Page 104 of Authentically, Izzy
“You don’t think she will?”
“I’m not certain.” He released her hands and stepped back. “She doesn’t want to intrude on what we have here, but from what I’ve been able to glean from the information she’s shared and my own research, opening a new shop isn’t the right choice. In fact, it would likely only lead to worse financial strain.”
She pressed a fist to her chest and scanned the bookshop, as if saying goodbye to it.
“But we’re not a lost cause.” He pressed a kiss to her cheek and she spared him a shadowed smile. “We’re at a crossroads, but I believe we can make a fresh start.”
“I’m not agreeing to change anything in this shop until I hear what exactly the two of you have in mind beyond website updates and social media exploits. Those don’t impact the walls and bindings ofthis place.” She shook her head again. “But if you plan to take away what we’ve done all these years, Brodie—”
“Mum, you know I don’t take relationships lightly or carelessly.”
She studied him a moment and gave a slight nod.
“Then trust me. I believe this opportunity may be the very thing Isabelle... and Sutherland’s needs most.”
Her lifted brow was her only response as she collected the Christie books. “If she ever finds her way back,” she added, before disappearing into the back of the shop.
Well, it may take more than pretty talk and earnest pleas to reach beyond Mum’s fear of losing Da’s presence in this shop, but at least she hadn’t refused outright. He cringed. Or burst into tears. He sighed down into the chair and looked up toward the window, only to meet Isabelle’s eyes from outside as she came to a stop on the other side.
Her dark hair fell over her shoulders, a striking contrast to the yellow blouse she wore.
He slowly rose from his seat, keeping his gaze fastened on hers. Her eyes pleaded with him through the glass, and he moved a few steps closer. What did he need to do? Stay? Run outside the shop and embrace her? As if she recognized his indecision, her lips crooked and she disappeared from view only to emerge through the front door, the entry bell jingling her entrance.
“Hey,” her voice rasped as she hesitantly stepped toward him, clutching a small takeaway box to her chest.
“Hello.” He pushed his hands into his pockets, waiting for her cue on what to do next.
She offered him the box with the insignia of Antoinette’s on top. “I brought you an apple danish.”
His smile spread as he took the offering. “I love apple danish.”
“I know,” she whispered.
Silence breached the gap between them and filled with the same connection he’d come to recognize as uniquely theirs. Her round,red-rimmed eyes hinted at the struggle she’d experienced while away, but the trace of a smile encouraged him that she’d made it through the struggle on the right side. She rubbed the back of her neck and looked away, a tiny wrinkle puckering her brow.
“I have an idea.” He cleared his throat. “Alice, one of the other store clerks, should arrive in half an hour.” He shifted a step closer to her. “What do you say we go for a drive? I have a particular house to show you.”
She stared at him for a moment, her dark eyes brimming with tears before her smile broke free. “I’d like that a lot.”
***
The landscape spread before her in lush greens with dashes of white and lavender blossoms bringing the idyllic palette to full bloom. A mixture of round-topped and jagged mountains rose in the distance, in an unusual combination of shapes and sizes. Some looked like they’d been broken away from the other, with serrated edges, and others made smooth silhouettes against the azure sky. Mossy-green earth scaled up two-thirds of the mountainside until it met a stony cap of gray or brown for the final third. The road weaved between and around them, each bend revealing another little wonder such as a village or a valley view or a hidden manor house or a beautiful loch. Growing up in the mountains prepared her for the pretzel-like ride, but even her beloved Blue Ridges couldn’t compare to the otherworldliness of Skymar. Did all the islands look like this one?
And the air? Clean with a tinge of sea and pine. A combination Izzy had never imagined working so well together. Back home there were the mountains and then there was the ocean, and never the twain shall meet, but here the sea wafted a few hours in every direction. It tinted the breeze in subtle touches while more inland, or with more robust scents as the ocean drew nearer.
Brodie didn’t broach the subject of their previous conversation. He simply talked about the countryside and explained a few of the ruins or the Balleycraig Manor House or the village supposedly buried beneath the waters of Loch Kewilth. Everything emerged out the window in vibrant color as if they’d stepped into a chalk pavement picture fromMary Poppins, and all the while Brodie gave her permission to keep silent.
“I don’t want you making up any wild ideas about my home so I ought to prepare you.”
“Too late.” She tossed him a grin. “The drive alone has me waiting for the characters of James Herriot’s novels to show up from among the emerald hills and scattered forests.”
“Ah, I half expected you to sayCranford.”
She touched his arm. “Oh my goodness, how could I have forgottenCranford!” She laughed. “And the factyou’rethe one to mention that series makes me all sorts of happy.”
His grin crooked and her heart squeezed in response. “You keep underestimating my reading experience, Karre.”
And the endearment! The vibrato of his deep voice smoothing over that sweet endearment settled within her, like a tender sort of anchor. She smiled. She trusted him. Deeply. Maybe all these wonderful ways he believed in her paired with this new revelation she’d uncovered with Luke changed things. Made sense of years and years of her life.
