Page 61 of Winter Nights at the Bay Bookshop

LILY

I stared at the key in my hand – the key to Lars’s house, the house Mrs Mayflower had owned, the house I’d told her I wanted to live in when I grew up. Was this really happening? And had Lars just referenced Anne’s House of Dreams ?

‘ I dream of a home with a hearth-fire in it ,’ Lars said, his voice soft, ‘ a cat and dog, the footsteps of friends – and YOU ! ’

Another L. M. Montgomery reference! My heart melted.

It was something Gilbert Blythe said in Anne of the Island , which meant Lars had read it.

For me! I raised my eyes to Lars’s and that vulnerability was there.

Did he think there was a chance I was going to say no?

I was about to give my answer but he spoke first.

‘But if you don’t like the house, I can sell it and we can choose one together.’

‘You can’t sell this house, Lars. You wouldn’t have bought it if you didn’t love it so I’d never ask you to give up something you love. And you don’t need to anyway because it’s already the house of my dreams. I used to have piano lessons here…’

‘The Mayflowers were the people I bought the house from,’ Lars said when I’d finished telling him about my lessons, the ducks and the conversations with Mrs Mayflower about buying the house from her.

‘I’m so glad Mr Mayflower is still around, I wasn’t sure whether he’d ever recovered from his accident.’

‘He was paralysed from the waist down so he used a wheelchair but, as far as I know, he’s in good health.

Their children were grown up and had moved out and the house was too big for just the two of them so they were downsizing.

’ He ran his fingers through his hair. ‘I can’t believe you knew the ducks.

That’s why I fell in love with this place… ’

We returned to the table and he told me about his walks with his nanna and how they’d called the house Duckling Lodge.

‘The universe clearly wanted to match us from the very start,’ I said, stunned at his story. ‘What are the odds on both of us picking out the same house when we were kids?’ I closed my hand around the key and smiled at him tenderly as I added, ‘And ending up here together?’

His eyes widened. ‘Is that a yes?’

‘Of course it’s a yes! To the house, the hearth, the cat, the dog and most of all to you. Yes, yes, yes!’

I flung myself into his arms. The hug became a kiss and, oh my goodness, had I missed Lars’s kisses?

I had nearly a week’s worth to catch up on, plus lots of making up ones.

This could take a while and I was going to cherish every single moment but first I had something to show him so I reluctantly pulled away.

‘I did a thing which I didn’t run by you because I didn’t imagine anything would come of it, but it has and I’m still a little stunned by what happened.’ I laughed at his bewildered expression. ‘Yeah, that made no sense, did it?’

I reached into the bag and withdrew the letter. ‘You’ll suss what the thing I did was when you read this. I hope you’re okay with it.’

I kept my eyes on Lars’s expression while he read, watching his eyes widen then brim with tears.

‘Thank you so much. I can’t believe you did that,’ he said, his voice catching when he’d finished reading.

I passed him the copy of Anna and the Snow Dragon . He ran his fingers over the cover before carefully opening the first page, gulping as he read Sigrid Hansen’s signature and the words accompanying it:

May you find your snow dragon and soar high on the wings of dreams.

The tears escaped at that point and he drew in a deep shaky breath.

I slipped my arm around his waist and cuddled against him. ‘It’s beautiful, isn’t it?’

While he finished turning the pages, I lifted the pictures from the bag, removed the bubble wrap and rested one on each garden chair.

‘I think we’ve found the first pictures for the walls of our home,’ I said when he looked up from the book.

‘That was Pia’s favourite illustration!’ he whispered, clapping his hand over his mouth as he looked at the first one then moved his gaze to the second. ‘The aurora! Oh, wow! These are incredible. If Pia was here today to see them. Just a second.’

He bent down and adjusted the chairs to face the front of the house and something suddenly clicked into place.

‘She’s here, isn’t she?’

Lars nodded. ‘Pia loved Hutton Wicklow Castle. When she was well, I sometimes gave her a piggyback there and she’d swoop her snow dragon round the ruins.

Mum and Pabbi had a horrendous argument about what to do with her ashes.

They talked about having half each and I hated the idea of her being taken to Iceland – somewhere she’d only visited once – so I shouted at them to stop arguing because there was only one place Pia would want to rest. They actually listened to me and we scattered her ashes round the castle grounds.

That was one heck of a painful day but I’m glad we did it.

So Whitsborough Bay is my forever home because this is where the three women who have my heart are – Pia, Nanna and you. ’

I noticed the absence of his mum in that list, although that wasn’t surprising after the conversations we’d had about her.

‘Did you become the Paperback Pixie because of Pia?’ I asked.

‘Pia’s love of books was what gave me the idea and I wanted to share it with the world. The name came from our nickname for her. We called her Pixie.’

‘That’s such a beautiful thing to do and so generous of you.’

‘It’s what she’d have wanted. I’d better tell you more about it.’

‘I can’t wait to hear more but, before we do, I’d love another kiss.’

He cupped my face in his hands and kissed me slowly and tenderly. I’d found my forever home too and it wasn’t just The Lodge. It was Lars.