Page 23 of The Bookshop at the Cornish Cove

‘I beg to differ with you there, daughter dear.’

‘Me too!’

All I needed was MumandDennis ganging up on me.

‘You should bring them in here, Wendy. Nancy could clear off a shelf and make a lovely display. What a gorgeous memento of Driftwood Bay for people to buy. A hand-painted scene on a shell.’

I tried to grab the phone from him but he held it behind his back.

‘They’d never sell. You’re being ridiculous.’

‘You’rebeing ridiculous. You’d sell them for good money. I know it.’

Mum smiled at me over Dennis’s head, mouthing, ‘I told you so.’

I could feel myself chewing the inside of my cheek, a nervous habit I knew I had when I was a little unsure of something while I was pondering. I suppose I didn’t really have a lot to lose bytrying it. Apart from my dignity if people thought they were a load of old crap.

‘Maybe I could put a couple up for a couple of quid each and see if there’s any interest.’

‘A couple of quid. More like twenty I was thinking.’ Mum looked at me smugly, clearly on Dennis’s side.

‘Twenty quid!’ I exclaimed. ‘That’s way too much.’

The bell above the door tinkled and Lucy from the B&B reversed in, pulling a pushchair in with her.

‘Let’s see, shall we?’ Dennis winked at me and that little tummy flip happened again. I did wish he’d stop doing that. If he only knew what it was doing to my insides. ‘Let me help you there,’ he said to Lucy. ‘Do you mind me asking you for a little bit of market research?’

‘Of course not, Dennis. Anything for you.’ She fluttered her eyelashes. Shame on her. Her, a married woman. Was I the only female in Driftwood Bay that hadn’t fallen under his charm?

‘How much would you pay for something like this?’ He passed her the phone.

‘Wow. That is stunning. Probably about £50. Oh, look. It’s Driftwood Bay. Look at the little houses in the harbour. I’d love to know who the supplier is. I’d sell these in the B&B to our customers. They’d love them.’

Dennis turned round with an ‘I-told-you-so’ expression on his smug face.

‘Thanks, Lucy, that’s really helpful. Are you looking for anything in particular?’

‘I’ve got a birthday present to buy for someone, but, as always, I’ve left it till the last minute and I could really do with getting something in the post. I wondered if you’d got anything suitable. I was thinking about maybe a notebook or pen or something but now I’ve seen that, I want that. I wonder if the company sell them online.’

‘What company?’ I asked, not quite following her train of thought.

‘The company that sells them.’

‘Tell you what, Lucy,’ Dennis said with a grin. ‘As it’s you and I know the owner, I’ll drop one round to the B&B later in a gift box if you like. It’ll be twenty pounds. How does that sound?’

‘Oh, Dennis, you could sell me anything. You’re such a charmer. That would be amazing. Do you really know the owner?’

‘I do. Not only is she kind, incredibly pretty and generally lovely, she’s also super talented too.’

‘Oh, you should date her. She sounds perfect.’

‘Now there’s an idea.’ His raised eyebrow and mischievous grin made me shake my head as, totally embarrassed, I excused myself and sloped off to the back of the shop. Because Lucy and James were all loved up and playing happy families, she took every opportunity she could to pair up everyone in the village. If she’d have known it was me that Dennis was talking about, she’d have been doing it even more. Thank goodness she didn’t.

I could hear Lucy shout, ‘See you later, Nancy,’ but I couldn’t bring myself to show my face just yet. I wondered if Dennis meant what he’d said or whether he was just teasing. Either way, I had decided that I was going to stay in here as long as I possibly could, but it seemed like others had different ideas.

14

There was a knock on the kitchen door.

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