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Had been, he reminded himself, feeling the familiar swell of unhappiness that, through pure bad luck, Juno Lounge was no more. The furnishings and equipment had been auctioned off. The red-brick building was ornamented with the brewery’s ‘lease available’ sign and awaiting a new leaseholder when it could be reopened in a few months’ time to bring it back to life with chattering diners and laughing drinkers as it had been …
… before it failed.
It was no comfort that he hadn’t been at fault. Once a venue had no customers, it had no value. Juno Lounge had limped then staggered and, as a leaseholder, Isaac’s work had been cut out to wind it up fast enough to hang on to some of the money he’d made in the preceding six years.
He hadn’t hung on to Hayley but he wasn’t sure why he’d expected it. Hayley wasn’t into failure. Kindly but unequivocally she’d ended their relationship and he’d made no attempt to change her mind. When you were in trouble you saw people’s true colours and he hadn’t cared for hers.
She’d actually been the one to hear through the grapevine that a fill-in manager was needed at The Three Fishes and, apart from irritation that it had been her who found the temporary job for him and that it was at such a brass-and-beams pub, Isaac had been filled with relief. It was good to have money coming in and refreshing to be back in the countryside. His dad had been a tenant farmer and Isaac had loved his childhood spent on the fenland farm half an hour north of here between Cambridge and Spalding.
‘What do you think?’ The voice jolted him from his thoughts and back into the cosily traditional bar of The Three Fishes, where, he realised, Lily Cortez was on the other side of the counter smiling, palms upturned in a gesture that welcomed him to admire the fruits of her labour.
He closed the till and joined her to gaze at the strings of coloured lanterns looped jauntily along the beam above the bar, reflecting in every glass in the rack below. Tinsel spiralled around the thick wooden posts and the bar-top Christmas trees twinkled with a rainbow of baubles and lights. Santa ornaments dragged their toy sacks along wooden beams towards silver stars and golden bells and a thick swag of greenery twisted with tinsel festooned the mantelpiece above the open fire.
‘Great,’ he said. Last year, Juno Lounge had been artistically decorated with silver twigs and golden wire with red origami stars but that had been his place. This wasn’t. When you went in somewhere as relief manager you kept everything as the publican wanted. The homely decorations exactly suited The Three Fishes. He gave her a smile. ‘Very jolly and welcoming. Thanks for all your efforts.’ Her eyes were a clear blue, he noticed, like the reflection of the sky in a lake he’d once camped beside with Hayley in New Zealand – if you could count living in an upscale motorhome camping. Hayley liked the outdoor life only if she could also look after her nails, skin and hair.
Lily’s smile flashed, making those eyes sparkle. ‘It was fun.’
‘Thank your sister too,’ he remembered to tack on, though the sister had done little but give Lily a hard time about something, from what he’d heard. The alarm on his phone pinged to inform him it was six o’clock and he sent one last glance around the bar. ‘Perfect timing. I’ll open the doors.’
Lily and Vita were on duty with Isaac that evening. They worked together well, chatting to punters, drawing drinks, tapping orders into the now tinsel-bedecked till, smiling, moving around each other easily. Vita, large glasses glinting in the lights and brown hair in a poker-straight ponytail, had a few years on Lily who, he knew from her staff file, was thirty-six.
The bar was doing OK for a Thursday night, partly due to the darts team having a home match. Stools surrounded the dartboard area and the spectators cheered, groaned and exchanged banter. Isaac was returning to the bar after a foray to the beer cellar to check temperatures when he heard a male voice exclaim, ‘You gay girls get everywhere!’ followed by a cackle of laughter.
Turning, Isaac saw a red-faced late-thirties guy smirking at Lily, his over-bright eyes unfocused. Then, when he copped a freezing glance in return, he laughed. ‘C’mon, darlin’, it’s just a bit of fun.’
Coolly, Lily finished pulling a pint of bitter. ‘What’s funny? Lesbians in general? Or that I might be one?’
The red-faced man’s grin faded. ‘Don’t hop on your high horse. It’s only banter.’ He pronounced ‘banter’ as ‘ban-urr’.
Lily added the pint to the three already ranged on the bar before the man. ‘That’s £15.44, please.’ Unsmiling, she took his twenty-pound note.
Isaac watched the man ogling the curves beneath Lily’s black polo shirt as she tapped at the till. He could step in and suggest to the punter that he go easy on the bar staff or find somewhere else to drink but his rule was to allow his team to handle irksome customers themselves first. Unpleasant behaviour had occurred frequently at Juno Lounge but it was the first he’d witnessed at The Three Fishes.
The cluster around the dartboard cheered a good score as Lily dropped the change in the man’s hand as if reluctant to touch him. She turned to the next customer with a contrastingly warm smile. ‘Hiya, Gabe! How’s the menagerie?’
Gabe was an older man, easily recognisable by his silver ponytail and the smile that creased his face. Isaac already knew him as a regular with a smallholding that apparently provided a home for old and stray animals. ‘Eating me out of house and home,’ he complained with a broad grin that hinted he wasn’t really complaining. ‘Have you heard how Tubb is?’ Just about the whole village was worried about Tubb and shook their heads over how odd it was not to see him behind the bar at The Three Fishes.
While Lily chatted to him about Tubb apparently enjoying his sojourn in Switzerland, the red-faced customer gurned in her direction and – clutching the four pints – stumped back towards the zoo around the dartboard. Isaac watched as he said something to his cronies, leered at Lily and burst into a huge guffaw. His friends joined in the mirth.
Apart from a tinge of extra colour, Lily did nothing to acknowledge the guy acting like a dick.
Isaac decided to cover the dining area himself so neither Lily nor Vita had to run the gauntlet past the increasingly rowdy darts players. The red-faced guy soon became puce, his raucous laughter ringing around the room and grating on other customers, judging by how many were casting the oaf disenchanted looks before finishing up their drinks and pulling on their coats.
The next time the man broached the bar again he was positively weaving and the darts players were almost the only customers. Vita went to serve him but he waved her away. ‘I want Little Miss Lezzy to pull it for me.’ He burst into lewd, suggestive laughter.
Isaac, who’d been clearing plates, turned and headed for the bar. Lily, however, stepped fearlessly up to the man, only the bar counter between them. ‘I’m afraid I can’t serve you further alcohol this evening.’ She held his gaze for a moment, then turned away.
The man reached between the beer taps and grasped her arm. ‘Oy! Don’ you friggin’ walk away from me—’
Isaac was there in two strides but Lily had already broken the man’s grip. ‘You need to leave, sir,’ she snapped.
The man sneered. ‘I’ll leave when I’m good an’ ready.’
Lily seemed effortlessly composed. ‘My option is to call the police, sir. Two seconds to decide. One—’
‘Stop bein’ so up yourself.’ Red-faced man was looking decidedly ugly.
‘Two.’ Lily reached for the phone on the wall.
Standing behind the drunk and watching Lily handle it, Isaac saw the man’s friends pulling on their coats and scowling. ‘C’mon,’ one of them called. ‘Not worth it. Crappy little pub in the arse-end of nowhere. They’re welcome to it.’
Lily put the phone to her ear and her finger on the first button.
The red-faced guy shoved abruptly away from the bar. ‘Your beer’s piss anyway.’
The men clattered chairs over and harrumphed a few more insults but they did blunder out of the front door. In the silence left behind, Lily replaced the phone.
It was ten past ten and the bar was empty. Fantastic. At least the men had put plenty into the till before their behaviour cleared the place. ‘Vita, perhaps you could start collecting glasses?’ Isaac suggested, to give him a quiet moment with Lily. As Vita moved off, he turned to Lily, intending to check she was OK.
‘Sorry,’ she jumped in before he could speak. ‘I should have handled that without antagonising him. I let him get to me because I hate it when a woman turns down a date and the man says she must therefore be gay, especially when “gay” sounds like an insult.’ Her blue eyes were stormy. ‘It always touches me on the raw because Zinnia and I are from the kind of family with two mums and no dads. I thought I’d tell you because I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s easiest all round when people know.’ She tilted her head and waited for him to react.
Chapter Two
It was obvious Lily was at least half-expecting something negative from him. Isaac wondered how many people had hurt her on this subject over the years. ‘The whiff of homophobia is always unacceptable and I can see why the awkward customer wound you up particularly.’ He smiled. What she’d outlined wasn’t precisely a situation he’d encountered before but he didn’t see why he should treat this differently to any other personal topic a member of staff had chosen to bring up. ‘Are you OK? I thought you dealt with the offensive customer well.’
She shrugged. ‘He was nothing compared to drunken stags in Barcelona. My ex-husband’s family ran a bar just off Las Ramblas. Bar Barcelona was a big place, firmly on the map so far as stags and hens were concerned. It got rowdy and I learned to ignore most bad behaviour … but tonight I let that guy get to me.’
‘He was offensive,’ he repeated. ‘Your husband was Spanish?’ It explained her surname of Cortez.
‘Yes. We met when he was in the UK gaining some experience of hotels because his family was thinking about opening one. He tried to live here and pined for Spain, so I tried to live there.’ She gave a tiny quirk to her eyebrows. ‘I think I could have lived in a different part of Spain, or in a different way. But I never settled into the family business.’
‘Because your main job’s as a …’ He paused, groping for the title she’d given him before but unable to get past ‘exhibitionist’, which was a distracting thought and definitely not what she’d told him.
‘An exhibition designer,’ she completed for him. ‘I design stands for things like trade shows – functionality of the space, branding, display, that kind of stuff. But that wasn’t seen as more important than working in Bar Barcelona. Sergio’s brother Nando and his wife seemed happy to muck in and my wanting to pursue my own career caused friction.’
Isaac stepped to one side to allow Vita through with a stack of glasses. ‘And here you are working in a village pub so I guess you like bar work.’
She hesitated, glancing around at the brass and beams and the winking Christmas decorations. ‘It’s more that it’s where I seem to end up.’ As if that reminded her that she was supposed to be working she gave him a brief smile and swung off to the dining area to collect salt and pepper cellars to refill.
Vita bustled past for more glasses and soon as many closing jobs had been accomplished as practicable without them actually closing. Isaac sighed at the sight of the empty bar. ‘It’s not going to take three of us to finish up. One of you can take an early night.’
‘Vita can,’ Lily said, looking up from sorting sauce sachets into caddies. ‘Her kids get up at the break of dawn.’
Vita couldn’t hide a flash of relief though she said fairly, ‘Or we could flip a coin.’
Lily waved the idea away. ‘We can even things up another time.’
The other woman needed no further cajoling. She vanished into the back and soon came the sound of the outside door closing. Isaac checked the time. Ten thirty. He could easily have sent Lily off as well but this wasn’t his pub and he wanted to improve his feel for things. ‘Is it often as quiet as this?’
‘Never in all the time I’ve worked here.’ Lily rolled her eyes. ‘It was that obnoxious guy and his obnoxious mates. We almost never have aggro in The Three Fishes and it sent everyone home.’
He puffed out his cheeks in relief. ‘Good. I’d hate Mr Tubb to think I’m running his business into the ground.’ Though he wasn’t serious, saying the words out loud made his stomach give an unexpected lurch.
She stepped closer, frowning. ‘We must have taken enough in the early part of the evening to make up for the last hour being quiet.’
‘“Quiet” like the Marie Celeste?’ But he grinned. ‘You’re right.’ He was just going to make another joke, this time about the novelty of ringing ‘last orders’ in an empty pub, when the front door opened and a woman strolled in. Wearing her forty-something years easily on her tall and willowy frame, streaked brown hair tossed artfully around her face, she was all but hauled towards the bar by a large Dalmatian dog whose tail became a blur when he spotted Isaac.
‘Doggo!’ Isaac heard himself say stupidly.
Doggo whined ecstatically, ears back, his doggy grin a mile wide as he bounced and danced, giving a loud bark, obviously frustrated by the restraining lead. Isaac strode around the bar and crouched to fuss the excited canine, choosing to focus on the dog he’d lost along with everything else, rather than on the woman watching with an indulgent smile.
Hayley.
In a long cream woollen coat and high-heeled black boots she looked as polished as fine china. What the hell was his ex doing here? And why did it have to be now, when there wasn’t a single customer in the place? Frigging typical, he thought bitterly. In her eyes, it would make him look more of a loser than ever.
‘He’s pining for you so I thought I’d bring him over as a surprise. See how you were settling in.’ Hayley sounded as composed as if they’d last met yesterday rather than two months ago, when he’d moved out of her flat in Peterborough, a forty-minute drive away, and into his sister’s spare room in nearby Bettsbrough until taking up residence in one of the seldom-occupied guest rooms upstairs a couple of weeks ago. Hayley glanced around the deserted bar. ‘Have you had a bomb alert or something?’ First she looked astonished and then, to his disgust, compassionate.
‘Aggro,’ he said briefly, still stroking Doggo, whose eyes were so much easier to meet. ‘Boys who can’t hold their beer. Locals cleared out when it kicked off.’
‘Ah.’ Then she said pleasantly, ‘Hello. I’m Hayley.’
Isaac heard Lily’s voice reply, ‘Hi. I’m Lily.’ Her footsteps came around the bar and then her legs, clad in black super skinny jeans, passed Isaac. Doggo gave her a glance and a tail wag. She said, ‘Lovely dog,’ then moved into the dining area and busied herself replacing the recharged condiment caddies.
Reluctantly, Isaac realised he was going to have to interact with Hayley because she was still standing on the red-patterned carpet of the bar, quite obviously waiting for him to finish his love-in with Doggo. Rising, he brushed off his trousers and gave Hayley a bland smile. ‘Drink?’ He strode back behind the bar.
‘Great.’ She slid onto a bar stool. ‘What do you have in red?’
‘Sangiovese?’ he suggested, knowing her predilection for Italian wines, and took down two glasses. Then, on impulse, ‘Fancy joining us, Lily?’ He was not in the mood for a tête-à-tête in the presence of staff, even if he carried Hayley off to a distant corner.
Lily looked startled. ‘Um, oh. Thanks.’ Diffidently, she joined them.
Though surprise flickered in Hayley’s expression she smiled courteously at Lily, who took the wine glass Isaac pushed across to her.
Isaac cast around for a subject that would involve a conversation long enough for the wine to be drunk and take them up to closing time. He hit on what had been a subject of much chatter on both sides of the bar since he’d arrived. ‘Lily’s going over to Switzerland in December to do something for Mr Tubb. Aren’t you, Lily?’
Lily took another sip from the dark red wine looking slightly ambushed. ‘Tubb’s brother Garrick and Janice’s son Max, really. They work for British Country Foods, which sells traditional British bakery products and conserves. I’ve designed their stands for the Zürich Food, Lifestyle & Health show and a Christmas fair in Schützenberg. The company’s sponsoring a group of us – the Middletones – to go over to sing at the events and lend an air of Britishness to things.’ Doggo squeezed round Hayley’s bar stool to approach Lily with his doggie smile and she smoothed his head and scratched him behind his ears.
Hayley was too polished to give any sign whether she found the conversation odd or uninteresting. ‘Are you driving or flying to Switzerland? We used to drive all over Europe.’
Lily glanced between Hayley and Isaac but didn’t ask who ‘we’ was made up of. ‘We’re driving through France. We could’ve flown to Zürich but there are nine of us and we’ll need transport while we’re there, especially for the keyboard, guitar and PA system. Our local performing arts college is hiring us its minibus as four of its students are involved. And a road trip will be an adventure. I’ve been practising driving and parking it in the grounds of the college with the site supervisor.’ She’d told Isaac she’d been pleasantly surprised that turning a corner hadn’t been like wrestling a bear as she’d suspected it might be.
‘It sounds great.’ Isaac made sure he was watching Hayley’s face when he added, ‘I hope to be driving in Europe again soon. When Mr Tubb comes back I’m taking instructor courses in survival training and outdoor education, one of them being in France. I also intend to work abroad when my training’s complete.’
Hayley’s gaze flew to his. ‘A complete career change?’
Isaac felt a sense of satisfaction that she looked a touch thrown. ‘One I’m more than ready for,’ he replied smoothly.
After more similarly stilted conversation, the last minutes of opening hours ground past and Isaac was able to lock the doors, shooting the brass bolts on the heavy wooden door. He smiled at Lily. ‘If you could just set the washer going I’ll empty it and clean the filters after I’ve cashed up. You get off home.’
‘If you’re sure.’ Lily looked relieved. She grabbed their wine glasses, said goodnight and slipped behind the bar. A few moments later Isaac heard her hurrying footsteps and the sound of the back door.
He planted his elbows on the bar and sent Hayley a level look. ‘Now, suppose you tell me what you’re doing here?’
Her neat eyebrows lifted. ‘You don’t sound pleased to see me.’
He shrugged, never removing his eyes from hers. ‘I didn’t think we’d left things in such a way that either of us anticipated seeing the other, so I don’t know how to feel.’
She had the grace to look uncomfortable as she fiddled with Doggo’s lead. ‘I didn’t know you intended to leave the country.’
‘Why shouldn’t I?’ he said, straightening, pulling off his tie and unbuttoning his collar. ‘Surely, after the last painful months, when you ended things by admitting the failure of the Juno lessened me in your eyes, you’re not disappointed I’m going? You know I like the outdoors. I grew up on a farm and living in the city never stopped me loving the country.’ He’d been with this woman for several years and sometimes he thought he barely knew her.
Seconds ticked past. Hayley frowned and seemed to struggle with her thoughts. Then she sighed. ‘I came to ask if you’d take Doggo.’
He did a double take. ‘When we talked about it when we broke up you wouldn’t hear of it.’
She shrugged without meeting his eyes. ‘The dog walker’s moving away and I thought that as you were living in a village he’d be happy here.’ She paused. ‘If you can’t have him, I’ll have to rehome him—’
‘You can’t get rid of him like an out-of-season coat!’ Isaac interrupted, outraged. How could she stand to think of Doggo’s sadness and bewilderment at finding himself in a strange home with strange humans or, worse, in some kind of rescue centre? They’d bought him as a puppy four years ago and he’d never known other owners. He made an instant decision. ‘OK, I’ll have him. The pub’s dog-friendly.’ He thought about taking walks every day with Doggo and his heart lifted as if catching a wave. He didn’t know how Tubb would feel about a dog living in the pub accommodation but he’d pay for a steam clean or something when he left. The idea of having big, boisterous, joyful, loving Doggo back in his life was such a bonus.
It hadn’t been appropriate to fight Hayley for him before because not only had his immediate future been uncertain but he’d been staying with his sister Flora, and Jasmine, Flora’s youngest, was allergic to pet fur. When he’d moved to The Three Fishes, Doggo had still been living happily at Hayley’s city centre penthouse with a terrace and views of the cathedral.
‘What about your new life in Europe?’ she asked doubtfully.
‘He has a pet passport.’ Isaac refused to dwell on the fact that he literally didn’t know where his life would take him after the instructor courses.
After a few moments, she nodded. ‘OK then. I have his things in the car.’
They went out together to her Audi and Isaac took possession of Doggo’s bed, sack of food, bowls, toys, travel crate and spare lead. Helpfully, Doggo tried to grab a tug o’war toy, tail whipping madly, and Isaac almost went headlong over him. ‘Idiot,’ Isaac said fondly. When the canine possessions had been transported to the area just inside the back door, Isaac took Doggo’s lead.
Hayley gave it up without demur but took a moment to gaze up at Isaac. A tiny smile touched the corners of her mouth. ‘Lily seems nice.’ Her voice lifted at the end of the sentence as if it were a question rather than a statement.
His hand tightened on the loop of the lead, making Doggo fidget and look up as if feeling the tension vibrate all the way to his harness. ‘Lily is young and uber-attractive,’ he said, equally irritated whether Hayley was fishing for information or giving him a hint as to how to interact with staff. ‘But you know I have a perfectly good code of conduct with co-workers. I waited until I’d left the casino to ask you out. I’m not in need of coaching.’ In fact, their time at the casino hadn’t overlapped by much. He’d been in the throes of buying the lease of the Juno when the chain had brought Hayley in as general manager, a hotshot they’d poached from another group. He’d admired her: so good at her job, so groomed, it had been a no-brainer to ask her out once he could.
Hayley flushed. ‘Then I’ll butt out,’ she said stiffly. She took a step back and he wondered whether it was from his rebuff or from the word ‘young’, which he was a little ashamed of now he’d said it. At nine years older than him Hayley had always been defensive about her age. She crouched down and slid her arms around Doggo, stroking the top of his head with her cheek. ‘Be good for Isaac,’ she whispered. Doggo tried to lick her face so she straightened up, said goodnight and stepped smartly towards her car.
Isaac watched her drive away, mentally apologising to Lily for using her to show Hayley that she’d lost the right to comment on his life. Then he looked down at Doggo and murmured, ‘But Lily is uber-attractive.’
Doggo wagged his tail as if to agree. Isaac sometimes thought Doggo was an old soul. His eyes were wise even if he still acted like a puppy.
Chapter Three
On Saturday morning Lily stretched and yawned in the compact comfort of the apartment in Carola’s basement, peeking through the curtains at frost sparkling on the shrubs and turning every twig to etched glass. The apartment had once been Carola’s ex-husband’s den and movie room. By the time Lily had come to Middledip assuming she’d stay for a week or so it was an Airbnb. Now she’d lived in it for two years and it was her home.