‘That is so true,’ she told him, tears in her eyes.
‘Your Howard was one of a kind,’ said Sarah, who was quite a bit older than Bonnie. ‘When I lost my husband, Howard didn’t give me the usual platitudes, he gave me his phone number in case I needed to talk.’
‘I’m sorry for your loss,’ said Bonnie, who knew how this woman had probably felt. ‘I appreciate that that’s what everyone says, but I am.’
‘Thank you, Bonnie.’
‘Howard thought a lot of you. All of you.’ She took in each of the faces, including those beside her in the bookshop now. ‘He loved this book club.’
‘Howard always cheered me up,’ Sarah told her. ‘I’m wheelchair-bound now and some days I feel so sorry for myself. I can’t leave the house. Howard would make me laugh when he turned up in different pyjamas every time. I would make sure my carers put me in a top that looked like a shirt but he said it was more fun in PJs.’ She laughed. ‘After that I put on my best nighties for book club.’
Bonnie felt a warmth spread through her that Howard had touched these people’s lives. She listened to Joel talk about Howard’s passion for books, how he was quite convincing when he felt strongly that a story was important to read, how some of them had read books they never would’ve picked up if it hadn’t been for Howard. Winston talked about how Howard had looked into local libraries in his area and sent him an email with all the information, including step-by-step instructions on how to join when he hadn’t been able to do it quite as easily as he’d thought he would.
‘I hear you’re not much of a reader,’ Winston said to Bonnie after he told her that he and Howard had the most disagreements about what made a good book than any others in the group.
Bonnie found herself responding with: ‘I’m not, but this evening I started an audiobook.Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine…’
And for the next half an hour all the talk was about that book, Sarah piping up with comments about it because she’d loved it, Winston was adding it to something called a TBR pile, and Joel said it sounded like they should all tune in next week having given it a go.
Not only was she in the bookshop right now but Bonnie felt drawn in to this group in a way she’d never seen coming. And when the session came to an end and Faye closed down her laptop Bonnie wrapped her in a big hug, then the same for Margot. ‘You two are wonderful human beings. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for what you did not only tonight but ever since you knocked on my door.’
‘You are so very welcome,’ said Margot.
‘Thank you for not telling anyone about this place,’ said Bonnie. ‘Selling it, I mean.’ She didn’t miss the look of disappointment on both their faces.
‘Will you come and meet the developer in the morning then?’ Margot asked. She was being kind, accepting things the way they were, letting Bonnie know that this would be her decision.
‘We could be here with you,’ Faye offered. ‘Howard always found them a bit overbearing. I think I’d feel better if we were with you.’
Margot agreed. ‘Yes, definitely. Howard would want that. If only so they don’t try to low-ball you.’
‘I’d appreciate that, both of you, thank you.’ But being here, in the bookshop, actually participating in the Midnight Book Club, made her feel closer to Howard all over again and she knew he wouldn’t want her to rush into anything. And he definitely wouldn’t want to let the locals down.
She took a deep breath before she said, ‘You can both help me tell them to… go to hell!’ She pumped her fist in the air at the powerful words she wouldn’t usually use.
‘Really?’ Margot leapt up. ‘You mean it?’
‘Wait,’ said Bonnie, palms out in front of her to halt the excitement. ‘I still might sell, eventually, but I’ve decided that if I do then it will be to someone who wants to run this as a bookshop. So tomorrow we tell the developer that it’s time to stop visiting, to stop sending letters. I always feel it’s better to tell someone to their face, don’t you?’ And already she felt more powerful that they were going to do this although she didn’t want to do it without her new friends by her side.
‘That sounds like a really good plan,’ said Faye.
Margot told her, ‘I’ll getEleanor Oliphantonto your iPad first thing tomorrow.’
‘Oh no, you can come to my cottage and do that now. I’m going to need to listen while I lie in bed. I’ll need to find out more and I shall carry on when I wake up in the morning. Unless, of course, you need to wait for the locksmith to fix the door that doesn’t really need fixing.’
She enjoyed the way their mouths fell open as they prepared to leave the shop via the front entrance. Halfway through book club, she’d nipped to the downstairs bathroom again and as she did so she’d checked the back door, wondering whether to perhaps move something in front of it in case somebody came inside without them hearing. And the lock had worked perfectly. She’d known then that these girls and Iris and Theo as well as Midas had hatched this plan to get her out of the cottage and here to Driftwick Bay Books. It was another thing that convinced her she shouldn’t rush into getting rid of the shop. She’d take her time, make the right decision. Because she was a part of this town; she really was.
And she couldn’t have been more grateful for their subterfuge.
‘No?’ she asked, still amused by their guilty and flabbergasted expressions. ‘Come on then, up to the cottage we go.’ She took Midas on his lead and with a big smile on her face, left the bookshop to walk up the hill.
And as they did so the stars up above seemed to twinkle that little bit more.
25
SEVEN MONTHS LATER
Faye
