Never the Bride (Dilbury Village #1)

by Charlotte Fallowfield

  I woke up with a start, bolting upright with a groan as I heard someone knocking on the front door. Damn it. My head was banging, I had crusty drool down the side of my face, and my hair was all matted. I tried to comb my fingers through it and pulled out some twigs and leaves. What the hell? The door was banged again, and I swung my legs off the bed as I fumbled for the lamp switch.

  I squinted when it came on, and my alarm clock told me it was six a.m. Who was knocking on my door at six a.m.? And why was I dressed in Miller’s black shirt, with itchy welts on my legs and neck? I lifted one of my butt cheeks and gave it a scratch, feeling some lumps and bumps on there too. I staggered to check my appearance in the mirror and groaned. I’d scratched my neck so much, it had bruised and looked like I had a huge hickey.

  ‘Ok, ok, I’m coming,’ I muttered as the impatient person outside continued to knock. I staggered out to the top of the stairs and focussed my eyes on going down them carefully, grateful to make the halfway landing in one piece. I was already aching all over and I had no idea why. I turned and headed down the last set of stairs, and gasped as I made it down just in time to see Heath, dressed only in a pair of black boxer shorts, falling backwards to land on the hall floor with a thud. Framed in the top section of the open stable door was a furious-looking Miller, who was shaking his fist.

  ‘So, I guess it didn’t take long to get over me, huh?’ Miller said angrily as he glowered at me, his dark brown eyes mesmerising me like they always did.

  ‘What? Huh? What?’ I stuttered, reaching up to rub my eyes, not entirely sure what was going on. No matter that my heart had leaped and started skipping joyfully just to have him back here in Dilbury again, whatever mood he was in. I’d missed him so much, but nothing right now made sense. ‘Am I dreaming? Why are you here and what the hell is a half-naked Heath doing on my hall floor?’

  ‘No, you’re not dreaming, Abbie, but I sure as hell wish I was right now. How could you do this?’

  ‘Do what? I’ve no idea what’s going on,’ I cried, my eyes darting between the two men. Heath was just lying on the floor, completely stunned, while the anger in Miller’s eyes seemed to be mixed with confusion and hurt.

  ‘I waited, Abbie. I waited for you to contact me to say you’d made a mistake the day you broke up with me, but nothing. So here I am, chasing you, again, something I never do. Well, I guess I was a fool for thinking you’d be sitting here missing me. I hope you and … your new guy will be very happy.’

  ‘My new guy? I don’t have a new guy.’

  ‘Next you’ll be saying that that isn’t a hickey on your neck. Don’t make things worse by lying, Abbie. I’ve spent the last month regretting how things ended with us, missing you, and it looks like you just went out and got yourself someone else without a second glance in the rearview mirror.’

  ‘I didn’t!’ I protested, as I looked down at Heath. He let out a groan and reached up to rub his cheek, which had a big red mark on it. Oh God. Flashes of the night started coming back to me. The meal, the pub, the fence breaking, drinking in the lounge, me falling over, then Heath helping me upstairs, taking off Miller’s shirt, and dressing me in it for bed. He must have gone to sleep on the sofa and answered the door when Miller knocked. ‘Oh God, Heath, are you ok?’

  ‘Hmmm,’ he groaned, blinking his eyes as he started to come out of his daze.

  ‘Did you punch him?’ I gasped, dropping to my knees to check Heath’s face and make sure he didn’t have a concussion. Sumo waddled in and started grumbling in the background, as confused as I was at all the commotion this early in the morning. ‘Miller, did you punch him?’ I demanded as I looked back up at the door, only to find there was no one there.

  ‘I’m fine, go after him,’ Heath mumbled, trying to sit himself up.

  ‘Miller!’ I shouted as I bolted out of the front door. He was getting into his car, which was parked on the drive right next to Heath’s van, which was hardly incognito as it had his name and number all over the side. Damn it! No wonder Miller was angry. It really wasn’t looking good at all, despite nothing having happened. ‘Wait! It’s not what it looks like,’ I cried as I shot through the side gate and he started to reverse.

  He gave me a sad look, a look that told me that he still loved me every bit as much as I did him, which only confused me more. Why hadn’t he fought for us last month if he felt that way about me? He shook his head as he reversed into the lane and turned to head up it, so I ran out and slammed my hands on the bonnet. Ha, he wasn’t going anywhere unless he wanted to run me over.

  Oh God, what if he was so angry he ploughed me down in a fit of jealous lover’s rage? I held his gaze as I tried to make up my mind about whether to stand my ground or let him go. I was standing in the lane in just a shirt, with the largest looking love bite on my neck, blocking my furious ex from leaving, while Heath was hanging over the bottom half of the stable door looking like he was naked, and Sumo was uncharacteristically barking his head off. Those damn ramblers better not be having a dawn walk, or I really was going to be village gossip this morning.

  ‘Move, Abbie,’ Miller growled out of the window.

  ‘No! You came back, you came back for a reason, and I don’t want you to go. I’m seriously confused and hungover right now, but please stay and we can talk.’

  ‘I’m too angry to talk, Abbie, and I might say something I’ll regret, something we can’t come back from. And I can’t come back while he’s there or I’m likely to kill him.’

  ‘Nothing happened, I promise. He looked after me while I was drunk, I fell in stinging nettles, which is why I’ve been scratching my neck, and he put me to bed. He must have slept on the sofa as I woke up alone when you started banging on the door. Please, Miller. I’m hungover, tired, and tearful. Don’t make me worse by leaving me again.’

  ‘Abbie,’ he sighed, rubbing a hand over his eyes. I felt myself quiver to hear my name in his accent. He still affected me so badly. ‘I was impulsive turning up like this. I want to believe you, but I didn’t think this through. I think I should leave and get my head on straight before I come back to see you.’

  ‘You promise to come back?’ I asked, with a heavy sigh of resignation. Much as I wanted him to stay, it was rude to kick Heath out through no fault of his own. I didn’t want to risk another testosterone display, and I was feeling too ill to have, potentially, one of the most important discussions of my life.

  ‘If you promise to give me time, yes,’ he nodded, his fingers flexing around the steering wheel. The fact that he’d kept his car, and obviously the hanger he’d purchased in Welshpool, gave me hope that he really hadn’t walked away with the intention of us being over for good.

  ‘Ok,’ I said quietly. I straightened up and moved out of his way, cursing as I remembered I was barefoot on the gravel, the little stones biting at my bare soles. I hopped over to the safety of my block-paved drive. ‘Don’t make me wait too long.’

  He gave me a pained, tight-lipped smile and slowly edged forwards as I stood and watched him disappear around the corner of the lane. The only consolation compared to the last time he left was that he looked back. That had to be a good sign.

  ‘It all happens in Dilbury,’ Heath stated as he opened the lower half of the door for me while holding an irate Sumo back by his collar. ‘Are you ok?’

  ‘No. You?’

  ‘I’ll live. I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have answered the door, not dressed, or undressed, like this anyway.’

  ‘It’s not your fault. We couldn’t have known he was coming back. Right, I need caffeine and something to soak up the alcohol, and I’ll get one of those unused steaks for your cheek or it’s going to bruise.’

  ‘I’ll go pull my jeans on. I don’t suppose you have a t-shirt I could borrow?’

  ‘Sure, I’ll root one out. It will be a snug fit, mind,’ I warned him.

  ‘Oh my God. What the hell’s going on?’ came Georgie’s shocked voice.

  ‘Georgie?’ I spun around to see her
coming up the path, still dressed in her fleecy Dalmatian onesie she wore to bed sometimes, complete with hood and tiny ears, which made me giggle.

  ‘Morning, Heath. Wow, someone doesn’t need to use the gym, do they?’ she purred, as she stepped into the open doorway and looked him up and down. His cheeks flamed and he hurried into the lounge, taking Sumo with him and shutting the door.

  ‘What are you doing here?’ I demanded. ‘And dressed like that?’

  ‘Please, a lover’s quarrel and you think I was going to miss all of the action? Daphne woke me up by ringing me to say all hell had broken loose over here. Miller woke her up hammering on your door, so she was watching through the window and rang me to get here as soon as possible. I already knew Heath was here, with that van parked on your drive when I came home last night. Talk about village drama. What on earth’s going on?’

  ‘Long story. I’m putting the kettle on and making bacon sandwiches, you in?’

  ‘Hell yes,’ she agreed. ‘And I have the worst date ever to fill you in on as well.’

  ‘Room for one more?’ came Daphne’s voice as she hobbled up the path.

  ‘Don’t tell me, you want the gossip and to fill us in on your date, too?’ I laughed, then winced and clutched my sore head.

  ‘Well, of course. If I wasn’t so slow getting down the stairs, I’d have beaten Georgie here. Oh look, an ambulance is coming down the lane. Is Heath badly hurt?’

  ‘No,’ I reassured her. ‘He’s fine, just a bruised cheek and jaw. That must be Charlie coming home. She fell down the stairs last night and had to go to the hospital. Go and stop them, Georgie, she can join us for breakfast, too.’

  ‘I’m dressed in a Dalmatian suit!’ she protested.

  ‘Well, I’m only in a shirt, with a suspicious-looking hickey on my neck.’

  ‘I wasn’t going to comment,’ Daphne stated with a disapproving look at me. ‘And don’t look at me, the ambulance will be back in Shrewsbury by the time I make it back up the garden path.’

  ‘Fine, I’ll go, but you so owe me,’ Georgie grumbled. She raced up the path and out through the gate, jumping into the lane with her pink padded paws in the air, which made Daphne and me laugh.

  ‘She’ll give the paramedics a heart attack,’ I giggled.

  ‘And he’ll give me one. Heath Jones, put some clothes on, for goodness sake!’ Daphne scolded her nephew as he appeared buttoning up his jeans.

  ‘Sorry, Auntie Daphne, it’s not what it looks like, honestly,’ he mumbled, his cheeks flushing as Sumo scuttled past him to go and put his nose out of the door to see what was going on.

  ‘I should hope not!’ she stated with a disapproving glare.

  ‘Come on up, Heath, we’ll find a t-shirt for you before your aunt passes out from seeing what a six-pack looks like. Then again, she did go on a date with Mr. Bentley last night, maybe she already got an eyeful,’ I teased.

  ‘Be gone with you,’ she scoffed with a flick of her wrist. ‘I’m going to put the kettle on. I’ve got a feeling it’s going to be a long morning with all of these stories to share.’

  Heath came up to my room and I pulled out a selection of my largest t-shirts for him to try, then I grabbed myself some headache tablets from the bathroom before rushing back down. The front door was shut and I could hear excited voices in the kitchen. I needed coffee. This was all too much at this hour in the morning.

  ‘Charlie, are you ok?’ I gasped. She was sitting at the dining table with Daphne and Georgie, her hand in a plaster cast and a purple bruise on her face.

  ‘You should see the other guy!’ she teased, then flashed me a wink.

  ‘Is it broken?’

  ‘It was too swollen to be sure if it was fractured, so I’ll have to wear this for a while, but enough of the injury talk. I think I’m in love,’ she stated with a wide grin. ‘I met the hottest doctor ever at Accident and Emergency.’

  ‘Tyler Jackson,’ Georgie and I sighed at once, thinking of the gorgeous blue-eyed stud of the town who had treated Georgie when she got a dog bite after trying to extract her leg from the clutches of an over-amorous Yorkshire Terrier last year.

  ‘Who’s Tyler Jackson?’ Charlie said, looking confused. ‘This was Dr. Fitton, and my God, he really was a fit one. If I hadn’t got my hand in this damn cast, I’d be tapping out a whole new “sexy ER doctor” novel about him on my MacBook right now!’

  ‘Damn it,’ I moaned, as I gathered five mugs from the shelf and set them on the kitchen island. ‘I was going to set you up with Heath, the gardener, Daphne’s nephew.’

  ‘Oh, Charlie, he’s looking super hot today, all buff and toned,’ Georgie nodded, her little ears flapping with the motion. ‘Sorry, Daphne, is this grossing you out?’

  ‘No, but that is,’ she retorted, pointing towards the kitchen door. We all looked over and our mouths dropped. Poor Heath was standing there with a defeated look on his face, my black t-shirt straining around his toned biceps, his midriff completely exposed, and the words “Textually Active” in silver stretched across his broad chest.

  ‘I swear, if you breathe a word of this, I’ll make up gossip about you all and feed it to Sheila Vickers,’ he warned with a pointed finger as we all burst out laughing.

  I made the coffees, humming to myself. Life wasn’t so bad. I had my friends, and Miller was going to come back to talk about where we went from here. And I still had Sumo, who’d been far more loving towards me since Miller had left last month.

  ‘Ok, boy, you’re next,’ I told him as he looked from me to his food bowl and back again. He wiggled his butt and shook his head, making me scream as he covered me in globs of slobber that went flying from his slack jowls, then everyone groaned and covered their mouths as his bottom let rip.

  ‘Sumo!’ came a chorus of voices.

  Chapter Eleven

  A Dog Named Mr. Sumo

  March

  I STOOD SHIVERING IN the back garden and watched him ride the train around a few times as he sniffed the air, letting out the odd bark when he saw any movement of birds in the bushes. I was so glad he’d asked to come out. He’d been lethargic again the last few days and completely off his food. I’d been on the verge of taking him to the vet, which I was dreading doing in case they told me it was time to let him go, but it was like he’d got a second wind under him today. He’d eaten four helpings of food already and had been out here for much longer than normal.

  ‘Ok, Chubbers, I think that’s enough now,’ I warned as he chugged past me towards the train stop by the utility door.

  He’d lost so much weight that Daphne had had to knit him some new smaller jumpers, but even with the thick red one he was wearing today, I was worried he’d be cold, as it was quite fresh and nippy. I giggled as I looked at him. He looked like some kind of canine bank robber. His jumper came complete with its own form of balaclava that only left his muzzle and eyes uncovered, along with holes for his ears to stick out of.

  ‘You monkey,’ I gasped as he firmly patted the go button and started another circuit. He let his pink tongue flop out as he looked back at me smugly, almost as if he was sticking it out at me in a “screw you” gesture. ‘Damn it,’ I muttered as I heard the phone ring.

  My eyes darted from the back door to where he was enjoying his ride, then down the lawn to the locked back gate. It wasn’t like he could go anywhere. I bolted for the door and swiped the phone off the kitchen island.

  ‘Has he called?’ Georgie asked, full of anticipation.

  ‘No,’ I sighed, flopping down on a stool. It had been three weeks since that disaster of a Valentine’s night, when Miller had left the morning after and promised to come back. I’d done as he’d asked and given him some space, but I was beginning to wonder if he’d really meant it or if it was just an excuse to get away.

  ‘I’m going to throttle him when I next see him,’ Georgie growled. ‘Right, put the kettle on. I’m coming over to cheer you up.’

  ‘There’s no need,’ I said feebly, hopi
ng she’d see through my pathetic attempts to pretend I was ok.

  ‘There is, for you and for me. Arsehole just messaged to say he’s on his way as “he wants to talk.” Unless he’s planning on talking to my fist, I have nothing more to say to him.’

  ‘Greg’s coming over?’ I uttered, full of surprise. She hadn’t heard from him since she’d kicked him out well over a year ago.

  ‘Mmmm-hmmm,’ she confirmed. ‘So I’m coming to you via the back gate, along with his suitcase of precious first edition comic books, which he left behind in his rush to be with the Dilbury hussy. I’m going to open it, take them all out of their plastic wrappers, then hold Sumo over them so he can drop his stinky load all over his treasured possessions.’

  ‘Sumo doesn’t poo on demand, Georgie,’ I reminded her. ‘His bowels seem to have a life of their own, but he has wolfed down about four days’ worth of breakfast this morning, so I’m sure there’s going to be a mega-blast anytime soon. Speaking of, I can feel my breakfast rumbling. See you in a minute.’

  I looked through the glass of the French doors to see he was still happily circling the large back garden, and dashed to the utility toilet.

  ‘Hello,’ called Georgie about five minutes later.

  ‘Put the kettle on,’ I yelled from my perch on the toilet. Nothing was happening, but each time I thought I was done and stood up, I had to sit back down again. ‘I’m not feeling so great. We have a slight upset tummy situation going on, cramps and everything.’

  ‘I told you that reheating rice was a dangerous pastime,’ she called back.

  ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah. Is my boy ok?’

  ‘I don’t know. Do you want me to go and check on him in the lounge?’

  ‘He’s not there. He’s riding the Sumo Express around the garden, refusing to come in.’

  ‘Not when I came in, it was parked at your dad’s station.’

  ‘Really? Not up at the house?’

  ‘No, I thought it was odd, too. Not like him to walk anywhere unless he has to. He must have got confused and got off a stop early. I’ll go and check the lounge for you. Kettle’s on, don’t be long.’