Page 31 of Whispers from the Past

‘Haven’t seen you round much lately, would be lovely to catch up properly.’ He squeezed her hand gently.

She looked up at him, trying to see what Holly saw.

‘I’ve just been super busy getting things set up in the bookshop,’ she said as she moved her hand away to push the hamper further on to the table.

‘Rose, I…’

Tony was interrupted by Luke chatting with a few of regulars as the group made their way into the pub.

‘Sorry Tony. I’m Holly until she gets back behind the bar, so…duty calls,’ she apologised, whilst secretly happy for the excuse to put a couple of feet of wooden bar top between them.

‘Two pints of IPA please,’ Luke asked, taking a seat next to Tony. The two men smiled at each other as Rose busied herself at the taps. She glanced over at the two men - one who seemed to bristle at every contact they’d had recently, and the other who gushed with attention towards her. It would be so easy if she just liked Tony like that. She pushed the thought away though, and threw herself into the task at hand.

An hour later, Holly descended the stairs with the baby monitor in hand. ‘I thought she’d never go to sleep,’ she breathed out, exhausted. Rose handed her a glass of wine and laughed. With Holly there, the raffle got underway. Along with the prizes Rose and Eleanor had secured, there were another ten up for grabs. Mr Carmichael from the Post Office took the helm and before long there were only four prizes left.

‘The first of the two llama walks, goes to ticket no. 262. Luke Loxley,’ he announced to a round of applause. ‘And the second winner is ticket no. 57. Rose Brayling.’ Another round of applause. Rose looked for Luke across the pub and found him staring straight back at her. She couldn’t deny the flutters in her stomach. Finding his gaze too much, she looked back to Mr Carmichael as he called the winner for the swimming lessons.

‘The winner of ten swimming lessons is ticket no. 1034. Holly Loxley.’ This announcement brought applause and a muffled scream from Holly, who looked horrified. ‘And the last prize of the night - dinner, bed and breakfast at Harris Hall, goes to ticket no. 947. Tony Barrett.’

‘FIX!’ someone shouted from the back of the pub, which drew peels of laughter from those sitting around Tony.

‘So, a llama walk?’ Rose jumped a little at Luke’s voice. She hadn’t noticed him come and sit beside her.

‘Yes, it’ll certainly be an experience,’ she laughed.

Luke was about to say something else when Tony interrupted him ‘Rose, can I talk to you for a minute?’ Luke sighed and pushed up from his seat. She felt the loss before it had actually happened. She turned to smile at Tony, trying to mask her disappointment at Luke leaving.

‘You’ll come with me?’ he asked.

‘Come with you?’

‘To Harris Hall. I couldn’t go without you - it wouldn’t be right. And, and I’d like to take you. I enjoy spending time with you, Rose.’

And she was going to make an excuse. But she couldn’t do it to him. Granted, he wasn’t wearing a vintage Jurassic Park t-shirt, but he had the same excited look on his face as Holly had last week. So instead she said ‘Count me in.’

‘Great! I’ll find out when they can fit us in and let you know’.

Later that night, curled up in bed with Edmond again, her phone pinged beside her with a message from Tony.

Free next Thursday night? Harris Hall have had a cancellation.

Rose did a quick mental calendar check of the week ahead before replying.

Let’s do it!

Great! I’ll pick you up at 6:30 x

See you then 😊

It had taken her much longer than necessary to reply to his last message, and all because she couldn’t decide between a full stop at the end or a kiss. She tried putting a kiss on the end, and it didn’t feel right. But a full stop didn’t feel right either. So after going back and forth between the two she opted for the universally safe smiley face instead. This would be a good thing, she told herself. She liked Tony and a meal in a fancy hotel would be lovely. Her phone pinged again. She glanced at it, expecting it to be Tony, but she was surprised to see that this message was from Luke.

Well done tonight. The raffle was a big success. Holly just told me it raised nearly £2000.

Wow! That’s great.

And we got a llama walk out of it.

Aren’t we the lucky ones?