Page 15 of The Bookshop at the Cornish Cove

It was clear by the way he clenched his jaw that he was hating someone else being in control.

‘Trust me. You might even enjoy yourself.’

He huffed.

Leading him over to the beach, I unlocked the door of a little wooden hut and removed two litter picker-uppers, twolarge clear plastic bags, two fluorescent tabards and two pairs of gloves. Picking up some jelly beach shoes for us both too, I slipped off my trainers and left them at the side, indicating that he should do the same.

‘You’re not serious. These are Prada, Nancy. I don’t want anyone stealing them. They cost a fortune.’

‘Are they? They look more like Primark to me, but you can lock them in the hut if they’re so precious.’

He grumbled his thanks as I locked the hut back up and handed him one of each of my wares.

‘You want me to pick up litter and wear those?’ He turned his nose up.

‘Yeah. I’m making you an honorary beach angel.’

‘Gee, thanks. Just what I’ve always wanted.’

‘Oh, get over yourself, Dennis. You’re not in your posh London office now. You’re at the seaside and we all need to do our bit in conserving the planet for future generations.’

‘Yippee do!’

He held up his hands in protest as he could see from the way I’d crossed my arms and huffed that I was annoyed by him.

‘You’re quite cute when you’re angry, you know, Nancy. Right, come on then. What am I doing?’

He really was infuriating and I never knew where I stood with him, constantly blowing both hot and cold. I stomped away from him.

‘OK, OK! Wait for me.’ He caught up and grabbed at my arm, spinning me round. ‘I’m sorry! I’m here and I’m happy to help.’

‘Well, tell your face that then.’

He grinned widely and the corners of his brown eyes crinkled.

‘You should smile more often, you know. You’re not so ugly when you’re not being petulant.’

‘Gosh, is that another compliment? Wonders will never cease.’

‘Dennis, can we stop all this? I haven’t got the energy.’

‘Deal. And, to be honest, neither have I today. Come on, let’s get this over with.’ I looked up and he held his hands up again. ‘Last joke, I promise. I’m done now. So, what are we looking for?’

Surprisingly, he did listen quite attentively as I explained that we needed to collect any plastic matter from the beach and he was staggered at the amount we found in just the first half an hour. When I enlightened him on how the plastic gets washed up from the ocean on the tides, he asked many intelligent questions and I felt like he was really taking an interest in what we were doing. I explained that I’d recently found a sweet wrapper from the seventies, which had clearly been floating around for years, and talked about how crisp packets can lurk around for decades. This, I think, made him realise the extent of the issues and he really started to take it all on board. I could see his brain was working overtime and wondered what he was thinking.

‘Do you know, Nancy, it would be great if we could think of some ideas to incorporate your love of the environment with your love of books and the shop. Maybe a recycling project.’

‘That’s not going to make money though, is it, which is really what you need me to be focusing on.’

‘I get that, but it would get people into the shop and maybe while they’re there, they’d buy something. If they don’t come in, they’re never going to buy anything, are they?’

I imitated his deep voice. ‘It’s all about the numbers, Dennis, and fishing where the fish are.’

He rolled his eyes.

‘I do not sound like that.’ His hands rested on his hips. ‘Do I?’

I chewed the inside of my cheek, then turned away, hoping I hadn’t offended him too deeply.

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