Page 99 of The Bookshop By the Loch

“About what?”

“About everything. Celeste has asked me to help her write a letter to her adopted daughter. She’s hoping they can meet before she… before somethings happens to her.”

Tobias shot out both hands and placed them on top of my shoulders. I could feel the imprint of his fingertips. The breath felt trapped in my chest.

“If you want my advice, I’d let the dust settle with Maeve. She’ll come round.”

I struggled to speak as his hands continued to rest on both my shoulders. “You didn’t see the look on her face.”

The warmth of his skin seared into mine. But echoes of the woman’s voice in his flat, talking about wine, bounced around my head again, the intimate way she called him “Tobes”.

I took a deliberate step backwards. Tobias removed his hands and they fell by his sides. He offered me an odd look. “So has Celeste seen her adopted daughter?”

I refocused. “From a distance ten years ago. She’s a musician. Celeste had desperately wanted to talk to her, but she changed her mind at the last minute.” I sighed. “Corinne – that’s her name – lives on the outskirts of Glasgow and is married with two grown-up daughters.”

“So Celeste is a grandmother?”

“Yep.”

Tobias paused. “If Celeste is serious about wanting to reach out to Corinne, I don’t think she should delay things. Time isn’t on our side, unfortunately.”

Did I hear him correctly? “Our”?

“You don’t have to do any of this on your own, Lexie.”

I dropped my attention to the bookshop floor.

“What with taking on this place, the shock of your dad’s illness and then your parents reuniting… well, it hasn’t been an easy time for you. I suppose what I’m trying to say in my clumsy way is that you shouldn’t feel that you’re alone.”

l straightened my back and took a couple more steps backwards. His kind words were chipping away at my resolve, “Thank you, Tobias. I appreciate that. You’re a good friend.”

He stared down at me from under his arched black brows. “Of course. Yes. Right. Friends. That’s what we are.”

I turned back to the counter, so he couldn’t see the pain swallowing me up.

The shop telephone rang, disturbing the awkward silence. I moved to answer it, relieved that I had something to do.

I couldn’t see Tobias behind me, lost in his own thoughts too.

Chapter Thirty-One

“I’m off to take an early lunch,” announced Tobias as he strode down the three steps from the gallery and into Book Ends territory. “I won’t be long.”

I wondered if he was going to meet Wine Woman. “Ok.”

He didn’t elaborate about where he was going, just draped his suit jacket over one arm and disappeared.

Pictures of the two of them gazing across the table at one another in some intimate restaurant made my stomach clench. I imagined her to be a coltish blonde, toned, with sun-kissed shoulders and dimples.

Stop, Lexie. Enough.

I glanced down at my watch. It was coming up for noon. I needed to keep busy, otherwise Wine Woman and Tobias would be tearing at each other’s clothes over the starter, if my imagination had anything to do with it.

I’d promised Celeste I’d visit after closing the bookshop, so we could begin drafting a letter to Corinne.

I was very reluctant to start pulling together the letter when Maeve was so upset and opposed to the whole situation, but I’d promised I would help Celeste.

A steady flow of customers ebbed in and out over the next hour, which kept me occupied and I decided to update the bookshop social media accounts with the latest competition I’d dreamt up for the kids – design your own bookmark and the winning entry would receive a twenty-pound book token to spend in Book Ends.