Chapter 12
All eyes were on Rocco as he entered the pub, and he knew it was because Iris was holding his hand, showing them all a relationship had started.
At least, he hoped that was her point. After all, he knew she had concerns about another hump-and-dump situation happening, not that it would happen to her with him.
Nope, definitely nope. He already had plans to make love to her again once their shift was over in the tearoom.
In fact, he couldn’t stop making those sorts of plans and had to compose himself to concentrate on the meeting.
‘Right,’ roared Cookie, slamming a pen onto a clipboard.
‘We’ve got one last chance to impress the judges and win this award.
I want those Valentine’s decorations up on the first day of February this year.
With the snow thawing, sludge and mud isn’t really cutting it, so we need to have a good clean up and get the village back to its adorable self. ’
‘There’s no sludge and mud by my house,’ said Mabel, clearly offended.
‘Which means you’ll have time to help others clear their pathways, Mabel.’ Cookie perused her audience, a look of suspicion in her eye. ‘And who left a rubbish bag outside the Magic Teapot? I know it wasn’t my Norma. She’s not even been at work due to sickness.’
‘What’s wrong with Norma?’ asked Joel, attention now on him, making him frown.
‘She has a rotten cold,’ Cookie replied, then moved on to Iris. ‘You’ve been helping out at the tearoom.’ There was a definite question in her statement.
Rocco raised his hand. ‘Erm, sorry. That might have been me. I did take some rubbish out yesterday, but I wasn’t sure where it went.’
‘It goes around the back,’ Cookie told him, and he felt he was back in school being told off by his teacher. ‘In the wheelie bins.’
Iris offered a sympathetic smile. ‘My fault. I should have noticed.’
‘Well, I’m glad you owned up, Rocco. I was about to blame Joel for trying to frame Norma.’ Cookie glared his way, and Joel’s brow furrowed.
‘Shouldn’t you be doing your own job, Constable Beck?’ a deep voice boomed.
‘He arrived early to settle in,’ said someone else.
A chuckle vibrated through the pub. ‘Looks like he’s settled in nicely with Iris.’
Rocco felt Iris’s hand about to slip from his, so he quickly raised it as though he was announcing her the winner of a boxing match. ‘Yes, that’s right, Iris is my girlfriend.’
‘So mind your own business,’ said Cookie, retuning her gaze to her clipboard.
‘That’s rich, coming from you,’ Florrie called.
A bit of back and forth went on after that statement, but Rocco hardly heard the minor confrontation between Cookie and Florrie, as he was worried about how Iris might feel about his announcement.
She was the one who had held his hand, and she seemed to want stability, but she was awfully quiet for the rest of the meeting.
He leaned closer to her. ‘Hey, you okay?’
‘Yes, I was just going over my to-do list in my head.’
‘I have to pop to the police station in Summerford, as I’ve got a meet-and-greet kind of thing set up, but after that, I can help out again in the tearoom.’ He flashed a cheery smile. ‘I know where the bins are now.’
‘Oh, you don’t need to help today. There’s enough staff.’
‘Anything you’d like to add to the meeting, Iris?’ called Cookie, showing her irritation of people talking at the same time as her.
‘Sorry.’ Iris released her hand from Rocco’s to rummage around in her handbag for a mint, but after he declined one, and she put her bag back on the floor by her feet, she didn’t go back to holding his hand.
Yep, I definitely just put a spanner in the works, thought Rocco.
Iris peered out the window of the tearoom to see the shopfitters leaving Joel’s across the road. It had been a quiet day at the tea shop, and she figured it was because half the village was on Butterbrook clean-up duties, thanks to Cookie’s determination to win the winter award.
Josie entered just as the staff was leaving for the day. ‘I wanted to catch you before you headed home.’
‘Oh?’
Josie flopped to a chair, gesturing for Iris to join her. ‘The big announcement earlier in the pub. I could tell you liked Rocco, but I wasn’t expecting that so soon, and it’s not for me to say how you spread the news, but I thought you would have told your family first.’
‘I would have, but I didn’t feel like making a big deal. Holding his hand in front of everyone was enough. I had no idea he would say that at the meeting.’
Josie stopped smiling. ‘You don’t look too happy, Iris. What’s going on?’
‘It’s nothing really.’ Iris shrugged. ‘It just rattled me a little. It’s hard to explain.’
‘Were you hoping for something more casual than being labelled a girlfriend?’
‘No. Casual isn’t really me. It’s just, well, what if Rocco suddenly changes his mind? I’ll have all that pity thrown at me again.’
‘And yet you still held his hand in front of everyone.’
There was no getting out of that one, and Iris was annoyed at showing the village she had fallen for someone again.
Josie sighed softly. ‘Oh, Iris, it’s okay to have feelings, to show them, to smile from ear to ear because you’re in love. Enjoy those moments, and from what I could see, Rocco seemed happy enough. Looked quite proud to be sitting next to you.’
Iris had noticed that too, which made her heart and mind battle even more confusing. ‘I hate that I have these worries, Josie. I just want to relax and know I can trust Rocco not to humiliate me.’
‘That’s the voice of trauma, but when you push that to one side, what does everything else say?’
A slow smile built as Iris warmed from the intimacy she had shared with Rocco, and not just in his bed. ‘I believe he’s a good man. He’s already told me he won’t leave me unless I tell him to. He really has assured me he’s sticking around.’
‘His job and home tell you that much.’
She nodded. ‘True, and I did believe him. It was just the past niggling at me. In fact, it’s only that past relationship that’s causing me problems.’ She clenched her fists and growled. ‘Ooh, it’s so bloody annoying.’
Josie leaned forward and took Iris’s hand, giving her a gentle squeeze.
‘The way I see it, sis, if you don’t allow yourself a chance at happiness with another man, then you’re basically letting that loser control your life.
’ She shook her head. ‘Don’t let him win, Iris.
Don’t let his actions have any hold on you whatsoever.
You pick yourself up and dust yourself off, and you give yourself a chance, not Rocco, not any man, you.
This is about you living again with your head held high. ’
‘I know, but it was embarrassing.’
‘A man’s terrible behaviour towards a woman is not her shame to carry.’
Iris clasped her sister’s hand and smiled softly. ‘You’re right, Josie. It’s time I burned that bridge and removed that horrendous poor excuse for a human from my mind once and for all.’
‘Good for you.’
A spark of light filled Iris’s body as a weight shifted from her shoulders. ‘As soon as I’ve finished here, I’ll go and speak to Rocco. Let him know I’m not holding back any longer.’
‘Come on, I’ll help you tidy up, then we can walk to the B&B together, as I want to pop in and check on Norma.’
Iris counted her blessings for the wonderful support she had around her, the happy life she lived in Butterbrook, and Rocco, who had shown nothing but kindness and love.