Radia had been reading, very loud and very slow, perched on the edge of the armchair. ‘And that is really the end.’ She closed her copy ofThe Borrowersin triumph and looked at the little circle gathered around her on the floor.
Jowan, reclined awkwardly on a beanbag beside her, led the applause.
Two blond boys Joy didn’t recognise clapped and grinned, and Aldous, who was for some reason wearing a little T-shirt, barked happily and turned in circles. The rest of the story-time crowd was made up of Charley fox – who was propped up by a pile of books – and a large blue teddy wearing round plastic trainers on its paws, which must have belonged to one of the boys.
Jowan tried to stand when he spotted Joy at the door but was thoroughly stuck in the beanbag. Joy strode inside and helped pull him up, apologising for being away for so long.
‘Mum! We’re having story time!’ Radia announced delightedly. ‘And these are my friends!’
‘These are Mrs Crocombe’s grandsons, the two youngest ones anyway,’ Jowan informed her, now he was safely on his feet.
‘Oh?’ Joy said, looking around the shop.
‘My fault, sorry,’ Jowan pressed on. ‘Once I’d mentioned Annika’s story time at the shop there was no putting Radia off the idea, and Mrs C. just happened to call in with the boys. Radia pressed them into stayin’ for a story.’
‘I finished my book, Mum!’
‘Well done, Rads!’
‘I give it ten out of ten!’ she said grinning.
Joy was about to suggest Radia take the Crocombe boys through to the kitchen to look for some squash and a snack but Patti, who’d hung back on the doorstep, joined her sister now, watching Radia with eyes full of feeling.
‘Is that…’ Radia started. ‘Auntie Patti? It is! It is!’
Both of the Crocombe boys and Aldous jumped at the scream that followed as Radia launched herself into Patti’s arms.
Jowan suggested he deliver the boys back round to their grandmother’s for lunch. ‘If I don’t see you before you leave, Joyce Foley,’ he began, in a low voice. ‘It has been our pleasure havin’ you here. You are the best digital nomad we’ve ever had. You’ve done more than you could know for our little bookshop and for our community.’
Joy didn’t think she’d done anything at all for the community but didn’t like to say so, so she smiled and thanked him.
‘Come back, please, anytime,’ he said, and the straight-lipped smile beneath his beard made the whiskers on his chin bristle out.
Joy was saved from having to answer him by the commotion of the youngest Crocombe boy attempting to wrestle Aldous out of the T-shirt so he could get it back onto his teddy bear where it belonged.
Meanwhile, Patti was bouncing Radia in her arms and hugging her over and over, while Radia squashed her aunt’s cheeks with both hands. They were laughing wildly like nobody else existed.
‘We’ll be off then,’ said Jowan. ‘Come along, Aldous. Good luck to you, Miss Foley.’
‘Jowan?’ she stopped him. ‘I made Minty some wedding website templates that she can populate herself. It’s easy really. There’s instructions printed out by the till. If she does the same for every client, she’ll soon get into the rhythm of it, and they’ll all be nicely uniform.’
Jowan smiled. ‘I think you might be overestimatin’ our technical abilities, but I know she’ll be grateful to you. Thank you.’
The bewildered little dog, who’d quite enjoyed the cosiness of the T-shirt, shook himself and trotted out the door after his master, and the Crocombe boys trailed behind him, calling, ‘Thanks for having us!’ and ‘See you at school!’ to Radia as they left.
That was enough to silence Radia, and she let herself be slipped back down onto her feet.
Joy knew she had seconds to smooth things out. ‘They must have just assumed, since you’re their age and here in the village, that you’d be going to school with them, I guess?’ She tried to make it sound light and breezy, knowing Radia would be reeling with emotions.
Radia said nothing, only looking between her mother and Patti.
‘Are you staying?’ Radia asked her aunt, somewhat bluntly.
‘Um…’ Patti appealed to Joy for help.
‘Well, we’re off to the airport soon, so…’ Joy shrugged.
‘What about… you know?’ Patti said, surreptitiously doing a mime of her dad in his aviators asleep in the car and their mother driving wildly and honking an invisible car horn.
