Page 102 of Bea's Book Wagon
‘Not a problem,’ said Nathan, ‘I’m just glad she’s okay.’
‘He’s just being modest,’ said Bea, reaching out to squeeze Nathan’s hand, ‘if it wasn’t for Nate—’
‘Yeah, well, like I said, lucky you were there,’ Lochlan replied, with a smile that didn’t quite meet his eyes. ‘Anyway, I’m here now and we’ve got a lot of catching up to do, so…’
‘Oh, Nate, you don’t have to go, it’s fine, please stay?’ said Bea, quickly.
‘No, Lochlan’s right. You need to rest. Take care of yourself, Bea,’ Nathan said, leaning down to plant a kiss on her cheek.
‘I’ll see you soon, okay?’ said Bea, as he walked away.
‘Alone at last,’ said Lochlan, sitting on the edge of the bed. ‘God, I’ve missed you,’ he said, tracing a finger along a bruise on her cheek. ‘A car accident? I just can’t believe it. Thank God it wasn’t more serious,’ he said, a shadow crossing his face.
‘I know,’ Bea whispered. This wasn’t quite how she’d pictured their reunion, her lying in a hospital bed. ‘Thanks for coming, though, you didn’t need to—’
‘Of course I did. As soon as Jess called, I dropped everything, got straight in the car, cancelled all my meetings, I’ll be here all week—’
‘But Jess doesn’t have your number?’
‘Ah, she tracked me down on the firm’s website. Very clever.’
‘Thanks for coming, that’s sweet,’ she said.
‘I know we’ve not seen much of each other these past few weeks, but I’m here now, okay?’
‘Okay,’ she nodded.
But, as Lochlan pulled her to him, hugging her close despite the pain in her ribs, Bea’s gaze lingered on the empty chair where Nathan had been sitting just moments ago, and a wave of sadness washed over her.
CHAPTER 29
Bea persuaded Nathan to take her straight to see the wagon the moment she was discharged from hospital, but when she saw the extent of the damage, she was plunged into a deep despair.
The inside of the book wagon was a complete wreck. The bookcases that he’d spent hours building were battered and broken, all the lamps, decorations and stock smashed, torn and damaged, the paintwork scuffed and tattered, the walls dented and misshapen. Jess’s beautiful hand-written signage was now barely legible.
It looked in worse shape than when Bea had first collected it from Charlotte, all those weeks ago.
She was right back to where she started, but, worse than that, she had no money to repair the damage. All her savings were gone and any profit she’d made had been ploughed straight back into buying stock that was now ruined.
It felt like her dream was over; that this was the end of Bea’s Book Wagon. The worst of it was, she had been so close to making her business a success.
Bea didn’t leave the house the first week she was home; whether it was her sadness at the state of the wagon or the shock of the accident, she couldn’t tell. Lochlan had barely left her side. He hadn’t actually cancelled all his meetings, but he was doing them virtually, on Zoom, from her kitchen table, and he’d been attentive and patient, trying to lift her spirits with candlelit takeaways in the living room and marathons of her favourite boxsets.
Physically, Bea was recovering well. The pounding headache she’d had since the accident was gradually starting to clear and her bruises were fading, but her ribs still hurt. Laughing and sneezing were excruciating, the latter she’d found out the hard way when her hay fever kicked in.
She was trying to keep herself busy with what stock she had left for the online shop and subscription boxes, but her heart wasn’t really in it. She hadn’t been back to see the wagon since the day she was discharged from hospital. She just couldn’t face it.
She wasn’t fit enough to paint, sort or repair anything, so she’d called the organizer of the Cherrydown fête and cancelled her pitch. All she wanted to do was eat a vat of Ben & Jerry’s and spend her days on the sofa watching black and white movies with Lochlan.
Anything else felt too painful.
* * *
When Nathan saw Bea’s face as she assessed the damage to the wagon, it almost broke him. It was as if she had just crumbled right there in front of him. He’d never seen her look so sad and he couldn’t blame her, it looked a total mess. Bea was usually the first to look on the bright side of life, but not this time. This time it was different. It was as if all the fight had gone out of her, but he was damned if he was going to let her give up.
‘Okay, everyone! There’s a reason I asked you all here tonight,’ said Nathan, looking around the Apple Tree at all the familiar faces of his friends and neighbours.
‘I thought you were going to buy us all a round, mate?’ joked Jake, putting his arm around Rose.
