Page 42 of The Bookshop at the Cornish Cove

‘He’s your brother and he clearly needs you right now,’ Dennie said. ‘Go and let him in.’

I groaned as I tore myself away. I opened the kitchen door and walked down the hallway, shouting at Dan to calm down and stop banging on the door.

‘Hey, sis, how are you doing?’

‘Erm, yes. I’m good thanks.’

‘Are you sure? You’re a bit flushed in the face.’ He held the back of his hand to my head. ‘You’re not sickening for something, are you?’

Dennie coughed as he came out of the kitchen with two coffee mugs in his hand and walked towards the chairs in the bay window. Dan and I followed him.

‘Oh, right, that explains everything. Sorry, I didn’t know you had company. I woke up and you’d gone so I figured you’d be here.’ He was totally oblivious to the hugely momentous scene that had just happened at the train station.

‘Yeah, we were just…’

‘It’s fine, we were just…’

Dennie and I couldn’t look at each other but I could hear from his voice that the corners of his mouth would be turning up.

I said ‘stocktaking’ at the same time as he said, ‘ordering some books’.

‘Oh, so that’s what you call it.’ My brother grinned at me. ‘About time, Nancy. About time.’ He winked at me and flung himself down one of the armchairs in the window. ‘No sugar for me thanks, Nance, and while you’re doing that, I’ll have a little word here with yer man.’

Shaking my head and wondering what the hell my brother was going to say to Dennie, I headed back to the kitchen. I felt like my whole life had changed in the space of an hour. What did this now mean though? I frowned as lots of thoughts flew through my mind: was he stopping here in Driftwood Bay, or was he heading back to London again? How could we conduct a long-distance love affair? How was our story going to end? All of this, just as our story was beginning, and it scared the crap out of me. I was forging ahead too fast, almost seeing it not work out before I was going to give it a chance. I needed to get back out into the shop and stop my brain working overtime.

I got back to the shop floor just in time to hear Dan say to Dennie, ‘…or I’ll break your legs!’

‘What’s going on here then?’

They were both smiling so I knew it was nothing too serious.

‘Your brother was just telling me that if I broke your heart, he’d break my legs.’

‘Oh, right.’ My hands wouldn’t stop trembling as I put Dan’s coffee down on the table between the chairs. They were both sat extremely comfortably, seemingly at ease in each other’s company.

Dan continued. ‘I just wanted to say that I’m sorry, Nancy. For letting you think that my relationship is normal. I think I’ve finally realised that it isn’t.’

Dennie lifted himself out of the chair. ‘I’ll leave you two to it.’

‘No, it’s fine, mate,’ Dan said. ‘There’s nothing you can’t hear. It’s probably good if you do to be honest. I want you both to hold me accountable. I know I’ve made a lot of mistakes and I know I’ve been the one who stopped you wanting to put yourself out there and find someone to love you, Nancy. But you are a wonderful human being, who deserves the very best of everything in your life. Everything you do, you do for others and not yourself. The beach work you do, the teaching and nowthis.’ He swept his arms around the room and swallowed before he continued. ‘You deserve love in your life, Nancy. Don’t let me and Sabrina be the example of how things should be. Look to Mum and Dad instead. They got the fairy tale and there’s no reason that you shouldn’t too.’

‘I do, Dan, but not many relationships end up like that either.’

‘But it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get your happy-ever-after. You deserve to have someone in your life who puts you first. To love you, to cherish you, to help you and support you to flourish.’ He nodded towards Dennis, who was looking down at his feet, trying not to get involved.

‘And so do you,’ I said.

‘I know, and I promise that I’m going to sort things out with Sabrina once and for all. Remember that lodge that we all used to go to in the woods?’

‘I love that lodge,’ I said, looking up with a smile.

‘I know you do and I do too. We have so many happy memories there from our childhoods, don’t we? I’ve just called the owners and it’s free right now so I’m going to go and spend some time there on my own, to work out how I’m going to break the cycle and start being me again. I haven’t felt like me for years. I might need your help, though, sis.’

‘You’ve got it. Anything you need it’s yours.’

‘You’re the best.’

‘Yeah, I know.’

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