Page 41 of Winter Nights at the Bay Bookshop

LARS

‘We’ll do the tree first and then the window,’ Lily told me. ‘If it’s getting too late by then, we can always do the rest of the lights and garlands in the morning but I’d rather get the big things done tonight.’

‘Tree?’ I asked, frowning at the boxes piled up in the stationery section. None of them were big enough to hold a Christmas tree.

‘It’s in the car. It lives in the garage at home as keeping it here’s a waste of valuable space. I’ve got some of the things I need for the window display in the car too but we’ll get those after we’ve done the tree.’

I’d messaged Danika after Lily asked me to help out tonight and she’d replied confirming what I’d been thinking – that this was the perfect opportunity for me to confess everything about school without fear of customers interrupting us.

It was probably best not to lead with that conversation, though.

I’d build up to it. The pizza break could be the best time.

We carried the box through to the front of the shop and I paused, looking around me, wondering where Lily was going to put it without blocking any shelves.

‘It’ll go under the stairs,’ she said, as though reading my mind.

There was a highbacked brown leather armchair and a standard lamp in the recess beneath the stairs which I’d always thought were a nice feature, but I could see how that was the most logical space for the tree.

I carried the chair and Lily carried the lamp to the back door to put in her car later for temporary storage in her parents’ garage.

When we returned to the front, Lily put some Christmas music on.

‘I refuse to play Christmas music in the shop until December arrives,’ she said, smiling at me, ‘but tonight’s the exception.

I’ve put it on random play so there might be some odd mood leaps between tracks and a couple of dubious choices thanks to Cassie. ’

She switched the main lights off, leaving just the warm white fairy lights draped around the shelves and a couple of lamps which gave a cosy feel to the shop.

We removed the three sections of the artificial tree from the box and, while Lily added the stand to the largest section, I took the box through to the back.

When I returned, she’d already connected the other pieces and was arranging the branches.

‘Do you know what this is called?’ she asked me.

‘It has a name?’

‘It’s called fluffing the branches. Isn’t that cute?’

‘I’ve never heard that term before, but it makes sense.’

I went to the opposite side to Lily and fluffed my branches. At one point, we both reached for the same one.

‘You’ve got cold hands again,’ I said.

She rubbed them together. ‘I’ve always got cold hands.’

‘Let me.’ I encased her hands with my warm ones, my heart racing at the contact. ‘You know what they say? Cold hands, warm heart. ’

Her eyes met mine and the air felt charged with electricity once more. Freiheit’s ‘Keeping the Dream Alive’ was playing and, with the soft music and lights, it would be the perfect moment to kiss Lily but it felt wrong to do that before I’d told her everything.

The track changed and we both laughed and stepped apart as the sound of Paul McCartney’s Frog Chorus filled the room. I hadn’t heard ‘We All Stand Together’ in years.

‘I warned you there might be some dubious ones,’ Lily said, pressing her hands to her cheeks. ‘Cassie made me add it. She says Christmas isn’t Christmas without the Frog Chorus.’

‘Was it out at Christmas? I’m sure it was before we were born.’

‘It was and yes to Christmas, although it didn’t get to number one. I have a sneaky feeling The Wombles might be on there too. Again, blame Cassie.’

The moment had been broken, but probably for the best. We finished fluffing the tree, laughing at each other’s attempts to make the frog sounds along to the track.

‘I’m so relieved you were free tonight,’ Lily said, stepping back from the tree to check it had been fluffed evenly. ‘I had a vision of me being here until the early hours.’

‘Happy to help. I used to love decorating the tree with Nanna. She always got a real one but, maybe ten years ago, she decided it was an unnecessary expense and a faff to get rid of after Christmas, so she bought a small tabletop one instead. It has built-in lights and is already decorated so there’s nothing to do. ’

‘So you haven’t decorated a Christmas tree in a decade?’

‘No, and I’ve really missed it.’

‘Then I’m extra glad I called on you tonight. Decorating the tree is such a key part of Christmas. I’m a bit greedy because I get to dress three of them – this one, Mum and Dad’s because Mum hates doing it, and I have a narrow one in the annexe too. I assume you’ll put one up in your new place.’

‘I don’t know.’

She widened her eyes at me. ‘After a decade of deprivation, you don’t know if you’re going to put a tree up? Lars Jóhannsson, you can’t not have a tree, especially for your first Christmas in your new home.’

‘But I barely have any furniture so it seems daft getting a tree.’

‘Getting a tree is never daft. Do it!’ She grinned at me. ‘I’m going to pester you until you agree to get one.’

‘I’ll think about it. I promise.’

She narrowed her eyes at me. ‘Hmm. As long as thinking turns to doing. Anyway, let’s focus on the shop tree for now. Firstly, you can never have enough fairy lights.’

She handed me a couple of boxes of lights. ‘Vintage gold,’ I observed.

‘They’re gorgeous. They’re an orangey-cream colour. Sounds hideous but I promise it isn’t. I spotted them in a garden centre a couple of years ago and fell in love so I got some for home too.’

She also handed me some red lights and said the two colours looked great together so I wrapped them round the tree, taking care to mix the two types, and had to admit they did look amazing switched on.

‘Everything’s book-themed,’ Lily said, opening up the boxes and removing several examples.

‘They’re all for sale and, each Christmas, I bring out the surplus from previous years and add new stock to it.

Sourcing new decorations is one of my favourite activities.

This box contains books in various designs. ’

When she opened it up, I picked out a pink book stack and a single sparkly silver book. ‘I had no idea there were so many book-related options out there.’

When we’d finished hanging up a couple of each style from the book box, we moved on to one of the character boxes.

I picked out a pink-and-purple striped Cheshire Cat, clearly inspired by the Disney interpretation of Lewis Carroll’s stories, and hung it on a branch before reaching for an Alice figurine.

‘ Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is Cassie’s favourite childhood book,’ Lily said, ‘so I had to stock those for her.’

‘What’s your favourite?’ I asked, hanging Alice on the tree.

‘ Anne of Green Gables .’ She paused and fixed her gaze on mine and I knew why. That was the book she’d had with her behind the sports hall. Should I say something now?

‘It stole my heart,’ she said, reaching for the Queen of Hearts. ‘I don’t suppose you’ve read it?’

‘No, but Pia did. She’ll have told me about it but all I can remember is an orphan with red hair being adopted by a brother and sister.’ I added a White Rabbit to a branch. ‘Is that right?’

‘Yes. Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert want a boy to help on their farm but, thanks to a misunderstanding, they get Anne and Matthew convinces Marilla to keep her. It’s such a lovely story of her finding the family, friends and home she’s never had.

It’s warm and funny and there’s this gorgeous romantic thread between Anne Shirley and Gilbert Blythe.

They meet at school and Gilbert’s eager to get her attention but he goes about it completely the wrong way by calling her Carrots because of her hair.

She’s really sensitive about her hair colour – it’s a recurring theme – and smashes her slate over his head.

From that point on, Gil’s her enemy and everything’s a competition between them, but we know he’s sweet on her and massively regrets teasing her. ’

She paused for a moment, her eyes fixed on mine once more, and I wondered if she knew what I was thinking – how closely I could relate to Gilbert’s regret for his childhood behaviour.

‘Anne just needs time – till the third book, as it happens – to realise how she feels about him too but it’s such a beautiful moment that it’s worth the wait.’ Her eyes welled with tears and she laughed lightly. ‘It gets me every time.’

I pictured her behind the sports hall, holding up the book she was reading and telling me how relieved she was to see me after her best friend had ditched her. It was time for my confession.

‘You were reading Anne of Green Gables that first day at school,’ I said.

‘I was! I didn’t think you’d noticed. You barely looked at me.’

‘Your hair was in two plaits. You had a black bobble in one and a blue one in the other. There was a fluffy duck keyring hanging from your bag and you clung onto that book as though it was your only friend in the world.’

‘But…’ Tears welled in her eyes once more. ‘I didn’t think…’

‘I saw you that day, Lily. I’ve always seen you and I should have…

’ I raked my fingers through my hair, nerves engulfing me, but there’d never be a better moment to do this.

‘I know you said to draw a line in the sand about what happened at school and I appreciate you not holding it against me, but I owe you an explanation.’

She studied my face for a moment, a Mad Hatter ornament dangling from one finger.

‘Okay, but this sounds like a sitting-down chat. Let’s go out the back.’

She hung the ornament on a branch and I followed her through to the children’s section. Moving a couple of the tub chairs closer to each other, I breathed in deeply as I sat down.

‘I told you that my little sister, Pia, died and I told you my parents were divorced and my pabbi moved back to Iceland. What I didn’t tell you was that it all happened at the same time…’