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Thea was just rising from her seat when Winston returned, wagging his tail. ‘Hey, where did you go?’
‘He came to greet me!’ Katie emerged from behind the bookshelf. She looked at her aunt and said, ‘What the hell has been going on?’ Her gaze shifted along the sofa from Thea to her brother, then to Mabel, and then – ‘Oh, my god!’ Two teenage girls squealed at the top of their voices when they spotted Callum.
Toby stared at his sister, heaved a sigh and rolled his eyes. ‘Callum, meet your biggest fan.’
‘Oh. My. God. Itisyou!’
Callum smiled at the two young teenage girls standing before him. ‘Hi, you must be Katie.’
Thea noticed Katie suddenly came over all shy in the presence of her biggest crush. For the first time ever, she appeared lost for words. She looked at Toby. ‘You know my brother?’
‘Of course.’ Callum put an affectionate hand on Toby’s shoulder.
Toby puffed out his chest. ‘Yeah, we’re good friends.’
‘I’ve missed you at school,’ Caitlin said, smiling shyly at Toby.
Thea looked at her nephew and smiled. She knew that Katie’s friend, Caitlin, was a big fan of Callum’s too, but it was very telling that she only had eyes for Toby.
‘Have you?’ said Toby, looking surprised. ‘Would you like a juice?’
‘Yes, please.’
‘I’ll get you one.’ He stood up. ‘If you come with me, I could show you what I’ve been doing. Callum’s been teaching me bookbinding. Would you like to see?’
‘Oh, yes please.’
Toby disappeared into the back room.
Thea caught Katie staring after her brother. Thinking of Toby learning new things reminded her – wasn’t Katie meant to be in drama class with her friend? How had they got to the shop, and more to the point, how had Katie found out what they were up to?
Callum stood up. ‘You know, I’ve still got some bits and pieces to finish off, so I think I’ll take my coffee and finish off.’ Before he disappeared down another aisle, sensing that Thea had some explaining to do, he stopped and looked at Katie. ‘It’s very nice to meet you, Katie. I hope we can be friends too.’
Katie’s mouth dropped open. ‘Oh, er … yes. I’d like that.’
Mabel stood up too. ‘Well, hello Katie, I’m your … I’m Mabel – I work across the yard in the charity shop. I’ve been helping your aunt too. It’s lovely to meet you. Well, I’d better get going. I’ve got a shop to run.’
Thea had never seen Mabel move so fast. She frowned as she was left to explain her little deception to Katie.
Katie’s eyes followed the others. She slowly turned around and folded her arms – the little diva was back. She cocked her head to one side, and tapped her foot, waiting.
Thea looked sheepishly up at her niece. ‘How did you get here from Leiston?’
‘I’ll ask the questions, if you don’t mind,’ said Katie, sarcastically. She stared at her aunt, and said, ‘Caitlin’s big brother is in the sixth form. Lucky for me he’s just passed his test and got a car.’
Not so lucky for me, thought Thea. ‘But you’re meant to be in drama class.’
‘We told him it’s been cancelled. I said you’d be here, at the bookshop, and he just dropped us both off. Caitlin lives in Aldeburgh, a couple of streets away, so she’s going to walk home.’ Katie added, ‘Do you want to know how I found out?’
It didn’t take long for Katie to explain that she’d overheard Toby on the phone to his best friend.
‘So, when you heard mention of a shop, you guessed it was here?’
‘Well, I know at the weekends, when we come to Aldeburgh, sometimes he disappears, and I caught him walking into Cobblers Yard. I didn’t bother following him into Cobblers Yard. I just assumed he was visiting the old antique store. But then it dawned on me that perhaps it wasn’t that shop, but the one next door.’ She wriggled her little button nose. ‘Why didn’t you just tell me?’
Thea was honest, and told her the plan for her mum to run the bookshop, but that they were getting it all set up as a surprise. ‘I just didn’t want—’
‘Me and my big mouth to ruin the surprise?’
