Epilogue
One Year later
“Michael, darling, come away from the window. You’re not going to make her get back any sooner,” said Carrie, going over and rubbing him on the back.
“It’s her first driving lesson, anything could happen,” he said, anxiously, not moving from his spot at the front of the bookshop where he’d been positioned for the last twenty minutes with Monty holding vigil beside him, much to the confusion of the customers who came in.
“She’ll be fine. Dylan will look after her.”
“And why she chose Dylan to take her out for her first drive on her seventeenth birthday, I don’t know,” he continued grumpily.
“Maybe because she suspected you might be a little . . . agitated about her driving?” suggested Carrie.
She tidied up a wonky stack of books on a display table.
She was followed by Katniss, who liked to be much more involved in the running of the shop than her mother, Tabitha, who’d resumed her regular place in the armchair as soon as her kittens were weaned.
Carrie had a new-found appreciation for Tabitha who just sat quietly glaring at customers as opposed to Katniss who liked to climb the bookshelves and get stuck in various places.
Poppy came in the door followed by Ellen and Mary. Monty abandoned his master to be made a fuss of by Poppy.
“Michael! Get away from that window!” scolded Aunt Mary. “You are not to be watching when Layla gets back!”
Miraculously, Michael obeyed. “I guess I could go and work until she gets back,” he said.
“She won’t be long,” reassured Carrie. “And I’ll be closing up here soon. I’ll be home in about a quarter of an hour.”
Carrie had driven to London with Michael and Layla and cleared out her home a couple of weeks after returning to Castle Cove. Another trip a month later had seen Carrie’s mum moving to a little cottage just five minutes’ walk from the bookshop, which was wonderful for Carrie and Poppy.
Carrie and Poppy had lived in the flat above the shop until Christmas when they’d ended up moving in with Michael and Layla over the festive period and hadn’t left.
After a few weeks, Michael commented that it was a bit pointless to use the flat next door as a storage facility and so they officially moved in and Auntie Mary was renting the flat out as an Airbnb until she, as she put it, “found the right tenant”.
It had then been the most natural thing in the world for Carrie and Michael to marry in the spring in a small ceremony, with both their daughters as bridesmaids.
“Poppy, are you coming with me or staying to close up?” Michael asked.
“I’ll come with you,” Poppy decided. “I need to do my nails before we go out for Layla’s birthday dinner tonight and Mummy won’t let me do them in here.”
“You can do them in the garden,” said Michael. “I know how liberal you are with that nail varnish.”
He kissed Carrie goodbye and she smiled watching Michael and Poppy together. In him, Poppy had the father she deserved and, a year on, Carrie still felt butterflies just at the thought of him.
“That girl is eight going on thirteen sometimes,” said Ellen, affectionately. “What time is everyone getting to the restaurant?”
“The table’s booked for six thirty but everyone’s meeting here first, except Georgia who may be running late and might need to go straight to the restaurant. I thought we’d walk as it’s only a few minutes and it’s a nice evening.”
“Perfect,” said Auntie Mary. “It’s five now, why don’t we give you a hand closing up? I’ll take the mugs through and tidy the kitchen. Ellen? Would you take the rubbish out?”
They went off to do their chores leaving Carrie to lock the shop door and turn the sign to closed.
She took a moment to look at the shop, bursting with beautiful books and covered in Seren’s paintings.
The cats, knowing the routine and getting ready to move next door.
The bookmarks and postcards with the front of the shop on them displayed on the counter.
The poster advertising the next Blind Date with a Book event, advising booking early because they sell out so quickly.
She loved working here, as she loved all her life in Castle Cove, with a family she’d thought she would only ever dream of. She’d forever be grateful to the bookshop for providing her own, entirely unexpected, happily ever after.
THE END