Dylan checked his phone. ‘Sorry, I have to check all the time, in case it’s the mom with Ruby. But I’ve looked now, so let’s talk more. I want to get to know you, Cleo.’
Put on the spot like that, it was hard to know what to say. ‘What do you want to know?’
‘Everything.’
They relaxed into conversation and it wasn’t long before they touched on her quandary about the Little Knitting Box and whether to reopen elsewhere.
‘I’ve researched a few options,’ she said, ‘but the rent is a bit out of my price range, and I’m not entirely sure the store would work as well in a different location.’
‘You never know. Maybe do some more market research. The extra year’s lease gives you the time to do that.’
She frowned. ‘I haven’t heard anything from the new owner yet.’
‘That’s strange.’ He frowned.
‘Do you know anything?’
‘I don’t. I signed all the legal documentation and I thought as soon as I’d done that they’d be in touch. Perhaps an email went to spam, or you missed a postal delivery.’ He sounded sceptical, which wasn’t overly reassuring.
She sighed. ‘As of closing time tonight, I’m shutting my mind down about the Little Knitting Box. I’ll do my hours, enjoy the customers, but I want to fully get into the Christmas spirit, which means no stressing about anything else.’
He stirred the remains of his cappuccino. ‘That sounds like a very wise idea. Christmas is magical and you shouldn’t let anything spoil it. Okay, let’s change the subject.’
‘Good idea.’
They talked more about his web design, the kids’ excitement about Christmas, and Cleo’s life back in England.
‘Was it only the store that brought you over from England?’ Dylan quizzed.
She looked across at him and her fingers stilled on the tiny espresso cup. ‘You’ve been talking to Robert.’
‘He worries about you like a big brother. He didn’t go into detail, just said you’d had a bit of a rough time.’
‘I like that he watches out for me. I don’t have any siblings so it’s a new kind of relationship for me.’ She looked across at him. ‘The store was the main reason for coming here, but it also came at the right time for me. I split up with my husband shortly before coming to America. We got divorced and I needed to get away.’
‘You were married?’
‘Are you surprised?’
‘Only because I didn’t know. You never mentioned it when we talked before.’
‘I wasn’t hiding it. It was a closed chapter of my life and I didn’t see the point in dredging up the details. And besides, we’d only just met.’ The book on her marriage and divorce had been reopened with Aaron’s email, but she didn’t want to get into a discussion about it. She wondered if Dylan would protest if she told him Aaron wanted to try again, whether he’d warn her off. Would he even care?
‘Do you have any regrets?’ he asked.
‘Our relationship was in trouble for a long time. We’d been together since our teens.’
‘Your first boyfriend?’ He drank some more of his cappuccino, waiting for her answer.
‘My first serious boyfriend, yes.’
‘So who was your very first boyfriend?’
His questions lightened the conversation and she told him all about Toby, the first boy she’d gone on a date with but had never kissed. ‘I’m embarrassed to say this, but he had so many zits, all round his mouth, I just couldn’t do it.’
‘I’ll bet he was devastated. You probably scarred him for life.’
Cleo sipped her espresso. ‘On the contrary, he’s now stunning. I’m friends with him on Facebook and he’s a fireman, been on a calendar as a pin-up, muscles you’d only ever see in your dreams—’
