Reading over a shoulder

Text 1: The Lighthouse Cover, by Helena Grieve

An original short story extract.

I noticed the book before I noticed the woman: a thick paperback with a lighthouse on the cover, open on her knee. I only meant to glance at it. But the first line I read was about a girl rowing out to sea in the dark, and I could not stop. I leaned a little closer, pretending to look out of the window behind her. When she turned the page too early, I had to bite my lip to stop myself saying, ‘Wait.’ I missed the girl reaching the lighthouse because a man stood up in front of me. I craned my neck round his coat. I forgot my own stop completely. It was only when the woman closed the book, smiled and said, ‘You can borrow it, if you like,’ that I realised we had passed Hendon, and I had no idea where I was.

Give three words or phrases that show the narrator becomes completely absorbed in the stranger’s book.