Copyright

Published by AVON

A Division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

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London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins 2016

Copyright © Sue Moorcroft 2016

Cover illustration and Design © HarperCollinsPublishers 2016

Sue Moorcroft asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780008175528

Ebook Edition © October 2016 ISBN: 9780008175535

Version: 2017-02-06

Dedication

In memory of my mother

Connie Moorcroft

17 January 1934–17 March 2016

My number one fan

Table of Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Chapter One: Christmas Begins in Blaggard’s Bar

Chapter Two: The Trouble With an ex-Boyfriend

Chapter Three: Not Currently Dating

Chapter Four: A Bit of a Redo

Chapter Five: Princess Leia Claus

Chapter Six: A Christmas Kiss for Ava Bliss

Chapter Seven: Not Dating at Gaz’s Caff

Chapter Eight: A Hat, but no Kid Gloves

Chapter Nine: Seeing, Not ‘Seeing’

Chapter Ten: Faux Dating

Chapter Eleven: No Blame or Shame

Chapter Twelve: The Beautiful Business of Hat Making

Chapter Thirteen: The Christmas Ball

Chapter Fourteen: Football Stars and Booby Ruby

Chapter Fifteen: Wendy Gets a Real Buzz

Chapter Sixteen: Mixed Messages

Chapter Seventeen: Village Affairs

Chapter Eighteen: Putting the ‘Trick’ in Patrick

Chapter Nineteen: The Gallery of Shame

Chapter Twenty: The Zombie Formerly Known as Ava

Chapter Twenty-One: A Pretty Cheeky Idea

Chapter Twenty-Two: Hats Off to Ava Bliss

Chapter Twenty-Three: The Collateral Consequences of Criminal Convictions

Chapter Twenty-Four: Bubbling Under

Chapter Twenty-Five: Bubbling Over

Chapter Twenty-Six: Going Viral

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Ava’s Hotspot Goes Bad

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Stuck Between Christmas and a Hard Place

Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Final Faux Date

Chapter Thirty: Not on the Christmas Agenda

Chapter Thirty-One: Trust Issues

Chapter Thirty-Two: Christmas Spirit and Black Roses

Chapter Thirty-Three: The Best Christmas Ever!

Epilogue: First Date

Author’s Note

Alive Today Lifestyle Magazine Fashion Pages

Acknowledgements

Q&A With Sue Moorcroft

Loved The Christmas Promise?

About the Author

About the Publisher