The smell of food wafted through the kitchen door as he passed it, and he hoped he would be able to concentrate, after once again not finding the time to eat lunch.
Expecting to see just Jack, Christine, Pippa and Oliver when he walked into the pool room, Marcus’s eyes bugged out when he saw the large turnout.
Christine had also brought along Tom, and next to Tom was Ned and Mrs Calloway. Marcus nearly did a double-take when he saw her.
Tammy waved. ‘Declan and Morgan want to come to the next meeting if there is one, but they are working the kitchen this evening.’
Marcus nodded. ‘Fantastic.’
Pippa quickly added, ‘We will have to join them shortly though, Marcus, as you can see, this is not a normal Tuesday evening for us at the pub.’
Marcus shrugged, ‘Of course, I appreciate you making the effort after seeing how busy it is out there.’
Reverend Townsend dipped his head in greeting before taking a long drink of Guinness.
Marcus moved his eyes to the next face, framed by a shock of blonde hair. Veronica was there. She held her hand up in greeting. ‘Hi, I don’t actually own a dog, and I’m also only here for about twenty minutes, as I have a tour starting soon, but I’m usually good with ideas, so I thought I’d come.’
Marcus didn’t miss the rolling of Pippa’s eyes. Did they have history?
He felt his body deflate when he realised Rowan’s face wasn’t amongst them, but he quickly regained his composure.
‘Wow. I’m bowled over. Thank you all for turning up at such short notice to this informal meeting. But before we begin...’ Marcus held up a finger, while he took a long drink of his pint.
‘Steady on there, Marcus,’ Jack laughed, ‘No one’s going to take it off you.’
Marcus almost spurted his beer out at Jack’s witty comment. ‘I need a bit of Dutch courage, Jack, although this pint might just go to my head, I’ve only had a piece of toast so far today,’ he shrugged, ‘much too busy... I digress. Anyway, this is a first for me. I’m waaaay out of my comfort zone... In fact, I’m more comfortable clearing out canine anal glands than this.’
The group burst out laughing.
‘Joking aside, as I said, I’m over the moon at the turnout. As you are now aware, I’ve offered to take over the dog competition this year on behalf of Pippa and Oliver.’
A small applaud erupted. ‘Good on you, lad,’ said Ned. ‘you might not have been part of the Seagull Bay community for long, but you have earned all your boy scout badges in one go.’
Marcus chuckled. ‘If that’s a weird kind of compliment, Ned, then I’ll take it.’
Ned smiled and nodded.
‘Okay, then let’s get to it.’
Pippa stood up and offered a stack of paperwork to Marcus.
‘Hey, be careful, honey. You should have letmepass that over to Marcus,’ Oliver fussed, holding onto Pippa’s arm as she lowered back into her seat.
‘I’m fine, Ollie. Stop fussing. I’m pregnant, not poorly.’
Marcus took the paperwork. ‘Thank you. I’ll look through this later.’
Christine stood up. ‘Can I just say this.’ Everyone’s eyes turned her way. ‘Marcus has done a very commendable job taking on the organisation and hosting of this year’s dog competition, but with Georgina ill at the moment, and with all the extra bookings as residents prepare their pets for the competition, Marcus has a lot on his plate. So if we can all chip inand help out, I’m sure the competition will be just as successful as last year.’
Marcus was grateful for Christine’s verbal support, but it was all good and well Christine fighting his corner, but he didn’t want Pippa thinking he’d regretted offering to help. He glanced Pippa’s way. Thankfully, she was nodding, no look of horror on her face.
‘Quite right,’ said the reverend, ‘it’s wonderful when the community rallies around.’ He looked at Marcus. ‘So what is it you want us to do?’
Marcus rubbed the back of his neck. ‘Well, for starters, how about suggestions. Like the suggestion Jack has made to me about having stalls.’ Marcus looked Jack’s way. ‘It’s a coastal safety one you want to procure, isn’t it, Jack?’
Jack nodded.’ Yes it is. People need to understand the times of the tides. We still have to rescue people on a monthly basis, when they go to the cove in search of the smugglers treasure, not realising there is only a small window of time before the sea cuts them off.’
‘I can supply the wood for the stalls,’ piped up Tom, ‘I have plenty of off-cuts from when I worked with a team of carpenters on a previous contract.’
