Page 20 of Chasing Dreams at Wagging Tails Dogs' Home

‘Hello?’ Ben’s voice sounded distracted, far away.

Poppy closed her eyes, remembering the years she’d been happy to hear his voice. Now, though? She shrugged. Part of her longed to hear him again, the other part, not so much. She needed to remind herself why their relationship had failed. She needed to remind herself that this was for the best.

‘Ben? It’s Poppy. Sorry I missed your call. Is everything okay?’

‘Poppy? Oh, Poppy. Yes, sorry I didn’t mean to call you.’ He paused, the line going quiet. ‘You got to your aunt’s house okay?’

‘Yep.’ She swapped her phone to the other hand and leaned against the railings outside the community hall. She could still hear the cheerful Christmas music from here. ‘We had a dog brought to us yesterday. A sweet little thing but—’

‘I’m sorry, Poppy. I’ve…’ He paused as a voice in the background interrupted him. ‘I’ve got to go.’

‘Right.’ She pulled the mobile from her ear and looked at the now blank screen. She wasn’t even sure how she felt after their brief conversation – relief that he wasn’t sitting alone in their mutual home pining for her, or upset that she’d once been his all – his lover, best friend, confidante – and now he didn’t even have the time to talk to her for a few seconds. No, upset was the wrong word. She wasn’t upset – the separation had been mutual. She hadn’t been any of those things to him within the last couple of years, anyway. But who had that been in the background? Where had he been? Work? She shook her head. Yes, it would have just been a work colleague. She looked across the street. What if it had been the colleague he’d had a date with? She pocketed her mobile. She was letting her imagination run away with her.

A large raindrop fell from the sky straight onto the tip of her nose, followed by another one and another. Great, rain. Turning away from the community hall, she began to walk back to the town centre, leaving the happy couples buying gifts and the young families taking their children to see Santa behind her. Stepping aside as a young family began to run towards the hall in an attempt to avoid getting wet, she paused and turned her face to the sky, letting the rain splash onto her skin and cascade across her face.

And that was why she had the churning sensation in the pit of her stomach. Not because she was missing Ben, but because her future, the future she’d been going to have with him, hadmeantto have with him, had disappeared. Marriage, children, their own happy little family.

‘I’ll take note. You don’t like Christmas, but you do like the rain.’

Twisting her neck so hard she was shocked she hadn’t given herself whiplash, Poppy turned around.

‘Mack, what are you doing? Stalking me now?’

‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you… Again.’ He grimaced. ‘You forgot your bag.’

She looked down at his hand as he held out her shopping bag and mumbled, ‘Thanks.’ Before turning on her heels.

She was still trying to figure out how she felt about that phone call. She didn’t need Mack to begin his torrent of questions again.

Mack cleared his throat.

She turned around and this time, louder, said, ‘Thank you.’

‘Not that. It’s just…’ He rubbed the back of his neck with one hand and indicated the direction she was heading with the other. ‘You’re going the wrong way. The town centre is this way.’

‘Oh, right? Of course.’

* * *

Back at the dogs’ home, biting into her cheese and onion pasty from Elsie’s bakery, Poppy closed her eyes. It really was the best she’d ever tasted.

The kitchen door opened, and Alex stood in the doorway, his hands on his hips. ‘You got pasties from The Cornish Bay Bakery?’

‘Yes.’ Ginny nodded towards the paper bag in the middle of the table. ‘Yours is in there.’

‘Seriously? I blimming love you, Ginny!’ He quickly strode across to the table and took his out of the bag, before leaning against the counter and taking a large mouthful.

‘Has Tim been in touch?’ Ginny asked, from where she sat next to Poppy. She lowered her pasty and looked at Alex. ‘I know he’s not been very well this week, so was off college. Have you heard if he’ll be back on Monday?’

‘Nope. Nothing. Flora might have heard from him, though.’

‘Who’s Tim?’ Poppy took a sip of tea. Ginny had accidentally added sugar, and not having had sugar in her tea for so long, after giving up five years ago, she remembered why it had been such a struggle at first. She shrugged. She guessed there was no harm now. There was no reason not to any more. Just because Ben had tried to get her to go on a health kick, it didn’t mean she had to continue it now.

‘He’s a college student studying animal care. He comes in to volunteer twice a week as part of his work experience. Sweet kid.’ Ginny glanced at her. ‘I was just going to sort the rota out for next week. But I’ll assume he’ll be in and if he isn’t, we can work around it.’

‘Good idea. With you, Poppy, here now, at least we’re not going to be short-staffed.’ Alex nodded towards her. ‘In fact—’

The kitchen door burst open, and they all watched as Sally ran in, frantically looking under the table and behind the bins.

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