Page 68 of The Christmas Fayre on Holly Field

‘Who’s he?’

‘He’s a fictional character who used logic and clues to solve cases. Or a pilot. I wanted to fly planes.’

‘I want to be a dog walker,’ Bobby said. ‘I like dogs, and I could take Etta with me. She’d have lots of doggy friends.’

‘You’d have to walk them in all kinds of weathers, and in the dark,’ Harriet warned. She turned to Owen. ‘I have dreadful trouble persuading these two to go for a walk after school. They just want to come home and chill. But poor Etta needs a walk.’

‘I could take her for you?’

‘I like going for a walk with Owen,’ Bobby announced. ‘He knows stuff. He showed me where snails hide in the winter. They sleep under leaves and rocks, and Owen said they seal up their shells until it gets warm again.’ He paused, then added, ‘Owen snores.’

Pen’s eyes widened and her mouth dropped open.

Before her boss could jump to the wrong conclusion, Harriet said, ‘The water pump in Owen’s van is broken, so he slept on my sofa last night.’

‘I see.’ Pen’s tone was full of meaning.

‘It’ll hopefully be fixed tomorrow, or the day after,’ Owen said.

‘Or maybe not.’ Pen shot Harriet a look, and Harriet groaned silently. She was in for it tomorrow at work – the questions and the teasing, not to mention the innuendoes, would be unbearable. However, Pen appeared to be delighted for her, because she was grinning from ear to ear, and Harriet couldn’t help grinning back.

Harriet endured the rest of the meal as best she could, and when it was finally time to leave, she was so relieved that she allowed Pen to get the bill. She hustled the kids into their coats, leaving Owen to deal with Pen’s insistence that she’d pay for his meal too.

‘I never would have agreed to come if I thought Pen would be paying,’ Owen grumbled after they’d left.

‘Me neither. Don’t worry, I’ll settle up with her tomorrow.’ Harriet had been saving up for this for ages, knowing that Pen didn’t have much in the way of family, although she would go to her brother’s this evening for a little birthday celebration. ‘I only agreed to come on the strict understanding that I’d pay for myself and the children,’ Harriet told him.

‘Let me give you my share,’ Owen said, and Harriet was about to object, when common sense kicked in. She couldn’t afford to pay for his meal too, and the way he was looking at her suggested that he wouldn’t take no for an answer anyway.

‘Does Owen have to go home?’ Bobby asked.

‘I don’t know what he’s got planned,’ Harriet said. She would love to spend more time with him, but she was conscious that they had been together for nearly twenty-four hours and he might very well have had enough of her and the children.

‘What did you have in mind, sprout?’ Owen asked. ‘Do you want to take the dog for another walk?’

They were strolling along the road encircling the green, and as they came to the high street, they paused. Harriet lived in one direction and Owen’s van was in the other, so parting company here was the logical thing to do.

However, Harriet felt anything but logical. ‘Do you have to go back to the van? Only…’ She hesitated. ‘I think you should come back to ours and spend another night with us. I still don’t like the idea of you not having a working toilet.’

‘I’m sure you’ve had enough of me for one day,’ Owen said, but there was a flash in his eyes that led Harriet to believe he would very much like to spend another night at her house.

‘Please, Owen,’ Bobby pleaded, and to Harriet’s surprise, Sara joined in with the begging.

‘We like having you here, don’t we, Mam?’ Sara said.

‘We do.’ Harriet’s voice was an octave higher than she would have liked, and she wondered if she sounded as desperate for his company as her children.

Owen ruffled Bobby’s hair and went to do the same to Sara, who ducked out of reach, giggling. ‘You only want me because you don’t want to go back out into the dark,’ he said.

‘True.’ Harriet was relieved to hear that she sounded more normal.

‘Is dog walking my payment for borrowing your sofa?’ he teased. ‘How many dog walks equates to one night’s kip?’

‘Several, I think,’ Harriet laughed.

‘Tell you what, I’ll come back to the house with you, grab Etta and pay a quick visit to my van. This evening I’d like to sleep in pyjamas.’

Harriet felt heat surge into her cheeks as she wondered whether he had slept in the buff last night. He had been fully clothed when she’d got up, and it hadn’t occurred to her that he hadn’t had any nightclothes. The thought of him lying on her sofa naked, with only a duvet to cover him, made her go weak at the knees.

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