The Bookshop of Second Chances by Jackie Fraser

Author:Jackie Fraser [Fraser, Jackie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2021-05-04T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

∙ ∙ ∙

I’m in the shop. It’s been less than twenty-four hours since Cerys told me all that strange stuff. I don’t know what to think about any of it.

My phone rings, a number I don’t recognize.

“Hello?”

“Thea. Charles here.”

I nearly drop the phone. Jesus flipping Christ. I feel an unexpected bubble of hysteria and have to bite my cheek.

“Can you talk?” he asks.

“I…Yeah, hello, hi, I’ll just—” I slide off the counter and walk to the back of the shop.

“I shouldn’t phone you at work,” he says, “but I’ll be busy later and I wanted to catch you.”

“Well, here I am. Hello. What can I do for you?”

“I wondered if you’d be free for dinner,” he says.

I nearly laugh, but I restrain myself. “Dinner? Gosh,” I say, “it’s suddenly very fashionable to buy me drinks and offer to buy me dinner. How thrilling.”

“Why, who’s been buying you drinks?”

“Oh, just some guy,” I say, laughing at myself. “I met him in the Arms the other week.”

“Oh. Did he ask you out?”

“No. Luckily, since I’m not ready to go on dates.”

“Oh,” says Charles.

“But presumably you’re not asking me on a date. Are you?” I’m not sure when making people feel slightly uncomfortable first seemed like fun. Maybe today.

“Well,” he says. “It wouldn’t not be a date.”

“You don’t want to go on a date with me, though, do you? What’s happened to Miranda?” There’s a slightly awkward silence. “Is she away or something?”

“Miranda and I are not…She’s not my girlfriend,” he says.

“Isn’t she? I kind of thought she was.”

“Mm, no, not…No.”

“Gosh, you Maltravers men with your unconventional relationships.” I begin to walk back through the shop toward the front door. “So anyway, where were you thinking?”

He clears his throat. “There’s quite a good restaurant at Knockandry.”

“The hotel? Hotel dining rooms,” I say. “I’m not sure they’re ever all that, are they? Sorry, that sounds fussy.”

“It’s good,” he says, “they have a Michelin star. If that helps.”

“It does a bit,” I say, laughing. “You’re probably already regretting this, right?”

“Not at all,” he says, polite.

“And when would this be?”

“I thought perhaps Thursday?”

“As in this Thursday?” I lean on the counter.

“Yes, if you’re free.”

“Oh, well, I generally am. My social life is very limited. Okay, thank you. Shall I meet you there?”

“I’ll come and collect you. Half seven suit?”

“Sounds fine,” I say. “Thank you.”

I slide my phone into the back pocket of my jeans and laugh heartily. Edward is selling a collection of 1970s Thelwell cartoon books to a man in a tweed jacket. Once he’s given the man his change and put the books in a bag, he asks, “What’s funny?”

“What isn’t funny, eh? Good lord. So that was your brother,” I tell him. “Guess what he wants.”

“My brother? What’s he phoning you for?”

“What indeed. Wants to take me out,” I say. “We’re having dinner.”

“You’re having dinner with my brother?” Brows beetling, forehead furrowed.

“Apparently so.”

“Why the hell are you doing that?”

“Two reasons,” I say, “if I’m honest. One is I’ve never had dinner with a lord.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.