Page 72 of Whispers at The Bookshop Pretty Beach
‘Xian played her cards to her chest in that one.’ Miles noted. ‘Those posters were everywhere, but all the while the pair of them were working on sorting it out…’
‘I know. I had an inkling from something Chloe said but, to be honest, I never thoughtthatwould be the outcome.’ Daisy shuddered. ‘All that work I did. Having them threaten it was almost unbearable. I just tried to bury it. Little did I know the queens of Pretty Beach were on the case.’
‘You did tell me when I was first on the scene not to mess with them.’
‘Ha! I did.’
‘Clearly, they’re not to be underestimated.’
They turned onto the road that led directly to the school, and immediately, the character of their walk changed as other families converged on the same destination. A stream of parents, some frazzled, some immaculate, and children all headed in the same direction. Some parents looked calm and organised, others were clearly running late and trying to manage last-minute crises involving forgotten PE kits or misplaced homework. Daisy recognised most of the faces, at least by sight, said hello to a few other mums here and there and waved to a dad whose daughter was in the same class as the twins.
Just as they were getting close to the gate, Daisy felt her jaw go tight on spotting Georgia up ahead, walking with another mum Daisy didn't recognise. Both of them were dressed as if they were heading to lunch at an expensive restaurant rather than dropping children off at primary school. Georgia's hair was perfectly styled despite the early hour, and she had a tiny white bag with a logo on the front facing outwards so all the world could see where she’d bought it from.
For a moment, Daisy felt a horrible flutter of anxiety at a potential encounter with Georgia and her circle of friends. The memory of the overheard conversation on the ferry flashed in front of her eyes for a minute, but then she glanced quickly at Miles and thought that Georgia and her crew could poke it. Here she was walking to school with the man she loved and the children who were the centre of her world. She was still a little bit wary of what people might think and for sure not a hundred per cent that she was doing the right thing, but mostly she had given up caring. She was happy and Georgia's opinion of her life choices had stopped mattering somewhere along the way.
'Mummy, there's Lucy from our class,' Margot pointed out a girl with plaits who was walking slightly ahead of them with her dad. 'Can we catch up with her?'
'Of course.'
The twins immediately accelerated, calling out to their classmate and chatting away.
Miles squeezed Daisy’s elbow. 'You're beaming.'
'Am I?'
'Yup.’
Daisy put her head to one side. 'I suppose I am. It's just that all of this feels right. Walking to school together, the twins chatting to their friends, you carrying their bags like you've been doing it forever. It surprises me sometimes how normal it allfeels. I did all this for so long on my own. I had Mum, Bells and Maggie to help, but still, yeah, it feels different now.'
As they reached the school gates, the regular organised chaos of drop-off time was already in full swing. Teachers were positioned at strategic points to supervise arrivals and a few cars, as per usual, were illegally parked. The twins hugged Daisy goodbye, and in a flash, they were gone in a jumble of blue school bags and little heads going in through the door.
Daisy smiled at Miles as they waited until the twins had completely disappeared and then turned and walked away. ‘Well, that’s another successful school morning where we are on time.’
Miles joked. ‘Another miraculous military manoeuvre has been successfully completed.’
‘Yes, indeed.’
‘I love being part of it.’
Daisy smiled. ‘Not as much as me.’
42
The back garden behind the bookshop had never looked more magical, despite being decidedly unfinished and not the recipient of a full-on makeover, it had had a good old tidy up and a little bit of tinkering. Daisy stood at the kitchen window, tea towel in hand, watching fairy lights twinkle against a lovely, inky black sky. She'd strung them haphazardly between an old tree in the corner and the shed, wound them around the fence posts and draped them over the lean-to. The effect had been just what she’d wanted: a little bit ramshackle and thrown together andveryDaisy.
A lovely old chiminea she had found on Marketplace that Pete had helped her set up the weekend before crackled away in the corner. Occasional tiny little sparks floated up the chimney into the sky and the smell of wood pricked the cool night air. Around the chiminea, she'd arranged a collection of garden chairs that she’d accumulated from all over the show. A couple stolen from her mum, others rescued from charity shops, and one particularly wonky folding chair that she and Miles had found over near the beach huts with a little paper handwritten note taped to it saying it was free to a good home. Daisy felt asif the bookshop qualified as good a home as any and Miles had picked it up and carried it back.
Evie appeared at her elbow, bouncing slightly with anticipation. The twins had been obsessing over a packet of sparklers that Maggie had brought, counting and recounting them as if they might multiply. ‘Mummy, can we light the sparklers now?’
'Not yet, sweetheart. Wait until everyone's properly settled with their drinks.' Daisy glanced around at the garden scene unfolding behind the bookshop and smiled. It wasn't much; a patch of dodgy grass, flower beds that were more weed than flower, a small terraced area and a storage shed that had seen better days. It needed a really good makeover, which she hadn’t yet had time to do, but in its own special little way, it felt just right.
Annabelle, in a luxurious cream roll neck jumper, jeans and boots, was perched on the edge of a wooden bench deep in conversation with Elizabeth about something that was making them both laugh. Miles's mum was wrapped in a wool blanket and holding a glass of steaming mulled wine in both hands. The bruising on her face had faded and her eyes were bright and alert in a way they hadn't been when she'd first arrived in Pretty Beach.
Susannah appeared beside Daisy with a tray of homemade sausage rolls from the oven and nodded in Elizabeth’s direction as if reading her thoughts. 'The sea air's done her the world of good. She's looking so much better.'
'Miles said she walked down and did the harbour trail yesterday.’
‘Yes, she said. She’s clearly on the mend.’
