Darby beamed, smoothing down the skirt. 'Actually, I treated myself to this. I thought, why not? Thank you, that's very kind of you. I do feel quite nice in this, so that must mean something.'
'Beautiful is the only word for it. It’s more than nice. You'll have to dress up more often...'
Darby laughed. 'I must scrub up well. I’m normally in my civvies when I lose myself in here.'
'Well, whatever you've done, it's working. Go and enjoy yourself, you deserve it. There's wine and Pete's doing his best impression of a waiter, so you'll be well looked after. I hear your companion is delayed.' Daisy raised her eyebrows.
‘He is.’
As she got to her assigned table, Darby could have kissed someone. The table and two chairs were tucked right next to a library ladder, and she was surrounded by not only books but tiny little candles in jars, lovely old rugs on the floor, soft French-style café music played from a hidden speaker, and thescents in the air were more than amazing. Just to sit at the table and dream would be bliss. The setting was outstanding and she was pleased to be part of it.
Just after she’d been served a drink and had chatted to Pete, she was pulling out her phone to check if Archie had replied to her earlier text when she saw him. He stood in the doorway for a moment, scanning the room. Dark jeans, pale blue shirt, so handsome. Jacket slung over one arm. Devastating. Darby felt a strange swooping feeling. Fizzy, light-headed, lovely. As he spotted her and smiled, the noise and chatter of the bookshop seemed to fall away for a moment and all of a sudden something dawned on her. Oh dear, oh dear, our Darbs had definitely fallen in love. There was no coming back from it.
He made his way through the tables towards her, accepted a glass of wine from Suntanned Pete and when he reached her, leaned down to kiss her cheek.
'Hi.’
'Hey. You made it.'
‘I’m so sorry. I wasn’t as delayed as I thought I would be, in the end. I’ll pay you in tiramisu to apologise.’ Archie took a step back. 'Christ, Darby. You look beautiful. Really beautiful.'
Darby ducked her head, suddenly self-conscious. 'It's just a dress I had hanging about.'
'It's not just the dress, though the dress is very nice...'
‘Thanks. You’re not looking too bad either.’
Archie sat down. ‘This place has been transformed. Let’s hope there’s no talk of romance in space, eh?’
Darby chuckled. ‘If there is or we see that author, we’re doing a runner, supper club or not.’
‘Noted.’
Darby looked around the transformed bookshop and couldn't quite believe where she was. At the beginning of the year, she'd been eating toast for dinner and talking to herkitchen wall. Now here she was, dressed up and happy, with someone who made her feel amazing. She’d only jolly well gone and pulled herself out of the dark place that had been New Year’s Eve. She’d forced change, made an effort and been brave. She now owned it. Shelovedit. She liked this new best version of herself. The new Darbs was here to stay.
48
Darby was not in a fancy dress with ruffles. She was sporting a raincoat over jeans, although it wasn’t technically raining, but it was threatening to drizzle. All scraps of makeup from her face from the night before were long gone, bar a tinted moisturiser that performed miracles. Her hair was in a ponytail, a bounce was in her step, and life felt good. It had been very nice to dress up, the supper club in the bookshop had been fantastic, and the gift that had just kept on giving, but ultimately, Darby was happy to be in jeans and ballet flats.
On her way to Archie’s house for the afternoon, she was so pleased to be back seeing him again that she had to keep pinching herself. So much so that the force of her feelings surprised her. Yes, she’d thought she’d liked people before. Yup, she’d told herself in previous years that she’d been in love. Now she knew that that had all been playacting. Now the real deal had strolled into her life and presented itself. She was a bit scared, but, you know, what did you do? Did you jump in and let life lead you? Did you think stuff it and let yourself grow? Or did you continue to shelter in the low of the lows so that nothing could upset the apple cart? Darby was pleased she’d taken the option to grow.
Walking past the harbour, all sorts of cloud colours topped the water; Pretty Beach even did incoming rain clouds well. Arriving at Archie’s front door, she was surprised to see him ready to go out. He looked up at the sky. ‘Any rain on your way here?’
‘Not yet. I actually think it might blow over.’
‘Right, excellent.’ Archie handed Darby an umbrella and a small wicker picnic basket.
Darby frowned and did not compute. ‘I thought we were having tea here.’
‘Tea is in a flask. I thought we would walk up to the picnic tables at the lighthouse. Remember, we said we’d go up there more often when we were there that night. If it’s drizzling, we’ll be under cover.’
Darby wasn’t really up for it. She stayed quiet. The man had packed up a picnic and a flask of tea. Who was she to complain? Swooping in a circle around the harbour, they were soon going up towards the lighthouse and the rain had indeed blown over. Spots of blue punctuated the sky here and there, the lighthouse gleamed, and the air coming in off the sea worked its magic. Chatting all the way, Darby felt happy. ‘Wasn’t it great last night? I loved that setting.’
Archie nodded. ‘Yep.’
‘It was my first supper club and hopefully not my last.’
‘It’s hard to get tickets. I was lucky. I had to call in a favour…’
