‘You big sap,’ Benjamin laughed as he walked past to collect a pile of plates and bowls and discarded napkins from the next table.
Harvey took the teasing in his stride and the crowds thinned out pretty quickly after the quiz and Jade waved across to someone she knew. ‘Come on,’ she said to Linc, ‘let me introduce you to Barney.’ She was already heading towards the bar before he had a chance to answer.
Linc lived in a village too but it was much smaller than Heritage Cove – a single street almost, with a local pub and nothing much else apart from surrounding fields and woodland walks. The pub had recently been bought by a big chain too and in the short time they’d owned it it had already been depersonalised, from the different fixtures and fittings to the menu and the general vibe of the place. It felt good to be in here, a proper village pub that didn’t seem to have lost any of its community feel. It was inclusive in a way that suggested Heritage Cove residents were holding on to something unique.
‘Barney is the one getting married, right?’ he clarified before they reached the bar.
She turned back, almost so close they were touching. ‘That’s right and he’s a local favourite. If he hadn’t been here tonight, I don’t think it would’ve been long before he came and introduced himself to you at the bakery.’
Jade wasn’t wrong about Barney. He was popular and seemed to know everyone in here tonight and he welcomed Linc as though he’d come home rather than arrived as a stranger to most of them.
‘Etna is enjoying having you here,’ said Barney. ‘She couldn’t stop talking about you before you arrived, let alone now you’re sharing her flat. She’s a happy woman but you’ve made her even happier. I had my teacake in the tea rooms this afternoon and she told me all about you. I left her talking away with Lois at a pace even I couldn’t keep up with. They’re at my place tonight too, putting the world to rights.’
‘Lois is your fiancée?’
‘She certainly is. Oh, I know, I look too old to be getting married, but let me tell you, it’s never too late for love.’
Barney wanted to know everything about him and Linc found, with pint in hand, he was happy to chat. They were in the middle of discussing the pluses and minuses of supply teaching when Jade came back from the bathrooms and Barney said he’d better get off home and see how many gin and tonics Etna and Lois had got through. ‘Hopefully only two – any more and Lois will suffer in the morning.’
‘Etna will keep her in order,’ Jade assured him. Linc nodded because Etna rarely drank more than a tipple and would most likely have had Lois hydrated with water or tea all evening long.
‘She’s usually with him,’ Jade explained when Barney set off for home having regaled Linc with back stories of other locals, adding to what Etna had already told him. ‘And take no notice of him when he says he can’t face all the talking amongst the women. He’s way more of a talker than anyone else and I suspect Lois needed a bit of down time this evening.’
Jade set her empty glass on the bar and Linc was on the cusp of offering to buy her another, stay a while longer, but she was already waving goodbye to Terry and Nola and by mutual agreement they made their way towards the back door of the pub. It seemed easier than trying to get through the large group of remaining customers gathered at the front.
Jade briefly recapped on Barney and Lois’s story as they walked across the paved area out back by the beer garden filled with people enjoying what was now the perfect summer’s evening. A trellis filled with purple and yellow flowers lined the wall and carried the heady scent as they turned down the side of the pub to the gravelled path that led towards the front. And by the time they reached The Street he’d heard all about Barney and Lois, their emotional history, the tragedy and loss they’d endured.
‘They’re lucky to have found one another again,’ Jade told him. ‘But it shows how sometimes love can be mended even if it’s broken.’
Linc wondered whether that was what she was looking for with the man in the photograph.
‘I’m glad we cleared the air after this morning,’ he said as they began to make their way from the pub towards the bakery and tea rooms.
‘Yeah, I’m sorry about biting your head off.’
‘Hey, it’s me who should apologise. I was banging away like I was in the middle of nowhere.’ He thought she’d done well not to yell at him more, but he sensed she was apologising for the way she reacted after his teasing about the man in the photograph. She didn’t need to, he’d been an idiot to do it.
‘Please tell me it’s not such an early start tomorrow.’
‘Of course not. I was thinking 6:30 a.m.’ When she opened her mouth to say something his grin gave him away. ‘Just kidding. Not before nine o’clock, promise. I said I’d take in a delivery for Etna anyway and I worked my butt off today so Harvey’s more than OK with the later start.’
‘I guess I’ll see you around then.’
He didn’t want this to end, not yet, but they’d already reached the archway that led down the path behind the bakery to the sisters’ cottage. After a few more steps they came to the adjacent path he needed to take to access the entrance to the flat above the tea rooms. ‘You will. And for what it’s worth, I’m sorry about the ribbing too.’
‘Ribbing?’
‘About the man in the photograph. It really isn’t any of my business so I apologise for teasing you about him. It was insensitive and rude.’
‘It was just a photograph,’ she said, not quite meeting his gaze.
‘Who is he?’
She grinned. ‘I thought you just said it wasn’t any of your business.’
‘I’m trying to be nice, if it helps.’
‘I appreciate it, and I’m sorry, I probably didn’t need to be so touchy. He’s a man from my past, someone I met in Italy.’
