“Oh my goodness,” said Carrie.
“Anyway, yeah, so by the time I was a teenager I was living with Peter, who was absolutely great, but, you know, not my mum.”
Carrie had to fight back the urge to hug him in the middle of the coffee shop. She could just imagine the gossip going around the book club. She realised her hand was still resting on his. He didn’t seem in any great hurry to move it as he continued. “Thankfully for him, I wasn’t exactly a rebellious kid. You saw me, I spent my time either with Peter, in the library or in the bookshop.”
“I remember you were so tall and thin. Very brooding and cool,” Carrie said.
“You thought I was cool?”
Michael lifted his head and their eyes met.
“Here we go,” said Lucy as she approached their table. Carrie whipped her hand away from Michael and they both turned towards Lucy as she placed their plates of food on the table. “I’m so sorry about the wait. We’ve been really busy.”
“Don’t worry at all,” said Carrie. “These look absolutely delicious.”
They were silent for a moment as they broke open their toasties, letting the steam out of them.
“Layla also told me what happened the day you met her when you prevented her from shoplifting,” Michael said, taking a bite of his sandwich.
Carrie opened her mouth to speak but found she didn’t know what to say.
“Don’t worry. I’m not cross with you,” Michael said with a smile. “I’m very grateful that by helping her and keeping her secret until she was ready to share it, you showed her she could rely on you. It means a lot knowing there’s another adult she feels she can confide in. And then you showed her you trusted her by offering her the job in the shop.”
“I felt terrible not telling you about what had happened, but I knew it was just a little slip-up,” said Carrie. “She’s such a good kid.”
“She is,” agreed Michael. “Right now, I’m feeling incredibly grateful that Layla and I have you in our lives,” he said, gently.
“It was the very least that I could do.”
It was all too easy to lose track of time and it came as a surprise to them both when Layla came into the coffee shop with Monty. She looked around, spotted them and came over.
“You both should have been back at work five minutes ago,” she said with a laugh while Monty greeted them both enthusiastically. “There are a couple of customers waiting outside the bookshop for you.”
“Oh no!” cried Carrie, getting up hurriedly. “Thank you for lunch, Michael. And thank you, Layla, for looking after Poppy. Did she get off to holiday club all right?” She picked up her bag and looked around her to see if she’d forgotten anything.
“Yep, no problem at all,” Layla grinned.
“Brilliant. Thanks again! I’ll see you both later,” Carrie said, rushing out of the coffee shop.
* * *
“Did you have a nice time with Layla earlier?” Carrie asked Poppy as they walked to the supermarket after holiday club.
“Yes,” said Poppy. “She makes lovely beans on toast. She put cheese on them.”
“I bet that was delicious,” said Carrie, fighting a smile. She’d been trying to get Poppy to try some grated cheese on her beans on toast for years and she’d always refused it.
“Did you have a yummy lunch with Michael?”
“I did. Thank you for asking.”
“What did you eat?”
“We both had coffees and cheese and ham toasties.”
“I think my lunch was better,” declared Poppy.
They went into the supermarket and Carrie used her usual trick of putting Poppy in charge of finding the things on the list so she’d be distracted from asking for all the sweets and junk food. Carrie still got talked into some chocolate buttons, but figured she’d got away pretty easily, all considered.
