Page 78 of The Sugar and Spice Bookshop Bakery

‘There’s not many places quieter than Applethwaite,’ Louise points out.

‘Exactly! When Dad had his heart attack, I did wonder if that somewhere might be here. I could move to Yorkshire and keep an eye on him. I thought we might grow close again. And then meeting you and creating your book nooks…’ He takes a beat. ‘I felt like all the pieces of my new life were falling into place.’

Louise senses a great big but.

‘But—’

Yeah, there it is. Right on cue.

‘Listening to him yesterday, when your mother brought him to the bakery, that was very hard for me.’ Louise’s heart sinks.

‘I’m sure. He’s certainly pulling the wool over Mum’s eyes.’

‘He’s pulling the wool over everyone’s eyes. I hate the way he keeps up the pretence. He’s a man of many talents.’

‘I’m sorry, I can’t imagine how uncomfortable that would be,’ she says, and then the penny drops. She realises what he’s about to tell her.

He’s not staying in Applethwaite.

Jack sighs. ‘It’s my own fault. I should have nipped it in the bud years ago. People would have understood.’

‘You can’t blame yourself though.’

He’s moving back to London.

He shrugs. ‘I just never thought it would go on for so long, you know. I thought he’d have dropped it by now. And I certainly never envisaged that he’d go on pretending once he came back here.’

‘He’s put you in a very difficult position.’

Just tell me. Get it over with.

He sighs again. ‘He certainly has. It’s really made it impossible for me to stay here. I’m struggling to find a way around it.’

And there it is. Finally.

‘Louise, you understand, don’t you? I don’t want to pretend I’m something I’m not, but for all his faults, I love Babbo, and I don’t want to humiliate him by revealing the truth. He’d be so embarrassed.’

He’s going.

Louise looks down at her wine glass, running her finger around the rim.

‘The thing is,’ Jack says. ‘I have to make a living. And I can hardly say, “Hey, I’m an architect, but does anyone need a carpenter?”’

‘Can’t you say you want to do something more hands on?’ Okay, bit of an unusual career path, but no stranger than giving up a career in publishing to run a bookshop bakery. ‘You could say it was a midlife crisis,’ she says hopefully.

‘I don’t think anyone would buy that, do you? I’m worried he’d never forgive me.’

But what about me? she wants to ask. What about us?

Only she doesn’t. Because the truth is that they haven’t even known each other long. They’ve slept together, but only once. And he isn’t breaking any promises because no promises were even made. She’s known from the start that he was always planning to return to London – he was clear about that the first time he came clean about not being an architect. Louise understands that it’s a difficult situation, but she wishes there were another option, something that would keep him here.

Jack stands up and removes their empty bowls, putting them straight into the dishwasher.

‘Look, we can still see each other. London isn’t that far.’

Just two hundred and something miles.

Louise shakes her head. ‘I don’t see how it would work, do you? Honestly? You have your own business, I’m about to launch mine. It’s not like we both have nine-to-five jobs, is it?’