12. Cassian
TWELVE
Cassian
I woke up stupidly early and didn’t linger in bed to try to go back to sleep. Saturday mornings was the one time when I felt maudlin for my marriage. We’d woken up most Saturdays thankful that we didn’t have to go to work for two whole days and with the freedom only that could bring. The world was our oyster. We could be lazy in bed, or choose to go out for breakfast, or head out for the day making out the plans as we went along. I knew that Jason was living in what’d been my house, and he’d be spending Sunday mornings with Bryony, while I had no one to wake up with, or make those plans with.
So my solution was to not linger. I got up and I moved. Today was a run, all part of pre-season training, as would be the Saturday afternoon pint in the Puffin Inn watching the rugby match that was being shown on TV, especially since Wales was playing England. I ran along the coastal path, meeting at least a dozen dog walkers even though it was only just past seven. I saw red squirrels, countless seabirds and fishing boats heading back from their morning catch.
By the time I got back to Beryl’s I was glad I hadn’t woken up anywhere else today, and was making my own plans for what was looking like a gorgeous day where the only place anyone should be was at the beach.
Maybe I’d buy a paddle board and take it out. Maybe I’d go and watch the local cricket team play at home. Or do both. No one else had a say.
I showered, read the paper that Beryl had forgotten to have cancelled while she was away, and made a fresh pot of coffee, which I drank in the garden, listening to the bird song and thoroughly glad about what had happened to lead me to being here.
I headed into town about one, having researched paddle boards and ordered one for delivery next week. A decent late breakfast was in order and a meander around the town that looked to be shimmering in the sunshine. Next week I had a couple of meetings with builders about the schoolhouse, with the chair of governors accompanying me mainly to discuss the budgets, so my weekend might not be as free.
Thoughts of kitchens and new bathrooms were the only thing occupying me as I walked into the Puffin Inn, the place half-filled already. Amelie was at the bar, pulling a pint for Morris, one of the town elders. She looked puzzled when she saw me.
“Any update from Romy?”
I frowned. “What do you mean? Is Romy okay?”
Amelie set Morris’ pint in front of him. “Let it settle and I’ll top it up. Sorry, Cas, didn’t you hear? Someone broke into Cara’s house last night and the house next door. Romy’s fine – I think she’s just shaken up.”
I cursed under my breath. “Who do they think’s done it?”
She shook her head. “They think it’s connected with Cara. The house next door is where Mavis’ friend, Jayne lives. She didn’t wake up – just went downstairs this morning and found her house had been turned upside down. They’d torn open cushions and gone through all her drawers. She’s no idea what they were looking for.”
“Shit. Is she okay?” I had no idea how old Jayne was. Mavis was rumoured to be a hundred and eleven by some, others put her at around eighty, which I figured was about right.
“Jayne’s fine. She’s going to stay with her daughter for a few days and we said we’d sort out the house as best we can. Romy’s been here with the girls this morning to speak to Liv. Joel's mum met her here too – she was looking after Heidi and Mia for the afternoon.” Amelie pointed to the tap that poured the beer I’d been having when I came here.
I shook my head. “Coffee, please, and an all-day Welsh breakfast. I’ll go and check on Romy.”
“Let me guess, you were going to watch the rugby?”
I nodded. “Here early to get a good seat. I’ll head back and see if she’s there.” She might’ve gone out for the day herself, or be shopping or something that had nothing to do with me. She might not want me interfering.
Amelie gave me a knowing grin. “She’s pretty, is Romy. And super-bright. Her job is all numbers and I don’t even understand what it is that she actually does. She’s one of the toughest people I know.”
“Why are you telling me this?” I knew exactly why.
“Just thought I’d point those things out, in case you hadn’t noticed.”
Her fiancé, Roman, breezed past. “Is she plotting again?”
“I think she is.” I shook my head at Amelie. “Interfering.”
He laughed, slipped behind the bar and started to pull himself a pint. “She makes a living out of it. Why don’t you bring your neighbour down here? Or am I interfering now?”
“You are. I’ll see if she wants to watch the rugby.” After what we’d talked about last night, I suspected she did.
Amelie wiped her hands on a towel. “I think we’d feel better if she was down here rather than on her own.”
“The house is secure. When Roe does something like that, you know only he can break into it.” Roman rested a hand at the back of Amelie’s neck, a gesture that seemed too intimate to watch.
“I know. But knowing Romy she’ll be brooding over what’s happened and making it her fault.”
I slid off the stool I’d been sitting on. “Hold my breakfast. I’ll go and see if she’s home. She’s probably having a party back there.” I doubted it, given what’d happened to Cara’s house. “Is Liv still around?”
“I’m not sure,” Amelie said. “They were speaking to residents about an hour ago. But I don’t know where she went after that.”
I downed the coffee quickly, which was still probably too hot, and walked at pace back towards the cottages. A couple of police cars were on the road, one slowing down next to me.
“Cassian,” Liv shouted out of the passenger seat. “Have you seen Romy?”
“I’m on my way to her now. Going to see if she wants to watch the rugby in town.” I stopped walking, the police car now stationary.
“Good. She might. You heard what happened with Cara’s house and next door?”
I nodded. “Found out from Amelie.”
“Whoever did it is brave. We’ve had regular patrols going past Cara’s as well as Romy’s, and they managed to get inside and rifle through everything that they didn’t do last time, then tried next door.”
“How did they get in?”
“The key. Probably the key left out for Mia last week. They got into Jayne’s with her spare key as well, which she kept under a plant pot on the step – not obvious at all. You’re a big city boy, can you get Romy to check where she might have things that make it easy to get in or out of her house? I was going to head up there now, but the boss wants us in for a briefing.”
“Will do. I’ll sleep on Romy’s sofa if she’s worried. Wouldn’t be less comfy than the bed I’m in.”
Liv gave me a long and very judgemental look. “Hmmm.”
“I’ll let you get to your briefing.”
I was at Romy’s five minutes later, sweat on my brow. Romy’s car was parked on the road, although that didn’t mean anything as Puffin Bay was a short walk away, but I heard music as I opened the gate.
The bangs I made on the door when I knocked could’ve woken the dead, but they didn’t wake Romy’s attention. I tried the door. Locked. At least that was one good thing.
I walked around the side of the cottage, a lilac tree ambushing me with a mouthful of leaves. The music was louder, suggesting Romy was in the garden. I tried the gate lock, that was secured too.
I called her name, two, three times.
No answer.
Time to test Roe’s system. I used a nearby wheely bin to get leverage, jumping up onto that and then over the gate, the drop enough to make a noise but not enough to break a leg or two.
There was still no indication from Romy that she’d heard me. I headed down the side of the cottage, my heart rate hitting those rapid beats. I was concerned that she hadn’t heard anything. Was she unconscious somewhere, or just oblivious. Different scenarios ran through my head.
What didn’t was an image of Romy in a bikini, holding a cricket bat.
That was what I got.
“Shit. I’m so sorry.” She rubbed at my arm where she’d caught me with the side of the bat, thankfully not at full whack.
The pain was minimal. The sight of her wearing a blue dot bikini was not. She had curves which I’d not been unaware of before, but in a bikini they were unmissable. And I was staring and not even trying to hide it.
“Are you sure I didn’t hurt you anywhere else?” She squeezed my bicep.
I was hurting somewhere else, but not somewhere I was going to draw her attention to. All blood had headed south, my brain and body processing the most perfect pair of tits I’d ever seen and I hadn’t even seen them properly.
Yet.
“Honestly, I’m fine. Your aim’s terrible.”
Her shoulders dropped. “I know. I love watching sports but I have no hand eye coordination. That could’ve been so much worse.”
“Yeah, I could’ve been someone trying to actually break in rather than someone just trying to find out if you wanted to go to the Puffin Inn to watch the rugby.” I removed the cricket bat from her hands. “Was this Joel’s?”
“It was. He played football as well, but cricket was his favourite sport. He had trials for Glamorgan once, which he never let anyone forget about. I take it you’ve heard about what happened?” She sat down on a garden chair.
I managed to pull my eyes off her tits.
“I have. Amelie told me and Liv saw me when I was on my way here. When did you know someone was around here?”
“My phone did an alert but I’d left it on the kitchen table and I was upstairs. I need to make sure I keep it near to me – need to get in that habit. I’m expecting the cavalry – and there they are.” She stood up at the same time as footsteps sounded on the same path I’d taken. “It’s okay! False alarm!”
Two men I didn’t recognise opened the gate, obviously knowing how to get in.
“All okay?” one of them said. “I’m Nick O’Hara – you’re Romy and you’re Cassian, I think?”
“That’s us. Sorry. I didn’t hear Cas knock over the music – really stupid idea. Sorry to have wasted your time.” Romy looked utterly embarrassed.
Nick shook his head. “Fine by us. Here’s our ID so you know we are who we say we are. You should check if anyone claiming to be security comes round, don’t believe them.” He glanced up at me.
He was a big bloke, broad, tall and looked rather like a mountain. I wouldn’t want to cross him when I’d done something wrong, but right now he didn’t look a threat.
“My wife, Katie, had a similar situation where someone was looking for her – that was how we met. Don’t believe anyone until you’ve verified their ID, and we’d rather have false call outs than something happen. We’ll reset the perimeter and leave you to it.” He gave me a grin and shook his head. “Thought you’d just moved here? Fast worker, aren’t you?”
“He’s just a friend.” Romy shook her head. “I asked and he said no.”
Nick looked at me and raised his brows, silently asking a very good question.
What the fuck were you thinking?
Romy did want to go to the Puffin Inn to watch the rugby. She told me she’d not wanted to hang around town like she was planning to because she didn’t want any more questions about what’d happened and whether Mia had said anything about her mother. The girls were away for tonight, a spur of the moment agreement between Romy and Joel’s mum to give them a break away while the town calmed down about what’d happened.
I sat outside in the garden while Romy got changed, the image of her in that bikini forever pinned on the underside of my eyelids.
Did I say it? Did I tell her I’d noticed how she looked? Did I tell her she was punching well below her weight if she was interested in me?
I half thought about it during the first half of the game, Wales narrowly being beaten by England. Romy knew a lot of people in the pub. She was chatty and sociable and had something to say to most people. She also understood the game, which didn’t surprise me.
We ate lunch there, fending off questions about Cara and Mia with just a few words. The girls were safe with Joel’s mum. Romy’s house was secure, as we’d just proved, and Wales did indeed end up victorious. The celebrations continued into the late afternoon, more locals joining us, Finn Holland and his little one, Roe and Freya, Thane with his twins who knew exactly who held the power, and I became splashing around in a sea of conversation and in jokes and memories that went a long way to making me feel like this could be where I was meant to be, even though it was still early days and I was being cautious.
We walked home after dinner, just as Amelie was getting the barbecue out. We talked more about sport and then the town and Mavis, and about the town meeting that’d been called for Tuesday evening, held in the school assembly hall.
“I wish I had more time to exercise. I can’t play sport well – you’ve seen my batting skills and you were hardly a small target to hit – but I’d love to join a team. Women’s cricket maybe, or netball in winter.” She looked out to the sea. “I did fancy starting wild swimming – there’s a group that swims out every Sunday morning at nine – but it’s what to do with Heidi, and Mia now.”
“Do you get any time at all?”
She gave me a slight grin. “Joel’s mum takes Heidi to swimming lessons on a Saturday usually, so all I have to do is have her ready for nine. Heidi loves being with her and it gives me a day to do things I can’t normally, like go for a run, or have a really long shower with no one shouting for me.” She beamed and laughed lightly. “Not going to lie, the run usually doesn’t happen and I take a bath instead.”
All I was picturing right now was her in a bath, suds covering skin I hadn’t seen yet.
“Want to run together?” The question was definitely beer fuelled, even though I’d only had a couple of pints.
Her laugh was incredulous. “Seriously? You’ve run loads. I’m like a quick two K round the town when Heidi’s on a play date. You did a half marathon four months ago. I’ll hold you back.”
“That’s not the point.” Because it wasn’t.
“I won’t be at my finest, I’ll have no make-up on, and I sweat when I run.” She was shaking her head.
I laughed, a proper, entertained laugh. “The point is to sweat. And I don’t care about make-up. Come for a run with me.”
It now seemed like the most important thing in the world.
“Seriously?”
I nodded. “Show me the good places to run here. I’ve been doing the same route since I moved in.” Which wasn’t entirely true, because I’d driven out to Llandwwyn and Rhosneiger, but locally I wasn’t sure of the distances and the tides here. Running with someone who knew the area would be useful, but that wasn’t the point: I wanted to spend time with her, to work out whether I could be doing the right thing.
“Okay. Can I confirm in the morning though? Just in case Mia wants to come home early.” Romy was quietly cautious.
“Sure. Will Heidi’s gran be okay with, you know, me?” This puzzled me. My own ex-mother-in-law had been okay. She’d still had younger step-kids, so my ex hadn’t been her entire focus. From what I’d learned, Joel had been an only child, so Heidi would be his parents’ only grandchild. That meant for some scrutiny if anything happened between me and Romy, which I was no longer discounting. If she was still interested.
“She will. Joel’s mum’s always been really good. Joel was always really relaxed and I think he got it from his mum.” She smiled, toying with her hair with her free hand. “His dad wasn’t around. After he died, his mum was really about me and helping me out. She’s been amazing, so don’t worry – if she thinks I’ve gone for a run with a man she’ll be sending me flavoured condoms.”
Her cheeks coloured a shade that seemed to match her hair.
“Good to know.” I could’ve flirted with her more with that, but we hadn’t reached that point.
Yet.
We were quiet. The sound of the seagulls and the crashing of the waves the only noise in a silence that didn’t feel like it needed to be filled.
“Will Heidi be okay with you going running with her head teacher?” This was an aspect I had thought a lot about after Thursday when I’d turned her down.
“She won’t think anything of it. She’s too young for big opinions, unless it’s about vegetables.”
“She’s a good kid. You should be proud of her.”
“I am. She was a shitty sleeper until she was about two, but since then she’s been a really good kid. I’m expecting her to wake up on her thirteenth birthday and have developed horns and a tail.”
We carried on talking about life, the universe and everything, including books and films and more bands we’d both seen, until the sun had well and truly set and Puffin Bay had gone to sleep. Knowing that she would probably wake up at the same time as normal, and we had a run scheduled for the morning, I made a move to leave, the sky above us speckled with stars.
“What time roughly tomorrow?” I pushed my hands in my jeans pockets, wanting to touch her.
“Just after nine? But I’ll send you that text. Or will nine be too early?”
“That time’s fine. I’ll set an alarm.”
She walked over to me, her empty glass on the painted table. “Thank you for today.”
Her green eyes shone, her pretty lips curved in a smile. She was less than a metre from me.
“Thank you for coming with me. And I’m sorry about the gossip that I know will happen.” Because it would. Small towns did this. The one I had moved here from had been just the same and that hadn’t even been as small.
Romy shrugged. “It’s fine. The question I get asked more than anything is about when I’m going to start dating again. There’s no one who thinks I should still be in mourning for Joel. And Joel would never have wanted me to have been on my own for so long. He was a good man.”
“I’m sure he was.” I took a step closer to her, one of my hands escaping from my pocket and lifting up to her face. I brushed my thumb over her lips, her face tilting up towards mine. “I know I said I didn’t want to go out for a meal with you, but that was a lie because I do.”
Her eyes widened. Any thoughts of why Cara might be missing were completely gone.
One kiss. I could take one kiss. One kiss wouldn’t be something stolen, would it?
I bent my head to hers as her arms went out slowly to loop around my neck. Our lips met, the kiss soft and slow, her lips parting after a few seconds, letting it deepen. My hands had found her waist, fingertips pressing softly there. It was tempting to move my hands, to see how she felt, but not here and now, not in her garden where a neighbour could look out and intrude on something that should be just for us.
“See you tomorrow.” I whispered the words when we finally pulled apart.
“Just after nine.”