Faye didn’t mind finishing late at the salon now spring was here. The winter had been cold, long, and dark but spring in England, with its long days that promised to get even longer in the summer, was something else.
That day in October when Theo came to pick Midas up from the bookshop after his trip away, Faye had been so excited to tell him the plan to help Bonnie had worked. They’d got her down to Driftwick Bay Books, they’d got her inside the shop, and more than that, she’d stayed a while and realised that it could be a comfort rather than something to push away now that Howard had gone. She also told him about the developers and how Bonnie herself had been the one to face them the morning after they ate their takeaway in the shop.
‘This bookshop is not for sale now, or ever,’ Bonnie had said boldly to the developer, who was dressed in a pinstripe, slightly-too-tight suit. ‘Driftwick Bay Books is a part of this town and I’m afraid you’re just going to have to build your luxury condo or whatever it is, elsewhere.’ And before the man could argue his case she added, ‘Now, please leave my bookshop.’
Margot and Faye had at least waited for the door to close behind him before they let out a big cheer. And although Bonnie hadn’t been quite ready to face customers, Faye and Margot, along with Iris a couple of days later, had run the bookshop together, Bonnie out back listening to some of the banter, the sound of customers coming in and out, this shop Howard had saved and brought back to the community.
As Faye had talked to Theo that day he’d stayed quite quiet, his gaze drifting away from her now and again, settling on Midas instead. He never usually had a problem making eye contact or chatting to her, but in that moment he was so unsure of himself she hadn’t been surprised when he asked her out on a date.
Of course she’d said yes. And she’d told him that she’d had a major crush on him when they were at school, which gave him a bit of confidence that perhaps she liked him a lot now too.
Faye’s dad had sold the business in Queensland and moved back to Dorset for the foreseeable future. Faye had vacated her apartment after a brief trip over to Australia during which she’d put her belongings into storage. She’d caught up with her mother and with Steph while she was there, but no longer did she find seeing either of them stressful because she’d stopped assuming responsibility for anyone’s behaviour other than her own. Steph was still with Mark, but Faye hadn’t asked for any details. In fact, the only thing Steph had said about him was that they were moving in together. Faye had congratulated her. She hadn’t tried to advise or talk to her about what she was doing. She didn’t ask about how Brad was taking it either. Brad had done her a favour because without him running away and breaking off their engagement she’d never have met Theo. Theo, the man she trusted more than any man she’d ever been with. She got the feeling they would never hurt one another and these days he was very happy to let her cut his hair.
After her visit to Australia she came back to England and almost immediately started the job at a salon in Dorchester. It was a full-time role covering a maternity leave. She wasn’t sure whether it would lead to a job there eventually, but come summer when Theo had his long school holidays, she was taking him to Australia so he could see what all the fuss was about. When they were there she’d sort through her belongings in storage, see what to keep, what to toss, and for the six weeks they were out there they had a house-sit. By some sort of magic, a house-sit in Queensland near the water-sports business had come up. They’d have to look after two dogs for the duration, but Theo said it would help him to not miss Midas quite so much. And Midas would be busy anyway because Bonnie and Iris would look after him between them.
Faye was still running the Midnight Book Club each week and they’d had two new members join up: forty-year-old Zac and sixty-two-year-old Bridget. Both from the Northern Hemisphere, they’d so far turned up every week and slowly Faye was getting to know them. She couldn’t see herself ever stopping the book club, no matter where she was in the world. She would always be a part of it. There had been some talk about reverting to calling it The Seaside Book Club again and perhaps changing the time but it hadn’t felt right to anyone. Auntie Clare had founded the club, Howard had renamed it, and their lives had changed because of both of those things. Besides, just as Howard said it did, it felt like an adventure taking part in the book club when the sky was dark, the world was quiet, and most other people were sound asleep.
Today, after she’d met Theo on a gloriously warm and sunny May evening for a long walk with Midas, he wanted to know whether she’d be patient enough to teach him how to paddleboard so that by the time they went to Australia he wouldn’t be totally inexperienced. She’d assured him that she was very patient and not a bad teacher and she couldn’t wait for him to embrace a love of the water just like she did.
Following their walk, they made for Bonnie’s cottage and when Bonnie opened the door she rolled her eyes as Scout, her own dog, leapt out from behind her legs and jumped up at her visitors, no matter what she said.
‘He’ll learn,’ said Theo.
‘Early days,’ Faye agreed as she gave Bonnie a big hug.
Faye wondered whether Midas might think he was a role model for Scout as he trotted inside the cottage and Scout, a much smaller version of Midas, followed after him.
26
MARGOT
Margot was in her compact Toyota Aygo driving from London down to Dorset. She’d finished five days on and had three days off, and she couldn’t wait to get to Driftwick Bay and see Faye and Bonnie, her girls as she thought of them, even though they were all from a different generation. They were true friends, just like Trinny and Bethany had once been. She was in touch with Trinny and had visited her already, and she had plans in the summer to catch up with Bethany. She hadn’t told either of them the details of her marriage, the reasons why she left Perry, but perhaps she didn’t need to. Perhaps they already knew. And like true friends they might not have been in touch for a long while but they’d always been there waiting, in the background.
She hadn’t got the cabin crew job she’d first applied for and she’d almost talked herself out of applying for more positions. She’d wondered whether she was doing something silly, whether she thought she was better than she actually was, but Bonnie and Faye, as well as her sons, had urged her to keep on trying. She’d got another interview elsewhere, she hadn’t got that position either, and then an interview with a third airline came up and it was that company who had offered her a job. She had officially been cabin crew for the last three months. So far Margot had sent her boys postcards from Copenhagen, Stockholm, Oslo, Rome, Chicago, Tokyo. And she planned to send them many more. At some point she’d take holidays to see cities and countries in more detail but with money tight right now she’d have to make do with seeing the world via work. She was getting quite the collection of photos on her phone too and soon she’d have them put into those wonderful photo books like Bonnie and Howard had done, and add to her collection for as long as she could.
She parked outside her little cottage, the same cottage she’d stayed in when she first left Berkshire. She’d been back to the house to collect more belongings rather than just what she’d put in the storage unit. Perry, cold during their marriage, had been the same since she’d seen him that day when he turned up in the bay, and although Margot wasn’t afraid of him it was better that she didn’t go to the house on her own. Faye’s dad had gone with her just in case, but there had been no sign of Perry and so she’d taken what she wanted and left as quickly as she could.
Perry was in touch with his sons now and then. Both said any contact was strained, but it was down to Perry to keep a relationship with them both. It wasn’t something he was entitled to any more. They were adults and if he treated them the way he had for years, he might well lose them. But that was out of her control.
The cottage was warm with spring upon them. When Margot had been house hunting last October, she’d enquired with the owner of the holiday cottage about renting it for a while longer. In fact, she’d asked for a few months and the owner had agreed on twelve, which suited Margot perfectly. Once she started work she’d been able to give the boys some of their money back and now that the divorce was going through it wouldn’t be long before she could pay them back fully and find her own place to buy and put down roots.
It was a glorious evening, the sun was shining and after a thank-you text came in from Sebastian for her latest postcard and she took a quick call from Alistair, thanking her for the same, she knocked on Bonnie’s door. The wisteria was in full bloom, great plumes of fragrant purple flowers bordering the front door. The planters at the front had yellow tulips in them, adding a further pop of colour from the bulbs she’d planted last year.
She could already hear laughter coming from the back garden. It was the sound of a happy home. And one that the Midnight Book Club had guided her towards.
27
BONNIE
How lovely it was to have everyone here in her garden on this beautiful day, chatting and drinking Pimm’s. Scout was at her side, although not for long. She hoped with enough work and training the dog would settle down – Theo had assured her that would be the case. ‘Midas gnawed all my chair legs,’ he’d revealed, painting Midas as no saint when he first came home with him. ‘He peed everywhere too,’ he’d added. So far Scout had done both of the things Theo had warned her about but the dog was great company, always happy to see her, and Bonnie loved her to bits.
Bonnie had never regretted telling the developer who had been sniffing around the bookshop that she wouldn’t be selling to him. Howard would’ve been proud of her.
One wintry day last December, Margot and Faye had gone with her out on a boat to scatter Howard’s ashes. The cove had been in sight as the girls stood next to her and she finally said goodbye to her husband. When they’d got back to the cottage, Faye had insisted she give the syrup sponge a go and, while she was making it, Margot wanted to repay the favour and start quizzing Bonnie as if she was in an interview to return to nursing. That was when Bonnie had made a surprising admission.
‘Going into the bookshop again was something I never thought I would do,’ she’d told them that day. ‘I thought it would be too painful. That’s why I closed it, why I never wanted to see it again. But going inside with you both that night and being in the place Howard adored, as well as me finding a surprising love of audiobooks, I felt closer to him than I had since the day I lost him.’
Her admission had been laced with a lot of emotion but ever since she scattered the ashes she’d got braver. She’d started to go down the hill to Driftwick Bay Books each day and eventually she even started working alongside Iris, who was very organised and very bossy. Bonnie had settled into a pattern of going in for a few hours each day. She had Scout to consider now, but it was enough to help Iris and keep things going. And it had led her to a decision. She was going to keep working there for now, and if and when the time came to sell Driftwick Bay Books she suspected she’d have Howard’s blessing if she sold it on to someone who would keep it as it was, as a bookshop in the heart of the bay.
