bit of country air will do you good, you’ve been looking a bit peaky lately. A change is as good as a rest, as they say.’
Lucy chatted to her mum for a bit longer then pressed the end call button and stared at her phone, suddenly wishing that she hadn’t told her mum to forget it.
She hadn’t, she couldn’t.
There were questions that had peeked their heads over the self-protective barrier she’d built around herself as she’d driven home. Questions about her dad she’d never dared ask. Questions that the absolute peace and quiet of Langtry Meadows had poked out of their slumber at the back of her mind. Questions about the almost obsessive tidiness that her father had insisted on.
It hadn’t hit her until today just how different their new life had been. As though her mum had been determined to wipe every last trace of Stoneyvale out of her system.
But maybe it was time she tried to move on. To shift the ache that had settled in the centre of her chest once and for all.
Charlie stared at the small white van. Whoever had parked, or should that be abandoned it, at such a crazy angle, couldn’t have done a better job of blocking him out if they’d tried.
He was knackered. All he wanted was half an hour’s peace with his feet up and a cup of coffee before his patients for the day started to arrive – and some delivery man had decided there was nothing wrong with blocking the entrance to his surgery.
His day had started at 5 a.m, a farm dog had been run over, and despite battling with every bit of experience and knowledge he had, they’d lost it. However long he did the job, he hated that bit.
Losing a battle to save a life that was ending far too early always left him feeling he’d failed. Owners that understood and thanked him destroyed him even more. They shouldn’t have to be thanking somebody for losing the battle, and along with the sour taste in his mouth there was always the curdling doubt in the pit of his stomach. What if he’d missed something obvious? What if he’d acted quicker?
The farmer had offered sweet tea, and a bacon sandwich, apologising for calling him out at such an ungodly hour. He’d not wanted to churn out the same old words – for the best, not suffering now – but he had because he didn’t know what else to say.
He clambered out of his car, feeling drained, and marched towards the van. One of the benefits of living in a village was the lack of road rage, nobody was ever in that much of a hurry. The worst that could happen was that you had to follow a herd of cows down a lane as they ambled from field to farm, which he had found slightly frustrating the first week he’d been back here, then he’d realised he just had to go with the flow. In fact, he walked now whenever he could – but most farms visits meant taking the car.
‘I can’t get in my car park.’ He rounded the open door, just as a girl backed out at speed, dragging a large cardboard box with her. Without thinking he grabbed her waist with one hand, and the van door with the other to stop them toppling.
She glanced up.
Oh shit, he’d been here before. In a tight clinch. Her soft lips were slightly parted, eyes wide staring straight into his own, his hands were only inches from her breasts. And he had an almost uncontrollable urge to kiss her.
Again.
It was the girl he’d nearly flattened by the village green. The teacher.
The one who’d asked him to go into school. The one who’d irrationally sprung to mind every time he walked past the village school – wondering when she’d be back.
Last time he’d had his hands on her he could have blamed the surge of adrenaline for the way his body had reacted, but he’d have been lying to himself because it was doing exactly the same this time round.
The smell of her perfume, the brush of her soft skin against his cheek, and the gently quivering body pressed against his had turned him on something rotten. And she’d known. From what he remembered he’d solved the problem last time by practically throwing her back into the road. And now he was staring at her like a simpleton. Which he could, being logical, put down to lack of sleep, and emotional upset.
She blinked, and pulled herself together before he could. ‘Oh hi, it’s you. We must stop meeting like this.’ She looked down pointedly and he realised he still had hold of her.
‘Sorry, er I’m not in the habit of…’ He let go, waved his hands in the air, glanced down to save the embarrassment of looking her straight in the eye. ‘Good God, what are those?’
Bright pink wellingtons, which were more than just bright, they were positively glowing. They were ridiculous, but they suited her, in a cute kind of way. Oh God, what was he thinking? Cute? Where had that come from? He didn’t even call day old kittens cute.
He glanced back up and she was grinning. She lifted a foot. ‘These? Awesome aren’t they? They’re my secret weapon. If I don’t wear them I’m in trouble. Serious GBH type of trouble.’ She wrinkled her nose. How had he missed her slightly upturned nose last time they’d met?
He swallowed, trying to ignore the way the rest of her body had jiggled, and the dancing light in her eyes. It had obviously been far too long since he’d had a soft female form pressed against his (apart from hers). Maybe his self-imposed ban was a mistake, it was turning him into a horny old man.
‘They’re Annie’s actually.’ For a moment he was confused, then focussed back on the wellingtons again. That figured, yep now she mentioned it he had seen Annie parading round the village in them. But on Annie they looked quite different. Unremarkable. ‘Her goose Gertie is imprinted on them, and without these I’d be mincemeat. Imprinting, you know they were the first thing…’
‘I do know what imprinting is.’
A flush tinged her cheekbones. Now what had made him shoot her down like that? He was being a patronising git now. Why couldn’t he just be friendly? But it was just, he hadn’t felt this drawn to somebody for a long, long time, not since he’d met Josie. Not since the most precious person in his life had appeared, not since he’d fallen madly, wildly, in love in a way he hadn’t thought existed… and this was his way of making sure it didn’t happen again. He blinked, and tried to concentrate on what she was saying.
‘Ah yes, of course, you’re a vet. Well at the moment these are a lifesaver, talking of which,’ she avoided his eye, ‘thanks for er, saving me the other week, when I came for my interview.’
‘No problem. Look I don’t want to be rude, but I really do need to get in, I’ve got work to do. If you could just straighten it up, move over a bit.’
‘Oh, right, sure. Isn’t it a bit early for work?’ She looked at her watch. ‘I’d never normally get up at this time, but I knew it would take me hours to move all my stuff into Annie’s, and I didn’t think I’d be in anybody’s way. Or do you all get up at the crack of dawn round here?’ Her eyes were twinkling, and he could have sworn she was teasing now.
‘I prefer a lie in to be honest, but when there’s an emergency.’ He shrugged.
‘Oh no. Was everything okay?’ She’d
