Polly
Mutt and Nina rushed into the busy bar that evening, both of them carrying a cardboard box of something clanking and rattling, and Nina trying to read something on her phone screen.
‘Can we have something quick to eat, please, Gene? We’re celebrating before Nina flies out first thing,’ Mutt asked.
‘There you are!’ Gene said, coming round the bar to talk to him. ‘We’ve been hunting for the pair of you, high and low.’
‘We’ve been product developing,’ Nina told him triumphantly, almost breathless with the mad dash of the last two days. Her beautifully quiffed hair had been flattened by the bike helmet and her boots were scuffed and muddy, and she didn’t care at all. Bear was dancing around Gene’s feet, hoping to be offered something tasty from the kitchen.
‘What’s wrong, Gene?’ Mutt asked, seeing his grave expression.
‘We weren’t the only ones looking for you. Mutt, you’ve a visitor.’
Nina and Mutt followed Gene’s eyes to the woman sitting alone by the fire.
‘Polly?’ Mutt instantly placed his box on the bar and walked over to her, leaving Nina to watch. ‘What are you doing here?’ he said to the woman. ‘Are you after the shirt off my back, as well as my money?’ he asked in a growl.
‘His money?’ Nina mouthed the words, staying right by the bar.
Gene told her it might be for the best if she left them to talk and that he’d bring her something to eat if she’d wait there. She wasn’t really listening to him though, she was straining her ears to hear what Mutt was saying to the woman he hadn’t even thought to introduce her to, the woman he’d taken one glance at and entirely forgotten Nina even existed.
‘Had you forgotten about our paperwork?’ the woman was saying. ‘There’s still the details to iron out.’
‘If you think you’re here for Bear you’ve got another think coming, Polly. You were the one that wanted him, then, no sooner had we picked him up from the rescue place, you disappeared.’
‘You never wanted him,’ Polly bit back.
‘You didn’t take him with you. God knows, you took everything else,’ Mutt replied, his voice shaky now.
Still at the bar, Nina picked Bear up, cradling him protectively in her arms, not minding her jumper getting mucky.
‘Who’s that?’ the woman asked, lifting her chin in Nina’s direction.
‘Never you mind,’ Mutt told her. ‘You can pack up and get out of here.’
‘Not until you sit down with me. We need to talk.’
‘You disappear in October and I don’t hear a word from you, and now here you are. You must be wanting something.’
‘I want what’s mine. We had an agreement. What’s yours is mine and what’s mine is yours.’
Nina had heard enough. She took a few steps closer to Mutt and set the pup down on the floor once more. ‘Clearly you two have a lot to talk about. I’ll leave you to it.’
‘No, Nina, wait there,’ Mutt pleaded. ‘I won’t be long.’
‘I don’t think so,’ Nina said, backing away, seeing how dark and unfriendly Mutt’s eyes were. He’d never looked like this before and it scared her.
Mutt clearly didn’t like Nina seeing him like this, but he wasn’t planning on walking away from Polly either.
Polly, eyes fixed on Mutt, patted the seat beside her, drawing Mutt’s attention back to her. Mutt pulled out the chair across the table from her.
The last thing Nina saw as she retreated from the bar was Bear scrambling onto Polly’s knee.
‘Come to Mummy,’ the woman said. ‘You’re so big! What’s Daddy been feeding you?’
Back in her room, Nina tried to think rationally. Whoever this stranger was, Mutt hadn’t responded warmly to her, but, then again, he hadn’t made any effort to include Nina in their conversation. It was as though he’d taken one look at Polly and forgotten her. Not that they’d made any kind of promises to one another in the last two days since their night at the castle. They hadn’t even kissed; even if she’d thought there were moments when they might, Mutt always seemed to pull away at the last minute. There wasn’t anything going on between them, nothing spoken anyway.
Hadn’t he gone out of his way to help her these last few weeks? Once they’d got over their initial needling and distrust of one another. Hadn’t he stayed up half the night working with her and Mr Cor and Munro at the But and Ben, trying to get her pitch product right? Why would he do that? ‘Unless…’ she said to herself as the stark, painful thought struck her. Unless they were just friends. Unless affable, friendly Mutt was like this with everyone?
