Page 77 of Bea's Book Wagon
‘Don’t worry,’ Bea added quickly. ‘I won’t tell anyone, I promise.’
‘I suppose it’s my own fault, really,’ Katerina sighed, ‘I did include your wagon in my newsletter, and I told you I was a writer. It was silly of me, but I couldn’t resist,’ she continued, a smile lighting up her face, ‘your bookshop is so pretty.’
‘Thank you,’ said Bea, feeling herself blush. ‘That’s lovely of you to say.’
‘Well, it’s true,’ said Katerina, reaching out and patting Bea’s hand.
‘I mean it though,’ said Bea, ‘I really won’t tell anyone you’re here.’
‘Thank you,’ said Katerina, the relief clear in her voice. ‘And thanks for the coffee, Bea. I’m sure I’ll see you again,’ said Katerina, standing to leave.
‘I hope so,’ Bea replied, smiling as she watched Katerina walk away.
CHAPTER 21
Lochlan was due back from his work trip on Friday and Bea couldn’t wait to see him. They’d been messaging while he’d been away, but it wasn’t the same, and she was looking forward to spending the day with him on Saturday.
She’d persuaded Archie to help her create a Shopify store, in exchange for doing his ironing for a month, and she’d ordered some stock from the wholesaler Anya had recommended to add to her product lines. She just needed to make a few final tweaks to the site before it was ready to launch.
She’d spent hours taking photos for the website and her Instagram grid, and bought some props for the shop: more fairy lights and candles. She’d found some cute vintage teacups at the market and brought home some leftover pastries from her shift at the café, too, just for decorative purposes, of course.
Bea had watched loads of ‘how to take the perfect flat lay’ videos and scrolled through Bookstagram for inspiration, and she’d taken dozens of photos of book stacks, organized by size, colour, genre, author and title, incorporating every theme she could think of. She’d even bribed Wordsworth with treats to model next to a shelfie with Marley and Me, Lily and the Octopus, and a personal favourite, Erika Waller’s Dog Days.
Concentrating on building a bank of images she could use helped pass the time quickly and, before she knew it, it was Saturday morning and she could get ready to meet Lochlan.
She’d told him to leave the planning of their day out to her – she wanted it to be a surprise – and she was looking forward to taking him to her favourite beach for a picnic, followed by a shopping trip to all her favourite spots in Rye. She pictured them walking hand in hand through the cobbled streets… so romantic.
Bea hadn’t been to Lochlan’s place before, so when she pulled up outside an exclusive gated development with just four houses, each of which could have fitted Archie’s house inside it ten times over at least, she’d had to check her satnav to make sure she was in the right place.
Was this really where he lived?
When she pressed the buzzer and Lochlan’s voice sounded through the speaker, she still couldn’t quite believe it.
‘Hey, babe, I’ll buzz you through,’ he said, and the wrought-iron gates in front of her swung open.
Before Bea had time to climb out of her car, Lochlan had already shut his front door behind him and was leaning down to kiss her on the cheek.
‘I’ve missed you,’ he murmured in her ear.
‘You too,’ said Bea, feeling a warm glow in the pit of her stomach. ‘This place is… wow,’ she said, lost for words.
‘Yeah, it’s not bad, is it?’ he replied, smiling.
God that smile.
‘I’d invite you in, but the cleaner’s just arrived,’ he added.
‘Oh, yeah, sure,’ said Bea, hiding her disappointment. She’d have loved to have had a look around… next time, hopefully.
‘We can take my car if you like? I don’t mind driving,’ he said, eyeing Archie’s Nissan Micra suspiciously.
‘No, it’s fine,’ said Bea, ‘we’re going a bit off the beaten track, and I know the way.’
‘Are you sure? We’d be more comfortable in mine—’
‘Honestly, it’s fine,’ she said. ‘Come on, jump in and we can get going!’
‘So, where are we heading?’ he asked, climbing into the passenger’s seat, his aftershave wafting through the car.
