Page 59 of Daydreamer
I grabbed some of the coats that had fallen to the floor and lifted them all up and onto the chair next to me. “Well, I?—”
“This isn’t even half of them, Felix!” she snapped. “You’re obsessed with buying me clothing.”
“Listen, I know you’re busy, and I thought that if I did a spot of shopping it would save you time.”
“I don’t need all this stuff. Nobody needstwenty-fivecoats.”
“Er,” Hetty put in. “Twenty-four.” I glanced at her and then down to Legolas, who was munching on the specialist heated puffa I bought Lucy last week.
“Legolas,” I snapped. “That’s one of the ones for minus twenty degrees, you bastard.”
Legolas gave me a guilty look but continued munching through the lining.
“This is exactly what I mean,” Lucy said. “When am I going to ever need to go somewhere that’sminus twenty?”
“Luce, you need to be maintained at a certain temperature. And that means that?—”
“Ugh, I’m not a tropical fish, Felix. You can’t just…” she blinked, and her head tilted to the side, the attitude in her stance fading for a moment. “Did you sayyouwent shopping?”
I shrugged. “Most of it I ordered online, but for some of it I had to go to specialist outdoor stores and?—”
“You bought it? Not Tabitha? B–but you don’t have time to go shopping. You’ve never shopped in your life.”
“I didn’t really trust it to anyone else.”
“Oh.” The fight went out of Lucy as she sat down heavily on the chair next to mine. Hetty put a cup of tea in front of her which she took a sip of as she absently stroked one of the thermally insulated cashmere coats lying on the table next to her. “I–I don’t… why would you…?”
I dipped my head down so her eyes were level with mine and smiled at her.
“I just want you to be warm, love,” I said softly. Her mouth fell open slightly, and her eyes went unfocused.
“Lucy, you say, ‘Thank you, Felix, for buying me lots of warm clothes. That was very kind and generous of you’,” Hetty told her.
“Right,” Lucy muttered. “Uh, thanks.” She blinked down at her tea for a moment, then her gaze snapped back to mine and her eyes narrowed again. “No more coats though. I’d need two lifetimes to wear all the ones you’ve already bought.”
I’d shrugged and smiled again when I thought about the delivery that was scheduled for that afternoon.
“I don’t care about the other people here,” I said, still keeping hold of Lucy’s hands. “They can take off a layer if they’re hot.”
“They’ll be down to their underwear if they take off any more layers,” Lucy said, the blush still on her cheeks as she looked down at her hands in mine. “And this space is going to fill up with readers soon. It’ll be unbearable for people if the heating’s any higher.”
“Hey, kids,” Madeline strutted up the stand. “So, Lucy, you ready?”
Lucy tugged her hands away from mine and sat up straighter in her chair, her nervous expression returning. Her hand shook slightly as she unnecessarily straightened the bookmarks in front of her.
“Have they sorted out the ticketing system for her?” I asked Madeline, and she rolled her eyes.
“Felix, like I told you already, they don’t feel it’s needed.”
I huffed. “Thoseguys have a ticketing system,” I said, pointing to the larger tables at the head of the room. “Why not Lucy?”
“Felix,” Lucy said. “I’m not a big enough of a deal for that.”
My eyebrows went up. “Luce, you’re way up with those guys.”
Her eyes went wide as she glanced over to the big names that I knew she was a little awed to even be in the same room as.
“Yes, love, you are,” I said softly. “Listen, I’ll be back in a sec, okay?”
