Page 99 of The Village of Lost and Found

She studied him for a long moment, her green eyes boring into his.

‘What you just said, you could put down in your editorial and it would be incredible.’

He shrugged his shoulders. ‘That’s because I’m talking to you. I mean, the words are starting to come back, but it’s still pretty painful.’

‘Then write as if you’re just talking to me,’ she told him.

‘What if I fail?’ he asked, voicing his innermost fears.

‘Then we’ll start again,’ she said.

‘Together?’ he asked, unable to look away.

She nodded, still looking at him. ‘Together.’

The silence stretched out as he was suddenly overwhelmed with the desire to kiss her. What was equally shocking was that she wasn’t looking away. He found he was catching his breath in his throat as he looked at her. The thick eyelashes. The intense green of her eyes. The pinkness of her cheeks.

They both seemed to lean forward at the same time. Suddenly Lucy was in his arms and their lips met. It was a soft, gentle kiss, but it was the chemistry that sizzled between them that shocked him most of all. He had never felt anything like it.

The kiss was just beginning to deepen when there was the sound of the door unlocking downstairs.

‘That was for luck,’ murmured Lucy against his lips, before stepping away from him.

‘Anyone home?’ called out Molly, as she came up the stairs.

But all Tom could think of at that moment was that one kiss with Lucy would never be enough. Just when he had finally decided that love was for idiots, it turned out he had become one of them.

53

It had taken two weeks of hard work for Lucy to finish painting all the walls, the ceiling and skirting boards inside the newspaper office.

In addition, she had sanded and painted all the tall wooden bookcases so that everything was white and a blank canvas from which to start again. The only touch of colour was from the oak floorboards and large beams across the ceiling.

‘Right, that’s the Wi-Fi set up,’ said a telecoms engineer coming out of Tom’s old office.

‘Thanks,’ said Lucy, glancing inside.

It had taken an additional week, but Tom’s office was now not only tidy but clear of both rubbish and furniture. Tom had already moved into a corner of the main room, which had allowed her time to organise his old office ready to be rented out. Lucy had moved a couple of tall bookcases into the room but deliberately left them empty so that they could be utilised by whomever needed the room. The Mothers and Toddlers group had already booked it out every morning starting the following week. It had just needed a few of the spare chairs placing in there, although Lucy thought it was still looking a bit empty. So Grandma Tilly had kindly sewed a couple of covers for some large floor cushions and had placed them around as well.

Lucy slowly did a 360-degree turn around the whole place. It was getting there, but there was still so much to do.

Each night she tried to rest. If only her mind would let her. But she didn’t lie awake at night thinking about the community hub or even the summer fete, which she was organising on top of everything else. It had been two weeks and yet she couldn’t stop thinking about the kiss with Tom.

It had only been an impulsive moment, something that she didn’t regret for one second. But neither of them had mentioned it since and she had begun to wonder if he perhaps didn’t feel the same way. Because there was no doubt that she had serious feelings for him now.

Thankfully, there was much to distract her in the meantime.

‘Left a bit,’ said Tom as he backed his way through the open front door holding one end of a large sofa. Dodgy Del held the other end and together they shuffled their way inside.

Keith immediately stood up and went over to sit on Lucy’s feet whilst he decided whether the sofa was friend or foe.

‘Where do you want it?’ asked Tom, glancing over his shoulder.

‘Over there by the wall please,’ said Lucy, rubbing Keith’s ear absent-mindedly.

She was really pleased with the new furniture. Somebody at the pub had mentioned to Belle that they were getting rid of their old sofa and matching armchairs so Lucy had immediately said yes when it had been offered to her. But even she hadn’t thought that they would be in this great condition. They were a soft brown leather which would be easy to keep clean.

Tom and Del placed the sofa up against the wall before both gratefully collapsed onto it.