Page 74 of The Bookshop By the Loch

More flirtatious smiles were exchanged.

“Tobias…”

“Oh, excuse me.” His mobile rang out by the kitchen sink and he reached out one muscular arm to retrieve it.

His heated expression as he glanced up at me again made my knees feel as though they were made of water.

But his expression darkened when he saw who the caller was.

It was like a tower of bricks tumbling and crashing down. He whipped his head to one side, away from me. “I’m not doing this now. What do you mean? I don’t need to do anything, Mum.”

Awkward silence prevailed. I made a move to stand up, but Tobias shook his head and pointed at my stool, encouraging me to sit back down again.

I could make out the emotional female voice of his mother down the line.

“Ok. Tell you what. I will, if it means no more nagging and not having anything to do with this sham of a family!”

His jaw was set like concrete. “I’m busy for the next couple of days with Mirror Image, but I’ll get back to you.” He rung off.

Tobias dumped down his phone on the black marble breakfast bar. The excited air of anticipation between us moments ago had been sucked out of the room.

He glanced at me across the table. “I know I can’t keep putting off the inevitable, but right now, I don’t want to think about having to face my mother and uncle.”

“I do understand, if it’s any consolation.” I flicked him a look.

His expression had lost the fire from earlier. “Relationships,” he managed. “I don’t think they’re worth the hassle in the long run.” He angled his eyes away. A conflicted expression was gripping his features. “Either personal or family.” He shifted on his breakfast bar stool. It was as if the words were pieces of jagged glass in his throat. “You’re a good friend, Lexie.”

My stomach dropped to the floor.

What? What just happened? Had I just imagined the last five minutes?

Tobias pushed and pulled at his empty plate.

Burning hurt stacked up behind my eyes. Had I read it wrong? Was my radar out of kilter? Was it because of the phone call with his mum?

Tobias clapped his hands together. “Now, would you like some coffee?”

I managed to shake my head and scrambled from my stool. I couldn’t stay here a moment longer. I felt an utter idiot. My insides were twisting. He’d clammed up. A good friend. But that was what I’d wanted, wasn’t it?

I wanted to go home. I didn’t want to be here anymore. Embarrassment caught in my throat. “No thanks. That was lovely. I had better be off. No rest for the wicked.”

“I’ll drop you back.”

“No! I mean, no thanks. I would rather walk.”

I darted out into the hall, snatched my bag and jacket and made for the door. I wanted to escape and not be anywhere near Tobias right now.

I walked home from Tobias’s flat, my head and heart feeling shamefaced. He’d invited me over for dinner, flirted with me, we’d laughed and teased one another, he’d said he had been thinking about me and then he backtracked and hit me with the dear friend line.

I gulped in greedy mouthfuls of air tinged with the scent of flowers. My head was overloaded with confused thoughts.

My publishing career, my dad, now Tobias – why the hell was I lurching from one mess to another? Where was I going wrong? What had happened to my common sense?

I reached Mum’s house and scrambled for my key in my bag, eager to get inside and slam the door closed behind me.

It was as I was kicking off my shoes, trying not to look at my distraught image in the hall mirror, that Mum appeared from out of the sitting room.

“Had a good time?” she smiled. “I thought you might be back a bit later than this.”