‘I need to talk to her but shall we dance first?’ Henry asked and she nodded.

He swept her onto the dance floor and with his arms round her waist and her head on his chest, in front of the whole town, and they started to move slowly around the floor.

She looked up and he smiled at her. He bent his head down to kiss her when suddenly a large, mayonnaise-covered prawn splattered against Henry’s forehead. He looked up in confusion as the prawn slithered down his cheek and Penny managed to catch it before it hit his tux or her dress.

They looked around to see Daisy standing on the dance floor with her hands on her hips.

‘Don’t ever lie to me again,’ Daisy said, a smirk fighting on her lips, and Henry let out a booming laugh. With one arm still wrapped round Penny, he used the other arm to hook Daisy by the waist and brought her in for a group hug. Penny wrapped an arm round her too.

Henry kissed Daisy on the forehead. ‘You are the best thing that has ever happened to me and I have never regretted having you, not for one second. I would never do anything to deliberately hurt you. I love you so much and me being in love with Penny doesn’t mean I love you any less.’

‘I know that, Dad.’

‘And I love you, too,’ Penny said. ‘If that’s OK?’

Daisy nodded and hugged them both tight.

Penny leaned her head against Henry’s chest again and watched the twinkling fairy lights over Daisy’s head.

It had turned out to be a perfect Christmas after all.

Epilogue

Christmas Day

Penny lay on the sofa watching the flames dance in the fireplace. She had eaten way too much turkey, chocolate and Christmas pudding, not all at the same time but close enough. She felt uncomfortably full and bloated. Daisy was lying next to her, her head on Penny’s belly which wasn’t helping the full feeling but Penny didn’t care. She had never felt so blissfully happy as she felt at that moment. She ran her fingers through Daisy’s hair, stroking her head affectionately. Anna, Steve, Bea and Oliver were coming round later that night but right now it was just the three of them, which suited Penny just fine, spending Christmas Day with her gorgeous new family.

‘That snow is coming down hard,’ Henry said, staring out the window with Bernard lying sprawled out upside down on his lap.

Penny transferred her attention to the fat flakes of snow that were swirling in the darkening sky outside. ‘Stop worrying.’

‘I’m not worrying,’ Henry said, failing to keep the note of tension from his voice.

Daisy giggled, the vibrations of her laughter travelling straight through Penny’s belly. ‘You’re the world’s worst worrier, and I love you for it, but I am relieved that some of your over-protectiveness has transferred to Penny recently. Lets me off the hook a bit.’

‘I still worry about you – worrying about Penny doesn’t mean I worry about you any less and don’t think that this…’ he gestured at Penny, ‘means I’m going to be more relaxed about you going out with Josh. No…shenanigans until you’re at least thirty.’

Penny laughed. ‘Daisy is far more sensible than you.’

‘Daisy I trust, it’s Josh that I doubt. I remember what it’s like to be a teenage boy, pretty much the only thing they think of is sex.’

Penny bit her tongue, stopping herself from saying that hadn’t changed for Henry; it had been a long time since he had been a teenager and he still had a huge sexual appetite. Henry blushed, clearly knowing what Penny had been thinking.

‘Dad, Josh is still terrified of you ever since you threw him to the ground. I imagine he’ll still be too scared to go near me on my wedding night. I really don’t think you have anything to worry about just yet.’

Henry seemed placated slightly as he turned his attention back to the snow, the frown returning to his face.

Bernard woke, stretched sleepily, kicking Henry in the face -which did nothing to detract his attention from the snow - fell off his lap and curled up in front of the fire.

Penny sat up with some difficulty, planted a kiss on Daisy’s head and walked over to Henry, his eyes immediately on hers, aware of her every move. He pulled her onto his lap and she gently kissed his scowl.

‘What are you worried about?’

He ran his hands over her stomach. ‘Everything, the snow coming down too heavily and us not being able to get out if we need to, what the roads will be like if we need to travel on them, whether we have everything we need here if we do get snowed in…’

Penny kissed him softly on the mouth. ‘We’re going to be fine. There’s something else bothering you, you’ve been on edge all day.’

The timer went off on the oven, indicating that the mince pies that Henry had made fresh earlier that day were cooked.

Henry looked over to the oven anxiously and then back at Penny. ‘I’m worried you won’t like my mince pies.’

Penny laughed as he scooted her off his lap, planting a quick kiss on her lips, and ran into the kitchen.

Daisy groaned. ‘Dad’s mince pies are the worst. I never know how someone can go so drastically wrong with mince from a jar and roll-out puff pastry but he does, every single time.’

‘These ones are different,’ Henry called from the kitchen as he plated some pies up straight from the oven.

‘I think I’ll leave mine till later,’ Penny called although the delicious scents did smell tantalisingly good.

‘No, you have to at least try it, let me know if I’m on the right lines.’

He came in with two plates, passed one to Daisy and then sank down on one knee to present his mince pie dramatically to Penny. Despite the huge quantities of food that she had eaten less than an hour before, she still reached for it keenly; it smelt wonderful.

Just as she was about to pick it up, she noticed something sparkle from the top of it. Realising almost immediately that it was a diamond ring, her eyes snapped up to meet his.

‘Penny Meadows, I fell in love with you a little over a year ago over your delicious mince pies and I was wondering if today, over my probably not so delicious mince pie, you would do me the honour of agreeing to be my wife.’

Penny stared at the ring, her heart thundering against her chest. It wasn’t that unexpected, she’d known they were heading this way almost from the first time they had kissed, but she hadn’t expected it to come today and certainly not over a mince pie.

‘Good god, Dad, it took you bloody long enough, I thought you were going to end up waiting until she popped out a whole football team of kids before you proposed.’

‘Well, I didn’t want to rush into anything,’ Henry said, not taking his eyes off Penny for a second. His mouth quirked up into a mischievous smile. ‘I had to make sure she was the right one.’

Penny smiled.

‘I love you, Penny Meadows, I always have. Will you marry me?’

Penny plucked the ring from the pie and sucked the mince off the bottom. It tasted disgusting, like burnt treacle. She slid the ring onto her finger.

‘I love you with everything I have, of course the answer is yes.’

She leaned forward to kiss him and he wrapped his arms around her, holding her tight. Inside her belly, a little foot kicked out and she laughed against his lips. ‘I think your son approves too.’

Henry laughed and knelt forward to kiss her oversized belly. ‘She said yes,’ he whispered.

‘He’s probably wondering what took you so long too,’ Daisy said from the sofa as she took a big bite of the pie with a huge smile on her face. The smile quickly fell off though as she shuddered with disgust. ‘Dad, this is gross.’

‘My work here is done.’

Daisy stood up and came over to hug them both. ‘Congratulations. I’m really happy for you both.’