“Yes! Thank you for taking us, Michael. Can we go again soon?”
“If it’s OK with your mum, I think we can manage that. Maybe just let your arms recover first though. I think they’ll be aching tomorrow!” He handed Carrie the rucksack from the boot.
“Mummy would definitely like to go again! She was watching you a lot so she’d know what to do.”
“Very sensible of her,” Michael replied, evidently choking back a laugh.
“I wasn’t watching you,” said Carrie, indignantly.
“Sure you weren’t.” Michael winked and Poppy began to giggle.
Carrie threw her hands up in the air. “You two are impossible!”
She caught Michael’s gaze and they smiled at each other shyly.
“Why don’t you join us for dinner?” Carrie found herself saying.
“I’d love to,” he said with a smile that made Carrie momentarily forget what they were talking about. “I’ll need to go and check on the kittens and Monty though and take Monty out for a little walk.”
“Can I come with you?” Poppy asked.
“Oh no, Pumpkin,” Carrie said quickly. “Michael needs to get on for a little while.”
“It’s fine,” he said. “I’d like the company, and Poppy is really good with the animals.”
“If you’re positive . . .”
“Absolutely. We’ll be about half an hour or so.”
Michael and Poppy headed off hand in hand. The image made Carrie’s heart ache: why couldn’t Tony be like that with his daughter? So natural and kind. The kind of father she wanted for her daughter and she wished she’d had herself. The sort of dad Poppy so deserved.
Chapter 11
Carrie went in the shop’s back entrance and gave the shop floor a quick once-over, checking it was all ready to open up the next morning. She felt she kind of knew what she was doing running it now, which she liked. She was very grateful for Seren and sure she would have sunk long ago if it hadn’t been for her, but she’d found her feet, and she could definitely understand what her aunt loved about having a bookshop.
The customers were generally lovely and so happy to be there and it was really fun hunting down more obscure books for them. Of course, it helped that she loved reading and books herself, but a lot of that came from spending time with her aunt and uncle in the bookshop when she was little. She’d known that if there was ever a book she fancied reading, she just had to mention it to her aunt or uncle and it would arrive in the post within a week. It used to worry her mum how much money they spent on their adored only niece, but they always told her not to be so silly. They loved treating Carrie. Had she truly appreciated them when she was little? She hoped she had.
Her phone dinged in the pocket of her rucksack. She took it out and smiled as she read the message from Michael:Don’t worry about cooking. We’re bringing something!
Goodness only knows what Poppy had convinced him to do. She had him wrapped around her little finger, but not in a ‘spoiling her’ way. He genuinely seemed to like her daughter and enjoy spending time with her.
Carrie straightened up a slightly wonky book on one of the table displays. That was the other thing she loved about the bookshop — it was calm. Working there never felt hectic or stressful. There was time to speak with and help customers. To sip on a cup of tea, to create a lovely new display. And it felt likeshe was helping people and bringing them a little bit of joy in their day.
She’d never really had a job she’d enjoyed this much before. She’d worked an office job when she’d left university which was frankly uninspiring and involved long hours. When she had Poppy and it was clear Tony wasn’t going to be around as much as she’d hoped, she’d known she needed a job that would fit around her daughter as much as possible, and so working in a school had seemed perfect. She’d even considered training to be a teacher when Poppy was a bit older. She liked working as a teaching assistant, but it could definitely be fraught and budget constraints and understaffing meant it was often quite frustrating, although the children were lovely of course. She couldn’t honestly say she was looking forward to going back, though.
She went upstairs to the flat and had a shower to freshen up before changing into jeans and a pretty blue floaty top. She added some hoop earrings because hoop earrings make everything better, then debated whether it looked like she’d made too much effort. She decided to leave them in. She liked them.
Next, Carrie hurried around tidying up the flat, which was silly really because she’d seen inside Michael’s place and it wasn’t exactly pristine.
She heard the doorbell go and her stomach flipped. She took a deep breath. What was going on here?
She went downstairs into the shop to let Michael, Poppy and Monty in. Michael was carrying a bulging carrier bag and a pack of four bottles of beer.
“Poppy said she thought Monty should come as well. Is that OK?”
“He’s been by himself for hours,” Poppy said firmly. “He can’t possibly be left for longer.”
“Of course he’s very welcome to join us,” said Carrie. “I agree, he must have been lonely today.”
