The Bookshop on the Corner

by Jenny Colgan

There was a universe inside every human being every bit as big as the universe outside them. Books were the best way Nina knew—apart from, sometimes, music—to breach the barrier, to connect the internal universe with the external, the words acting merely as a conduit between the two worlds.

He held off, his hands on either side of her face. “The look you get when you’re reading in your van, and your feet are up and you sit so still, and your face is alight, and I don’t know where you are; you could be anywhere, so far away, off in a part of your mind I’ll never get to . . . It drives me crazy. The way you just came here, just got up, changed your entire life . . . I mean, my family’s been here for four generations. It would never have occurred to me to do what you did, just to start over and do something different. Amazing. You’re such a tiny thing . . . you’d never think you had it in you.

“You know, I think people can love more than one thing.” Lennox pulled back. “What did you say?” Nina realized instantly what she had said. Her hand flew to her mouth and she went bright pink. “Oh, I didn’t . . .” Lennox looked at her seriously underneath the book tree. “Do you mean that?” Nina felt so embarrassed she could hardly speak. “I don’t . . . I mean . . .” He paused. “I mean . . . could you?” Nina looked up into his deep blue eyes. “I . . . I’d like to,” she whispered softly, and he leaned down and kissed her again, and his soul was in it.