Page 13 of Coming Home to Crumbleton

‘When’s he back?’ said Ruby.

‘He’s… not?’ said Oli.

Uh oh… didn’t she know…? Surely someone had told her…

‘Unless you’ve invited him to your signing?’ he said, hoping that’s what she meant. He paused, waiting for her to answer, but Ruby just stood in front of him, her eyes wide. She looked lost, and it was as much as he could do not to reach out and give her a hug.

‘He fell in love with a wonderful guy,’ said Oli, as soon as he realised she wasn’t going to say anything. ‘He moved away to be with him.’

‘You’re not telling me he just left this place behind,’ said Ruby quietly. ‘There’s no way…’

‘Well - yeah, he did!’ said Oli. ‘He sold it to me and danced off into the sunset with his very own romantic hero. From what I’ve heard on the grapevine, he’s really happy. Turns out Rhodders - his beau - is basically landed gentry. We’re talking family pile and a huge library.’

‘Sounds like Reuben’s version of heaven,’ she said quietly.

Oli nodded. ‘I like to imagine him in his best waistcoat with his feet up in front of the library fire and a book open on his lap.’

Ruby smiled softly for the briefest moment, and Oli felt it knock the breath right out of him.

‘So,’ she said, clearly trying to pull herself together. ‘So… this place is yours now?’

Oli nodded again. ‘Didn’t your publisher tell you it was me who’d booked you?’

‘No,’ said Ruby, letting out a long sigh. ‘But to be fair to them, that’s my fault. When my editor told me I’d be finishing my tour here, she said she’d forward the contact details to me, but I told her not to bother. I told her I knew the owner. I told her we were old friends…’

‘Ruby - all those things are still true!’ laughed Oli. ‘You do know the owner, and we are old friends.’

‘Friends?!’ squeaked Ruby.

‘You know what I mean,’ said Oli tightly. She did have a point though. Friends didn’t come anywhere close to describing what they’d been to each other.

‘But… but…’ spluttered Ruby, taking a tiny step backwards.

‘But what?’ said Oli, watching her face closely, trying to gauge what was going on in her head.

‘But… this means you knew I was coming,’ she said, shaking her head in confusion. ‘You must have known my team had booked me in here. You must have known!’ she said again, shooting a glance at the life-sized cut out of herself in the window.

‘Known?!’ laughed Oli. ‘Of course! I was the one who contacted your publishers. I sent the invitation and then convinced them it’d make the perfect end to your tour.’ He stopped and ran his fingers through his hair. ‘I set up that ridiculous thing in the window, too. Oh - and I bought as many copies of your book as my budget would allow. So yeah - I knew you’d be here.’

Ruby stared at him, looking like he’d just slapped her across the face with a wet haddock. This wasn’t right. This wasn’t the way he’d planned for this meeting to go.

‘Ruby, look-’ he started, wanting to go back to the beginning and explain everything.

‘I’ve got to go!’

Before he could even react, Ruby tossed the little key for the collectables cabinet onto the desk, turned on her heel and darted from the shop. The door slamming closed behind her sounded like the most damning full-stop he’d ever heard.

‘Well… shit!’ he muttered, leaning both hands on his desk. ‘That was definitely not the plan.’

CHAPTER 7

RUBY

Ruby set off downhill at a trot without even thinking about where she was going. She just wanted to put as much distance between herself and the bookshop as quickly as she could.

Who was she kidding? It wasn’t the bookshop she was running away from – it was the unexpected new owner!

The unexpected - still-gorgeous - new owner!

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