Page 90 of Twilight at Croftwood Library
‘Okay. Mr Reeves.’
49
Oliver had run out of ideas. He had been to Lois’s house every evening for the past week and aside from the first time, when he’d been pretty sure that she was there, the lights had been off and there was definitely no-one home.
He’d made a nuisance of himself at the Hive. He was pretty sure all the staff knew who he was and had been primed not to let on where Lois was. She had to be there, Linda had said she’d gone back there but there was no sign of her, even though he’d given up asking for her at the desk and instead wandered around the place every day for half an hour or so just in case he came across her.
‘Give her some time, Ollie.’ Patsy was trying to be kind but had no idea what Lois would be thinking. She didn’t need more time to mull over the fact that she thought he and Amy were having a baby and that he couldn’t take the added complication of a relationship with her as well. And now none of that was true.
‘I can’t, Pats. I need to tell her.’
‘Well, I’m not complaining about the extra hours I’ve had to work while you’ve been off trying to stalk her but maybe just relax. She’ll turn up when you least expect it.’
‘I’m sure she’s avoiding me, so I doubt it.’
‘You don’t think she’ll come to the book club?’
‘Are you joking?’
‘Well, she might love it more than she wants to avoid you.’
He shrugged. ‘She might.’ It was a very remote possibility, but he thought he’d hurt her so badly that she almost certainly wouldn’t set foot in Croftwood again let alone in his coffee house.
‘You must know her friends. Maybe they can get a message to her or something?’
‘That’s not a bad idea, actually.’ It was a good idea but the only one of Lois’s friends he’d met was Steph and that was very briefly. He knew she drove the mobile library. Maybe he could find out where it was going to be and intercept her.
‘So, are you back for the day?’ Patsy looked expectantly at him, wanting to be able to go but all he could think about was the mobile library.
‘Give me ten minutes.’
He ran upstairs, trying not to imagine Patsy rolling her eyes behind him, and trawled through the county library website until he found a mobile library page. Frustratingly, he could only search by an A to Z of stops rather than just see the whole list, but he supposed anyone looking at it for normal reasons would be perfectly happy with that. He picked a random nearby village and checked that. The timetable for the third Thursday of the month popped up. What date was it according to that kind of timetabling? He’d already missed the third Thursday. After picking several other villages at random, he eventually managed to track down the mobile library timetable for the following day. It was visiting Old Hollow, near Malvern. Perfect.
‘Hey Pats, you’re good to go,’ he said, tying his apron as he came to stand behind the counter with her.
‘Great, thanks. You look like a man with a plan.’
‘Are you okay to work tomorrow?’ He asked with a sheepish grin. ‘I can open up.’
‘Okay. I’ll be in at nine, but tomorrow is it, Ollie. At this rate, we’ll need to find another manager for the cinema because I’m here more than you are.’
‘Thanks, you’re a star,’ he said, hugging her. ‘I massively appreciate it and I’ll do some of your shifts at the cinema to make up for it.’
The following morning, he left as soon as Patsy arrived. The mobile library was only at Old Hollow for fifteen minutes from 10 am. He arrived way too early, but that was better than missing it and having to trail around after it to stop after stop.
At five to ten, the mobile library van turned cumbersomely into the car park. Oliver watched Steph open the doors and lower the steps down before he got out of the car and walked over. He was nervous. He stood outside for a minute, thinking how best to phrase things to Steph. Should he ask where Lois was? She probably wouldn’t tell him if the response he’d been getting from the Hive was anything to go by. What else could he say? Why had he come? He couldn’t even remember now. Patsy had said something about giving a message. Okay, so he’d ask Steph to pass on that… he loved Lois? No, that was too much. He needed to talk to her first.
‘Are you going in?’ A woman came up behind him, then pushed at him with her elbow. ‘Come on, don’t be shy.’
He followed her into the van. He’d never been in a mobile library before and hadn’t known what to expect.
‘Morning Steph, I found this one lurking outside.’
‘Morning Zoe, cup of tea?’ asked Steph as she walked over to him without having looked to see who it was. ‘Oh, Oliver.’
‘Hi, I wasn’t sure if you’d remember me.’ He looked around awkwardly to avoid Steph’s gaze.
‘Oh, I remember you.’ She crossed her arms and stood in front of him.
