Chapter 16
D aisy was midway through shelving a box of ‘Daisy Recommends’ titles when the shop bell tinkled.
Every time it sounded, it reminded her about just what she’d achieved and, for sure, kept her on her shopkeeper toes.
She was at the far end of the shop, near the corner where the poetry met the coffee table books, and Margot and Evie were under the front window in the children’s nook playing castles and princesses.
The shop was actually closed, but she hadn’t quite locked up the front yet.
She squinted outside to the street where a courier van had pulled up in the laneway and bumped onto the pavement.
She dusted her palms on her jeans and straightened up as Matthew, Pretty Beach’s local delivery driver, stepped fully into the shop, a thick envelope and a clipboard under one arm and an enormous cream-and-green-trimmed box just about balanced in front of him.
‘Delivery for one lovely Daisy, bookshop owner,’ Matthew joked. ‘Someone must like you very much. I usually deliver these at Christmas. It looks as if by the size of this all your Christmases have come at once.’
Daisy blinked and frowned. ‘Oh, gosh. Who sent me that?’
Matthew smiled. ‘No idea! Shall I take it through, or do you want it on the counter?’
Daisy stepped aside, heart already starting to do the thing it did when she suspected Miles had something to do with whatever was going on. ‘Of course. That looks, umm, substantial.’
‘It’s a whopper.’ Matthew put the box which clearly held a hamper inside down beside the counter. ‘Anyway, how are we, Daise? All good with you? The shop looks great. I heard you’re doing well.’
‘Thanks. Yes, I’m well, thanks. It’s early days, but so far so good.’
Matthew held out a thick, cream envelope. ‘This came with it.’ He then turned around a tablet and tapped the screen. ‘Sign your life away here, please.’
Daisy signed the screen and took the envelope. It was luxuriously thick and felt so very nice to receive, just as had been intended. ‘Thank you.’
Matthew shot a look out to his van. ‘Sorry, I need to fly or I’ll be hung, drawn and quartered if I get caught bumping on the pavement. Enjoy the hamper. Looks like you’ll be having a nice tea tonight.’
Daisy stared at the gloriously luxurious box. The twins had stopped playing castles and were both standing, one on either side of the gigantic thing, eyes wide and full of questions.
‘Mummy. What is that?’
‘Is it presents? Has Grandma sent us presents? Ooh!’
‘Can we open it?’
Daisy walked back over and shifted the box so there was more space.
Pulling off the special tab to open it she lifted it and gasped as she looked inside.
The hamper was huge, not just big, but ginormous with two buckled leather straps, brass-edged corners, and monogrammed initials on the front.
A luxurious tag was hanging from the side.
Daisy hadn’t seen anything like it other than when one of Maggie’s clients had sent her a box full of posh wine and wild boar paté.
This thing, though, was next level and the size of a small house.
In fact, both Margot and Evie would fit into it. ‘Let’s have a look, shall we?’
Evie undid one of the buckles, Margot the other, and they flipped the lid back together with a creak.
Inside, nestled in thick shredded paper, was a treasure trove of glinting jars, tins, and pastel-striped boxes.
A bottle of cloudy elderflower pressé, shortbread in a painted carousel tin, a pouch or four of single-origin coffee, an entire glazed fruit cake wrapped in muslin, six sorts of tea, some loose leaf in a tin, some in elegant muslin pyramids, and a few labelled as if it had been blended specifically for the King.
There was even a bottle of raspberry gin and two etched glasses wrapped in tissue.
Underneath all of that, an insulated insert held a cool bag with a round of waxed cheddar, soft cheeses and smoked salmon.
There was a slab of salted caramel fudge, two jars of strawberry and champagne preserves, salted chocolate pecans and rose petal jelly. Not a bad spread at all.
Margot looked as if she’d won the lottery. Daisy felt as if she had. ‘This is for us?’
Evie whispered, like someone might take it back. ‘All of these chocolate and sweets?’
Daisy chuckled. ‘Looks like it.’
‘What’s this one?’ Margot picked up a little jar of something orange. ‘It looks like Grandma’s pantry.’
‘It’s for cheese.’ Daisy scanned for the delivery note, picked up the white envelope, unfolded the flap and pulled over an old piano stool from the Penguin classics section. The stool’s legs wobbled slightly as she read the one line of writing.
Just in case I forgot to tell you, I love you. M.
Daisy swallowed and tucked the card quietly into the back pocket of her jeans before either of the girls could ask what it said. ‘Right. Shall we sort these out into what we need to put in the fridge? I think some of the other bits and bobs will look lovely on our new shelves.’
‘Can we have one of the chocolates now?’
The girls gave a cheer when Daisy said yes and the next ten minutes were spent unpacking the rest of the hamper. Evie and Margot were so excited that they placed each item on the table in the tiny kitchen, naming things as if they were royal guests.
‘Princess Bottle,’ Evie announced as she put a bottle of champagne on the table.
‘And Queen Cheese.’
Daisy let them get on with it while she arranged the tins and jars on the shelf.
About fifteen minutes later, Margot was peering into the hamper again. It was so deep that she looked as if she might fall in. ‘Mummy, there’s something else in the tissue stuff at the bottom. A box of something else! I wonder what it is.’
Daisy leant over. Sure enough, nestled underneath was a small square parcel, wrapped in pale green tissue and tied with a wide, silky, dark green ribbon.
She lifted it out and carefully unwrapped it.
A hardback notebook with a navy blue leather cover embossed with “Daisy” on the right-hand corner in gold lettering. A note on a card read:
For all your plans, thoughts, and ideas. Love, M.
‘Who is that from?’
Daisy decided to be truthful. ‘You know Miles, Mummy’s friend?’
‘Yes.’
‘It’s from him.’
Evie clambered onto the chair beside Daisy. ‘Is he your boyfriend then?’
Daisy looked at Evie and blinked. ‘What?’
‘Miles. He kissed you, didn’t he? That time outside. We saw.’
Daisy tried not to laugh. ‘Oh, cheeky, did you? Err, he’s, well, umm...’
Margot held her hands out in the direction of the table. ‘Will he come and help us eat all this?’
‘Maybe.’ Daisy thought about the note. ‘Maybe he will. We’ll see.’
After Daisy had locked up the shop and pottered around making the girls’ tea, she felt in a bit of a daze.
With the hamper open and mostly emptied, it seemed as if it was talking to her from the corner.
Someone had sent her quite the dramatic gift and it had made her feel all the feels.
It had been so well received, she felt as if she was tingling from head to toe. Talk about take someone’s breath away.
Once the girls were sitting nicely at the table, she leant on the kitchen door and gazed through the hallway into the now quiet and dim shop and looked around at the life she’d somehow made.
Deciding that the notebook would be a journal of thoughts, she opened the cover and wrote on the first clean page:
Today: A hamper. A note. A good sort of evening.
Inside, Daisy felt as if she was falling further and further for Miles.
However, something felt a little bit different because of his words and the delivery as if it had solidified something.
She watched her girls, looked back at her shop and around at her life with the hamper wedged in the corner.
Now, it appeared, there was another player at the table: a man she loved.
As she pottered around the kitchen tidying bits and bobs into the dishwasher and listening to the girls, she boiled the kettle and made a cup of tea. Standing leaning on the sink with the steam rising from her mug, she smiled and felt something she hadn’t in years: just so very safe.