Page 68 of Cosy & Chill
For days he’d peppered her with questions, keen to find out what made her different, learn what he could about the world she’d left behind, and the magic she seemed to be wielding with such ease. Wondering whether she could help Leo was a logical next step.
“If I could, don’t ye think I’d have done it already? I don’t enjoy seeing ye flop around like this any more than I enjoyed watching Leo being as jittery as a unicorn on ice. He clearly didn’t want to see his solicitor, but since neither one of us thought to get the solicitor’s name or address from him…”
“I didn’t want to pry,” Finn admitted.
“Then don’t. If ye trust him, don’t pry. If he trusts ye, he’ll tell ye once he’s ready.”
“What if he had an accident? What if he’s in the hospital?”
“Or in jail?”
Finn gaped. Then he shook his head. “Not that.”
Roisin abandoned her sketchpad and flopped down on the sofa beside him. “See? Ye have enough of a connection to him that ye can tell that he’s not in jail or in trouble with the police. Now. Concentrate on that connection and imagine him in a hospital bed.”
Finn recoiled. That image was all wrong. “No,” he said forcefully.
“Excellent. We’ve ruled that one out, too. That leaves him sorting through something that he isn’t ready to talk about yet or celebrating. Which of those would bother ye?”
Finn didn’t know how to answer that. “If he’s won a court case or something,” he said slowly, “then I’d want him to celebrate, even if I’m not there. If it’s something he’s struggling with, then I’d wish he’d come to me so I could help him. Or, at least, be there for him.”
“Excellent. Now ye know.”
“What?”
“Didn’t ye just hear yerself? Ye want to be the person Leo comes to when he’s in trouble. Ye’re frustrated because ye can’t help him.”
“That’s…”
“Totally normal when ye love someone. And don’t tell me ye don’t. I can see that the two of ye belong together.”
“You can?”
“Yes. He’s working his socks off to give ye room to knit. When ye feel he’s in trouble, ye’ll immediately want to be there and help him. That speaks of a very strong connection. It also means that yer frustration is natural.”
“That’s not helping.”
She gave the blanket in his lap a dubious glance. “No, I suppose it isn’t. Ye certainly won’t get any work done tonight. I tell ye what. Go grab yerself a beer, and then we’ll start getting the store ready to open on Friday morning.”
Finn’s mind went blank. He sat with his mouth open, unable to find anything to say. “What?” he managed finally.
“Ye’re gonna open the store on Friday morning.”
“We can’t! It’s not ready.”
“Doesn’t matter. I’m not saying throw a grand party with lots of hoopla, though that would be fun, now I think on it. But ye really should open now. It’s only a week to Christmas. Take advantage of all the people suddenly wandering into yer corner of the High Street. Don’t ye think it’s rude to put them off until the new year when they need gifts right now?”
Finn had noticed that their store was attracting attention. If he’d seen that many people stop to gaze into the windows while the store stood empty, he’d have had a heart attack. Or gotten off his backside earlier and enquired about renting it. Right. Of course, he would have done that.
But open Cosy & Chill in only four days’ time? It sounded insane.
He jumped a mile when Roisin thrust her sketch pad under his nose. “Come on, then. List-making time.”
