Page 76 of Winter Nights at the Bay Bookshop
‘I didn’t mean to upset you.’
‘You didn’t. It’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me.’
I gently tilted her chin upwards. ‘I mean it. I love you, Lily.’
‘I love you too.’
Her kiss was tender at first but, as I pulled her closer, the kiss became deeper, more passionate. My heart raced as she untucked my shirt and ran her hands inside, up my back. I ran my fingers into her hair as I kissed her neck and across her collarbone.
‘We can be seen from outside,’ she murmured, tugging my hand as she guided me towards the children’s section. She stopped in the entrance, groaning. ‘It’s children’s books. It feels wrong.’
The staff room would have been the logical place to go but we’d just dumped the chairs in there for speed to sort out properly tomorrow. Lily took my hand and we raced up the stairs, stopping to kiss on the first landing. We kept moving up the building, pausing every so often in a passionate clinch, but only made it up to the third level before the electricity sizzling between us was too much. The creativity level felt like an appropriate place for what was about to happen.
* * *
‘That was unexpected,’ Lily said, as we pulled our clothes back into place a little later.
‘But don’t you say the unexpected things are usually the best?’
‘I do and you absolutely proved the point.’ She ran her hands through her dishevelled hair and turned to look at the bookcase behind her. ‘I don’t think I’m ever going to be able to look at the creative writing section in the same way.’
‘We’ve knocked a couple of books off.’
I bent down to retrieve them and we both burst out laughing at the one on the top: Erin Carlson’sI’ll Have What She’s Having, exploring how three of Nora Ephron’s films –When Harry Met Sally,Sleepless in SeattleandYou’ve Got Mail –reinvented the romantic comedy genre. Everyone knew the iconic scene inWhen Harry Met Sally. It was the perfect reference for what we’d just done, except it had been real for us. So very real.
39
LARS
A week later, Lily invited me over to Everdene straight from work for tea and to help put the Christmas tree up. As soon we stepped into the lounge, I could smell that rich pine aroma from a real tree.
‘We’ll be eating in about half an hour,’ Shelby told us, so Lily insisted we crack on straightaway with the lights.
‘Mum hates tinsel,’ Lily said after we’d wrapped some warm white and red lights round the tree.
She passed me a couple of lengths of gold-coloured beads and asked me to drape them in the same way I’d drape tinsel, leaving space between each pass for her to fill with red beads.
‘That looks really effective,’ I said, stepping back once we’d finished. ‘Tidier than tinsel.’
‘That’s one of the reasons Shelby likes the beads so much,’ Marcus said. ‘She likes things tidy and she thinks tinsel looks messy. You know that lametta stuff? She can’t bear that.’
I’d forgotten about lametta and had a sudden flashback to our childhood Christmas tree being covered in the long narrow shiny strips in varying colours courtesy of Pia.
‘My sister loved it. She used to smother the tree with it. I remember Pabbi lifting her up so she could drape it over the highest branches. She loved tinsel too and insisted on it being everywhere – on the tree, around picture frames, wrapped around lamps, even draped across the toilet cistern. We’d be picking up shreds of tinsel and lametta for months after Christmas was over.’
‘Then we’ll have to get some lametta for the tree this year.’ I hadn’t noticed Shelby appearing in the doorway, wiping her hands on a towel.
‘You don’t have to do that for me, especially if you hate the stuff.’
‘Hate’s a strong word,’ she said, laughing. ‘And we want to. You’re part of the family now, Lars, and we like to do something to celebrate the Christmas traditions and decorations of each new member.’
I caught Lily’s eye, unsure as to whether Shelby was just being nice to me but Lily nodded. ‘We bought some houses that light up because Hendrix’s girlfriend – sorry, fiancée – Daisy said they were one of her fondest Christmas memories. She’s not close to her parents but she was really close to her grandma who had a huge Christmas village.’
‘What was Cory’s thing?’ Marcus asked, frowning.
‘How could you forget that?’ Shelby playfully whacked his arm with the towel. ‘It’s one of your favourite new traditions.’
‘Christmas Eve cookies!’ he exclaimed, smiling. ‘Of course! Cory gave us his mum’s recipe and they’re so delicious. We close the shop a little early on Christmas Eve and come home to a big family baking and decorating session.’
