‘Yes! That’s the one! Do you think she would sign all my copies?’
Effie finished placing the books in a Books by the Sea bag and held it out to Sue. ‘I’m sure she would be delighted to.’
Sue took her books. ‘Thank you. It’s looking wonderful in here, Effie, well done. I’ll see you later.’
Effie watched as Sue grabbed a hot cross bun, exchanged quick greetings with other customers and headed off into the bright April morning. Clive extracted himself from an intense-looking conversation with Alf and Tristan and made his way over to the till.
‘Effie! This is marvellous! Look at all these people!’ he enthused as he started to help her bag up the next customer’s purchases. ‘Sorry I was late, mad traffic. Got stuck behind a herd of cows, of all things.’ Clive passed the bag to the customer as Effie took the payment. Taking a step back to catch his breath, he took in the bustling shop, a look of amazement across his face. ‘Is the whole village really here?’
‘Pretty much,’ she told him, ‘Everyone has been so excited about the opening and looking forward to Christie’s reading.’
‘Oh Effie, that’s great, wonderful to hear.’ He turned and studied her for a few seconds before admitting, ‘I know you had to leave everything behind to come here, but I’m really glad you decided to take it on. I can see it’s been great for you. And for the shop. I know you liked to melt into the background before but no one else in the team could’ve set a shop up like this. I don’t even think Zach would’ve managed it. I’m really proud of what you’ve achieved. I’m sorry the shop was in a right state, I didn’t realise it was quite that bad. Turned it around though, like I knew you would. I actually love the yellow, might have to think of a refresh for the whole brand. Right, I’d better circulate. I’m famished, those buns look good.’
Before Effie could get another word in, Clive was off, grabbing a couple of buns before introducing himself to customers. She watched as he shook hands and engaged people in conversation, chatting about the shop and their book choices. He might have turned up late to his own shop opening, but Effie had to give it to him, he was very good at doing the schmoozing required to make customers feel special.
‘Smile!’
Effie glanced up, a grin spreading across her face as Jake snapped a few photos of her behind the till.
‘It’s brilliant lighting. I’ve made use of your dad hogging that chair by taking some photos of him looking like a very engrossed reader.’
Effie laughed as Jake showed her the pictures. ‘They’re great.’
‘I’ll send them to you and you can use them on the social media pages. You’ve got a queue, I’ll let you get on.’
Jake darted out of the way, heading to the back of the shop where she could hear him engaging a child in a dinosaur costume in conversation about her favourite reptiles. Clive occasionally joined her behind the till to help serve if the queue became too long, but mostly he was on the floor talking to the customers. Effie smiled, served, chatted about books and answered questions about story time and the book club.
‘Rather than having one prescribed read a month, I’m planning on offering a few in different genres to keep everyone happy. Romance, crime, non-fiction, then we can all meet up and discuss why we like the book we did and hopefully be inspired to try some of the different genres,’ she explained to a couple of the local mums. ‘I don’t want it to be stuffy; I just want to encourage people to read more.’
‘Sounds right up our street. I don’t like all those worthier than thou books, I like a good bonkbuster. Hot man doing filthy things,’ one of them admitted, causing the other to laugh.
A spark lit in Effie’s head. ‘I love a romance too. Especially the Viking and cowboy ones. Maybe we could have a special romance book club night one time?’
‘Now that I like the sound of. Ah, I better go and rescue Jake before Amelie bores him to death with all the facts she knows about crocodiles. Keep us posted on the book events. I’ll definitely bring my kids along to story time.’
Effie was buoyed up by the business she was doing and the enthusiasm for the events she had planned. She may have had her doubts but Clive had been right about Polcarrow being the perfect place to open a bookshop. She was just about to tell him this when the sound of his phone ringing shrilly broke through the gentle hubbub of the shop. Everyone turned to watch him fumble his phone out of his pocket.
‘Sorry, sorry, I need to take this.’ His face paled as he excused himself from where he’d been chatting with Alf and headed outside to take the call. Distracted by the look on his face, Effie watched him pace up and down the pavement before he headed back inside, his expression grave.
‘Effie, I need a word,’ he said, summoning her to the back of the shop and into the small kitchen area where Jake was going through his photos. ‘Who’s this?’
‘Jake, local photographer and he gave me a hand with the painting.’
‘Oh right, that’s nice,’ Clive said, distracted, before turning his back on Jake to focus on Effie. ‘We have a problem. Christie is stuck further up the train line. Signal issues. We’re going to have to cancel. She’s not going to make it on time.’
Chapter Twenty-Three
Effie stared at Clive in disbelief. ‘What? Surely there’s something we can do? Can we pay for a taxi?’
‘A taxi would cost a small fortune.’ Clive winced.
‘But she’s our main attraction!’ Effie cried, thinking of Sue gathering up all her books to be signed. ‘There must be something we can do.’ Effie cast her eyes around the small space from Clive to Jake and back again.
‘Where is she?’ Jake asked.
‘About half an hour away. Forty minutes maybe. As long as there’s no cows blocking the road.’
Jaked looked at the clock. It was quarter to twelve. ‘I’ll go and pick her up. Just delay the start.’
