Page 35 of Winter Nights at the Bay Bookshop

LILY

After tea with my parents, I returned to Green Gables and replayed my day – or at least the parts of it that involved Lars.

The expression on his face when he said Don’t let Gryla and the Christmas Cat gobble you up was absolutely priceless.

He looked like he wanted the ground to swallow him up.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone walk quite so fast, and that salute?

From his grimace, I suspected he’d never done that before.

So why had he done it to me? The only explanation I could think of was that he had feelings for me which had got him all tongue-tied and tangled up.

I needed to talk to Cassie but there was no point calling her now when she had Hallie and Rocco to sort out after swimming followed by teatime, bathtime and bedtime.

I dropped her a message asking her to ring me when the kids were settled as something had happened and I needed her take on it.

‘No, we haven’t! But I wanted to and I’m certain he did too.’

I ran through everything that had happened across the day, right up to our moment by the door after closing time.

‘Why didn’t you just ask him out?’ she asked.

‘Because I’ve sworn off men after what happened with Wes and Ewan.’

Cassie tutted and shook her head at me. ‘Lars isn’t Wes or Ewan and you can’t take yourself out of the game just because those two twonks broke your heart. I think you should ask Lars out.’

‘What if I got it all wrong? I’m his employer. How awkward would that be – me hitting on him and us having to work alongside each other every day? He might leave.’

‘Woah there! I don’t think there’s any chance of that. Yes, it would be as awkward as a cow on roller skates if he wasn’t interested in you but remember who walked in on the pair of you holding hands earlier.’

‘We weren’t holding hands. He’d said something deprecating and I was being sympathetic.’

Cassie raised her eyebrows at me. ‘ The lady doth protest too much, methinks . Say what you like but I was there, Lily, and the chemistry between you was palpable.’

Trust Cassie to quote Shakespeare to me, but her point about the chemistry was valid. I’d had it with Ewan and Wes so I recognised it, but it had been way stronger with Lars than anything I’d ever felt with either of them and that both delighted and terrified me.

‘Anyway, despite me swearing off men, I think I did ask him out. Sort of.’

‘You did or you didn’t. What were your exact words?’

‘Something like, I really do want to hear more about Christmas in Iceland.’

‘Wow! With such clear intentions declared, I have no idea why he didn’t immediately confirm a time to pick you up on his fearless steed and whisk you off into the sunset.’

I laughed at Cassie’s exasperated facial expression.

‘Fair enough. I can see why he didn’t run with that one. I think he had a little disaster of his own when he left too.’

I told Cassie about his salute, what he’d said about Gryla and the Christmas Cat, and how mortified he’d looked. ‘You know what it reminded me of?’

We burst out laughing as we both gave Baby Houseman’s quote from Dirty Dancing about carrying a watermelon.

‘It was definitely a watermelon moment,’ I said. ‘But it was kind of adorable.’

‘That’s because you find Lars Jóhannsson kind of adorable .’

I sighed dreamily. ‘I think I might. How did that happen?’

‘I can’t tell you how, but I can tell you when and where. The teen years in the school playground.’

If I denied it, she’d quote Hamlet again. I’d been drawn to Lars the moment we met in the bookshop and, while I was far too young back then for those feelings to be labelled as attraction, that’s definitely what they’d become when we hit our teens.

‘You’ve known all of this time?’

‘Of course! I’m all-seeing, all-knowing. To be fair, I had forgotten. Having kids seriously messes with your brain but, seeing you together earlier, it all came flooding back to me.’

Jared appeared on the screen behind her and called hello to me.

‘Hi, Jared,’ I said, waving.

‘That wonderful fiancé of mine has just run a bath for me so I need to go while it’s still hot enough to almost scald me.’

‘Aw, that’s so sweet of him.’

‘Sweet, my arse. I asked him to do it.’ She laughed. ‘No, he is sweet and I’m incredibly lucky to have him. He’s luckier to have me, mind, but…’

She squealed as a cushion bounced off her head.

‘Definitely got to go! Cushion fight! See you tomorrow.’

The phone disconnected before I had a chance to say goodbye.

I sat back on the sofa, grinning. If Cassie thought there was chemistry, then there was definitely chemistry as she wasn’t the sort to give me false hope.

But what a shock to discover she’d known I had feelings for Lars back in school.

She’d never said anything. Or had she? Knowing Cassie, she would have done and, knowing me, I’d have denied it.

The problem now was what to do about it.

Despite my determination not to get involved with anyone, I couldn’t stop thinking about Lars and wondering if our time was now.