Page 85 of Slow Burn Summer

52

Kate had never seen theshop so full, and snapped a quick photo for Liv to get a kick out of at some point. The soccer fans had crammed themselves back into the car and driven away blaring the horn, and then everyone else had crowded inside the fancy-dress shop. Kate stood on Liv’s alterations stool so she could see them all.

“I wish I had some champagne to pop,” she said. “Because that was bloody amazing! I can’t believe you all came down here, you’ve blown my mind.” She made hand explosions in the air around her head and laughed, giddy. “I haven’t even dared go online since yesterday, I didn’t know if I’d said enough, or too much and made it even worse, but that…this…the way you all came marching up the street out there…it was like a scene from a film I’d pay good money to see.”

“Readers united,” the woman in the straw hat said. “We should start an online group with the soccer guys, one of them was right up my street.”

“Did he happen to have husky-blue eyes?”

Kate turned to the Peaky Blinder giving her the speculative side-eye and shook her head. “If he did, it was a coincidence.That whole first-love-on-the-train story was a throwaway line that got wildly out of hand.”

One of theBridgertongirls standing near to Charlie over by the door turned and studied his face briefly. “Brown,” she stated, earning an under-the-breath laugh from most of the room.

Claire held both hands up. “Can I please apologize again for my dick of a fiancé? I could have literally died when I realized it was him.”

“In his defense—not that he’s entitled to any—he was right about one thing. Fictional men are the best,” one of thePeakygirls shrugged, knotting her long string of pearls.

“Probably because it’s usually women who write them,” someone said, raising a laugh.

Kate caught Charlie’s eye at the back of the shop. She had no idea how he’d even come to be out there this morning, but in the moment, it had seemed to make total sense.

“Maybe he thought he was making a grand gesture?” someone suggested.

“I’d have preferred a bookstore gift card,” Claire said, making everyone laugh.

“Well, I’m just glad to know who it was and why,” Kate said. “And you know what the worst thing is? I bloody love trifle, but I’ll never be able to face it again after this.”

—

The gathering thinned quickly, themorning pull of jobs or family claiming everyone now the day was firing up.

“And then there were two,” Charlie said, closing the door.

Kate pressed her hands against her cheeks, incredulous. “Wasn’t thatwild? I half wish Liv had been here because she’d have loved it, although for Ciaran’s sake, it’s probably better thatshe’s in a different country.” She shook her head. “I can’t get over it, all those people.”

He nodded, then checked the time. “I hate to say this, but there’s somewhere else I need to be.”

“Oh.” Disappointment crashed through her. The morning had been such a roller coaster, so many unexpected turns and euphoria-inducing moments. This was the first time she’d been able to catch her breath and there was so much she wanted to say, to ask.

“I’ll call you later,” he said, aviators on.

She didn’t try to waylay him, because she could see his mind was already somewhere else.

—

For a day that hadstarted with such momentum, the morning soon settled down to a steady ebb and flow of customers. Her phone notifications were off the scale, and every time she checked social media she found it ablaze with that morning’s events. As with everything, someone unconnected had caught the scenes outside the fancy-dress shop on their phone camera and shared it with the rest of the world, and the story had been added to and embroidered as it spread across reader groups and book blogs like wildfire. It was obvious from the comments that some of the people who’d actually been there that morning had tried to add proper context, but the angle of the phone footage didn’t quite catch Ciaran’s face and no one had exposed his identity. Kate found herself relieved; having been at the center of a social media scandal herself, she didn’t wish it on anyone else, even if he kind of deserved it.

Her mobile buzzed, a message from Charlie, a pin dropped on a location map at a hotel bar she knew of but had never been to.

Meet me at seven?

She studied his words, looking for clues that weren’t there. She tried out several long-winded replies and deleted them all, and in the end she sent back just one word.

Yes

53

Charlie tapped Fiona’s open doorand, out of politeness, waited to be invited in. The atmosphere between them had been decidedly frosty since their showdown about the proposed American tour, and she hadn’t yet said a word about Kate’s impromptu appearance on the sofa with Niall and Ruby.

---