Page 49 of Winter Nights at the Bay Bookshop

LARS

Sergeant Haines stopped by just after lunch on Friday to say that Justin had been charged for vandalism and had been instructed to stay away from Lily and the bookshop.

Lily sagged against me when he left. ‘What a week!’

‘Is there always this much drama in your life?’ I asked.

‘No, thankfully. I like a quiet life and I usually get one. The only drama I like is contained within the pages of books.’

‘Same here.’

‘I’m so glad that’s over.’ Lily fiddled with her phone on the dock. ‘You know I told you my rule about no Christmas songs until December except when dressing the tree? I feel an exception is needed to celebrate.’

I laughed as Paul McCartney and the Frog Chorus began playing and several customers paused browsing and looked in Lily’s direction, smiling at her music choice.

‘It makes me think of the happy parts of Sunday night,’ she said, squeezing my hand as we stood side by side behind the counter. ‘And the title says it all – “We All Stand Together”. That’s how this past week has been with you, Cassie, Mum and Dad supporting me through this.’

It had been the proverbial rollercoaster of a week with the highs being all the amazing moments with Lily and the big dips provided courtesy of Justin and I marvelled at how strong Lily had been, especially when telling her parents.

Hopefully the drama was over now and the run-up to Christmas would be all about the highs.

* * *

The following week, Lily and I spent as many evenings together as we could – a production of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol at the theatre, a meal with her parents and drinks after work in Minty’s followed by a meal at Salt & Pepper Lodge on Thursday evening.

Over our meal I told Lily how touched I’d been when she wrote you’re my northern lights in the darkest of moments on the note she’d put in Jeeves because the aurora was another of my passions.

I talked about the occasions I’d seen the lights including the special visit with Pia which Mum had captured with her camera.

‘My northern lights app tells me there might be some solar activity over Whitsborough Bay in the early hours,’ I said, ‘although it’s unlikely to be seen by the naked eye. I don’t suppose I can interest you?’

‘Seeing the northern lights is a bucket-list dream for me and it’s so tempting…’

‘But you’re shattered,’ I finished for her, smiling.

‘I’m sorry. It would be different if I was guaranteed to see them but, without that guarantee, I’m going to have to choose my sleep. Don’t let me stop you, though.’

I could either go back to The Lodge and spend the night on my own or I could stay at Green Gables with Lily. It wasn’t a difficult decision.

The following day was the last Friday of November and the launch event for Josephine Forrest’s latest novel. The shop had closed at the usual time and it had been a quick turnaround with the event starting at seven and Lily’s grandma expected at half six.

‘You look nervous,’ Lily said as we put the last few chairs in place.

‘I am. I’ve never met anyone famous before.’

‘Your mum’s famous!’

‘Yeah, but she’s my mum. This is different.’

‘As I told you earlier, she’s wonderfully eccentric and very needy. She responds well to hero-worship so just make sure you flatter her lots and you’ll be fine.’

She’d warned me to expect a brightly coloured kaftan, lots of jewellery, a bold hair colour, a posh accent, air kisses and everyone to be referred to as darling .

The door opened and I looked up, expecting our guest of honour, but the elderly grey-haired woman who entered, shedding a smart black wool coat and handing it to the man beside her, couldn’t be Josephine.

Wearing tailored grey trousers and a powder-blue jumper with a simple pearl necklace, she was nothing like Lily had described.

‘Granny Blue!’ Lily declared. ‘Happy publication day!’

She crossed the room and embraced her grandparents and I chuckled to myself. She’d evidently been having great fun winding me up this week and I couldn’t believe I’d fallen for it.

Lily called me over and introduced me to them both.

George shook my hand and Bluebell hugged me, saying – in a soft Yorkshire accent, no less – that she’d heard great things about me and how delighted she was that Lily had found herself a lovely man.

Lily led her away to run through the plans for the evening, leaving me with George, who complimented me on how good the shop was looking.

‘It’s like stepping back in time every time I come in here,’ he said. ‘The same but different. Marcus and Lily have done wonderful things with our dream.’

‘Do you miss it?’

‘I do, but I was ready to step down when I did. It gave me more time to read but, more importantly, it gave me the time and freedom to travel with Bluebell on her promotional tours. I loved being here surrounded by books but I love that wonderful woman even more.’

He gazed affectionately across the room in her direction and, as though sensing his eyes on her, Bluebell turned and smiled lovingly back at him.

Lily had told me they’d been together for sixty-five years and married for sixty-three and were still as besotted with each other as they’d ever been.

Having spent time with her parents, it was clear they were deeply in love too.

It was good to see what that looked like.

I barely recalled my own parents being happy together and, while I knew that Nanna and Granddad had enjoyed a strong, loving marriage, I’d never seen it myself with Granddad passing before I was born.

Bluebell opened her handbag and handed Lily a pink candy-striped paper bag.

That had to be the strawberry bonbons she always gave Lily.

It made me think of the advent calendar Nanna had bought for me at a craft fair when I was little.

It had a happy snowman with a robin perched on one of its stick arms and she’d filled the twenty-four pockets with chocolates every single year.

When I hit my twenties, I’d told her she didn’t have to keep doing that but she’d said, What difference does age make?

You’re still my grandson and it’s a nanna’s prerogative to spoil her grandchild.

I’d visited her on Tuesday afternoon on my way back from my lunchtime walk with Lily and she’d presented me with the same calendar full of chocolates in preparation for the first day of the month.

‘How are you enjoying working here?’ George asked me.

‘Loving it. It’s an incredible bookshop you’ve created and it’s a privilege to work here surrounded by books and with someone as amazing as Lily.’

He smiled at me. ‘She’s a special young lady, isn’t she? Bay Books was my dream and Bluebell’s and I’m proud of the legacy we created. Marcus added something extra to it but our Lily came along and sprinkled it with magic dust. She’s the reason it’s still thriving today.’

I was on door duty for the evening, welcoming guests and checking them off on the attendance list, so I excused myself to take my post. Marcus and Shelby arrived with Shelby’s parents, Nora and Maurice, and I was introduced to them.

George joined them and they all collected welcome drinks from the counter before settling on the back row where we’d laid out a chair with plenty of space for Marcus to stretch his legs out and keep his crutches by his side.

Nanna arrived with Geraldine and Hilary shortly after.

As Lily was still running through things with her grandma, I told Nanna I’d do the introductions at the end of the event.

She’d met Bluebell at previous signings but, to my amusement, had insisted that I introduce her as the nanna of Bluebell’s granddaughter’s boyfriend.

Lily had ordered brownies from The Chocolate Pot topped with edible images of Josephine’s new book and cupcakes with the book on them from Carly’s Cupcakes. Once the guests were settled, Flo and Cyndi circulated with a tray of goodies each.

As seven o’clock approached, it was standing room only.

Lily had told me earlier that the space didn’t really lend itself to events but they did their best. She’d thought about using The Chocolate Pot instead but had decided that there was something special about launching a book in a bookshop surrounded by books.

Looking at the rows of Josephine Forrest fans sitting in front of the bookshelves, I had to agree. It wouldn’t be the same elsewhere.

‘Good evening, everyone!’ Lily declared bang on seven, bringing a hush to the audience. ‘Thank you so much to you all for coming out on a cold November evening to join us in celebration of a very special author, Josephine Forrest.’

She paused for a round of applause and Bluebell, sitting beside the Christmas tree looking relaxed, smiled and waved.

Lily held up her grandma’s book. ‘ A Winter of Broken Promises is Josephine’s thirty-fourth novel and is out today.

Thank you to those who’ve already bought the book this evening.

We still have plenty of copies available and Josephine will be happy to sign them and have her photo taken with you after our chat.

I’ve already read it and it’s completely and utterly wonderful but enough from me. Let’s hear from Josephine Forrest.’

More applause as Lily took a chair beside her grandma and asked her various questions about the story, the research she’d undertaken and about her writing career so far.

Bluebell had everyone captivated with a reading, after which questions were invited from the audience.

I’d seen Lily chatting to customers in the shop and had always been impressed with her interactions but seeing her tonight as host, she shone.

I was so proud of how articulate and confident she was and how, despite being naturally humorous, she kept the spotlight clearly focused on her grandma.

Every so often, she glanced across at me and smiled, making my heart leap.

Nobody had ever looked at me the way she did and I never wanted it to end.

Casting my gaze around the enraptured audience, the packed bookshelves and the Christmas tree, I had the strongest feeling of being home.

It was a cold winter’s night but, right here, I felt the warmth of belonging.

I’d fallen in love with Bay Books as a young boy – a love which had been renewed and strengthened over the past six weeks – and the thought of having to leave when Marcus returned to work made me feel queasy.

I’d felt so lost after letting go of My Study Hub with no idea what I wanted to do with my future.

But I knew now. My future was with Lily and Bay Books.

Marcus would be returning in a couple of months and there weren’t any vacancies but I knew how eager Lily was to work with a certain Paperback Pixie.

I was sure we’d be able to come to some sort of arrangement when I shared that final secret with her.

* * *

An hour or so later, everyone had gone and Lily and I had folded down the chairs and tables and returned the display tables to their rightful positions.

‘You were amazing tonight,’ I told Lily.

She smiled at me. ‘Granny Blue was amazing, you mean.’

‘She was, but I mean you were. Everything about tonight was spot on – how you laid out the room, the books on the cakes, the questions you asked, working the signing queue to write down the names for dedications…’

‘Years of experience.’

‘You can have years of experience at something and still be rubbish at it. I was chatting to your granddad earlier and he said something that I completely agree with. He said that you’re the reason the bookshop is the success it is today – that he and your grandma left a great legacy behind but you took their dream and sprinkled it with magic dust.’

Tears pricked her eyes. ‘Granddad George really said that?’

‘He did. And you haven’t just sprinkled magic dust on the shop. You’ve sprinkled it on my life too.’

A tear slipped down her cheek.

‘I didn’t mean to upset you.’

‘You didn’t. It’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me.’

I gently tilted her chin upwards. ‘I mean it. I love you, Lily.’

‘I love you too.’

Her kiss was tender at first but, as I pulled her closer, the kiss became deeper, more passionate. My heart raced as she untucked my shirt and ran her hands inside, up my back. I ran my fingers into her hair as I kissed her neck and across her collarbone.

‘We can be seen from outside,’ she murmured, tugging my hand as she guided me towards the children’s section. She stopped in the entrance, groaning. ‘It’s children’s books. It feels wrong.’

The staff room would have been the logical place to go but we’d just dumped the chairs in there for speed to sort out properly tomorrow.

Lily took my hand and we raced up the stairs, stopping to kiss on the first landing.

We kept moving up the building, pausing every so often in a passionate clinch, but only made it up to the third level before the electricity sizzling between us was too much.

The creativity level felt like an appropriate place for what was about to happen.

* * *

‘That was unexpected,’ Lily said, as we pulled our clothes back into place a little later.

‘But don’t you say the unexpected things are usually the best?’

‘I do and you absolutely proved the point.’ She ran her hands through her dishevelled hair and turned to look at the bookcase behind her. ‘I don’t think I’m ever going to be able to look at the creative writing section in the same way.’

‘We’ve knocked a couple of books off.’

I bent down to retrieve them and we both burst out laughing at the one on the top: Erin Carlson’s I’ll Have What She’s Having , exploring how three of Nora Ephron’s films – When Harry Met Sally , Sleepless in Seattle and You’ve Got Mail – reinvented the romantic comedy genre.

Everyone knew the iconic scene in When Harry Met Sally .

It was the perfect reference for what we’d just done, except it had been real for us. So very real.