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They were exchanging a smile when Toby butted in. ‘What about me? You were going to take me there for lunch, remember?’
Thea managed to prise her eyes off Callum for a moment. She turned to Toby. ‘Oh, yes – of course.’
‘I can’t wait to tell Katie that I met—’
‘Um, Toby … remember the plan?’ said Thea.
‘Oh, yeah. I forgot.’
Callum looked from Toby to Thea. ‘The plan?’
Thea sighed. ‘This is going to make me sound a really devious person. I’m not, really I’m not.’
Neither am I, thought Callum, knowing that he had no intention of telling her what he was really doing there in the bookshop – not right now, anyway. He’d made up his mind. Not until he had got to know her better. He grinned at her. ‘Do tell.’
‘Toby has been suspended for five days, but we didn’t tell his sister, Katie, that. Just that he’d been suspended for one day, so she doesn’t know he’s spending time with me at the bookshop.’
‘How come?’
‘Well, if it gets back to their father working away in London, he might come back earlier, then I may have to leave.’
‘Leave?’
‘Oh, yeah, Auntie Thea is looking after us while Dad is working away and Mum is in hospital with a broken leg.’
Thea looked at Toby. ‘Yes, I’m looking after them for a few days, which is why I’m here in Suffolk.’
‘Oh, you don’t live here?’
‘No, not normally. London. Although when I walked into this place yesterday, I must admit, I felt like staying here longer. I could do with a change of scenery. Don’t get me wrong, I love my job in London, but I needed to get away, and I don’t think a few days, a fortnight tops, is going to turn out to be long enough.’
The look on her face said she hadn’t meant to come out with all that, but her pained expression suggested that someone had let her down – big time. He guessed, like him, she’d split up with someone recently.
‘When I walked into the bookshop yesterday, well, it hadn’t occurred to me to run a bookshop …’ she trailed of.
Callum’s mind was racing. It was ridiculous; he’d only just met her. And yet going through his mind at this moment was the thought that they could run the shop together. And perhaps their work relationship would blossom into something more.
He was about to ask her how Toby had found a key to the shop, when Thea looked at him, and said, ‘I will have lunch with you. But there is one proviso.’
‘That Toby can come too? Which is totally fine by me.’
‘No, it’s not that, but obviously Toby is coming to lunch with us.’
‘I should hope so,’ mumbled Toby, returning to his work, completing the first part of binding a book, which was to carefully cut away the old cover.
‘So, what is the proviso?’ Callum grinned. ‘Anything – name it.’
Thea looked at him. ‘You carry on with teaching Toby all about bookbinding. I don’t like that he’s off school. I want him to do something productive, and learning a new skill would be perfect. Otherwise I know he will just laze around and read all day.’
Callum caught Toby glancing his way with a worried look on his face, clearly hoping Callum didn’t mention that he’d caught Toby doing just that.
Callum smiled. ‘I’d be delighted.’ He was so looking forward to having lunch and getting to know her better.
Toby exclaimed, ‘Great!’ Although he did frown at his aunt as he added, ‘I like reading.’
‘Yes, I know, Toby. But there’s a time and a place for that—’
He rolled his eyes. ‘If you can’t do it in a bookshop, where can you do it?’
