‘You are pretty scary,’ Daisy teased and got a nudge in return.
‘I’m serious,’ said Fern. ‘I was watching her this eveningand I kept trying to put myself in her shoes, wondering how she must feel.’
‘She was brave to come here to Butterbury,’ Ginny agreed.
‘I think it’s going to take time, on all our parts,’ added Daisy.
Ginny nodded her agreement and took another gulp of Baileys. ‘Why is this so good?’
Fern pulled a face. ‘What I’d like to know is why it takes mere seconds to drain a glass?’ She held up her emptyvessel, ready for another.
Ginny picked up Daisy’s camera again and flipped through more photographs, this time those of one of her camping trips. ‘Where’s this?’
‘Northumberland.’
‘It’s beautiful, I’ll give you that, all those wide open spaces. It proves you don’t always appreciate what’s on your own doorstep. But the camping?’ She shook her head and looked across at Fern.
‘Never a truerword,’ said Fern with a weird look on her face before she beckoned Daisy to go get another round in with her. ‘We’ll get doubles again,’ she winked.
Ginny’s puzzled glance at her sisters who were clearly conspiring was replaced with a smile when Lucas came and sat down in front of her.
You don’t always appreciate what is right in front of you either,she thought to herself. Here he was, so close,soft brown eyes fixed on her, hair that in the summer went from its mid-brown to a dirty blond. And it was as though they were two twenty-somethings all over again.
She caught sight of her sisters watching them and wanted to swat them away. Lucas had noticed them too and grinned.
When he offered her another drink she shook her head. ‘How about we walk instead?’ She needed to escape if they weregoing to be able to talk properly. And she desperately wanted to know whether his feelings were as strong as hers.
He downed the remains of the pint he’d brought over with him and picked up his coat. ‘Sounds good to me.’
As they walked over to Lantern Square Lucas spotted the yarn bombing and Ginny did her best to act surprised too.
‘You, Fern and Daisy seem to be doing all right,’ he saidas they headed for one of the benches.
‘We’re getting there.’ They sat down on the bench that had the knitted reindeers across the back. ‘We’ve had a bit of time to talk, properly I mean. It’s something I think we all neglected and somehow let things come between us.’ She wasn’t going to share all the details just yet, and she was conscious Carrie might want to take things slow too. She mightnot want everyone to know how she was connected to the family until they’d all got more used to the idea themselves.
‘I’m happy for you, Ginny.’
It was cold but they were sitting close enough that she had a bit of warmth from his proximity. ‘Do you remember when we last talked and you said you thought I’d take on the shop?’ Ginny smiled.
He nodded, knowing what was coming. ‘I wondered how longthat would take. You finally told your mum and Daisy how you felt?’
‘I did, and more than that, Daisy wants to do something entirely different anyway.’
‘Don’t tell me, there’s a camera involved? Joshua has mentioned once or twice – or was it several times – how talented she is.’
‘She wanted to study photojournalism at university but never did, because of Mum, because she felt she needed tostay here.’ Her heart was thumping as she delivered her explanation when all she wanted to know was whether they stood a chance together.
‘While you needed to get away.’
She explained what she’d told her sisters, the guilt at having not been there for her dad, the pain at not saying goodbye to him. ‘I didn’t think I should be happy.’
‘You know that’s crazy, don’t you?’ He hesitated and then,looking away and into the wintry sky, said, ‘I’m truly sorry I hurt you, Ginny. Ending things was something I never thought of when we were so good together, but then …’
‘I know, we both changed.’
‘We both grew up.’ He looked at her and managed a smile. ‘For so many years I’d been in Butterbury in my comfort zone. Even when I was at university I knew I had this buffer, that the family businesswas here if I needed it, and I can’t explain it but that got to me. I saw the way you’d found a career and a passion and despite everything that had happened to you, you had found a way through it. That strength – which I think all you Chamberlain girls have, by the way – is something I wondered whether I had deep down. When I was offered the job in Florida I didn’t think I should burden you witha choice to come with me or not. You needed your family, even though you didn’t really see it at the time. And there’s a difference between going off travelling and moving to another country. At the time I was open to staying out there. I couldn’t do that to you.’
‘I would’ve come with you.’
