‘The closed door must have protected it.’ She wondered briefly about running the Easter egg hunt from in here if the main shop wasn’t ready, but then children would have to walk through some kind of building site to get in here. Plus if they didn’t have electricity the main shop was very dark without lights.
She walked back out the shop and looked up at the shop sign; even that had black fire marks on it.
‘At least you can go back to your flat,’ Xander said, joining her outside.
She looked at him, disappointment crashing through her. She had loved staying with him over the last few days and even with Etta there, she had felt so at home. But he was right, she didn’t actually live there.
‘Yeah, I guess me and Jacob can move back home.’
His face fell. ‘Why?’
She frowned in confusion. ‘You just said you wanted me to go back home.’
‘No, I meant you can collect some of your things: your clothes, phone, laptop, anything else you need.’
‘Oh.’ She let out a little sigh of relief although it was short-lived. ‘But it’s not like I can stay with you indefinitely.’
‘Why not? Things are going well, aren’t they? I thought things were good between us.’
‘They are but it’s a big change for Etta, to go from not having me there to having me there all day and all night. It might be a bit much. It might be better to break her in gently with me staying over a few nights a week.’
‘I don’t agree. I think she’ll get more used to the idea if it’s a consistent thing, not coming and going, staying some nights and not others.’
‘Are you… are you asking me to move in with you?’
‘Yes… no…’ He pushed his hand through his hair. ‘This is all new territory for me. I’m not sure how to navigate it. Of course I want her to be comfortable about this, and you’re right, easing her in slowly might be better for her. But we’ve kind of skipped past the initial stages of our relationship. We have a baby on the way and if we’re going to make this work, I feel like we have to go all in. Give it our best shot.’
Immy looked back at his shop where Etta was helping Judy to top up the different chocolates on sale. She wanted to tread so carefully with her. But what Xander said kind of made sense. She didn’t want to stillbe trying this on for size in six months’ time when the baby came. If their relationship didn’t work out then they needed a plan for how they were going to co-parent when the baby came. And the only way to find out if they could make it in a serious relationship was to be in a serious relationship. But everything was happening so fast, not just for the two of them but for Etta too.
Xander could clearly see her indecision. ‘I get it, it’s a big change.’
‘I want this to work, I really do. I just don’t want the speed of our relationship to end up being our downfall.’
‘I don’t want that either. But you can’t even use your electricity now, no cups of tea, no hot showers, no light at night time. And let’s face it, candles are probably not the best idea after you survived one fire. Why don’t you stay with me at least until that’s sorted?’
She smiled, liking that he clearly didn’t want her to leave either. ‘I can do that.’
‘Why don’t you go and pack up a bag of clothes and gather together anything else you need and I’ll be over shortly to help you carry it.’
‘OK. I need to get some food for Jacob too. I’m sure he’s hating all the cooked chicken we’ve been feeding him.’
Xander laughed. ‘I’m sure he is. I’m going to message my brothers and I’ll contact Belinda to let her know we can start work on the place. Hopefully she’ll rally the troops.’
‘Good idea.’ She leaned up to kiss him on the cheek. ‘Thank you.’
‘My pleasure.’
She watched him go back across the street. It was funny that inside the shop her life had fallen apart but out here, and mainly over the road, it was just beginning – in the best possible way.
By noon, a lorry had delivered a skip right outside the sweet shop. By half twelve Belinda arrived with a troop of people ready to help. Some of them Immy had never even met before. When Belinda put her mind to something she clearly meant to make it happen.
‘I better go and join them,’ Immy said, as she stood outside the chocolate shop watching Belinda taking charge.
‘I’ll close the shop and come over too,’ Xander said.
‘No, don’t do that. Easter is one of your busiest and most profitable times of the year, I don’t want you to lose out on that. And you can’t exactly leave Judy to do it on her own, she’ll be rushed off her feet.’
‘Some things are more important than money.’
