Page 37 of The Cornish Cream Tea Holiday
Ben’s easy stride faltered, and she felt his fingers brush against hers. She didn’t know if he’d done it on purpose. ‘You want to move here?’ he said. ‘To open a bookshop?’
‘If I can find the right premises,’ she replied. ‘There are still a lot of hurdles and hoops, a whole obstacle course, really, between me and pulling open the front door to receive my first customers, but now I’m here, I want my bookshop to be here, too.’
‘You’re going to move here,’ Ben said again.
‘Possibly,’ she admitted. ‘But it’s all – I haven’t told very many people. I’m still feeling things out.’ She thought of Jamie Scable and his blatant dismissal of her. ‘There’s a long way to go.’
‘You can do it, though,’ Ben said. They’d reached the edge of town, and all that was left between them and the cottages was the pathway on top of the cliffs. The sea was a huge, shadowy expanse, white where the moonlight skimmed it, the stars flickering high above them. ‘If you want it enough, you can do it.’
‘Like you and the cook-off,’ Thea said, wanting to deflect attention away from herself. ‘You can do that, too.’
Ben laughed, the sound low and warm, heating up Thea’s blood. ‘One cooking competition isn’t quite the same as a whole life plan.’
‘But every big thing starts with a single step, doesn’t it?’ she said. ‘Just because this competition is one afternoon rather than the rest of your life, it doesn’t make it any less important. I walked into a bookshop, smelled its wholesome, comforting smell, ran my fingers along the spines and picked out a story I thought I’d love. Now, I want to open my own. You don’t know where things might lead.’
He glanced at her, but she couldn’t read his expression in the moonlight. She gave a jolt of surprise when he flicked on a torch she hadn’t known he was carrying, lighting thepath ahead. ‘Just thought we might want to see what’s in front of us,’ he said.
‘Good idea.’ She reached out and squeezed his fingers: just once, for no more than a second.
It wasn’t until after they’d said goodbye, and she’d heard Scooter’s jubilant greeting as Ben opened his front door, that Thea realised he hadn’t questioned her plan. He hadn’t asked her why she wanted to do it, or if she thought she was really capable, or whether she thought it might be better to set her sights slightly lower, be a bit more modest. He’d simply told her she could do it, if she wanted it enough. She realised it was a long time since she’d been aware of anyone having that much brazen faith in her, least of all herself.
