Christmas at the Dog & Duck

by Jill Steeples

  ‘Okay. I guess,’ I said giving him the benefit of the doubt. I gave a small smile, our eyes meeting across the breakfast bar, my insides burning with heat. Quickly, I dropped my gaze. ‘So you’re now the proud owner of a pub?’ I said, extracting my hand.

  ‘Yes. And I couldn’t be more pleased.’

  He’d said there would be no more secrets, so I just had to ask him straight.

  ‘And will it be staying as a pub or are you planning on renovating it into a home and selling it on?’

  ‘What!’ Max grabbed hold of my hand again. ‘That’s crazy. Where on earth did you got that idea from?’

  ‘Well it wouldn’t be the first time, would it? Johnny told me you’d already bought a couple of pubs and sold them on as private homes.’

  ‘Ahh right, Johnny. The same Johnny who was in love with you. The Johnny who looks out for you and worries about you, the man who thinks I will end up hurting you because he believes I might be falling in love with you too.’

  He paused, looking at me intently, a thousand fireworks alighting in my head.

  Falling in love? No! Stop it right there. Just breathe. And think. Stop being so stupid. He didn’t say he was falling in love with me. He said Johnny thought Max might be falling in love with me. Something quite different. I steadied my breathing as Max gave a rueful smile, resting his hands on the stool between his legs.

  ‘It’s true what he says, but they were purely business deals. And they were pubs that ceased trading months before and had been standing derelict for some time. I’m not the monster you seem to think I am. I don’t go around taking over thriving businesses and throwing the landlords out on the street.’

  I shifted on my stool, feeling uncomfortable. When he said it like that I wondered if I hadn’t been a bit hasty in my judgement of him.

  ‘And you should know me well enough by now to know that The Dog and Duck has a special place in my heart. I bought the pub precisely because I wanted to secure its future. Granddad would be turning in his grave if he thought I’d be turning the pub into housing. I could never do that. I want to keep the pub at the centre of our community just as much as you do.’

  ‘Really?’ The relief in my chest escaped in a sigh.

  ‘Yes. Absolutely.’

  ‘Well I’m sorry,’ I said, taking a sip of my bucks fizz, as though it was a minor understanding on my part. As though I was totally in control. As though my heart wasn’t thumping loudly in my chest. He couldn’t possibly know the maelstrom of feelings I’d been wrestling with inside.

  ‘Apology accepted.’

  ‘And I’m sorry too about confronting you yesterday when you were with your colleague. I shouldn’t have done that. That poor man, what he must have thought of me?’

  ‘Oh don’t worry about it,’ said Max, with a dismissive wave of his hand. ‘I explained to Peter.’ A look of amusement was back on Max’s face, the smile on his lips teasing me.

  ‘What did you explain to Peter exactly?’

  ‘You know, that you were the mad dog lady of the village, prone to random bursts of outrage and he wasn’t to worry about you. I would check up on you later.’

  ‘You didn’t?’ I stood, placing my hands on my hips.

  ‘I may have done. Totally believed it actually. And true to my word I’m here checking up on my favourite dog lady.’

  Max came over and pulled me towards him, placing one hand on my waist, the other tilting my chin up to meet his lips. He leaned forward kissing me gently.

  ‘No don’t!’ I pushed him away, taking a step backwards from his approach.

  ‘Ellie?’ Concern flashed over his features. ‘What’s the matter? I was joking! I didn’t really tell him you were a crazy dog lady.’

  ‘Yes, well please don’t kiss me.’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘Because I haven’t brushed my teeth. And I haven’t showered either.’ My nostrils twitched involuntarily. ‘If you must know, I think I’m smelling a bit iffy.’

  ‘Oh, is that all?’ He leaned in, nuzzling his nose into the crook of my neck, sending shivers around my body. He sniffed exaggeratedly, making, quite frankly, disgusting slurping noises, his tongue caressing my skin, which had me backing away from him and squirming in delight at the same time. ‘Mmm, you smell absolutely delicious to me, good enough to eat, in fact.’

  Thirty

  Managing to escape Max’s clutches, I ran upstairs giggling.

  ‘Just wait there! I won’t be long, I promise,’ I called from the top of the stairs.

  ‘Should I come up with you?’

  ‘No! Just wait.’ Although I have to say, Max’s offer sounded very tempting.

  I jumped in the shower, quickly washing myself down, feeling inexplicably happy that Max was here, that he’d explained about the pub, that Christmas was coming, that my future was looking rosy and bright again. Today wasn’t the day to be thinking about my new job offer. Best to wait until the paperwork came through, let the idea ferment in my mind for a day or two so that I could come to a considered decision as to what to do next.

  The main thing was that The Dog and Duck, a place that held such a special place in my heart, would be staying as a pub, with or without Eric at the helm. I was just overjoyed that Max and I were friends again.

  I stepped out of the shower, anticipation fizzing round my veins at the thought of Max waiting for me downstairs. Quickly, I dried myself off, found some clean clothes, brushed my teeth, put a lick of mascara and bronzer on, brushed my hair, and raced back down the stairs again, all in about five minutes flat.

  ‘Right,’ I said, with a smile. ‘Now I’m ready for our breakfast meeting.’

  An even bigger smile lit up Max’s lovely features. ‘Come here you,’ he said, taking a deep breath of my scent as he pulled me into his embrace. ‘Hmm, that’s even better,’ he said, drinking in my scent. He laid a trail of kisses from my collarbone up to my neck, along my jawline and then behind my ear, his breath warm and heavy on my skin. My body arched to his touch and my hand sought out the firm outline of his body.

  ‘No, stop.’

  ‘What now?’ I heard the frustration in Max’s voice as he held my upper arms, looking at me imploringly.

  ‘I was just wondering. Now that you own the pub does that effectively mean that you’re my new boss?’

  Max screwed up his face as though contemplating this very difficult question. ‘Erm, yes. I suppose it does.’ He nodded, his lips curling in amusement. ‘Great, isn’t it?’

  ‘Well in that case, I’m not sure we should be doing this.’ I folded my arms, enjoying the intimacy of teasing him. ‘There must be some company regulation that states no kissing allowed between working colleagues.’

  He narrowed his eyes and shook his head. ‘Absolutely not. The only company regulation that must be adhered to is the one which states that you,’ he tapped me on the nose, ‘must do exactly what your boss tells you to do. And right now, I’m ordering you to let me kiss you.’ He picked up the first random piece of paper that came to hand from the kitchen worktop. ‘It says so right here on our breakfast meeting agenda. Item No. 4. Kissing and any other smooching business.’

  I picked up the piece of paper, scrunched it into a ball and threw it across the room. ‘I can see this new relationship isn’t going to work at all. I don’t take orders from anyone. Well, only Eric, but then he doesn’t really give orders, he just asks nicely. I couldn’t possibly take orders from you.’

  ‘Oh, is that so?’ Max was so close, I could feel his breath upon my face, his nose gently grazing my cheek. ‘We might have to rethink this arrangement then.’ His voice was low and husky making my insides melt. ‘How about you give the orders and I do exactly as you say?’

  ‘That sounds a much better idea,’ I said, as we now stood chest to chest, our lips a hair’s breadth away. ‘You’d better kiss me then.’

  ‘Really?’ He swept a finger over the curve of my jaw while the other hand played with my hair. ‘Are you absol
utely sure? I’d hate to overstep the mark here.’

  ‘Absolutely sure. Kiss me, Max. Kiss me now.’

  His eyes were heavy with desire as his lips found mine and he kissed me fervently in a way that had me forgetting about everything but the moment, as if we were the only two people who mattered in the world. Never before had anyone been able to touch me emotionally and physically in the way Max did, stripping me of all my self-consciousness, reaching me deep down inside, discovering a part of me that I hadn’t even known existed.

  His hands dropped to my waist and in one fell swoop he lifted my T-shirt up over my breasts and over my head, before effortlessly undoing the buttons to my jeans and pulling them down over my hips and knees. At that moment I think I may have done anything Max told me to. If I thought I’d managed to get dressed quickly, Max undid all my good work so much faster. I stepped out of my trousers into Max’s embrace, his warm and appraising gaze making me feel powerful and beautiful.

  He held my arms out to my side as his gaze swept the length of my body before he quickly shrugged off his polo shirt and stepped out of his jeans. I gasped at the sight of him, bronzed and lean and muscular, standing there in only his boxers, his desire for me all too evident. He pulled me to him again, his hardness pressing against me. Then he kissed me passionately, his tongue in my mouth taking me to heightened pleasures as our hands eagerly roamed each other’s bodies. We fell down onto the sofa together, my legs wrapping around his, our fever for one another making us breathless. The other evening we had taken pleasure in the slowness of the dance, our movements tentative and gentle. Exploratory. Not now. Our base desire, an intense need firing our souls, drove us on with a reckless abandon.

  Max’s hand swept up my inner thigh, my desire increasing with every second, until he found the warm moist softness between my legs. My hand reached out for him, pulling him towards me. My whole body throbbed in exquisite anticipation of what was to come next. Our eyes met in recognition of the moment and my legs parted as Max guided his way inside me, my body yielding to his, accommodating his thickness. His dark, seductive eyes held mine the entire time, as he watched my reaction, thrusting hard inside me, over and over, each movement taking me to a new peak of pleasure, climbing higher and higher, until I could hold on no longer. I cried out his name, my sweet delicious release coming in an utterly overwhelming shudder. As I let go, so did Max, a deep guttural groan escaping his lips as he fell into my arms. My whole body surrendered beneath him, my limbs weightless, a warm fuggy cloud of satisfaction enveloping me. Exhausted and elated, I kissed the hair on his head, soaking up his delicious masculine scent.

  ‘Oh. My. God. That. Was. Amazing.’

  ‘And so are you, Ellie, my beautiful, sexy, funny, crazy dog lady.’

  I elbowed him in the side, giggling, as I huddled into his embrace. Max reached over the side of the sofa and retrieved the charcoal fleece blanket off the floor and placed it over my bare legs. We snuggled up, our arms clasped around each other, Max stroking my hair, feeding me Danish pastries and topping up my champagne with orange juice, the fizz on my tongue making me light-headed. It felt hugely decadent to be drinking champagne mid-morning. Mind you, sitting naked on the sofa with a gorgeous hunk was pretty decadent too, although I wasn’t about to complain about that.

  Much later, after we’d reluctantly got up and dressed, Max mentioned that he ought to be getting back home.

  ‘I haven’t walked the dogs yet. Fancy coming with me?’

  Well, wasn’t that my favourite thing in the world to do?

  With Max at my side, dog-walking took on a whole new dimension. The world looked a different place this morning. Brighter, clearer. We climbed over the stile at the bottom of Max’s field and walked over the small bridge across the stream, stopping for a moment to watch the water flowing beneath us. We then crossed another field, the dogs leading the way, until we reached the canal. Hand-in-hand we meandered along the towpath, chatting and laughing, stopping occasionally to watch the boats navigate the locks and to chat to the canal folk going about their business.

  ‘So do you have any plans for the pub yet?’ I asked.

  ‘Ah well, I needed to talk you about that. First off, I want to give the place a facelift. That’s going to mean closing the pub down for a couple of weeks, which is a shame, but I think it will be worth it in the end. I don’t intend to make any major changes to the fabric of the building, but I want to put new kitchens and bathrooms in, strip and re-polish the floors and repoint some of the brickwork. The furniture needs updating too. I thought I’d get Johnny to help out with that.’

  It all sounded brilliant and it was such a relief to know that Max didn’t intend to gut the place or change the underlying character of the building.

  ‘What a great idea. I’m sure Johnny will be grateful for the work.’

  ‘Well I hope so. I know I’m not his favourite person at the moment.’ He gave me a wry sidewards glance. ‘Anyway, hopefully the work won’t take too long. What I have in mind is that, first and foremost, the pub will retain its essence and charm. I’d like to think if Granddad were able to walk through the doors of The Dog and Duck, he would find the place just as he remembered it. He’d be able to wander up to the bar, order a pint of Best and go and sit in his favourite chair as he always did.’

  ‘Aw, that’s so lovely.’ Hearing Max talk so fondly about his granddad and the pub made me wonder how I could ever have doubted him. Our vision for the future of the pub was exactly the same.

  ‘I do have a bit of a problem now though.’

  ‘Really?’ Anxiety stirred in my chest. I knew there had to be something.

  We’d just reached the lock-keeper’s cottage and Max beckoned for me to sit down on the wooden bench overlooking the canal. The dogs mooched around at the water’s edge, their snouts seduced by the scents, and their ears pricked to the different sounds permeating the air. Max placed an arm around my shoulder.

  ‘Yes, well now Eric has indicated that he wants to leave the pub, I’m without a manager.’

  ‘Do you think he might be persuaded to stay?’

  ‘I’ve tried, Ellie. Offered to increase his salary and to make any changes to the staff levels he feels are needed, but he’s not interested. I think his mind’s made up. He’s at a time in his life when he wants new challenges, a different focus. I can understand that.’

  ‘Me too, I suppose. Although I find it hard to imagine the pub without Eric behind the bar.’

  ‘He’s said he’s willing to stay on for a while until I’ve appointed a new manager. But I think Eric has plans to travel so I know he won’t be hanging around too long.’

  I sighed inwardly. ‘Where will you look?’ I asked. ‘Will you advertise?’

  ‘Actually I’ve got someone in mind, but I wanted to run it past you first. Someone who I think might be ideal.’

  ‘That’s great. Who?’

  I had a sneaky suspicion I knew who it was. Peter. That guy I’d met briefly at Max’s house. The one who thought I was a mad dog lady. He’d seemed nice enough, but I wasn’t sure I fancied him much as my new boss. Another sign perhaps that it was time for me to move on from Little Leyton.

  Max shifted on the bench, turning his body to face me and picking up my hand. ‘You Ellie.’

  ‘ME?’ I blurted, far too loudly, causing the dogs to come running to my side and a man steering a passing narrowboat to look at me oddly. The way Max was holding my hand, looking at me intently, the man might well have imagined he was witnessing a marriage proposal.

  ‘Yes, you Ellie,’ said Max, a smile on his face. ‘I don’t know anyone better qualified to run the place than you.’

  ‘You’re mad, Max.’ Which made us both smile. ‘I don’t know the first thing about keeping a cellar or buying beer.’

  ‘All stuff that Eric can teach you. You’ve got a great business head on you, Ellie, it would take you no time whatsoever to pick up that side of things. More than that though, the pub is in your blo
od. You love the place. Anyone can tell that just from talking to you. You know how it works. You can control a jam-packed bar of noisy revellers better than anyone I know. With your years of experience of working there, you know what works and what doesn’t work. What goes down well the customers. The beers, the events, the meetings. It would be great to carry on doing all those things and more. Getting involved in the charity run to France was an eye-opener for me. Showed me how much you can do when you all pull together as a community.’

  ‘Wow!’ I was knocked sideways by Max’s enthusiasm and his belief that I could actually run the pub. I’d sometimes stood in for Eric when he’d been away, but I’d always had Dan or Andy around to help if needed.

  ‘When I bought the pub I never had any intention of running it myself. I wouldn’t want to. I bought it for personal reasons, a gesture to my granddad’s memory. I love the pub but I only want to be on the right side of the bar, enjoying a pint or two. You saw what I was like the night of the beer festival. If it was down to me we wouldn’t have any customers left. I’d go round upsetting them all. Not you though. You’re a natural with the punters. A real people’s person. You really are the best person for the job, Ellie.’

  I took my hand from his and stretched it out along the back of the bench. My gaze was fixed on the gentle undulating movement of the water in front of me. I inhaled a deep breath of cool morning air, different thoughts struggling for attention in my head.

  ‘I’m flattered, Max, that you would ask me. Thank you. You’re right, I do love the pub and I love working there. It never actually feels like work to me. The thing is…’ I didn’t want to look him in the eye. ‘I’m not even sure I’m going to be staying around Little Leyton now.’

  I loved the time I’d spent with Max this morning, it felt magical and exciting and full of promise, but I couldn’t base my plans on what was only a fledgling relationship. It was still too early to say where it was going or if we had a long-term future together. I needed to start rebuilding my life and I suspected I would need to do that in London with a new job and all the opportunities if afforded.