‘Grand. Well, I’ll ring her now.’ It was only when he moved to grab his phone that Bex realised what he’d said.
‘No, actually, Eddie, I wasn’t here to talk about business. I need a bit of help.’
‘Eh? What you done?’
‘It’s probably best if you come and see.’
Outside, Eddie scratched his beard as he looked at the rental car, the left-hand bumper now hanging only three inches from the ground. Beside him, Bex chewed on her nail.
‘I could re-fit the bumper,’ he said after a moment, ‘but it ain’t gonna get rid of them scratches there.’
‘Which means the rental place’ll still know. Mum and Dad’ll still get charged,’ Bex muttered.
‘Aye, for sure,’ Eddie replied, even though Bex had been talking to herself more than him.
‘So what other options do I have?’ Bex asked.
Eddie let out a slight sigh. ‘Well, easiest thing would be tae get a new bumper. I’ll need tae order one in for you.’
‘How long do you think that’ll take? And cost?’ It was the cost that was an issue, as much as the timeframe.
‘Put a rush order on it, should have it in the morn, next day at the latest. I can fit it for you straight away. Least I can do considerin’ how you’ve helped me.’
‘Two days.’ Bex pondered the choice. She would just have to find more things for her parents to do in the village so they wouldn’t think about using the car. ‘Thank you, Eddie, that’ll be amazing,’ she said. ‘The sooner the better. And obviously, I’ll pay for a rush job.’
Eddie waved her comment away. ‘No, lass, don’t be daft. All the help you’ve done me, this one’s on the house.’
Bex raised her eyebrows at him, surprised by the anger that rolled through her. ‘Do you remember what got you into this trouble in the first place, Eddie?’ she said pointedly. ‘No more favours, remember. I will pay what I owe, and extra for the rushed job.’
‘I… Aye,’ he replied, his face paling. ‘I’ll fix that bill for you too, then.’
24
As she walked back into the village, Bex thought of Duncan, waiting for her in the room. She’d told him she was going downstairs to get a coffee. Now she’d been gone almost an hour. Fingers crossed he’d had a shower and fallen back asleep. That way he wouldn’t have noticed how long she’d been gone.
There was no way she was going to tell him about the confrontation she’d just had with Kieron, which meant she couldn’t tell him about the incident with the deer either. But she’d have a harder time shielding him from the post. Knowing how quickly news spread, he’d probably already been sent half a dozen WhatsApp links to it.
Oddly, the thought was almost comforting. At least she wouldn’t have to be the one to break the news. Besides, something told her Duncan wouldn’t react quite the same way as she did. This wasn’t like Kieron accusing him of stealing the dogs, where it was essentially one’s word against the other. There were witnesses to this. Men who’d had to hold Craig back to stop him from going for Duncan a second time. Of course, one of those men could have been the person who went to Kieron with the tasty titbit of gossip. Even so, there were more than enough people that they wouldn’t be able to hide the truth forever.
As she walked back to the village, Bex knew there was no point trying to get coffees in the White Hart now, given that breakfast had already ended, so she headed to the café, still pondering how she was going to handle the situation with her parents, but by the time she had her two mochas, several pastries and an extra shot of espresso that she’d drunk then and there, she’d figured out a rough plan. A rough plan that basically consisted of lying.
Her idea was to tell her parents that the White Hart got so busy there was a very good chance they would get blocked in if she’d parked the car there, and since she didn’t want that to happen, she’d parked it a little way off.
Lying wasn’t something she normally did to her parents, and it wasn’t like she expected them to be mad at her. It had been an accident. A deer jumping out in front of a car was hardly something she could control, but it was their worry she couldn’t cope with. If they didn’t think she was capable of driving a mile down the road without getting into an accident, they’d likely never let her out of their sight again.
Finally, she opened the door to her room to see – just as she hoped – that Duncan was back asleep, Ruby next to him.
‘What did I say about getting on the bed?’ She glowered at the dog.
Crouching low, in a manner that Ruby clearly thought made her invisible, the red Lab slunk across the bed and dropped down onto the floor. The slight thud of her paws against the ground was enough to stir Duncan from his sleep.
‘You got coffee,’ he said, sitting up.
‘I did. And croissants. Figured you needed something to soak up that alcohol.’
As Bex moved across to the bed, she caught a waft of the sweet, floral scent of shower gel that lingered on him. It was at odds with the normal rustic, woodland aroma she usually associated with Duncan, but somehow, she was still drawn to it. Or maybe just drawn to him.
With the drinks and croissants in her hand, she climbed up onto the bed, next to him.
