Chapter 43
T he following week, the last customer had just left the bookshop and Daisy was pleased to be closing up for the day.
The afternoon had been unusually busy and she’d been on her feet for more or less the whole day without a break.
As quiet dropped on the shop, she stood behind the counter for a moment and looked and listened to everything around her.
The old radiator ticked, the floorboards creaked a little bit and the distant sound of Pretty Beach winding down for the evening wafted around.
Through the front window, streetlights flickered along the laneway, cobblestones on the pavement opposite glistened after a light drizzle of rain and a man with a dog in a little jumper stopped to peer in the shop window.
Daisy moved slowly through the shop, switching on more fairy lights that had multiplied over the months until they twinkled from every corner and alcove.
The timer would turn most of them off automatically at midnight, but as they all came to life, they transformed the space into something magical.
Daisy paused in the centre of the shop and looked around properly.
The library trolley she'd rescued from Facebook Marketplace was laden with seasonal reads and a jam jar of dried flowers that had seen better days.
Everything was slightly askew in the way that spoke of a busy day.
Books pulled out and not quite pushed back, cushions compressed from being sat on, the smell of coffee and cinnamon buns lingering in the air.
It wasn't the pristine display that GayesBooks would have maintained, but it was real and lived-in and utterly hers.
As she looked down the laneway, the thought of GayesBooks made her half-wince, half-smile.
The threat of their corporate invasion had kept her awake at night, imagining her little bookshop crushed by professional marketing and bulk-buying power.
Now the building sat empty and waiting for Holly and Xian's renovation plans, and GayesBooks had presumably moved on to terrorise some other unsuspecting independent bookshop. The relief that Daisy’s new world had not been smashed to smithereens made her feel almost giddy.
Easing one of the library ladders back along its rail into place, it reminded her of when the corporate woman had come into the shop.
Daisy had been standing on the ladder when the woman had first come in with her pointed questions and calculating eyes and had assessed Daisy's world as if it were ready for the taking. The memory made her shudder, close her eyes and shake her head. She had to laugh, though. Xian and Holly had taken them down as if it were the sort of business deal they did every day of the week. Daisy had had a small insight into their world through her work with Chloe and as she thought about it more, maybe in fact it was the sort of deal they did more than they let on. Perhaps the investment was something regular for them; it’s just that they didn’t let anyone in Pretty Beach know about it.
Behind the desk, Daisy worked quickly tidying and sorting and she smiled as underneath a book, a little picture Evie had been working on showed the bookshop in wobbly lines and pretty colours.
What was obviously herself behind the counter was surrounded by enormous flowers and what appeared to be a dragon reading a book in the corner.
At the bottom, in Susannah’s handwriting: 'Mummy's shop is the best shop in the world. '
Daisy smiled and smoothed out the paper and pondered how the girls had been since their move to the bookshop.
To Evie and Margot, it was very evident that it wasn't a business venture or a risk or anything like it.
It was simply the place where Mummy worked, where they could curl up with books, where fairy lights twinkled and they could walk to school.
Daisy loved how they had settled in. Their certainty in its permanence and the fact that they had a real home had been missing in all three of their lives.
She tucked the drawing carefully into the notebook that Miles had sent in the hamper.
The notebook had become a bit of a post-workday evening ritual for Daisy without her really even thinking about it.
At first, she hadn’t wanted to write in it in case she ruined it, but now it was full of lists, thoughts, inspiration, things to do and recordings of small moments that made up her days.
As she flicked through the thick luxurious pages now filled with her musings, she smiled, tucked the drawing into a clean page and added the date and Evie’s age. She wrote on the page.
Evie’s pic makes me smile. The bookshop looks so pretty tonight.
Proud. We have our forever home.
Closing the notebook and tucking it back into its place behind the counter, Daisy then moved through the shop, turning off lights and straightening displays for the next day.
At the door, she paused for one last look around.
All of it was hers in a way that nothing else had ever been.
She was more grateful for that than anyone would ever know.
Moving through to the kitchen, she flicked on the kettle and loved how the effort of the kitchen makeover made it feel warm and welcoming. The new open shelving displayed her bits and bobs and the copper rail Pete had installed held all sorts.
As the kettle boiled, her phone buzzed and Miles's name appeared on the screen.
Miles: How was your day? Shop busy?
Daisy smiled as she poured hot water over her tea bag.
Daisy: Busy but good. I just found the sweetest drawing Evie made of the bookshop. She drew me with enormous flowers and a dragon reading in the corner. It made my heart completely melt.
Miles: Aww.
Daisy: I tucked it into the notebook you gave me. The one from the hamper. It's getting quite full now.
Miles: Nice.
Daisy: I love this time of day. The shop is all quiet and glowing, the girls are at mum's. Sometimes I stand in the middle of the shop and can't quite believe it's real. That it's mine. That we're not going anywhere.
Miles: Believe it. You've earned every fairy light.
Daisy: Lol.
Miles: I’m looking forward to tomorrow.
Daisy: Me and the girls are too.
Miles: I’ll be around at 10 then?
Daisy: See you then. Love you.
Miles: Love you more.