Chapter 4

Chapter Four

‘ T hanks, Brian. See you next week.' Bea held her hand up as delivery driver, Brian, stepped outside.

‘You're very welcome, Bea. Have a good week.' He threw the keys to his van in the air as he walked back across the cobbles, deftly catching them before jumping into the driver's seat.

After taking a quick swig of her first coffee of the day, Bea walked across to the stack of boxes Brian had left in front of the counter. Thursdays were one of her favourite days – delivery day. She ran the blade of the scissors across the tape on top of the box before opening it to reveal the stack of books inside. Fantastic, there was the one Mr Daly had ordered in.

Picking up the top book, a book on astronomy for Mr Daly, Bea held it against her nose and took a deep breath in. She loved that smell – the smell of books. New or old, it didn't matter to her, although she did frequent the library once a month to get her ‘musty-old-book smell' fix.

Bea emptied the box, stacking the books on the counter before turning her attention to the next box in the pile. This was a pretty big order. It might only be October, but she was getting prepared for the Christmas rush and so for the last few weeks with each order she made she'd added a few extra books to the list, classics and children's books mainly as well as craft books. They always sold well.

Laughing, Bea shook her head. She sounded as though she'd been doing this for years, running a bookshop. In fact, she was only going on one year's experience, one previous Christmas. Still, if for whatever reason last year had been an anomaly, she'd still sell them at some point.

She looked up as the bell above the door tinkled and Mr Daly walked through, his yellow scarf lovingly wrapped around his neck as usual.

‘Morning, Mr Daly. You're just in time for your new books. I've just had a delivery.' Bea smiled and patted the stack of books on the counter.

‘Lovely.' Stepping towards the counter, Mr Daly looked at them. ‘Did they all come? Even the Astronomy for Beginners book I ordered?'

‘Yes, yes. That's here.' Shuffling through the pile, she drew out the book on astronomy. ‘Are you taking up a new hobby?'

‘That's the idea, yes. My son-in-law, Ron, has this bizarre notion that I'm lonely and I should get out more so he's strong-armed me into joining him for one of his astronomy meetings.' Mr Daly placed his man-bag on the counter, rummaged through it and pulled out a pack of boiled sweets before holding them out to Bea. ‘Would you like one?'

Bea shook her head. The image of the half-sucked boiled sweet covered in dust and grime she'd found under the counter yesterday still fresh in her mind. ‘I'm fine, thanks. Still have my morning coffee on the go.' She indicated her coffee cup and the tepid liquid inside.

Mr Daly nodded before carefully unwrapping the sweet and popping it in his mouth. After a few seconds, he moved it across and stored it in his cheek, a large bump appearing, and took out a small sheet of paper. Laying it down in front of him, he smoothed the creases with the pads of his fingers. ‘I have five to order for next week, if possible, please?'

‘Yes, of course. Let's have a look. I might have some in stock.' Turning the list towards her, Bea read Mr Daly's perfectly neat cursive handwriting and tapped the sheet of paper. ‘I have these two, that's for sure. I'll order the other three for next week, though.'

‘Lovely. Thank you. I'll take a look.' Mr Daly turned and headed towards the shelves, leaving Bea to tap away on the computer screen and order the others.

Just as soon as she'd clicked ‘send' on the order form, the bell above the shop tinkled again and she glanced up. The door had opened an inch before closing again, the shop still empty apart from Mr Daly and herself. She looked back at her screen. She might as well check her emails while she was at the computer.

The bell tinkled again, this time followed by a rush of feet and excited laughter as her sister's children raced into the shop, shortly followed by their mum, Lindsey.

‘Peony, Isaac, calm down right now,' Lindsey stage-whispered as she followed them in.

‘Morning, you two.' Leaning over the counter, Bea smiled at her niece and nephew. ‘Why aren't you at school, Isaac?'

‘It's teacher training day today, so no school, and no nursery for Peony as I decided not to take her in today.' Dumping her huge bag onto the counter with a wallop, Lindsey covered her eyes and shook her head. ‘I've no idea what I was thinking by letting Peony stay home, too. I think I had the daft notion that we could spend some quality time together, go to the swings or visit the ducks in the country park or something, but all they've been doing is running around like two excitable kittens, here, there and everywhere.'

‘Yay! The swings, the swings, I want to go to the swings!' Isaac jumped up and down in front of the counter.

‘Ducks, ducks, ducks.' Peony's small chubby hands appeared on the counter, a tuft of her unruly curly hair the only other part of her visible to Bea.

‘Well, maybe if you both start being good, we'll be able to do both the swings and the ducks.' Lindsey sighed.

Leaning further over so she could see her young niece, Bea reached out and ruffled her hair. ‘Love this.'

‘Haha, she gets the curls from you. You'll have to teach me how to tame them.' Lindsey tucked a wayward curl back into the small unicorn hairband as Peony struggled to escape.

‘Ah no, she looks so cute with it like that. Besides, I'm not sure anyone would call mine tamed.' She took her hair out of the messy bun she'd shoved it up in before putting it back up again in the hopes it would look a little tidier.

‘Your hair always looked nice.' Lindsey smiled before taking a small box and envelope from her bag. Placing them on the counter, she slid them across to her sister. ‘Happy Divorce-iversary!'

‘Oh, thanks.' Bea picked up the envelope and placed it neatly on top of the box. She'd forgotten again. How had she done that? Fleur had reminded her only yesterday evening that it had been a year since her divorce had come through today. ‘I'd forgotten.'

‘How could you forget something as important as that?' Lindsey frowned and placed her hand over Bea's. ‘Or do you mean you were trying to forget? I'm sorry, I didn't think. I'll take them back.'

‘No, it's a lovely thought. Thank you.' Bea smiled. ‘I really had just forgotten. I seem to have so much going on at the moment.' She glanced around the bookshop, her eyes resting on her niece and nephew for a moment as they fought over a book before thinking better of it and sinking into one of the beanbags she'd placed in the children's corner.

‘Okay, as long as you're sure, that's all.'

Looking back at her sister, she smiled. It was. She wasn't upset about the divorce, about her failed relationship with Adam. It had been for the best and she knew for a fact she certainly wouldn't be standing here in her own bookshop if it wasn't for Adam and her going their separate ways. ‘I'm positive.'

‘Good, because the last thing I wanted to do was to upset you.'

‘You haven't upset me. Thank you for the present. It's thoughtful.' Bea glanced towards Mr Daly, who was hovering at the side of the counter. ‘Mr Daly, did you find what you were looking for?'

‘I'll just pop over and check on the kids.' Lindsey pointed towards Peony and Isaac, who were still poring over the book they'd taken a fancy to before walking across to them.