Chapter 27
27
‘This is delicious. I’ve worked up quite the appetite, you know.’
‘Oh really, Dennie? I hadn’t noticed.’
He winked at me again and my heart gave such a skip. Everything seemed to be falling into place. Me dressed in just his shirt, and him bare-chested and just in his jeans and bare feet, we sat opposite each other at the kitchen table, my cheeks aching from the constant smiling. I didn’t think I could ever have been so happy.
‘Looking forward to tomorrow?’
‘Can’t wait. I just hope it all goes smoothly.’
‘Of course it will. With you doing everything I tell you to, how could it possibly not?’ He stood and put his plate on the side of the sink and came and stood behind me. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on edge, and he ran his finger down my spine. I gave a little shiver, and to my own surprise, also groaned out loud. ‘Let’s run through the checklist one last time.’
He removed a piece of folded paper from his back pocket and started to unfold it, before reading it out loud.
This time my groan wasn’t from pleasure, but from repeating this exercise for the fourth time today. Ever the professional, even now, Dennis had business on his mind.
I stood, moving my own plate, and took the paper from his hand. I wedged myself between him and the kitchen table, hitching myself up so that I was sitting on the edge.
‘I’ve got this, Dennis. Don’t worry. I’m sure there’s something more interesting we could be doing.’
I pulled him towards me so he was up against me and my knees were either side of him, and ran my finger up his chest. He gasped as I circled his left nipple, and groaned when I reached the right. My fingers travelled further south and reached the waistband of his jeans.
‘We’ll get indigestion, you know,’ he murmured against my neck as he started to shower me with soft fluttery kisses which were driving me wild with desire.
‘It’s always life on the edge with you, isn’t it, Dennie?’ I smiled in the most seductive manner I could. ‘Let’s live dangerously.’
As I loosened the button and fly on his jeans, he was soon gasping for breath again, but definitely didn’t seem to mind as we devoured each other right there on the kitchen table.
‘Shit, get up, Dennie. It’s 7.30 and we said we’d be at the shop by now.’
I sprang out of bed and darted for the bathroom, where I threw myself under the shower. I hadn’t even thought to set the alarm the night before because I never slept past 6a.m. – I’d never overslept in my life. Although I also hadn’t ever been up most of the night alternating between talking and having incredible sex with Dennie before.
I walked back into the bedroom, dragging a comb through my freshly washed hair and Dennie was sat propped up on my pillows, his hands behind his head, watching my every move.
‘You need to get up!’ I yelled at him.
‘That’s exactly what I was just thinking.’ He tried to grab the towel I’d wrapped myself in and flung the duvet back. ‘Come back to bed.’
Shaking my head and laughing at the same time, I moved away and started to blast my hair with the hairdryer. I couldn’t believe that we were already running late on the one day that I really needed to be on the ball.
‘You need to go home and get ready and back to the shop pretty damn smartish.’
‘Oh no! I can’t.’
‘Why on earth not?’
‘Don’t want anyone seeing me do the walk of shame now do I?’
I laughed.
‘You’re nearly forty years old. Is that not a bit past you?’
‘How rude!’
‘You did text Vi last night to tell her you weren’t going home, right?’
‘Yeah, look.’
He showed me the text and I laughed out loud when I read the message trail.
I’m going to stop out at a mate’s house tonight, Nan. Don’t wait up. Be back in the morning.
About time you got your end away with Nancy. Give her one from me. Love Nan
I groaned.
‘I hope she keeps schtum when she comes to the shop today. I don’t want everyone knowing our business. Mum and Dad don’t even know yet.’
‘Oh, I’m sure they do.’ He laughed. ‘You don’t think it was a coincidence that they went out for the night and stayed out, do you?’
I put my head in my hands.
He reached over and kissed me tenderly.
‘I had the best time with you, Nancy.’
‘Me too.’
As he kissed me again, I melted into his arms before realising once more that we really had to get a shift on and get this day started. The open day was starting at 10a.m. and we still had quite a bit to sort out before we could open the doors and I was gagging for a cup of coffee.
‘Be off with you!’
‘That’s a fine way to treat someone you know. After you’ve had your wicked way with me too. Casting me aside. Charming.’
I ran my tongue across his lips. I wasn’t quite sure where this new confident sex goddess version of me had come from but I felt totally liberated. ‘I’m sure I could make it up to you later.’
‘See you at the shop as soon as I can get past Nan and the Spanish Inquisition.’
I finished getting ready. Luckily, the previous afternoon I’d hung up the dress I was planning to wear so I didn’t have to waste time sorting that out, and quickly applied some light make-up. I hoped no one would recognise the ‘Hi-I’m-Nancy-and-I-spent-last-night-shagging-Dennie’ glow that I would be sporting. I grinned as I grabbed the box that needed taking to the shop and slung my backpack on.
I made it somehow at one minute before eight and it wasn’t long before Dennie appeared, smelling freshly showered and gorgeous as always. He bent to kiss my neck, and knowing what influence that had on me, I pushed him gently away.
‘No time, Dennie. Come on, we need to sort out the furniture.’
‘You drive a hard bargain, lady. I don’t want any wages for working here, but I hope you know I’ll be expecting you to repay me in kind later.’
It took all the strength I had not to jump him right there on the counter but there really wasn’t time for more sexual shenanigans, there was still so much to do and I was starting to feel quite anxious about the day. Dennie seemed to anticipate my mood, so his first port of call was the kitchen to get the coffee pot on the go. I needed it to both give me a kick-start and to keep me awake.
‘OK, tell me what you need me to do and I’ll just do it.’
He really was a great help to me and we moved the furniture around so the workshops could take place in the back part of the shop. We wrapped the tables with three lots of paper, so we could just rip the top layer off and then be clean for the next one. I wanted a quick turnaround.
We really had no idea of how busy the shop would be. As well as the private invites, we’d also shared the event on social media, and the local school had put a note out to all of the parents. Mum, Dad, and Dan had all said that they’d come and help if needed. Mum knew how to work the till and I had printed some blank order forms so that if people wanted a book we didn’t have in, they could fill in their details and we would order it for them.
Dennie also came up with the idea of giving a free raffle ticket away, which would serve two purposes. One was to get people to hang around until the time the raffle was drawn – we thought we’d do one at lunchtime and one later in the afternoon – and the other was so we could get people’s email addresses to add to my mailing list. We’d had some of the local businesses give us vouchers, including Gemma who’d been really helpful, giving everyone a twenty per cent off voucher at the bistro so they could go and get drinks from there. That way, we didn’t have to worry about refreshments and were just providing nice things like sweets and nibbles. If anyone wanted something substantial, they could go to hers.
Whilst I was titivating the shelves for the umpteenth time, ten minutes before the doors were due to open, Dennie called me into the kitchen.
‘Before the excitement of the day, I just wanted to say something.’
‘Oh, OK,’ I said, wondering what on earth he was behaving so formally for.
‘I just wanted to say how much I’ve enjoyed working with you over the last few weeks. I feel like we’ve been the perfect team, and while I’ve been teaching you how to make your business more profitable, you’ve taught me that there’s so much more to life than work. For that, Nancy, I’m so very grateful to you.’
He put both of his hands on my shoulders.
‘I’ve loved it too and thank you for all that you’ve done for me. I really had no idea and you’ve really changed the way I think. I have so many plans and ideas for the future. I’m ready to plan my future now instead of winging it and hoping that the universe deals with it all in the right way. Thank you , Dennie.’
When he pulled me into his chest, my heart welled with pure unadulterated love. This man before me, despite my original feelings for him, now meant the absolute world to me.
‘I’m incredibly proud of you and proud to know you,’ he said, ‘and I didn’t know your Aunty Theresa but I reckon, she’d be over the moon with you too. Her legacy is now in very safe hands and it should be a wonderful business for years to come.’
As I thought of how lovely it would be if Theresa were here today, a tear trickled down my cheek. Dennie reached up and wiped it away with his thumb.
I took a deep breath and couldn’t help but wonder what this was. I lived in Cornwall and Dennie lived in London. Our lives were so very different. Was this just a short-term romance while he was here or something much more? My brow furrowed while the main question circled my mind: where were we going?
‘This is not a day for tears,’ Dennie continued. ‘It’s a day for you and for your dream.’ It was almost as if he could read my mind when he then said, ‘Let’s not worry today about what comes next, I don’t have the answers but I do know that I love being with you, Nancy. You’ve made me happier than I’ve ever been and we’ll work it all out. All I can say is that we’ll sort it. I don’t know how, because your life is here. You live with your parents and I live hundreds of miles away, but somehow, we will make it work. We’ll have a repeat of last night and this time it will be slower and even more fabulous than that, and then we’re just going to keep on repeating it every time we get the chance. I can promise you that. But for right now, just enjoy your big day.’
He kissed me, soft and long, and I literally felt like I could swoon into his arms, lost forever. Maybe the future would work itself out. If ever there was a time that I wanted the universe to work something out for me, more than ever before, this was it.
‘Go be the badass bookshop owner that you are and have your best business day ever.’
He kissed me again. I would never stop wanting to kiss those luscious lips of his. Ever. The taste of them was forever tucked away in my memory bank.
‘You really think I’m a badass bookshop owner?’
‘Hell yeah!’ He put his hands on my backside and squeezed. ‘Now get your gorgeous arse out there and open your bookshop, Nancy. And let’s have a fabulous day.’