by Sarah Hope
‘Nice.’
Crossing her legs under the table, Molly took a sip from her coffee.
Slipping the laminated menu back into its holder, Richie looked across at her. ‘Look, I know I’ve said this before, but I am sorry if it seemed like I was having a go at you back there.’
‘It’s okay.’
‘No. No, it’s not. I shouldn’t have been so...’ Pulling a sachet of sugar from the ceramic pot perched at the edge of the table, he shook it before emptying its contents into his mug.
‘Flippant, cold-hearted?’ Molly laughed. ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to say that.’
Pausing, Richie looked at her before laughing. ‘No, you’re right, I probably have come across as quite cold. Which obviously isn’t great for my reputation as being the caring local copper.’
‘Nope, it’s not.’ Taking another sip of her coffee, she looked over the rim at Richie. Stirring the sugar in, he looked quite sad, lost. ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you.’
Laying the spoon down on the table next to his mug, he blinked and looked at her. ‘No, you haven’t offended me. You’re right though, I haven’t been especially welcoming to you. You see, the shop you’ve brought has stood empty for a couple of years now. Ever since...’
‘Here you go. Two all-day breakfasts. One veggie, one meat. Enjoy!’ Sliding two large plates across the table, Majorie grinned at them. ‘Just shout if you want anything else.’
‘Thank you.’ Looking down at the plate in front of her, Molly inhaled the steam, the aroma of mushrooms, hash browns and beans filling her nostrils. Nothing could beat a cooked breakfast. Looking back over at Richie, she tilted her head. ‘What were you saying?’
‘Oh, nothing. It doesn’t matter.’
‘Yes, it does. You were going to tell me something about my shop. About it being left empty for a couple of years.’
‘Oh, I’ll tell you another time.’ Waving off Molly’s question, he picked up his cutlery. ‘This looks amazing, doesn’t it?’
Frowning, Molly looked down at her plate. ‘Yes, it does.’
Chapter Seven
Pushing back the duvet, Molly grimaced as her feet touched the cold floorboards. She really did need to invest in a rug. The kids’ bedrooms already had carpet laid but hers for some reason didn’t. Padding to the window, she inched the curtain aside and peeked out. It had been the door that woke her then, Richie was stood on the threshold to Bramble Patch.
Ducking back behind the curtain, Molly bit down on her bottom lip. What was the time? Had she overslept? She needed to open the shop at nine, but she was sure she’d set an alarm.
‘Molly!’
Damn, he must have seen her. Pulling her dressing gown from the back of her door, she wrapped it around her and pulled the belt tight, knotting it as she ran down the stairs. She must have overslept, she should have opened up already. Her second day of trading and she’d failed already.
Hurrying through the shop, she pulled open the front door. ‘Sorry, I must have overslept. I just need to get dressed and I’ll open up.’
‘Open up? It’s only half-past seven. Sorry, have I woken you?’
‘Half seven?’ So she hadn’t overslept then. She’d planned to have a bit of a lie-in and had set the alarm for eight.
‘Yes, I thought I’d give you a lift to the garage and we can get a new tyre for your car. I thought it would save you the hassle of calling out the breakdown service and having to wait around for them.’
‘Oh right. Thank you. That would be great, if you really don’t mind?’
‘That’s why I’m here.’ Grinning, Richie held out his arms.
‘Right, of course. Well, I just need to get dressed. Come in, I won’t be long.’ Holding the door open for him, Molly stood to the side.
‘I’m okay here, thanks. I’ll wait outside.’
Molly shrugged. ‘Okay.’
PULLING THE DOOR TO the shop closed behind her, Molly locked it. Turning around, she took a deep breath, letting the cool spring air fill her lungs, and made her way towards Richie who had perched on a small wall surrounding a raised planter in front of the shop.
‘Ready?’ Standing up, Richie wiped his hands down his jeans.
‘Yes, thanks for waiting.’ Tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear, Molly gave up and pulled the hairband out, bundling her hair back into a messy bun. She hated having her hair up, but she hadn’t wanted to make Richie wait while she straightened it and if she’d left it down as it was, she’d resemble someone who had recently stuck their fingers in a plug socket. Shrugging, she wrapped the hairband around again. It would have to do.
‘You’re welcome. My car’s at mine. I felt lazy driving the few metres to yours.’
Molly nodded. He wasn’t on duty today then, at least not yet. His jeans and brown jumper suited him. Not that he didn’t look good in uniform, but he definitely looked more relaxed in his normal clothes. Molly shook her head. ‘Looked good’ where had that come from? Matching his pace, she followed him to the end of the road and turned left.
‘It’s the one with the blue car at the end.’ Pulling his keys from his pocket, he jangled them in his hand.
‘Lovely.’ The end of terrace small chocolate box cottage was beautiful. Sunshine yellow shutters framed the windows and a blossom tree, just beginning to flower, filled up most of the small front garden.
‘Thanks. Unfortunately, the inside doesn’t quite match up to the outside yet. The previous owners had stripped it of all its period features, trying to modernise it apparently, so I’ve still got quite a lot of work to do to get it back to its former glory.’
‘Have you moved in recently then?’
‘A couple of years ago now. There’s really no excuse for me not to have finished it by now. But, I’ve got someone coming to make the chimney usable again next week and then I have a beautiful vintage cast iron fireplace I’m going to install.’
‘It all takes time, doesn’t it?’ Molly slipped into the passenger seat and pulled the seatbelt across.
‘Yes, it does. It just takes some people longer than others.’ Grimacing, Richie looked in his rearview mirror and pulled away from the kerb.
SITTING ON A LOW WALL in front of a garage in the town, Richie checked his watch again. ‘Sorry, I just assumed they’d open up at eight.’
‘Don’t worry.’
‘You’ll be late opening the shop though, won’t you? Have you got your group today?’
Molly shook her head. ‘Not today, I think I’m going to officially run it three times a week but have the option for people to come in to sit and knit whenever really. I probably won’t have any customers today so I doubt it matters what time I get back. Why don’t you ask your mum if she wants to come along tomorrow? The people who came yesterday were really lovely and we have a few beginners too, so it doesn’t matter if she can knit or not.’
Looking down at his feet, Richie bent down and tucked in a loose shoelace. ‘I don’t really think it’s her thing.’
‘Oh, okay.’ Molly shifted her position on the wall before clearing her throat. ‘Is it because of the music?’
‘What music?’
‘Because I had my music up loud the other evening after my kids had gone to their dad’s and you came to say it was too loud for her?’
Shaking his head, Richie wiped his hand across his face. ‘I’d forgotten about that. No, she doesn’t mind music and, to be honest, she’s losing her hearing so wouldn’t have been able to hear it anyway.’
Narrowing her eyes, Molly frowned. ‘So why did you come and complain then?’
‘I... Sorry, like I said last night, I haven’t made you feel particularly welcome here, have I?’ Glancing across at the garage, he stood up as someone came out and pulled the shutters up revealing the door to the reception area. ‘Great, we might just be able to get your car back on the road by half nine.’
Looking down at her fingers clasped in her lap, Molly bit her bottom lip. ‘Hadn’t made her feel
particularly welcome’? That was an understatement if ever she’d heard one. A speeding ticket, a complaint about her music and moaning about parking all in the space of twenty-four hours? What was really going on? Standing up, she placed her arm on his forearm, waiting for him to turn around. ‘You’re right, you’ve not made me feel particularly welcome. In fact, you seem to have gone out of your way to make my life more difficult.’
‘I wouldn’t put it quite like that.’
‘Really? Let me see, you gave me a speeding ticket, complained about my music, which for your information I had only put up so loud because I was trying to drown out the thoughts swirling around in my mind about my kids going up to spend a week with their new step-mum’s parents. Oh, and then you had to come and complain about my friend’s car because it was overhanging your mum’s driveway by, what? An inch?’ Shoving her hands in the pockets of her light jacket, Molly could feel the heat rising to her face. He had been awkward, rude. It wasn’t just her imagination.
Looking down at his shoes, Richie rubbed the back of his neck.
She’d made him feel uncomfortable. She should stop. Just let it all go. He had brought her here and was helping her get her car back on the road and he’d been uncharacteristically pleasant at the café last night. Maybe she’d just caught him on a bad day? But no, it still wasn’t right. She’d been having a bad time of it lately too. In fact, she’d been having a pretty rubbish year by all accounts and she hadn’t gone out of her way to treat anyone with the same distaste he had shown her. ‘Then, just to top it off, last night when you saw my tyre had blown, which I may add wasn’t my fault, you were really rude to me.’
Glancing towards the garage behind him, Richie looked back at her and held out his arms. ‘I’m sorry. As the local police officer, I should have been more welcoming.’
‘As a normal human being, you should have been more welcoming.’ Shaking her head, she tried to flick loose hair from her eyes as the slight morning breeze picked up before looking him in the eye. She’d gone too far. He looked upset, his eyes had glistened over. She was the one being rude now. He was doing her a favour, and this was how she was repaying him. What was the matter with her? ‘I’m sorry. I’m being rude, I just... I don’t know. I guess it’s been playing on my mind. I’ve obviously done something to annoy you and I don’t know what.’
Taking a step towards her, Richie reached out and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear before letting his hand drop in front of him. ‘It’s not you. It’s a lot of things. But not you.’
‘What is it then? Have you had a bad experience with newcomers before or something?’
‘No. Look, I used to own the shop.’
‘Bramble Patch?’
‘Diane’s Dresses as it was called back when I owned it. Well, when my ex-wife owned it. I brought it for her as a gift on our wedding day. My grandparents had recently passed away and left me some money, I ploughed it all into that shop to give to her. She’d always dreamt about opening up a clothes shop.’
‘Oh right. That’s nice then.’ Molly frowned. What did that have to do with her though?
‘Yes, it was. It was lovely. She loved running the place. Obviously, it being right next to my mum’s place was the icing on the cake. It meant that when our daughter was born, my mum could help with childcare when my ex had to go into the shop.’
‘I didn’t know you had a daughter.’
‘Yep, she’s fourteen now.’
Molly nodded. ‘The same age as my daughter, Lauren,’
‘It’s a good age.’
‘Yes, apart from the teenage mood swings, I guess. So you’re annoyed that I brought the place then?’
‘No, not annoyed.’ Sitting back down on the low wall, Richie looked down at the floor. ‘I don’t know. It just dredged up a lot of emotions, if I’m honest. The fact that someone else was moving into the place that had meant so much to Diane, I guess.’
‘Do you still see your daughter?’ Sitting down next to him, Molly laid her hand gently on his arm.
Smiling sadly, Richie nodded. ‘Yes, I do. She comes to stay every other weekend and then she stays over sometimes during the week too. Not as often as I’d like, mind. I’m sorry, I can’t even explain why it was such a big deal to me. I guess, when I finally put it on the market just over a year ago I was all ready and prepared for it to sell. Then when it didn’t sell, I just kind of put it out of my head. I’d just got over my relationship with Diane and what she’d done and then, you came, and it all came back.’
‘What happened? Sorry, I shouldn’t have asked. You don’t have to answer that.’
‘No, it’s fine. She left me for another bloke. Ran off to Spain to begin with until that relationship broke down and she came back, tail between her legs, wanting me to take her back. The worst part though, which I hadn’t known about, was that she’d been using the flat above the shop to spend time with him. She’d practically had him living there for a good six months before she left me.’
‘That’s awful.’
Richie nodded before looking at her. ‘It is, but it’s also in the past. I’ve moved on from her now. If she walked up to me now and said she wanted to get back with me, there’d be no chance.’
‘I know what you mean, though. I don’t love Trevor, my ex, anymore and, to be honest, the whole idea of getting back with him turns me cold, but it’s still weird when he comes to pick the kids up or drops them off. He was still the person who I was convinced that I’d live with and love until I died, and now, he treats me like a complete stranger. Actually, he almost treats me with contempt which I don’t understand because I don’t think I’ve ever done anything wrong to him.’
‘I’m sure you haven’t done anything. It says more about him than you.’
‘Maybe. But that’s what hurts, the fact that it’s all gone, everything. That feeling of him being my home and caring for me, gone. I just don’t understand how anyone can switch their feelings off so completely that they don’t hold any feelings for the other person whatsoever. He has this whole other life now that doesn’t include me. And that’s fine, like I said, I don’t love him anymore, probably stopped loving him before we divorced even, but it’s the way I’ve gone from supposedly being the love of his life to be not worthy for a civil ‘hello, how are you?’ type thing.’
‘It is strange how you can be the centre of someone’s universe one moment and then not mean anything to them the next. I mean, I still care about Diane, and I probably always will, she’s the mother of my daughter and we’ve so many memories together.’ Sitting up straighter, Richie put his hand on her arm.
‘Exactly.’ Shaking her head, Molly looked down at his hand and then across at the garage. ‘I don’t think I’ll ever understand. Anyway, I suppose we’d better go and get the tyre or any potential customers of mine will be left standing outside.’
‘Yes, we should.’ Standing up, he held his hand out towards her waiting until she’d grasped it and pulled her to standing.
Chapter Eight
‘Good morning, I don’t think we’ve met.’
Looking up from where she’d been kneeling helping Eva with her knitting, Molly stood up. ‘Oh, hello. No, I don’t think we have.’
‘I’m Wendy Thomas, the mayoress. Pleased to meet you.’
‘Pleased to meet you too.’ Slipping her hand into Wendy’s, Molly shook hands and smiled. ‘Have you come to join our Knit and Natter?’
Smiling, Wendy shook her head. ‘No, sorry, I wish I had the time. I’ve come to sign you up as a participant to the Spring Village Food and Drink Fete.’
‘Oh right.’ Molly frowned. ‘I’m afraid apart from offering tea and coffee, I don’t really serve food.’
‘Oh no, I don’t mean for a stall, I mean as a shop.’
‘Right.’ Molly glanced across at Gladys who looked as though she was busy winding some loose wool into a tight ball, but Molly knew she was probably eavesdropping.
‘No one’s told you about th
e Spring Fete, have they, love?’ Lowering her ball of wool, Gladys smiled kindly.
Thank you, Gladys. ‘No, I’m afraid I don’t know anything about it.’
‘Ah, that’s okay, love. We get a ton of stalls selling food and drink, some stalls from local cafes and some who travel that bit further. The village shops all stay open late and normally have demonstrations or activities going on to entice the shoppers. It’s normally a good day.’
‘Yes, it’s quite the event. One of the local tour companies puts on coaches to ferry people from the local towns, so we get up to close a thousand people visiting the village.’ Wendy clasped her clipboard to her chest.
‘Wow, that’s a lot.’ Molly looked around the small shop.
‘Don’t worry, that’s throughout the day. It doesn’t feel like too much at the time.’ Lowering his knitting needles, Bill looked across at them.
‘So, what can I put you down for? What activity or demonstration will you be offering? And what type of discount or offer can I put you in for? I’ll be sending out the village newsletter in the next couple of days and I also need to let the organisers know for the programmes they’ll be printing.’
‘Give the poor girl a bit of time. She’s only just moved in, haven’t you, love?’ Gladys chimed up.
‘No, it’s fine.’ Molly smiled, she certainly didn’t want to miss out on any free advertising. ‘Umm, I’ll put on a knitting demonstration, and for the offer, I don’t know, a twenty percent discount on anything brought that day?’
‘Great, great. I’ll write you down for that. Thank you.’ Scribbling on her clipboard, Wendy turned on her heels and disappeared out of the door.
‘She’s a funny one, she is.’ Bill nodded after her.
‘No, she’s not. She’s just focused, that’s all.’
‘Is that what you call it? In that case, she’s so focused she doesn’t give anyone any time to think. It’s all just jump, I’m here type of attitude.’
