Page 29 of Just the Beginning

‘Not a problem. I did rather spring it on you at the last minute.’ Rick turned towards the road, his hand going out instinctively to shield Anya when a car zoomed past going well over the speed limit. He should have a word with the county council about loaning the village a couple of their temporary speed monitoring signs again, especially now things were going to get busier.

His train of thought was interrupted when Anya pushed his hand away, her expression somewhere between irritated and amused. ‘I can cross the road safely you know, Mr No-Not-Now.’

‘Mr Who?’

‘You must remember the hedgehog road safety campaigns from when we were kids? The little hedgehog asking “Now?” and the big one telling him “No, not now” or them all singing the “Stayin’ Alive” song?’

Rick vaguely remembered them now he thought about it. ‘Oh, yeah. There was another old song they used as well. What was it…?’ His brain was off down a memory rabbit hole of him and his brothers sitting in front of theTVwatchingCBBCin the days before there were a million and one kids’TVchannels and only techy geeks had heard of YouTube.

She rolled her eyes at him. ‘Trust you to miss the point.’ She strode across the road, leaving him to hurry in her wake.

‘So how are you and Freya settling in?’ he asked, deciding it was probably best to change the subject before he got in any more trouble. ‘You looked like you were having fun on the beach the other day.’

Anya glanced up at him and smiled. ‘One of the lovely things about moving here is there’s so much more space for Freya to play and explore. We had a nice garden and a park within walking distance, but being close to the sea is another thing altogether.’

‘Whenever I get fed up of living in the back of beyond I remind myself how lucky I am and how many people would swap places with me in a heartbeat.’

She looked up at him again. ‘Do you really get fed up? You seem so at home here, a real fixture as far as I can tell.’

Rick wasn’t sure how he felt about her thinking of him as a fixture, it felt a bit too close to Davy’s earlier bit of snide about being a busybody. ‘I guess the work I do volunteering on the council must make it seem that way…’

‘Well, and being a Penrose, of course. It feels a bit like you run the place, sometimes,’ Anya pointed out.

‘There’s been one or two digs about us being like the mafia over the years,’ Rick admitted. ‘But you have to remember the first Penrose moved here before there was even a quay, just a handful of tiny stone cottages built into the lee of the cliffs beneath the castle.’ Those very same cottages could now be rented by holidaymakers on the lookout for something quirky. Good luck to them, Rick thought, because getting brained by a low beam every five minutes was not his idea of a relaxing holiday.

‘I thought your family had always lived in the place Ma and Pa have now,’ Anya mused.

He shook his head. ‘Oh no, that was the 19th-century modern upgrade. You should ask Uncle Davy about how excited he and Pa were when their parents installed an indoor toilet!’

Anya shuddered. ‘It doesn’t bear thinking about!’

‘The privy was still there when we were kids, you know. We used to think it was a right laugh to go out in the garden for a pee.’

She giggled. ‘That’s because you were a pack of feral beasts.’

He considered arguing but decided she probably had apoint. ‘Speaking of being out in the garden, how’s life in the summer house?’

‘It’s perfect. I thought I’d feel horribly claustrophobic given how small it is, but I love it. It feels like our little space, somewhere hidden away and safe from the world.’

Rick could see why that would be so appealing to her. ‘And how’s things with Davy?’

She beamed at him. ‘Great! He’s decided I’ve been far too sheltered up until now, so he’s on a mission to teach me all the things he thinks I should know.’

Suddenly what he’d walked in on that morning made sense. ‘Hence the plumbing.’

‘Hence the plumbing,’ she repeated.

‘So me offering to help was a bit like earlier when we were crossing the road.’

‘The penny drops!’ Her teasing laugh was so pretty it was hard to take offence, but apparently his face had other ideas. ‘Oh, don’t pout!’ she protested. ‘I’m only joking. I think it’s lovely the way you look out for everyone…’ She hesitated, a cheeky grin turning her face impish. ‘Most of the time.’

‘She giveth with one hand and taketh away with the other,’ Rick opined, clutching a hand to his chest.

‘Oh, behave yourself.’ She gave his arm a little shove with her shoulder.

Rick nudged her back and they continued down the road, their arms brushing now and again as they walked. He tried to ignore his hyperawareness of her, the softness of her skin, the faint scent of her perfume, but it was a hopeless task. ‘So you’re happy at the hotel, then?’ he asked, hoping returning to the topic would serve as a distraction.

‘Happy enough.’ She sighed. ‘I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, because I would be in an even bigger hole without at leastsome money coming in, but it’s not what I ever imagined myself doing. Even if it was my dream job, there’d be no point in getting too attached to it, nor to working with Davy.’

---