Page 27 of Happy Days Ahead in the Cornish Village

‘Great. Great.’ Jay nodded and stood up, indicating to the door. ‘I’d better go and make a start.’

As soon as the kitchen door had clicked shut, Megan grinned. He’d asked her out. That had been a date question, hadn’t it? It wasn’t the same as when he’d asked her for lunch yesterday. That had just been friends grabbing a bite to eat, but the dinner would be a date. She picked up her mug and took a sip, hardly noticing the cool temperature of the liquid.

11

Pausing just inside the door to reception, Megan smoothed her T-shirt down. Not that it made any difference. She’d popped to the launderette in Trestow just before meeting Jay for dinner yesterday evening and typically there had been a queue which meant she’d had to bundle her wet clothes in a bag and take them to the restaurant instead of dropping them off first and hanging them up. Of course, this had resulted in her entire wardrobe now being full of creased, slightly damp smelling clothes.

Never mind, Jay had seen her knee-deep in dirt. A few creases wouldn’t put him off. Besides, if yesterday’s dinner was anything to go by then it was her he was interested in, not what she was wearing. She stifled a giggle as she remembered the Bolognese sauce dribbling down her top after he’d made her laugh. After feeling briefly mortified, she’d shrugged it off. It hadn’t bothered Jay, in fact he’d found it funny which was refreshing when she thought back to how Lyle would have reacted. Yes, she’d had fun last night. More fun than she’d had in a long while.

She smiled as she pushed open the kitchen door. ‘Morning.’

‘Morning, lovely.’ Flora looked up from the notebook she was scribbling in.

‘I’ve just put the kettle on,’ Susan said, pulling out another mug from the cupboard. ‘Would you like a coffee?’

‘That’d be great, thanks.’ Megan bent down as Cindy sauntered over to her, leaning against her leg as if waiting for the fussing she knew was to come. ‘Hello, you.’

‘Morning.’ Jay grinned as he looked over from the line of dog bowls he was filling with kibble.

‘Hi.’ Glancing across at him, she smiled, her cheeks warming, before turning her attention to Cindy. Was she imagining things or could she feel the connection still from yesterday’s date? Maybe she was imagining it, after all he’d made no move to kiss her or anything last night. Maybe their date hadn’t gone quite as well as she’d believed, maybe he just saw her as a friend. She focused on Cindy. ‘Has there been any interest in her yet?’

‘No, nothing, but I’m just writing a little piece about her and then Darryl will feature her in the Trestow Telegraph.’ Flora shrugged. ‘I’m not holding out much hope because of the separation anxiety, but you never know, miracles do happen.’

‘They do, and we managed to rehome little Dina, didn’t we?’ Susan waited until Megan had stood up again and then passed her a mug. ‘She had really bad anxiety, do you remember?’

‘Oh yes, she did, but it was a little more manageable because she was only tiny, so she wasn’t quite so noisy and she eventually settled in a crate, didn’t she?’

‘She did. That’s right, I’d forgotten about the crate training.’ Susan took a biscuit from one of the bowls Jay was filling and held it out for Cindy. ‘Still, we can’t give up hope.’

‘No, we can’t. I’m sure there’ll be someone out there.’ Flora tapped her pen against her chin. ‘I think I might actually include the fact that potential adopters can and probably should have a trial run with her before making their final decision. It might save a little heartache later down the line.’

‘Good idea.’ Susan slipped into the chair opposite Flora. ‘And it might encourage people to come forward, knowing they have a few days of living with her and getting to know her antics before committing.’

‘Exactly.’

Jay replaced the bag of kibble and stacked the bowls, ready to take to the kennels.

‘I’ll give you a hand if you like?’ Megan put her mug down on the counter and walked across to him.

‘Thanks. Ready?’

‘Yep.’ Holding her hands out, Megan took the bowls from him, his fingers brushing against hers as she did so.

‘After you.’ Jay smiled as he held the door open.

Once the kitchen door had clicked quietly shut behind them, she looked across at him. His brow was furrowed as he attempted to open the door that led to the kennels without dropping his stack of bowls.

‘Thank you for dinner last night,’ she said. ‘I really enjoyed it.’

‘You did?’ He pushed down on the door handle with his elbow and kicked it open.

‘You sound shocked?’

Megan slipped past him as he held the door open. Had she got the wrong impression here? Had he not enjoyed himself? He had seemed to. They’d spent the evening laughing and sharing details from their childhoods, she’d even told him about the time she’d taken the wrong train on the way to a job interview as a teenager and ended up in the middle of nowhere and three hours late.

Letting the door swing shut behind them, Jay waited for the excited barking and whining to subside a little before looking her in the eyes.

‘Oh, I did. I really enjoyed myself and thought we had a great time. I’m just not very good at these things and so I didn’t want to presume that you felt the same way.’

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