Page 72 of The Mended Hearts Bookshop

For the most part, it was predictably pedestrian. A line about a knitting circle, a line about a book she’d read, something about Billy the postman here, something about Fabio there. As Ash flicked through it, she smiled. Line by line she built up a picture of a life well-lived, a life led as part of a community, the ins and outs of a little town. And she found that she missed Tetherington more than she’d expected.

It wasn’t until a handful of pages in that she found the first really personal entry.

He is twice my size and yet half my heart.

One line. No post-it necessary.

And the pure simplicity of it, the raw honesty of it, was enough to bring stinging tears to Ash’s eyes.

Chapter Thirty One

“Pen, Pen!” George came into the bakery like a whirlwind. “Pen!”

“I heard you the first two times,” Pen said. “Is there some kind of bread emergency? A croissant accident? What’s going on?”

“I’ve had an idea,” George said, leaning on the counter and puffing.

“You look like you’ve had a heart attack.”

“Rude.”

“Sorry,” Pen said. “Here.” She poured a glass of water and pushed it George’s way. “Drink this, take your time.”

“I’ve had an idea,” George said again between gulps of water. “I was talking to Billy and I’ve had an idea.”

“How serious is this thing between you and Billy?” Pen asked. Truthfully, she’d never thought of Billy and George together. Actually, now that she thought about it, she hadn’t known that the postman was gay. But they did make a cute couple.

“Oh, serious,” George said. “We’re probably going to move in together. But were you listening? My idea!”

“You and Billy are moving in together?” Pen asked. It hurt like a splinter. George making things look so easy like that, when she couldn’t even get Ash to consider the idea of moving in. Maybe this was it, maybe it was all over, maybe this was Ash’s way of letting her down easy.

“Stop,” George said, fully recovered and eyeing her. “You’re having doubts, stop it right now. Ash told you she liked you, she told you she wants to be with you and work on your relationship, the least you can do is believe her. She hardly seems like the kind of woman who’d spill feelings like that if she didn’t have to.”

Pen took a deep breath. “Right. You’re right. I shouldn’t doubt her.”

“Not if she hasn’t given you a reason to, and she hasn’t so far, has she?”

Ash had texted multiple times a day and called every evening. So, no, no reason for doubting. Pen sighed. It was just so hard doing things this way and she didn’t like it at all. This whole being realistic thing was not fun at all. “No, no reason to.”

“Right, well trust her then,” said George.

“Do you trust Billy?”

“With my life,” grinned George. “We’re thinking about getting a dog.”

“That seems like a big step.”

George shrugged. “Why not? We’ll have kids one day so it seems like good practice.”

Pen lifted an eyebrow. “Okay, two things. First, you two are already talking about kids? Second, I don’t think a dog is a practice piece for a child.”

“Why wouldn’t we have kids?” asked George. He grinned. “Billy’s the one. It’s that simple. Actually, none of this is reallycomplicated. When someone’s the one you know and, well, things just work out, don’t they?”

“Mmm,” Pen said. She’d thought that for a long, long time but she couldn’t help wondering if she’d been too optimistic. After all, plenty of things didn’t work out. Maybe it was some kind of confirmation bias, you only remembered the things that did work, not the ones that didn’t.

George took a step back from the counter and put his hands on his hips. “Penelope Robson, you’d better tell me right now if you don’t think this thing with Ash is going to work out. Because if I’ve put in all this effort having ideas and you’re just going to break up then I’m going to be quite cross.”

“No, we’re not breaking up,” Pen said.

---