Page 79 of The Mended Hearts Bookshop

He left just as Lucy was coming in. “I just heard,” she said. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine,” Pen said. “Absolutely fine.” She was getting sick of telling people that. She was fine. She’d just had a moment, that was all.

She saw George look at Lucy.

“Listen, I get it, I’ve been doing too much,” Pen said. “And I’m slowing down as of right now. There’s a tray of brownies to go in the oven and I could use another coffee, so why don’t the two of you get on that?”

They scurried off and Pen breathed deeply and evenly, the children watching her wide-eyed. It was only because the kids were being so quiet that Pen could hear what was happening in the kitchen.

“We should take her to the doc,” George was saying.

“She doesn’t want to go and she’s probably just exhausted,” said Lucy.

“Well, she won’t be when she learns that all this was a wasted effort,” said George.

Wasted effort? Suddenly, George’s voice had lowered and Pen couldn’t hear what he was saying. She got up, her legs wobbly and her head still a bit dizzy, and crept toward the kitchen.

“There’s no chance at all?” Lucy said.

“How can there be?” said George.

“No chance of what?” Pen asked, going through into the kitchen and hoping she looked a lot better than she felt.

“It’s nothing,” George said quickly.

“Tell me,” said Pen.

George looked at Lucy who shrugged and then nodded.

“Fine,” he said. “I talked to Jesús. And, um, well, he’s been in contact with Ashley already. In fact, he’s got power of attorney over her inheritance.”

“That should make things easier,” Pen said, forcing herself to smile.

“Except… except we can’t lease the shop,” said George, not looking her in the eye.

“Why on earth not?” asked Pen.

George looked up now. “Because it’s already been sold,” he said quietly.

And Pen’s legs gave way again so that she sank to the ground.

Chapter Thirty Four

At half past two in the afternoon Ash should have been firmly entranced by the neat rows of numbers on her computer screen. Instead, she was staring out of the window, wondering just what to do next.

She had a long list of things that needed taking care of. She should buy a car, for example. Living in London without one was all very well, but outside of the city she was going to need transport. She should also hire a moving company because she really didn’t fancy moving boxes herself.

Her stomach jumped with excitement when she thought about it.

The only tiny fly in the ointment was that she couldn’t tell Pen until Tuesday. She’d decided that she definitely had to tell her in person. But for some reason, Pen didn’t want her there over the weekend. Something that Ash was determined not to let bother her.

She was sure that Pen had her reasons. She was sure that Pen had feelings for her. And she was sure that whatever was keepingPen busy had absolutely nothing to do with, well, with anything that should have her thinking bad thoughts.

“This optimism thing is really starting to work out,” she said out loud. She looked at the empty couch. “And talking to thin air looks a lot less crazy when there’s a cat around. Maybe Mary had a point there.”

She wondered idly whether Fabio would come with the shop. Of course he would, she decided. And she’d let him live there because, as George was desperate to point out, it was his home.

The first phone call came just as Ash was debating how exactly she was going to buy a car when she had zero mechanical knowledge to stop her getting ripped off.

---