Page 34 of Meet me at the Seaside Cottages

His gaze unavoidably strays to the small pink wellingtons parked by the front steps and Janey tries not to notice.

‘Why?’ He looks concerned, and Janey realises he thinks she’s about to tell him she’s run over it.

‘Good news!’ she says, quickly.

‘What?’

‘You’re . . . a dog grandfather!’

‘I’m a—?’

‘Your dog’s had puppies!’ She smiles, hopefully. ‘It’s amazing!’

17

Lowell heads back into the house and grabs a waxed jacket to follow them down into town. Janey is glad about this. Okay, he’s a bit of a weirdo who treats her like a crazed stalker, but at least he didn’t say,oh, who cares, or,let Jack Meakin handle it(she doesn’t want to have to explain exactly how Jack Meakin would handle it) or,I’m busy right now. He just grabs his coat.

‘How did you . . . ?’

‘We were having a look at the Seagate cottages. She was in there.’

He shakes his head. ‘Must have gone looking for a quiet spot. Oh, poor Felicity. I should never have let her go to Jack’s.’

‘Why did you?’ asks Janey, curious.

He glances at her quickly. ‘It was a bad . . . ’ He checks himself, as if he doesn’t want to talk in euphemisms any more. ‘My marriage broke up, if you must know,’ he says, quite shortly. It sounds to Janey like the kind of thing a therapist would have told him to be more upfront about.

‘I’m sorry,’ she says.

‘And I had to work, and it didn’t seem fair on Felicity. She couldn’t go with . . . well, anyway. So Jack offered to take her for a bit, he’s always had a bit of a soft spot for her . . . well, I thought he had.’

He sighs.

‘The divorce, obviously,’ he says, carrying on, ‘had a terrible effect on Felicity as well as everyone else in this family. Do you think she was acting out?’

Janey frowns. ‘I think she was doing what dogs do,’ she says. ‘And I think you were very irresponsible not getting her fixed if you didn’t want this to happen.’

He sighs a little. ‘I always . . . I always thought we might have a litter from her. She’s such a beautiful dog, and wolfhound pups are worth their weight in gold.’

Janey smiles tightly. ‘Not necessarily these pups, I don’t think,’ she says. ‘Didn’t you see she was missing, on the local Facebook group?’

He looks at her with a hunted expression. ‘You’re on the local Facebook group?’ he says with some fear in his voice. To be fair, the local Facebook group has a lot to say on . . . well, pretty much everything.

‘My mum did the birth,’ says Essie unexpectedly, coming up from the garden, and Lowell looks up.

‘You did?’

Janey shrugs.

‘I thought you were an ear specialist.’

‘Turns out when you’re used to sticking your hands in awkward parts of anatomy, it starts to feel quite normal,’ says Janey, and instantly wishes she hadn’t when she sees his face. She realises that one of the freedoms of getting older – being able to say whatever you like – isn’t always ideal. Just because you can, it doesn’t always mean you should.

‘Well, thank you,’ he says. ‘I think.’

*

They reach the Seagate cottages. By now word has got around, and there is a small clutch of children on their way home fromschool, hanging about on the off-chance that they might get to see some puppies. Jack Meakin is standing outside with a face like fizz, as if he’s somehow been denied the opportunity of having some fun drowning wee dogs.

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