He turned to look at her with a smile and pointed to the sideboard. ‘Okay Pip. Don’t forget about your parcel.’
Her chest lightened.She hadforgotten about the parcel, but her dear old dad had remembered. Was she worrying needlessly about his mental health?
‘Thanks Dad.’
She grabbed the parcel and headed downstairs to the pub, opening the box on the way down. Inside were two keyrings, a letter and instructions. She stopped to read the letter before opening the door leading into the pub lounge.
The keyrings were actually dog collar tags, and inside them trackers were fitted. The instructions were for the app that needed to be downloaded and set up to be able to use them. A new company had heard about the competition and had sent one of the keyring trackers as a prize, and the other as a gift for the organisers.
Pippa pushed open the door and walked into the pub with a smile. She was surprised to see Oliver was already there hanging the box filled with decorations for the competition. He was up a set of stepladders hanging the last line of bone-shaped bunting.
‘Morning Pippa, you look happy.’
Pippa held up the tracker tags to show him. ‘Look! A new company has heard about our competition and they’ve sent us two dog trackers. One is to offer as the first prize and the other one is for us, the organisers.’ She stretched a hand forward, offering one. Here, you had the idea about the best dressed dog event, so you have it.’
Oliver shook his head. ‘No, I insist you have it. You’ve done most of the work for it.’
Pippa grinned. She was secretly pleased. Although Ginger was good at coming back when his name was called, the recall she had with him wasn’t anywhere near as good as Oliver had over his pet, Jess. Pippa was always nervous, letting Ginger off his leash somewhere new. A guilty ball formed in her stomach. She knew she hadn’t spent as much time on his training as she should have done getting him whilst still in a very low stage of grief.
‘Thank you.’ Pippa gestured to the doggy bone bunting. ‘It appears you’ve already put up the decorations. I came down a little earlier to do them before going into the kitchen to see if Declan needs any help.’
Oliver put his hands on his hips and surveyed his handy work. ‘Not bad, eh? I’m quite looking forward to it now.’
Pippa beamed, ‘Me too...Oo, what time is Reverend Townsend coming?’
Oliver’s face fell. ‘I forgot to tell you, when I called in to ask him if he’d judge the competition, he informed me he was very flattered to be asked, but he’d have to decline. He needs to cover another parish’s duties because its vicar was ill. He has a funeral to attend to today. He apologised profusely because he’d bated us with the idea, but said god would provide us with a replacement.’
Pippa gasped. ‘But who? We needed a non-resident—someone impartial.’
Oliver grimaced. ‘The only person I could think of on the spot was my friend Ava. She’ll be here soon.’
Pippa tried her best to pull up the corners of her mouth, although she knew the smile she was conjuring wasn’t reaching her eyes. ‘Good thinking. She won’t know who are local residents and who have entered the competition from outside the community.’
Oliver’s shoulders dropped as he sighed. ‘I’m so glad you approve.’
‘Why wouldn’t I?’ said Pippa, drawing her brows together.
Oliver rubbed the back of his neck, appearing a little uncomfortable. ‘I don’t know...I’m sorry. I don’t know what gave me that impression.’
Pippa shook her head. Her long wavy hair swished around her shoulders. ‘She seems like a really lovely woman.’ She gestured towards the kitchen. ‘I’d better see if Declan needs any help. Time is ticking.’
Oliver nodded. ‘Yes-yes, I need to check on the bar too.’ He pointed down at the floor. ‘See you here in thirty to go over everything with Ava?’
‘Yes...see you in thirty.’ Pippa couldn’t walk away quick enough. She was seething, but she had no reason to. Ava was perfect for the job as a judge. She would be impartial.
She pushed open the kitchen door and was astonished to see Declan had already prepared everything.
He looked up from chopping something and smiled. ‘Morning. I’ve had a great idea that will make things a lot easier if we’re busy. I hope you don’t mind, but I’ve changed the menu.’
Pippa’s brow rose, almost meeting her hairline. ‘What? I’ll-I’ll have to print out new menus.’
Declan’s face crumpled. ‘I forgot about that. Sorry. I just thought it would be so much easier if we had just one meal available for both dogs and their owners. Something that could be served to them both in dog bowls.’ Pippa cocked head to the side seeing reason, even though her gut was tightening again as she worried about getting the new menus changed and printed off before things got busier upon the arrival of Ava. ‘Paul Watters, a chef whose column I follow in the New York Times has a smoked sausage casserole recipe that will be perfect.’
Pippa nodded calmly, trying not to show Declan the panic building up inside. ‘Okay, if you think that will be better.’
Declan nodded eagerly with an enormous, toothy grin. ‘Yes, I do. That’s why I took the liberty of preparing to serve that instead.’ He handed her the recipe.
‘Right okay. If there’s nothing for me to do in here, I’ll go and change the menus.’ Declan nodded and returned his attention to his chopping.
