Chapter 43 #2
She gave me a gentle smile. ‘I believe you. Nobody who puts as much love and care into creating something like these bears can be a bad person.’ Fen picked up another bear and ran her finger across its face.
‘You know, I’ve never been convinced it’s possible to fall in love with someone you’ve only just met, but I always was the pragmatic one and James was the hopeless romantic. ’
‘It is possible.’
She looked up at me and nodded. ‘James swore it was and, having met you, I think he’s right.’
‘It’s also possible to stay in love with that person for two decades.’
She cuddled the bear to her as she studied my face. ‘In that case, I’m rooting for you and will do what I can to convince him to meet you sooner rather than later.’
‘You will?’ I frowned at her. ‘But you said I was the danger zone. And you must be angry with me for breaking his heart in the first place.’
‘I’m still worried about the danger but, as for being angry at you for breaking his heart, you didn’t.
You actually fixed it. His ex, Eleanor, broke his heart.
She did it so badly that he lost his way and, for a few years, I lost my brother.
He even stopped playing the piano outside of school and that shattered the fragments of his heart into tinier pieces.
Then he met you and heard you play and he came alive that day.
Thanks to you, he not only found his love for music again but he found belief in himself and I got my brother back. ’
I grabbed for a tissue from under the counter, wiping the tears away at her beautiful words.
‘I didn’t mean to make you cry,’ Fen said.
‘It’s fine. I just can’t bear to think of him being broken and I hate that I hurt him too.’
‘But I don’t think you meant to, did you?’
‘Not at all.’
Fen gave me a gentle smile. ‘There’s a lot going on for him right now, like I said, and it’s taken its toll on him.
I’ve been worried but, since he saw you again, I’ve seen a fresh spark in him just like I saw twenty years back.
You do something to my brother – something positive – so I’m on your team and I want it to work. ’
I wiped at more tears. ‘I promise I won’t do anything to hurt him, or at least not intentionally. I can’t control what he does next after I fully explain things.’
The door opened and another customer came in and it looked as though Milly’s customer might have decided on her bunting.
‘I’d better let you get on,’ Fen said.
I carefully placed the bears back into a couple of bags and passed them to her.
‘And here’s the rest of the fabric,’ I said, reaching for the bag of leftovers.
‘Is there enough left to make any more bears?’
‘If you want to include the favourite shirt, there’s enough for two, maybe three.’
‘In that case, keep the shirts and can you make me another two bears? I’d like one and I want James to have one too. I’ll need to pay for these six by card, but I could ask James to drop a cash deposit off for the new ones.’
I smiled at her. ‘I need to let him have some space. Card’s fine for the deposit too.’
After I’d taken the payment, I let Milly have the till and walked to the door with Fen.
‘Can I ask about the name? I’m really confused. You call him James but I know him as Will. Is that his middle name?’
She laughed. ‘No. It comes from our surname – Wilson. Who’s the most famous James you can think of?’
‘James Bond?’
‘Exactly. There was this kid at primary school who constantly plagued James with Bond references and theme tunes and it drove him mad but he was too nice to ask him to stop. He didn’t want it to continue into senior school so his best mate, Aaron, started calling him Will and it stuck.
He never introduces himself to anyone as James.
He’s Will to friends, colleagues and strangers but he’ll always be James to family. ’
‘Mystery solved,’ I said, opening the door for her. ‘Hope everyone likes their bears.’
‘They’ll love them. Right, I’m off to have words with my brother.’
‘Be gentle with him.’
‘You too,’ she said, with a wink.
Milly was still serving her customer and I caught her eye to indicate I was going upstairs for a moment.
My make-up was likely smudged from crying so I needed to fix that, but I needed some time to process everything Fen had shared with me.
I wanted to see Will even more badly now, wanted to support him through everything he was facing, but it had to be when he was ready.
I loved that Fen was on my side but hoped she didn’t push him too hard.
* * *
That evening, I was at the kitchen table cutting out the patchwork pieces for the two additional memory bears when a message came through. It was just a picture but it was perfect – one of the bears Fen had collected earlier holding a piece of paper across his tummy containing the words:
Thank you for bearing with me
Tomorrow at 7pm?
Drinks at The Olde Oak?
It seemed Fen had worked her magic.
To Will
I’ll be there. Thank you
I released a shaking breath. Fen had said she was rooting for Will to meet me sooner rather than later and she certainly hadn’t hung around. Excitement and nerves swirled together inside me. Tomorrow might just change my life and finally bring me love.