Page 68 of The Bookshop By the Loch

I thought of Celeste, seizing life and savouring every minute of it while she still could. I thought of Tobias, towering there in front of me and attempting to deal with the revelation that the man he’d admired and loved all his life wasn’t his biological father. I couldn’t keep running away and dodging the situation. Life had its twists and turns and there was nothing we could do about it.

I had to decide how I was going to deal with my own issues.

I remembered that Rhiannon was travelling back to Glasgow before eight o’clock that evening. I had to stop fumbling around. I straightened my back. “We can meet up by Bracken Way Castle this evening, if you like. How does eight o’clock sound?”

I was certain I heard a rush of relief down the line, like a gust of wind that would often batter the loch and take everybody by surprise. “That’s perfect, sweetheart.” Dad faltered. “I don’t suppose your mum might come?”

I shook my long, straight hair, even though he couldn’t see me. “Sorry, Dad. She really feels for you but as for meeting up… well, she hasn’t said she would. At least not yet. I don’t think she’s ready.”

“You mean she might be at some point though?”

“I’m not answering for Mum. Don’t ask me to.”

I could hear his ragged, frustrated breathing. “I don’t know how long I still have like this, Lexie. How long I’ll still be able to remember and laugh, smile and cry over the memories I have.”

A clump of my hair was sent flapping across my cheeks in the sun-drenched breeze and I whipped it away. “I know, Dad, but you hurt her. She loved you so much. You can’t just expect her to forgive you in an instant. “

“I know.”

Now it was my turn to sigh. “I think the two of us should just talk first and then take it from there.”

“Alright,” he conceded. “I understand.”

I was about to hang up, when I heard my father’s voice erupt again down the line. “Lexie. Wait.”

I put the phone back to my ear. “What is it?”

Tobias kept his profile trained on the loch and the scenery but every so often would award me a soft look of support.

My stomach rippled.

I returned my attention back to my phone call with my dad. For a moment, there was a deafening silence. I thought the line had crashed. I put the other hand over my other ear, as a couple of bickering gulls, the loch and a gaggle of tourists triggered a melting pot of sound. “Hello? Are you still there, Dad?”

There was a crackle. “Yes, I’m here.” His voice became thicker. “Thank you, Lexie. Thank you.”

Chapter Twenty

Rhiannon, Mum, Grandpa and I indulged in a cheeky Chinese takeaway, before my friend prepared to set off in her funky electric-blue Mazda for Glasgow.

She hovered at Mum’s front door and gripped onto the long black handle of her shocking-pink wheelie case, which was bright enough to have been able to guide stranded ships home. Rhiannon didn’t do discreet. “Now, I’m not going to go over old ground and repeat myself.”

“Excellent. Good to know.”

“But promise me that you’ll think about what I said, Lexie. I don’t think you realise what a talented editor you are.”

Returning to work in publishing was the very last thing I wanted, but I had to placate her somehow. “If I tell you I’ll think about what you said, will you stop nagging me?”

Rhiannon batted her warm hazel eyes, slicked with glittery blue shadow. “I can’t make rash promises.”

I gave her a nudge, a hug and watched her wheel her clacking case towards her car. “Have a good journey. Let me know you get home ok.”

Mum and Grandpa joined me to wave her off. Rhiannon waved back out of the driver side window as it began to melt away up the road. She interspersed her waving with the odd one-handed writing mime, which I think was supposed to represent editing. I responded by sticking out my tongue.

Mum and Grandpa vanished back inside and I stood taking in the quiet street and the orange silhouette emerging from behind the castle in the distance.

Then I disappeared back up to my room to get ready, both physically and mentally, for meeting up with my dad.

I tied my hair up into a messy bun and freshened my make-up.