Page 52 of Meet me at the Seaside Cottages

‘No!’ says Janey. ‘The deer would; they’d eat everything. Dogs don’t like fruit. You can make a run on the lawn for the pups.’

‘Won’t they dig a lot of holes?’

‘They’re babies. They’ll just roll about,’ Janey says, hoping this is true. ‘But they can’t stay in the cottages any more.They’re about to start eating real food, which means they’re about to start to poo.’

‘How many of them are there again?’

‘Six puppies plus Felicity.’

‘Pooing in my garden?’

‘Um, yes,’ says Janey. ‘That’s why you should probably have a run.’

He straightens up, unhappily.

‘Is this what you do for a job?’ says Janey.

‘Oh! No, I’m an architect. Semi-retired now; they call me in when—’

‘Their domes fall off?’

‘Ha. Not exactly.’

‘Do you do the twiddly bits?’

‘I don’t really like twiddly bits,’ he says, looking serious.

‘No, that’s the problem: you all just like big, horrible blocks, don’t you?’ says Janey.

Lowell takes on the slightly fixed expression of a man who has spent a lot of time listening to people’s ill-informed views on modern architecture, and Janey spots it and shuts up. His own house, the old schoolhouse, she can’t help noticing, is Arts and Crafts. It’s completely covered in twiddly bits.

‘Well?’ she says. ‘Can you pick them up?’

‘Put seven dogs in my car?’ he says frowning. ‘I’m not sure. Not by myself.’

There’s a brief pause. Then he says, quite casually, ‘Can you help?’

Janey nods, suddenly feeling nervous. ‘I get back from work around six tomorrow?’

‘Perfect,’ he says immediately. ‘I’ll see you then.’ And he smiles, and looks slightly embarrassed in a way, she thinks, that you wouldn’t be, surely, if you were only discussing a car. Or would you?

23

‘It is absolutely and definitely not a date,’ says Janey, peeling a tangerine at lunchtime, rather than opening a Tunnocks teacake, which is their habit on a Thursday. They come in boxes of six, but that works out well, as Milton and Lish like the crunchy bottom biscuit and Janey and Lish like the marshmallow top bit, so they get a whole one each, then a half.

All three of her friends look pointedly at her tangerine.

‘That doesn’t matter,’ says Lish eventually. ‘Have sex with him.’

‘Without even dinner?’

‘You used to have sex with Colin after you’d madehimdinner. And washed his grundies.’

‘Oh, yeah,’ says Janey. ‘But if it helps, I don’t think either of us enjoyed it very much.’

‘I hope you have a nice date,’ says Milton, trying to change the subject.

‘Stop it!’ says Janey. ‘I am moving seven dogs in an estate car.’

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