The South West Series Box Set

by Rebecca Paulinyi

  “Sorry,” she murmured as his eyes flickered open. He reached out an arm to pull her closer, and she found his face nuzzled into her neck. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”

  “I’m off today,” he said into her neck, the warmth of his breath making her shiver slightly as it tickled her delicate skin. “So I’ve got plenty of time to catch up on sleep. How are you feeling this morning?”

  “Awful, if truth be told. I didn’t think I drank that much… but I’m not as young as I used to be!”

  James pulled away slightly so he could see her face, and moved his hand to stroke several strands of hair away from her eyes. “I didn’t think you’d drunk that much, either,” he said. “A bit tipsy, maybe, but not particularly drunk.” His brow furrowed, and Lee stroked it with the tips of her fingers, confused as to why he was so concerned.

  “Don’t worry, I’m sure I’ll live, hangovers only get worse once you’re over thirty - you’ll find out soon enough!” He didn’t laugh, and Lee felt an unease in the pit of her stomach that she didn’t think had anything to do with the amount - or lack thereof - of alcohol she had consumed the night before.

  James ran a hand through his hair. “Last night…”

  “I don’t think I can think of words to describe last night,” Lee said with a shy smile.

  “I meant before we got back here.”

  “So did I, cheeky! Well, partially…”

  James cleared his throat. “You do remember the whole night, don’t you?”

  “Of course I do, like I said, I wasn’t that drunk.”

  James regarded her for a moment or two, not saying a word, just meeting her gaze. “You’re definitely staying?”

  Ahhh, Lee thought, so that was what was worrying him. It was so sweet she couldn’t resist pressing her lips to his for a moment, and when she pulled away she grinned at him. “I’m staying. You can’t get rid of me now - even if I’m so old that a couple of glasses of wine give me a terrible hangover.”

  James’ grin lit up his eyes and rivalled Lee’s at that comment, and he rolled so he hovered slightly above her. “You are young, and gorgeous, and I’m not planning on getting rid of you any time soon,” he said, and now it was his turn to press his lips to hers, and her turn to feel as though she might dissolve into the air right there and then.

  “Lee?” a voice shouted at the door, accompanied by a hammering that Lee’s head could really have done without. “Lee, are you decent?”

  Lee pulled away from James and glanced at him, and shook her head. “No!” she shouted back. There was what sounded like a laugh from the other side, then Gina’s voice floated through the door once more. “I’ve made coffee, so make yourselves decent and come and get it while it’s hot.”

  Lee grinned, even though James groaned as he rolled off her. Her flat mate Gina had struck her straight away as funny, direct and someone who took no rubbish - and that was exactly what she had turned out to be. Even though they’d only lived together for just over a month, they’d slipped into an easy rhythm that Lee couldn’t remember feeling with anyone she’d lived with before - be it parents, siblings, house mates or partners.

  They both scrambled around for some clothes to throw on; Lee had the luxury of her own pyjamas whereas James had to get properly dressed after being ill-equipped for the impromptu sleepover. The smell of coffee greeted them as they approached the kitchen, and it took Lee a minute or two to decide whether the smell made her more nauseous or improved things. She decided on it being an improvement and slid into the nearest chair, wrapping her hands around a mug.

  “Well good morning love birds,” Gina said with a self-satisfied smirk.

  “Good morning Gina,” James said with a grin; Lee just rolled her eyes. Gina and James talked for a few moments about the fireworks the previous night, the chilly start to the New Year and when he was next working, before Lee’s brain kicked into gear; there were many people who needed to know about her snap decision, and one of the most important was sitting right in front of her. Waiting for a lull in the conversation, Lee felt James’ hand on her knee and smiled.

  “So, Gina,” she said, deciding to address the issue head on. “I’ve made a decision.”

  “You’re staying here forever and never leaving?” Gina asked, taking a bite of an apple and grinning at her own little joke.

  “Well,” Lee said, meeting James’ eyes for a moment before turning back to Gina. “Yes, in a manner of speaking.”

  “You’re staying?”

  “If you don’t mind! I know it was only going to be temporary, and you were going to run the cafe, but we talked last night and I realised-”

  “Of course I don’t mind! I’ve been waiting for you to realise you belonged here. I’m very glad you didn’t disappear back to Bristol before realising it. Well done James - I’ll chalk this one up to your influence!”

  “Happy to take the credit,” James said, taking a swig of the coffee Gina had placed in front of him. “Happy about a lot of things, actually…”

  Gina made fake sick noises in the background; Lee rolled her eyes and told her to act her age, all with a big grin on her face.

  After telling Gina of her plans to stay in Bristol, Lee knew there was only a limited amount of time left before she had to tell the other people in her life: her partners and her mother. She did consider messaging Nathan, but decided against it. After all, what difference did it make to him, really? And did he have a right to know what was going on in her life?

  She was nervous about telling them for a myriad of reasons. She felt dizzy herself when she thought about the changes her life had gone through in the last six weeks - she wasn’t sure how she could expect anyone else to keep up. And somewhere deep inside her, where she wouldn’t quite even acknowledge its existence, there was the worry that someone (okay, she knew who it was likely to be - her mother) would suggest that this was all some sort of rebound. That she was making a huge mistake with her life; that she would ultimately regret it.

  She knew in her heart that she didn’t believe that to be true; that what she was feeling right now definitely didn’t feel like some fling that was designed to move her past her disastrous failed marriage. But the possibility of hearing those words aloud… She put off the phone call for another day.

  * **

  The bank holiday had allowed her to leave the cafe closed and succumb to her hangover, but the second of the month rolled round cold and bright, the first day of the year to open her lovely little cafe. Carol’s Cafe (as she had named it, after her grandmother) had been her first solace when she’d arrived in Totnes at the beginning of December, fleeing a broken marriage and a cheating husband. When she’d found out the place was in desperate need of being taken over, she’d done so without much thought - and everything had very much snowballed from there.

  James had worked the night of the first and so she had spent the evening alone, lamenting in the ridiculous fact that she missed him at the same time as enjoying a girly evening with Gina and the full width of the bed to herself. The very early morning alarm hadn’t been quite so welcome, but a hot shower and a large mug of coffee later and she felt ready to tackle the world. Gina was still asleep when she left - they’d decided a rota would be made later on in the week since they would both be running the cafe now - and Lee slipped out in her thick coat and paint-splat scarf, deciding to walk down the steep hill instead of being lazy and getting the car out. Besides, she very much hoped James might stop by at some point and offer her a lift…

  It wasn’t until she was halfway down the hill that she remembered with a disappointing jolt that James was meant to be working late that night… perhaps she wouldn’t get to see him at all that day - not a happy thought.

  Once the doors were unlocked, the familiar routine of setting up the cafe seemed to whiz by, and before long the doors were open onto a particularly sleepy looking high street. Lee couldn’t blame the residents; if she hadn’t been working she would definitely have still been as
leep at this hour.

  Her first customer of the day surprised her somewhat, for she hadn’t been seen out and about this early in the morning since giving up that same cafe. Val, the previous lease owner and surprisingly sprightly elderly resident of Totnes, had a big grin on her face when she saw Lee.

  “You didn’t disappear at midnight then?” she asked.

  “I decided you were right, Val,” Lee said, beginning to make her a coffee without being asked. “You can make your own reality - and this was what I chose. So, I’m afraid, there’s no getting rid of me for a while at least!”

  “And does young PC Knight have anything to do with this sudden change of heart?”

  Lee blushed, and turned to froth the milk. When she turned back, Val’s piercing eyes were still on her, and she couldn’t avoid answering. “Maybe,” she admitted.

  “Life in a small town Lee - nothing stays secret for long, I’m afraid, although I don’t know why you’d want to keep it a secret!”

  Lee shrugged, unsure if she could put her feelings into words, unsure whether she even wanted to share the emotion that was bubbling up inside her. “I don’t want to jinx things,” she finally confessed, and was a little taken aback when Val reached over and patted her on the hand.

  “That’s a load of nonsense, dear, if you don’t mind me saying. You follow your heart and it won’t matter if the whole town knows - besides, James has lived here long enough that he’ll know full well that you can’t keep anything from the town!”

  Other customers appeared before Lee really had a chance to respond, but she smiled a little at Val’s words and got on with making teas, coffees and hot chocolates, her worries about ‘jinxing’ the relationship certainly soothed a little.

  The busyness of the cafe made the time disappear, and before she knew it Gina had arrived and they were slap bang in the middle of the lunch time rush, serving take-away teas and coffees to workers in nearby shops and offices, and plenty of cakes too. They had discussed serving hot food, as Val used to do when she owned it, but had decided it was probably better to walk before they could run. Besides, neither of them were particularly great cooks, and hiring anyone else wasn’t on the cards at the moment.

  Lee was busy cleaning the milk steamer while waiting for the coffee to grind when she heard the bell above the door jingle for what seemed like the millionth time that day. She didn’t even turn her head to welcome the customer, trusting that Gina would do so; it wasn’t until Gina cleared her throat in what seemed like an overly dramatic way that Lee turned to see who had entered.

  She found herself grinning without even thinking about it, and saw that he was the same, and that burnt away a lot of the strange anxiousness she had been feeling for the last day or so.

  “Hey,” she said.

  “Hey.” Lee was vaguely aware of Gina busying herself making the next batch of coffees with the freshly ground beans, and she felt suddenly like an awkward teenager with her first boyfriend, unsure of quite what the right thing to say or do was. They both took a step towards the counter at the same time, so that it was the only thing between them. James leant over, clearly intent on kissing her, and Lee didn’t need to think before she leant towards him too. Had she been thinking about the cafe full of customers around them, she might have considered their kiss a little too deep and a little too long to be so thoroughly observed - but her mind was not on such matters at that moment in time. No, it was on his lips as they pressed against hers, his hand as it touched against her cheek, the feel of his sharply creased uniform beneath her palm…

  And then one - or both of them - remembered where they were, and they pulled apart with a blush from Lee and a hasty cough to hide his grin on James’ part.

  Lee felt as though the cafe had gone silent around her, and when she dared to peek past James’ fine, uniformed form she found that she was right - everyone in the small cafe seemed to be looking at them or pretending they hadn’t just been looking at them

  For a second, Lee closed her eyes and then snapped them back to meet James’; seeing that a grin still played on his lips, she tried to let her embarrassment at being the centre of attention fade away and allow the tingling memory of that kiss to be the only thing on her mind.

  Slowly the buzz returned to the cafe, and although Lee was fairly sure that buzz was now about her and James, she decided not to listen in.

  “Sorry,” James said, running a hand through his hair as he always seemed to when he was a bit unsure of himself.

  “For making us the talk of the town?” Lee asked, but there was a twinkle in her eye as she said it.

  “Couldn’t help myself,” he said.

  “Well, I guess there’ll be no keeping our relationship under wraps in this place anyway,” she said, echoing the earlier wisdom Val had shared with her.

  “Did you want to?” His eyebrows knotted together slightly, and Lee once again got the feeling that this man in front of her wasn’t quite as confident as she might have imagined.

  “I guess I’m just not used to everyone taking an interest in my romantic life,” she said. “Other than when everyone I knew found out my husband had cheated on me, I guess. Sorry, sorry, dark joke.” She felt amazed that she could make a joke - dark or otherwise - about something that, not long ago would have had her hysterically crying. She smiled to lighten the mood. “And you never have to apologise for kissing me.”

  “Good,” James said, taking the coffee that Gina wordlessly handed to him. “Have you rung your partners yet?”

  Lee took a deep breath. “No. I was going to tackle that tonight, since you’re working late.” Once the words were out, she realised that was based on an assumption that they would be spending the night together every night - something that they had never discussed. Just because she was moving here did not mean, she told herself, that she should treat this like a ready-made long-term relationship. That seemed like a recipe for disaster.

  “I’m sure they’ll understand,” he said, glancing at the clock before sipping his coffee.

  Lee laughed. “I’m not so sure they will. They thought I was having a breakdown when I came down here in the first place. But, it has to be done.”

  “I’ve got to head off in a minute,” James said. “I’m sorry - I wanted to see you, but I’ve only got ten minutes before I need to be back at the station.”

  “Thanks for coming,” Lee said, twirling a sugar packet in between her fingers.

  “Thanks for the kiss, and the coffee.”

  “Happy to help.” She giggled, and when James bent to kiss her on the cheek she felt a shiver go through her.

  “See you tomorrow?” he asked, putting his hat on as he stood up.

  “I’ll be here!”

  “I finish at four. I’ll pick you up?”

  “Always good to save my legs the walk home.”

  “And take you out - stop teasing me!” James said, replacing a wayward strand of her hair behind one ear before ducking out of the door. Lee watched him leave, watched him turn and wave through the window, watched him cross the road and walk towards his parked police car.

  “You’ve got it bad,” a voice behind her said, and it broke her reverie. She turned to find Gina, with her purple-tinted hair scraped up in a ponytail and her lip piercing bobbing as she laughed.

  “Oh, shut up,” Lee said, the smile not leaving her face.

  “Honestly, if you didn’t deserve to be so happy I’d think it was all rather sickening. I’ll need to have words with young PC Knight… if he hurts you, he’ll have me to answer to.”

  And even though opening up her heart so soon after having it smashed to pieces was the thing Lee had been most afraid of, she was fairly sure that James would not hurt her. And if he did, she almost felt sorry for him, having to face an angry Gina.

  Chapter 2

  Gina had plans that evening with Lydia, and Lee settled in for a quiet night. She’d spent little time alone since she’d appeared in a whirlwind of misery at the beginning o
f December, and she found she wasn’t used to it. She fidgeted on the sofa and changed the channel twenty-five times before acknowledging that the real reason she was so antsy was that she was putting off making that phone call. The one to her work partners that she knew wouldn’t go down well.

  Wrapped up in a blanket and with a glass of wine in front of her, Lee stared at her phone screen for a full five minutes before hitting dial. It was six-thirty in the evening, and yet she was still trying the office number: one, it would be much easier if they were both together; two, she expected them to be at work still. After all, she’d rarely left the office before seven.