighter future.
    The lunch was wonderful, but it was so late that it was technically dinner and they were all so hungry by then that they’d have eaten whatever was put in front of them. Nadia and Toby were clearing away the dishes while Lewis’s grandparents gladly entertained their only grandson. Toby’s dad was currently showing Lewis how to drill a pretend hole in the coffee-table. Her son was giving the task his undivided attention, but still the plastic drill-bit slid uncontrollably across the polished surface. Nadia decided not to watch. It looked like this was going to be yet another Christmas present they’d live to regret. Their furniture wasshabby enough without it being peppered with inadvertently drilled DIY holes.
    The day had been a great success and she was feeling very mellow and uncomfortably full; astonishingly, she’d even had to leave some of her Chocolate Heaven delights for tomorrow. It wasn’t often that her capacity to consume chocolate failed her. ‘That was a lovely dinner,’ she said.
    ‘It’s all down to you, Nadia,’ her husband