Chapter 37
‘Morning! I hope you don’t mind me waiting,’ said Dan, tentatively hovering by the Cotswold-stone wall that framed Grace’s garden and holding out a bag of warm croissants as an offering. ‘I just wanted to—’
He never got to clarify what it was he wanted to do, because Noodle and Doodle clearly recognised him and rushed over to snuffle him to death.
‘How’re they settling in?’ Dan asked, kneeling on the lawn, having been thoroughly frisked for doggy treats and come up wanting. ‘Are they sleeping on the bed yet?’
Grace laughed. ‘Oh yes. Although they do rather hog the duvet and Doodle here really shouldn’t eat cheese before bed.’ She gave a single burst on her whistle and both dogs flashed to her side and sat, expectantly waiting for a little piece of chicken. ‘I hate to say it, but I think they’ve raised the IQ level in the house considerably. They seem to learn everything the first time I show them.’
Dan nodded. ‘If only humans were the same. I wonder whether I need to be hit around the head with a brick sometimes before I’ll take a hint.’
He looked up at her and Grace felt the air still between them for a moment, neither of them confident enough to address their feelings head-on. It was one thing to wait for Dan to recover from his split with Julia, Grace had realised, but then it was as though the moment had passed and they’d slipped into the friend zone. If the other night had shown them nothing else though, it was that friendliness was only half of the picture.
‘Come in,’ Grace managed in the end. ‘I’ve got your sweatshirt for you.’ She pushed open the front door and the two dachshunds hovered in the doorway, waiting for her to go through first.
‘Have you been teaching the boys to be chivalrous?’ asked Dan with a smile.
‘Nope. It’s all about being the alpha dog, apparently. Alice gave me some basic dog-training tips and Jamie’s going to help me with the more advanced stuff. For now though, I just need to let them know who’s boss, apparently, take the lead and all that.’
She picked up Dan’s sweatshirt from the kitchen table and held it to her chest – without even realising it, she was taking a last breath of the warm, comforting fabric.
‘You should really keep that,’ Dan said softly, watching her. ‘It looks much better on you than it ever did on me.’
There were mere inches between them, but a mile of emotions.
‘Dan—’ began Grace, just as Dan spoke.
‘Grace—’
Everything Grace had just said to Alice about seizing the day sprang into her mind and suddenly it didn’t seem to matter who made the first move. The lingering kiss they’d shared after the attack was one thing, born of fear and a need for security. This? This was different.
Grace closed the distance between them with one step, dropping the sweatshirt to the floor and sliding her hand up to caress the back of Dan’s neck. Their lips touched and Grace felt a sigh of relief and recognition somewhere in her body.
Dan groaned as their kiss deepened and he dropped his hands to her waist, lifting her slightly onto her tiptoes towards him. Whether moments or minutes had passed, Grace couldn’t tell as she cleaved into his embrace with abandon. All these months of stepping around each other at work, in the town, watching and waiting – wondering if this very moment would be a mistake she would come to regret.
But how could something that felt so right possibly be a mistake?
Grace pulled away and looked into Dan’s eyes, overwhelmed by the affection and desire that pooled there. ‘I—’ she began.
‘Don’t question this, Gracie. Surely we’ve both done enough thinking to last us a lifetime?’ He grazed his hand along the side of her neck, dropping kisses along her collarbone and stopping every now and again to look up, to reassure himself perhaps that he wasn’t the only one swept away on this tide of longing. He drew her into his arms and kissed her deeply, sliding one arm around her shoulders and the other under her knees to lift her easily off her feet, much as he’d done the other night, but for wholly different reasons. ‘Do you have any idea how beautiful you are?’ Dan asked, watching Grace’s eyes fill with unshed tears. ‘I really think you should know that.’
Grace leaned in and kissed him again, unwilling to stop even to hear such wonderful sentiments.
Dan took a few steps towards the stairs, pausing for a moment only to be sure. ‘Do you want to—?’
Grace smiled. ‘What was that you said, about not taking a hint?’ She kissed him again, making her own intentions perfectly clear, and revelling in feeling the quickening of his breath.
A sharp knock at the door shattered their fantasy.
They froze and Grace laid a finger across Dan’s lips. She honestly didn’t care who was on the other side of that door; they had procrastinated long enough.
Of course, she hadn’t accounted for Noodle and Doodle, whose cacophony of barking would have alerted even the most oblivious of visitors.
‘Grace? It’s me, Taffy. I come bearing gifts.’
By tacit agreement, Dan slowly lowered Grace to the ground, reaching out for one last kiss, before reality could be allowed to intervene.
Grace pulled open the front door to find a bouquet so large it appeared to have legs. Taffy peeked around it. ‘Don’t go getting ideas – they’re not from me.’ He walked into the kitchen and hefted the flowers onto the kitchen table, beside the last lot. ‘The delivery girl was lost in the Market Place so I said I’d drop them off.’ With his legendary lack of boundaries or tact, he waved the accompanying note in the air. ‘I guess that pilot is super-keen.’
Dan and Grace exchanged uncomfortable glances, unable to hide the intimate smile that passed between them when it became obvious that Taffy was here to stay for a while.
‘Ah,’ said Taffy. ‘Poor bloke. Waste not, want not though; you’ll make young Lucy’s day if she finds out he’s available.’ He sat down at the kitchen table and picked up Grace’s jottings from the night before, a brief outline of the auction and how it might work. ‘This is looking rather professional there, Gracie. Are you quite sure you haven’t missed your calling as a political activist?’ He didn’t even question Dan’s presence in her kitchen at this early hour. As far as Taffy was concerned, anyone who locked their front door and didn’t welcome spontaneous visits was a little bit uppity – they had all long since accepted that you could take the boy out of Wales, but you couldn’t take Wales out of the boy.
Dan pulled up a chair beside him and they were soon batting fundraising ideas back and forth. Their constant one-upmanship was really rather sweet when you chose to see it that way, Grace decided, as their suggestions for activities became ever more hazardous.
‘Maybe,’ she said, plonking down her huge cafetière so that it sloshed alarmingly, ‘we should stick to ideas that don’t involve risking life and limb? It would be just too ironic if we needed to call out the Air Ambulance to deal with the casualties, don’t you think? Please don’t give up on the auction idea already. We can surely rope in a few big names locally to give it a boost and a little extra pull to the public? Elsie’s completely on board, by the way.’
‘Oh, we’re not suggesting we drop the auction,’ said Taffy with feeling. ‘We’re just thinking of ways to supplement it – things that everyone can join in on, even if they haven’t got a Picasso stashed in the attic.’
Grace nodded, appeased. ‘I really loved the auction of promises at The Duck Race last year. Do you think we can just incorporate something like that into the main event? Keep the focus on the auction?’
Grace watched Dan and Taffy, as though she was at Wimbledon, as they picked up the idea and debated it back and forth. She felt ridiculously excited by the idea of a project so dear to her heart. The fact that she was so busy seizing the day on so many different fronts at once that she was in danger of overcommitting herself didn’t even occur to her. Anything to keep thoughts of old man Jarley at bay.
‘Has anybody heard from Harry Grant?’ she asked, as she gave Taffy a stern look for feeding Doodle bits of croissant from the table. ‘I was hoping he’d be a fount of all knowledge as our inside man, but he’s gone awfully quiet.’
Taffy nodded. ‘I spoke to him last night, just briefly though. He says he’s on the case, but to be honest he sounded awfully upset. He kept muttering about needing to talk to a man—’ He took a slug of coffee and sighed. ‘There’s another rumour afoot, apparently, about a wider remit for “centralising care”—’ He said the word ‘centralise’ as though it left a foul taste in his mouth. After all, everyone in the rural sector knew only too well that such ideas only led to benefits for urban centres.
He took a huge bite of croissant, spraying crumbs across the table. ‘So,’ he continued, ‘we have to work out whether it’s money or politics that are really swaying the decision. Because right now, some of the opinions Harry’s relaying can only have been thought up by somebody who has never lived in a rural environment. I’d lay odds they’ve never ventured beyond the M25 actually. Certainly the distance-to-care figures that are being bandied about were as the crow flies, with no reference to terrain or weather implications.’ He looked up and his eyes were full of a righteous indignation. ‘So, whilst the fundraising is amazing, there’s every chance it will never be enough.’
‘What can we do?’ asked Grace simply.
‘It’s a shame Julia isn’t here,’ Dan said, possibly without thinking how it might make Grace feel. ‘This is just the kind of story they would love on that doctors show she did.’ He looked furious at this latest update. ‘Do you ever feel, when it comes to the NHS, as though the left hand just doesn’t know what the right hand is doing?’ he asked in frustration, banging his hand down on the table and flinching as he caught the bruising on his knuckles.
Grace picked up his hand and examined it, the broken skin still red and angry. ‘Alice said you’d been back to the station last night?’
‘Seriously, are they still grilling you over this?’ Taffy asked in disbelief.
‘That’s what I came by to tell you actually,’ Dan replied, looking a little discombobulated that this could ever have slipped his mind. ‘I gave a notarised statement last night and they’ve decided not to press charges. I believe I have the photos of your bruises to thank, actually, Grace. Chief Inspector Grant took one look at those and managed to persuade Jarley that it really wouldn’t further his cause. So, I’m off the hook.’
He shrugged, as though this rather momentous news meant very little in the grand scheme of things, but Grace knew otherwise. She knew exactly how horrific the consequences of his heroic actions could have been to his career. Forgetting herself for a moment, she breathed out slowly, all the tenderness of her feelings for him spilling into her gaze as she clasped his hand. ‘That’s fantastic news.’
Taffy cleared his throat uncomfortably. ‘Er, guys? Do you need to be alone?’ He didn’t wait for the answer though. ‘It’s only that, whilst obviously I’m thrilled that Dan’s not going to be hauled off to jail, I rather needed a little advice myself this morning.’
There was an awkward pause as both Dan and Grace visibly struggled to change gear. Taffy was normally so sensitive to these things that clearly whatever he needed was no trifling matter. He seemed almost oblivious to his gooseberry status, in fact.
‘I’ve done something incredibly stupid and I don’t know how to tell Holly.’