‘You see? That's a cool thing to do. Guess what form of transport my younger brother's obsessed with? OK, you won't guess, so I'll tell you.' Oliver shook his head in despair. ‘Steam trains. He can't get enough of them. Seriously, he's even dragged me along with him to a couple of shows.'
Ding went Patsy's brain, sparked by the memory of Tess in the salon offering to have a word with her husband about getting her fixed up with one of his fellow steam train enthusiasts. She smiled inwardly at her mental image of the men with their flat caps and untrimmed beards.
OK, probably best not to relate that tale to Oliver.
But twenty minutes later, when he happened to mention that one of his friends from work lived in Chipping Norton, Patsy said, ‘Oh I love that place. The little theatre just off the high street is so brilliant. My friend Finola lives there too and we always go along to their Christmas pantos.'
‘Finola?' Oliver sat up. ‘Married to Will? Will is the friend I work with! They had this amazing barbecue the other week … it was the best night ever, I've never laughed so much in my life.'
The little hairs had risen on the back of Patsy's neck. That had been the evening she'd had her disastrous date in the Star with penny-pinching Marcus. And she'd dithered about whether or not to bother driving over to Chipping Norton afterwards but had ended up deciding against it.
Whereas if she had gone along, she would have met Oliver …
‘I was invited to Finola and Will's barbecue too,' she said.
‘You weren't there, though.' Oliver shook his head. ‘If you had been, I'd have definitely noticed you.'
She'd even wondered if it could have turned out to be one of those potentially life-changing Sliding Doors moments. How spooky was that? She smiled and shrugged. ‘You're right, I didn't go.'
At eleven o'clock, the manager of the bar called last orders, just as Oliver was telling Patsy the story of how he'd lost his keys last year, on Christmas Eve.
‘ … And it had just gone midnight, so of course it cost a fortune to call out a locksmith.' He laughed at the memory. ‘Not the best start to Christmas, or to my birthday.'
‘Your birthday's on Christmas Day? Oh wow,' Patsy marvelled. ‘That must be weird. Is it weird?'
Oliver shrugged easily. ‘I'm kind of used to it by now. When's yours?'
‘Um … July.'
‘Ah, you were a summer baby. When in July?'
Whoops, bit embarrassing. ‘Second half.'
Oliver beamed. ‘Same as my sister. What date?'
‘The twenty-fourth. So when you and your sister were young, did she lord it over you because-'
‘Hang on,' Oliver interrupted. ‘The twenty-fourth?'
Patsy nodded and felt herself reddening.
‘Of July?'
She nodded again.
‘But … that's today,' said Oliver.
‘I know.' She felt inexplicably ashamed.
‘Oh Patsy.' He gazed into her eyes. ‘I'm sorry. You should have said.'
‘Doesn't matter.' She broke into a smile. ‘There might have been a bit of a dodgy dip in the middle, but the rest of it's been great.'
At that moment the manager clanged the bell and called out, ‘Time! Time now at the bar.'
‘Wait!' Oliver jumped to his feet and rushed over. Evidently having sweet-talked the manager, he returned triumphantly bearing two glasses and one mini-bottle of Prosecco.
‘Here we go. Better late than never.' He divided the sparkling wine between them. ‘Cheers. Happy birthday.'
Their glasses clinked together. Patsy said, ‘Thank you.'
‘Rick missed a trick.' Oliver's eyes glinted with mischief. ‘The dick.'
‘I'm glad he did,' said Patsy. Ooh, daring.
Oliver looked pleased. ‘I'm glad too.'
By 11.30, the staff were busy tidying up and it was time to leave the almost empty bar. When Oliver excused himself to visit the men's loo, Patsy found herself approached by the female half of the only other remaining customers. In her fifties and well dressed, she teetered over on high heels.
‘Hello, hello! Sorry, I'm a wee bit tipsy, but can I just say we've been here all evening and we heard what happened. This one seems really nice, though. I know looks-wise he's no Ryan Reynolds, but you can't have everything, can you? I mean, not saying he's ugly, he's just a bit ordinary, but that's OK! And you can always smarten him up, can't you? The important thing is that he sounds like a really nice guy and the two of you are getting on together so well.'
‘Erm … he's behind you,' said Patsy.
‘I am.' Oliver, back from the loo, nodded in sympathy.
The woman's husband reached for his wife's hand. ‘Sorry, is she burbling again? Once she starts, she can't stop. Just ignore her. She doesn't mean any harm.'
‘It's fine,' said Oliver. ‘I agree with everything she says.'
Had there ever been such an amazing, unexpected evening? Patsy caught his eye and felt something inside her click into place, like the very last piece of a jigsaw puzzle. She smiled and said, ‘So do I.'
Chapter 47
Lily had delivered a Victorian marble fireplace and a stone birdbath to a customer in Stow-on-the-Wold. Arriving back in Stanton Langley at six o'clock, she saw Eddie and Dan sitting together at one of the tables outside the Star.
Her heart leapt at the sight of them as their heads turned in her direction. She parked the van and jumped out, and Dan said, ‘I'll leave you two to your reunion . Bye.'
It was still a novelty to see him walking normally, without a limp or using the aluminium crutch for support. For a couple of seconds Lily watched him heading for the car he was now able to drive again. Next week he had his appointment with the aviation medical examiner and an hours-long session booked on the simulator to establish his proficiency and physical fitness before he could return to work.
Then Eddie said, ‘Hey, come here, you've no idea how much I've missed you,' and drew her towards him for a kiss.
Typically, it was at this precise moment that three teenage boys on bicycles pedalled past, emitting ear-piercing wolf whistles along with a cry of ‘Go on, give 'er one!'
It was hard to kiss romantically when you were snorting with laughter.
‘Sorry,' said Lily. ‘Bloody hecklers.'
‘I don't believe it.' Staring after them, Eddie said, ‘The kid on the left? That's the one I gave all those signed photos to. Little shit.'
It was Tim, or Tom, younger brother of Jess, the waitress at the Valentine. Luckily Eddie was amused rather than outraged. Lily said, ‘That was my fault. He did sell them on eBay.'
‘I didn't doubt it for a minute.' Eddie smiled down at her, his hands resting on her bare shoulders. ‘Anyway, I really have missed you.'
‘I've missed you too. How's it going with the screenplay?' She knew the struggle he'd been having with it for the last couple of weeks.
‘Don't ask. The harder I try, the more the words refuse to come out and the worse it gets. Come on, let's go.' He was leading her towards his car now, parked just down the street.
‘Where are you taking me?' said Lily as he accelerated away from the kerb.
‘Sshh, it's a surprise.'
She assumed he'd booked a room at the Valentine, but before they reached the hotel, he pulled up outside Weaver's Cottage.
He pointed to the To Let sign planted in the front garden. ‘You know, I really thought Declan might decide to keep it for himself.'
‘I wondered that too,' said Lily. ‘He put so much effort into it. Still, I suppose that's his job. Anyway, he came down for a flying visit yesterday to let me know he's decided to rent it out. He couldn't stay, though; he's snowed under with work at the moment.'
‘How is he? Well?'
Lily hesitated. ‘I think so.'
Eddie said, ‘Do you think he misses Gail?'
‘He hasn't seemed very happy recently.' Lily paused, then nodded. ‘I think maybe he does miss her. A lot.'
‘Well you never know, maybe they'll get back together. But in the meantime, there's a cottage sitting empty.' Eddie swung open the driver's door of the car. ‘Want to show me round?'
‘It's locked. I don't have a key.'
Next to her, Eddie delved into his jeans pocket and held up a key with a label attached. ‘That's OK. I do.'
There was a playful look in his eye that for the life of her Lily couldn't figure out. What on earth was he suggesting? Because if this was his idea of a fun game – that they could sneak into an empty cottage and have wild reunion sex in there – well, there was absolutely no way she would go along with such a-