‘Morning Pippa. Thanks for doing this with me. I just need a second pair of eyes to ensure it’s going to be big enough for me and my pup. He’s a big dog and he needs space, but I’m so desperate to get out of the house I’m sharing with my friend at the moment. In my state of mind, I’ll take a matchbox to live in. But we both know that wouldn’t be good for a St Bernard.’
Pippa laughed. ‘Don’t worry. I’ll be your common sense friend for the day.’
Pippa couldn’t see his mouth, but by the way his eyes were crinkling up, she knew Declan was smiling. ‘Thank you.’ He held up another helmet she’d failed to notice. ‘As a thank you, we’ll ride to the flat and after we’ve viewed it, I’ll take you for a spin over the moors as a way of saying thanks.’
Pippa gasped, and then her mouth curled up into a smile, spreading from ear to ear. She stepped forward and took the helmet. ‘How do I put it on?’
‘Hold on to the straps and give it a good tug down, then I’ll fasten the strap for you.’
Pippa did as she was instructed and as Declan was fastening the strap, Oliver came walking towards them.
‘You’re not taking Pippa on that thing are you?’
Pippa was shocked by his rude assault with not so much as a good morning first. Oliver turned around to defend himself. ‘Yes. I’m a proficient rider. I’ve been riding a bike for fifteen years. Pippa will be perfectly safe with me.’
Oliver’s eyes were hooded by his frown, and anger fumed from them. He looked from Declan to Pippa. ‘You can’t seriously be thinking of going on that thing.’
Pippa could feel her anger bubbling inside her. Oliver had spent every spare minute he’d had in the last four days with Ava. She’d even extended her stay here. Not that Pippa had found out from Oliver. She only knew because of Ava booking additional nights at the hotel. So much for continuing with their friendship. He hadn’t even had the courtesy to tell her when they’d been having a rare catch up with each other before opening up days ago.
Pippa recalled how awkward it had been. Both of them had skirted around how the paperwork regarding the sale was going. The main topic of conversation had been their beloved pets.
Pippa held Oliver’s gaze and crossed her arms defensively. ‘Yes, I am...not that it’s any concern of yours. I’m sure you have other things to worry about. Like the takeover of my family’s pub and whether you are adding too much soda to Ava’s numerous wines spritzers.’
Oliver’s jaw dropped and Pippa took the opportunity to straddle her leg over the bike and pull herself ungracefully on behind Declan.
He swivelled around and pointed to the footrests. ‘You could have used those to climb on. Put your feet on them and hold on tight!’
With that, the engine fired up, and Declan pulled back the throttle, revving up the engine. Oliver staggered back a couple of steps, snapping his mouth shut. His chin jutted out and Pippa noticed his hands clench by his sides. Her heart raced with excitement and fear. Declan pulled away and she turned her head to watch Oliver storm away with his shirt pulling taut across his wide shoulders.
Pippa tried to enjoy the short journey over the beachfront to Katherine’s café, but the tight ball in the pit of her stomach made the ride forgettable.
Katherine was waiting in front of the café when they pulled to a stop less than a minute later. Her dazzling smile made Pippa put her own worries to one side and concentrate her efforts on helping Declan with his plight to find a home. Declan turned the engine off and began to unfasten his chin strap.
Pippa dismounted the bike easier than she’d climbed on and fiddled with the unfastening of her helmet as Declan put the side stand down. She offered Katherine a genuine smile. ‘Morning Katherine.’
‘Good morning my lovelies.’ Katherine turned her attention to Declan. ‘Oh Declan, it’s such a mess up there. I wished I’d taken the tome to fix it up. I feel awful. Are you sure you want to view it?’
Declan laughed. ‘Are you trying to talk me or yourself out of this?’
‘Goodness no. I need to rent the flat, and sooner rather than later. It’s just, I’ll feel bad if you want it because you’ll have to do a lot of work getting it to a decent living state before you can move in.’
‘It just means I’ll appreciate it all the more when I’m living there.’
Katherine shook her head with a smile. ‘I’ll tell you what. If this is the place for you, I’ll let you have it for half price for the first two months while you do it up.’
‘Wow. That’s extremely generous of you, Katherine. Excellent, lead the way.’ Oliver held out his arm, gesturing for Katherine to go first.
Pippa followed at the rear as Katherine led the way around the back of the café to a side door.
The stairs leading up to the flat were void of carpet and the wallpaper lining the walls was peeling off. Katherine turned around to look at Declan and Pippa with a grimace. She continued up the stairs. Pippa noticed it smelled like stale air, but she didn’t detect any residual mould. That was a good sign, at least.
The door at the top of the stairs used to be white, but now it had yellowed with age. It opened into quite a spacious sitting room with two small curtainless windows letting in lots of light. This room was the full width of the building and had half the wallpaper scraped off, appearing as if someone had made a halfhearted attempt to re-decorate. The floor was also carpetless and there were a few floorboards missing and copper pipes exposed.
Katherine held her hand out. ‘Be careful. As you can see there are missing floorboards but I don’t know where they are. I think the previous owner must have thrown them away.’
Declan stepped past Katherine and turned his head from left to right as he surveyed the room. He turned back with an ecstatic grin. ‘That is no problem to fix.’ Declan turned to Pippa. ‘What do you think so far?’
Pippa nodded her head. ‘Spacious.’
