Page 36 of The Bookshop at the Cornish Cove

I giggled. I was not a giggler but somehow in his presence I became one. He was dry and full of one-liners that werehilarious. I don’t think he even realised how funny he was. I rolled my eyes at myself and told him to relax.

‘I’ve told you before, I find it hard to relax.’

‘Oh, Dennie, you’re a nightmare. Chill out!’

‘Nancy, I’m finding it quite unrelaxing to have you bellowing at me. Not really conducive, you know? Can we not have some twinky-twonky music playing and some smelly candles to help the atmosphere a little?’

‘We’re trying to talk to the universe here, not have a romantic night in.’

‘Well, perhaps we need to woo the universe a little more. Make it a little more ambient.’

‘Dennie!’ I warned.

He held his hands up to me.

‘OK, OK. I’m relaxing. Honest.’

‘Now think of the thing you really want.’

‘Mmmm! I am.’ His deep guttural elongated pronunciation of such a small phrase hit me with a power I didn’t know existed. Blimey, just imagine if… No! I couldn’t allow myself to imagine anything more than us being friends. Since our bike ride, I had taken stock of our situation and we’d been getting on like a house on fire. As friends. He would be heading back to London soon, I would be here alone, and with a thriving business that I didn’t have to worry about any longer. My plan for the next year was coming along swimmingly and I was going to be so busy I wouldn’t have time to even think about him when he was gone.

‘Now, you ask the universe in your head to make it happen. Then think about it in the present. Imagine how it would feel if you had the thing that you wanted. Can you see it?’

‘God! Yes!’ The tone that he said those two little words in was sexier than I could ever imagine. Was he doing it on purpose to wind me up?

‘OK, so you can open your eyes now.’

‘Thank you.’

‘How did that feel?’

Again, those gorgeous brown eyes locked onto mine and I felt like he could see right into the very soul of me. I sincerely hoped that at that very moment he could not read my mind. I was thinking things that one should never be thinking about a friend. But then most people didn’t have friends who looked the spitting image of Ryan Gosling.

‘OK. So, let’s see if it happens now then. See whether this bullshit you spout comes true.’

‘Harsh.’

‘The proof will be in the pudding.’

‘It really is.’

‘Anyhow, what are you doing at the weekend?’

‘Beach angeling on Saturday and then on Sunday I really need to see if I can get some more large shells. I’ve used all but the last one. If not, I’m going to have to buy some, but I don’t really want to do that unless I have to. Keep the costs down and all that.’

He put his hands together in prayer. ‘Thank you, Lord! She listens.’

I swatted him with the pad I’d been using to do some journaling in. Another manifestation tool was to write down what you wanted. I was a big believer in vision boards too but thought that might definitely be a bit too woo-woo for him.

At that point Mum walked in. She’d brought us both some sweet potato and cinnamon soup. Dennis was still struggling with Vi’s food. She’d offered him banana and spinach cake the day before and he’d refused, saying that he didn’t want to start putting on weight again, rather than hurting her feelings. Mum had laughed when he told her this – apparently Vi had told her that Dennis was turning his nose up a lot at all the things she suggested and said that he could do his own cooking.

‘This smells gorgeous, Wendy,’ he said, taking the package. ‘Thanks so much.’

‘My pleasure, treasure. If I’m doing some for Nancy, then another mouth being fed makes me happy.’

‘Mum’s a feeder. You may have noticed.’ I laughed and Mum narrowed her eyes at me.

‘I suppose I am really. I think it comes from when your brother was bullied at school. I used to feed him things I knew he loved when he got home so it would cheer him up. I think that’s why he has all these issues these days with his girlfriends. I don’t think he feels like he’s ever worthy of anything else after all that trouble he had back then.’

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