Page 42 of The Sugar and Spice Bookshop Bakery

‘The turquoise top then. With your best jeans. And boots.’

*

Two hours later, Louise is sitting opposite Jack in the small restaurant section of the Red Lion, where they’re currently the only customers. She’s wearing her turquoise top, her best jeans and a pair of high-heeled boots that she can barely walk in and that definitely weren’t designed with the cobbled streets of Applethwaite in mind. She feels self-conscious – the neckline of the top is lower than she remembered – but she’s also glad that Maddie insisted she changed. Jack is wearing chinos and a smart striped blue shirt, with a cream jumper casually draped around his shoulders like a model in a clothing catalogue.

He could have been a model, Louise thinks. He definitely has the looks.

‘Good evening,’ the barman from the previous evening is standing by their table. He leans across with a lighter, igniting the wick of tall candle stuck in an old wine bottle, coated with drops of solidified wax.

‘Hi Tom,’ Jack says. ‘How are you?’

‘I’m fine, thanks,’ Tom says. ‘Is your daughter not joining you tonight?’

For a second, Louise thinks he’s talking to Jack, then realises he’s looking at her. ‘Oh, er, she’s my stepdaughter, actually. Well, ex-stepdaughter technically, but no, she’s not coming tonight.’ She looks at Jack. ‘I think she was actually a bit miffed that she wasn’t invited.’

Jack winces. ‘Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t want to upset her. But I do need to speak to you about something. Privately.’

Tom looks from Jack to Louise, then back to Jack. ‘I’ll come back and take your order later, should I?’

Jack shakes his head. ‘No, no. Let’s order first. We can chat later. What would you like, Louise?’

She glances down the menu. ‘I’ll have… the filled Yorkshire with sausage and mash, please.’

‘Steak, medium-rare, with skin-on fries,’ Jack says. ‘And a side salad too, please.’

‘Any sauces with that?’ Tom says, scribbling in his notepad.

‘No, thanks.’

‘Any more drinks?’

Jack shakes his head again. They’ve barely started the bottle of Valpolicella that sits on the table between them.

They both watch Tom as he heads back to the bar and begins to punch their food order into the till. Then Louise looks at Jack and says, ‘So…?’

‘So?’

‘What did you want to talk to me about?’

Jack picks up the bottle of wine and tops her glass up, even though she’s only taken a few sips.

He seems nervous.

Is he?

He couldn’t be, could he?

Is he about to declare that he has feelings for her? That he wants to come clean before he starts working on her bookshop bakery? Just so there isn’t any awkwardness?

Perhaps Maddie is right.

Perhaps this is a date.

‘There’s something I really have to tell you,’ Jack says.

Underneath the table, Louise crosses her legs. Then uncrosses them again. She picks up her wine glass and takes a large swig.

Jack pauses, fiddling with the stem of his own glass. He’s definitely nervous and it’s kind of sweet. She much prefers a man who’s anxious about declaring his feelings to one who’s so cocky and sure of himself that he’s certain those feelings will be reciprocated.