“Candyfloss, eh?” Alex picked Sadie up and held her above him whilst lying on his back, pretty much using her as a weight. “Who in their right mind gave you candyfloss?”
“Mummy did!” Sadie giggled and stretched out her arms as if she was flying. “But Daddy said I can’t have any more because it makes me hyper.”
“I think your daddy might be right.” Alex carried on using her as a weight, lifting up and down.
“If she vomits on you, Al, you’re to blame.” Rayah sounded like she was hoping Sadie might actually throw up on him.
Alex proceeded to get to his feet while holding Sadie in the air still. “And you can have her back.”
Sadie was giggling wildly as she was placed down on her feet and then took off, running like a demon possessed over to where her brothers were standing, watching a person sprayed gold standing like a statue and moving suddenly every so often to make children jump.
“She’s going to be sick and cry in the next hour. That’s my prediction. I might find Jake and get him to babysit.” Rayah glanced around them. “Only he’s not about.”
“He might be a bit busy, given this is his festival, Ray,” Jonny put his arm around Rayah. “Let’s have him babysit another time. I think we’re stuck with these kids for now.”
“We’re not offering.” Alex stood behind Abby and rested his chin on top of her head. “So don’t ask.”
Rayah shook her head and glared. Jonny just smiled. “We’ll cope.” They wandered off, over to their three children, Sadie now sitting on the grass, looking slightly green.
Gran’s voice called out over the crowds, sounding like a circus master, only one calling folks to try gin cocktails. An alpaca dressed up in some form of outfit wandered by and one of the two Severton pop up choirs began a performance ofDon’t Stop Believing.
Abby smiled. “I love it here.”
“Good,” Alex kissed the side of her head.
“I think I’ll stay.”
Fifteen
There was something to be said for only having three beers over the course of the day when the brazen ring of a phone goes off at bumfuck in the morning.
Alex found everything a little blurry as he rolled out of bed and hunted around in the jeans that he’d had on yesterday for his phone. He wasn’t the best at being organised in the evenings and yesterday’s clothes were inevitably strewn across the bedroom floor, waiting for morning when he would tidy them up. He was only messy in the evenings, more so now Abby was here, because they were too keen on getting naked than putting things away properly.
By the time he’d found his phone, the call had stopped. Alex stepped into the bathroom and rang the station from there, hoping that the noise and his scuffle, hadn’t woken Abby.
“Maynard. I missed a call.” A tweak of dread pinged in his stomach.
Jilly, the night shift admin, tutted playfully. “Not like you, Alex. Bit distracted at the moment, I believe?”
“Trying not to be.” He pulled his jeans on with one hand.
“You are allowed to have a life. Anyway. There’s a scuffle going on outside Villa View. They could do with an extra pair of hands. I know you’re not on call-out but…”
“I’m on my way. Bloody festival. Everything was fine yesterday.” Villa View was a new guesthouse, opened by a newcomer to Severton after they noticed Sorrell’s boutique hotel was always full. It was a cheaper option and used by walkers who just wanted a place to sleep and shower. It was also where people stayed if they were planning on drinking the town dry.
Although it was a little bit late at three in the morning for an after drinking fist fight.
Alex ran down the road towards the high street that Villa View stood on, pulling a T-shirt over his head as he ran.
The guesthouse was two minutes away if he legged it and it felt good to run, the cooler air of the night fresh against his skin.
It wasn’t a fight he saw when he got there, it was a brawl. Around seven men were pulling each other, three of his colleagues were trying to intervene, but it was like whack a mole – as they managed to get a couple of them away, more started.
Sometimes, he knew, it was better to just let them have it out and serve the punishment themselves, but Alex knew too well that if one of them produced a knife, the game changed for everyone.
He saw Ste intervene and take a whack to the head from a flailing arm. Ste stumbled back and Alex felt the beast in him roar. Ste wasn’t much more than a kid and he was inexperienced, especially in situations like this. Normal fights in Severton usually involved two or three people and they usually knew at least one of them. Here, none of the men were familiar and they were massively outnumbered.
Alex identified himself, targeting one of the guys who looked like he needed an out. He had a cut about the eye that was bleeding badly, the skin having split and it was already swelling.
