Page 91 of Winter Nights at the Bay Bookshop
His eyes widened. ‘Is that a yes?’
‘Of course it’s a yes! To the house, the hearth, the cat, the dog and most of all to you. Yes, yes, yes!’
I flung myself into his arms. The hug became a kiss and, oh my goodness, had I missed Lars’s kisses? I had nearly a week’s worth to catch up on, plus lots of making up ones. This could take a while and I was going to cherish every single moment but first I had something to show him so I reluctantly pulled away.
‘I did a thing which I didn’t run by you because I didn’t imagine anything would come of it, but it has and I’m still a little stunned by what happened.’ I laughed at his bewildered expression. ‘Yeah, that made no sense, did it?’
I reached into the bag and withdrew the letter. ‘You’ll suss what the thing I did was when you read this. I hope you’re okay with it.’
I kept my eyes on Lars’s expression while he read, watching his eyes widen then brim with tears.
‘Thank you so much. I can’t believe you did that,’ he said, his voice catching when he’d finished reading.
I passed him the copy ofAnna and the Snow Dragon. He ran his fingers over the cover before carefully opening the first page, gulping as he read Sigrid Hansen’s signature and the words accompanying it:
May you find your snow dragon and soar high on the wings of dreams.
The tears escaped at that point and he drew in a deep shaky breath.
I slipped my arm around his waist and cuddled against him. ‘It’s beautiful, isn’t it?’
While he finished turning the pages, I lifted the pictures from the bag, removed the bubble wrap and rested one on each garden chair.
‘I think we’ve found the first pictures for the walls of our home,’ I said when he looked up from the book.
‘That was Pia’s favourite illustration!’ he whispered, clapping his hand over his mouth as he looked at the first one then moved his gaze to the second. ‘The aurora! Oh, wow! These are incredible. If Pia was here today to see them. Just a second.’
He bent down and adjusted the chairs to face the front of the house and something suddenly clicked into place.
‘She’s here, isn’t she?’
Lars nodded. ‘Pia loved Hutton Wicklow Castle. When she was well, I sometimes gave her a piggyback there and she’d swoop her snow dragon round the ruins. Mum and Pabbi had a horrendous argument about what to do with her ashes. They talked about having half each and I hated the idea of her being taken to Iceland – somewhere she’d only visited once – so I shouted at them to stop arguing because there was only one place Pia would want to rest. They actually listened to me and we scattered her ashes round the castle grounds. That was one heck of a painful day but I’m glad we did it. So Whitsborough Bay is my forever home because this is where the three women who have my heart are – Pia, Nanna and you.’
I noticed the absence of his mum in that list, although that wasn’t surprising after the conversations we’d had about her.
‘Did you become the Paperback Pixie because of Pia?’ I asked.
‘Pia’s love of books was what gave me the idea and I wanted to share it with the world. The name came from our nickname for her. We called her Pixie.’
‘That’s such a beautiful thing to do and so generous of you.’
‘It’s what she’d have wanted. I’d better tell you more about it.’
‘I can’t wait to hear more but, before we do, I’d love another kiss.’
He cupped my face in his hands and kissed me slowly and tenderly. I’d found my forever home too and it wasn’t just The Lodge. It was Lars.
50
LARS
Christmas Eve arrived which meant it was time to celebrateJólabókaflóð. When Lily gave it to me as a pet project, I’d initially been a little apprehensive as to how it would go down but the reaction to the Yule Lads had been so positive that my anxiety had drifted away.
Freyja had been really helpful with her insights on how bookshops in Iceland celebratedJólabókaflóðso I’d proposed several ideas to Lily, thinking she’d go for one or two, but she’d gone for them all. The final Yule Lad arriving today was Kertasníkir, the ‘Candle Stealer’, although he didn’t just like their glow; he liked to eat them. His image and explanation went in the window first thing and the Christmas Cat came out to make way for the explanation aboutJólabókaflóð.
We’d had flyers made to hand out to customers and we’d partnered with Charlee’s Chocolates, Yorkshire’s Best and Bear With Me to create some gift boxes for sale in celebration of the book flood and the cosy feeling it evoked. The adult version included a festive novel, a pair of fluffy socks and a bookish mug supplied by Bay Books, a hot chocolate stirrer and box of chocolates from the chocolaterie and a cranberry- or pine-scented candle with a small jar of matches from Yorkshire’s Best. The child’s version contained a festive picture book, colouring book and felt tips from us, a bag of festive chocolate treats from Charlee and a small soft toy from Bear With Me. The boxes were available in all the partner shops with guidance that the book could be exchanged at Bay Books if the customer already had it.
In the bookshop, we also had a box covered in Christmas paper containing books offered at a reduced price. Each one was gift-wrapped with a sticker on it outlining the key details – age, genre, brief premise. Lily had said they’d done ablind date with a bookfor Valentine’s Day a few years back and it had gone down really well so it was definitely worth repeating the concept forJólabókaflóð.None of the activities were specifically a book exchange but more about providing the materials for others to exchange. We were, after all, running a business so couldn’t just give a stack of books away.
