Miles laughed. ‘It might be, but it’s true.’
Daisy nodded. ‘Okay. I’ll stop spinning out. I’m sorry I brought it up in the first place.’
‘Good, because I’ve cooked and tonight is all about you…’
‘You’re sweet.’
‘Trust me; only where you’re concerned. Other people do not describe me ever as “sweet”.’
Daisy helped plate up and carry the dishes to the little candlelit table.
Miles raised his glass after he sat down. ‘To us.’
Daisy clinked his glass. ‘To us and nice evenings in peace.’
Daisy nodded as she tucked in. Miles had made her feel approximately a trillion times better. Georgia and her opinions could go whistle. She hoped that her new found confidence and trust would last. She could but wait and see.
16
Daisy was midway through shelving a box of ‘Daisy Recommends’ titles when the shop bell tinkled. Every time it sounded, it reminded her about just what she’d achieved and, for sure, kept her on her shopkeeper toes. She was at the far end of the shop, near the corner where the poetry met the coffee table books, and Margot and Evie were under the front window in the children’s nook playing castles and princesses. The shop was actually closed, but she hadn’t quite locked up the front yet.
She squinted outside to the street where a courier van had pulled up in the laneway and bumped onto the pavement. She dusted her palms on her jeans and straightened up as Matthew, Pretty Beach’s local delivery driver, stepped fully into the shop, a thick envelope and a clipboard under one arm and an enormous cream-and-green-trimmed box just about balanced in front of him.
‘Delivery for one lovely Daisy, bookshop owner,’ Matthew joked. ‘Someone must like you very much. I usually deliver these at Christmas. It looks as if by the size of this all your Christmases have come at once.’
Daisy blinked and frowned. ‘Oh, gosh. Who sent me that?’
Matthew smiled. ‘No idea! Shall I take it through, or do you want it on the counter?’
Daisy stepped aside, heart already starting to do the thing it did when she suspected Miles had something to do with whatever was going on. ‘Of course. That looks, umm, substantial.’
‘It’s a whopper.’ Matthew put the box which clearly held a hamper inside down beside the counter. ‘Anyway, how are we, Daise? All good with you? The shop looks great. I heard you’re doing well.’
‘Thanks. Yes, I’m well, thanks. It’s early days, but so far so good.’
Matthew held out a thick, cream envelope. ‘This came with it.’ He then turned around a tablet and tapped the screen. ‘Sign your life away here, please.’
Daisy signed the screen and took the envelope. It was luxuriously thick and felt so very nice to receive, just as had been intended. ‘Thank you.’
Matthew shot a look out to his van. ‘Sorry, I need to fly or I’ll be hung, drawn and quartered if I get caught bumping on the pavement. Enjoy the hamper. Looks like you’ll be having a nice tea tonight.’
Daisy stared at the gloriously luxurious box. The twins had stopped playing castles and were both standing, one on either side of the gigantic thing, eyes wide and full of questions.
‘Mummy. What is that?’
‘Is it presents? Has Grandma sent us presents? Ooh!’
‘Can we open it?’
Daisy walked back over and shifted the box so there was more space. Pulling off the special tab to open it she lifted it and gasped as she looked inside. The hamper was huge, not just big, but ginormous with two buckled leather straps, brass-edged corners, and monogrammed initials on the front. A luxurious tagwas hanging from the side. Daisy hadn’t seen anything like it other than when one of Maggie’s clients had sent her a box full of posh wine and wild boar pâté. This thing, though, was next level and the size of a small house. In fact, both Margot and Evie would fit into it. ‘Let’s have a look, shall we?’
Evie undid one of the buckles, Margot the other, and they flipped the lid back together with a creak. Inside, nestled in thick shredded paper, was a treasure trove of glinting jars, tins, and pastel-striped boxes. A bottle of cloudy elderflower pressé, shortbread in a painted carousel tin, a pouch or four of single-origin coffee, an entire glazed fruit cake wrapped in muslin, six sorts of tea, some loose leaf in a tin, some in elegant muslin pyramids, and a few labelled as if it had been blended specifically for the King. There was even a bottle of raspberry gin and two etched glasses wrapped in tissue. Underneath all of that, an insulated insert held a cool bag with a round of waxed cheddar, soft cheeses and smoked salmon. There was a slab of salted caramel fudge, two jars of strawberry and champagne preserves, salted chocolate pecans and rose petal jelly. Not a bad spread at all.
Margot looked as if she’d won the lottery. Daisyfeltas if she had. ‘This is for us?’
Evie whispered, like someone might take it back. ‘All of these chocolate and sweets?’
Daisy chuckled. ‘Looks like it.’
