Page 85 of The Bookshop By the Loch

My throat was dry. “Tobias,” I stuttered, before I had time to change my mind. “There’s something…”

“White or red?”

I froze. A woman’s husky voice was chatting to him in the background.

“White or red, Tobes?” she repeated.

“Oh, white please,” he answered, his voice muffled as I could hear him move the phone away for a moment. “Sorry, Lexie. You were saying?”

I drew up and stopped prowling around the kitchen. Tobes? Embarrassment shot through my veins. He was with someone. I struggled to stay composed. Had he found solace in the company of a woman? Why couldn’t he have drunk wine with me?

My heart drummed in my ears. Oh God. And I’d been about to confess how I felt about him. Shame gnawed at me. Had I been wrong? Perhaps my notion that he was beginning to become attracted to me was my wishful thinking after all?

I should have listened to my common sense. Why the hell hadn’t I?

Burning tears cluttered up my eyes, but I jammed my lips together to bite them back. I should have the word MUG stamped in neon lights across my forehead. Memories of us almost kissing earlier; the feel of his thumb softly brushing my cheek; the sexy curve of his full lips; came crashing through my head.

“Lexie. Lexie? Hello? Are you still there?”

I raked a hand through my hair, sending it whipping back from my face, like a straight, light brown flag. “Er. Hi. Yes. Sorry, look, I’m going to have to go.”

“Oh. Ok. I meant what I said to you. Thank you so much for being there for me. I don’t know what I would have done––”

I’d heard enough. I cut him off. “No worries. That’s what friends are for. See you at work tomorrow.” I jabbed at my phone, desperate to end the call. Why did I ever think that I might stand a chance of having a happy ever after? Ha! Editing romance had given me too high expectations.

A single tear trickled down my face, but I brushed it away. I’d spent the best part of the day fretting about Tobias, imagining him in bits, confused and hurt. Instead, he was with a woman, helping him knock back wine?!

I banged around in the kitchen, clattering plates. The bastard!

What had that almost kiss been? Was it just because he’d felt emotional? Confused, maybe? Was he a player after all? Had he seen an opportunity to kiss me? Or maybe I’d been some sort of temporary distraction? Hadn’t it meant anything to him?

Well, whatever games he thought he was playing, there was no way I was going to neglect Book Ends. It was going to be difficult for a while, having to work alongside him, but I would just have to make the best of things.

I thumped another plate. I wasn’t prepared to jeopardise Book Ends’ future or my own, just because Tobias was behaving like a tosser.

The height of the summer season would be here before we knew it, and now I’d hired a couple of staff members I could take some time off, knowing there was sufficient help in Book Ends.

I wouldn’t have to see Tobias as often. The less that happened, the better.

I found myself clinging to the hope that if Mirror Image continued to do well, Tobias would view Bracken Way as too self-limiting anyway and he’d look to expand elsewhere.

I jumped as my phone’s ringtone interrupted my thoughts.

I snatched it up. Mum’s image appeared.

Guilt tripped up my spine. I’d been so preoccupied with thoughts of Tobias and his mysterious woman just now, my parents meeting up had been temporarily relegated.

“Hi. How did it go with Dad?

“Good.” There was an awkward silence. “I’m on my way back now.”

“Good?” I probed.

Mum sounded weird. “Yes. Very.”

I waited for her to elaborate, but there was just a strange silence. “Mum, are you alright?”

“Yes,” she squeaked after a few seconds’ pause. “At least, I think so.”