Page 80 of The Bookshop By the Loch

“So, back to this weird stand-off with Flora and Celeste?”

He didn’t want to discuss it. I buried a frustrated sigh.

Tobias brows fenced as he turned it over in his head. “Celeste has never mentioned anything to me about silver songbirds when I’ve been painting her portrait. How do you like your latte?”

“Frothy please.”

“The frothier the milk, the better,” he smiled. Then he raised one finger. “Lexie, you’ve got a small piece of yellow paper stuck to your face.”

I shot one embarrassed hand up to my right cheek. “Where?”

My fingers fumbled at my cheek.

“No, you keep missing it.”

Tobias strode towards me, covering the floor in two long strides and, as if in slow motion, he raised one hand and brushed it against my face.

My breath lodged in the base of my throat.

He looked down at me from under his lashes. His fingers left a tingling sensation. “There. Got it.”

He opened his palm and a shred of yellow paper was sitting there. My skin felt the sensation of his touch, the warmth of his hands making me flush.

I pulled away from him as though he’d burned me. “Great. Thanks,” I managed. “I might have started a new fashion trend, walking around with that on my face.”

Tobias blinked at the sudden space between us. “Yes. Sure. No problem.” He gestured to his posh black and chrome coffee maker. “Right. Two lattes coming up.”

I hurried over to the bookshop counter and flapped around, trying to look busy but not doing anything.

Pull yourself together. You can’t keep reacting like this.

As I shuffled around some change in the till, a thought occurred to me. Perhaps Tobias was a serial flirt? Maybe this sort of thing was just a game to him? What if he was one of those guys who would try and reel a girl in, get her interested and once she was, he’d become bored and move onto the next one? It made sense. The blowing hot and cold.

Annoyance and hurt were piling up inside of me. I wasn’t his plaything. He could bugger off if he thought he could treat me like that. He might look like Jon Snow out of Game of Thrones, but that didn’t give him the right to act this way.

Tobias returned, grasping two white mugs of steaming, milky lattes.

“Thanks,” I smiled coolly, accepting one from him.

I concentrated on the intense scent of the coffee and took a couple more steps backwards, as if doing that would make a sudden wall appear between us.

I hoped he wouldn’t notice.

Shit. He had.

Tobias’s brows flexed over his mug. “Lexie, I hope you don’t mind me asking, but don’t you like my aftershave?”

“Sorry?”

“My aftershave? Only, I’ve noticed you move away from me a couple of times.”

Oh bugger. Now what was I going to say? My mind struggled for a sensible reply. I let out a tinkly laugh. “Not at all.” I tried to cover my tracks, but sounded like a raving lunatic instead. “Your aftershave is very nice. Very spicy. You must have imagined it.”

Tobias didn’t look convinced. “Thanks.” He took a mouthful of his coffee. “How’re things with your dad?”

“My mum is going to meet him.”

“Great. Well, that’s good… isn’t it?”