Page 66 of Twice Shy

“Hey.” Alfie held up a hand, stopping him. “How about you stop by some time and we’ll talk about options?”

“Yeah? That would be great, thank you.” He smiled, genuine relief washing away a little more of last night’s weariness. “You, uh, sell books, too?” It seemed an odd fit.

Alfie laughed. “I love books, but this is my fiancé’s stand. I think you met him? Leo Novak. He called me after your”—a glance down at Rory—“incident.”

The accident was something of a blur of stress and bad memories but of course he remembered standing in the road stopping traffic. “Right,” he said, his smile broadening. “Yes, of course. He’s your fiancé?”

The grin that split Alfie’s face was enormous. “Yeah, getting hitched in the spring. Up at the Majestic.”

“That’s awesome. Congratulations.”

“Thanks man, we— Oh, hey, here he is.”

A slight, trendily dressed man slipped around the back of the stand. In one hand he held the leash of a beautiful Golden Retriever, who snuffled happily at Alfie’s hand as he began to pet him, and in the other a coffee. Ollie recognized the heavy-rimmed glasses behind which pale eyes took him in with one quick assessment. No flies on him, Ollie thought. He smiled politely.

“Here I am,” Leo said, glancing at Alfie with an enquiring look as he handed him his coffee.

Alfie smiled and there was such warmth, such tenderness between them that something pinged in Ollie’s chest. “You remember Ollie Snow?” Alfie said, slipping his arm around Leo’s waist.

Their gaze lingered on each other for a moment longer before Leo said, “Of course,” and turned back to Ollie. “I hope you were okay after the acc—?”

“Fine!” Ollie said quickly, cutting him off before he could say the A word in front of Rory. “We’re great. I’m, uh, helping on the PTA stand today. I should probably go find them.”

“We’ll see you around,” Alfie said. “And I mean it, stop by and we’ll talk options.”

“I will. Thank you. And thanks again for your help that day—both of you.”

Alfie waved it off. “Not a problem.”

Ollie left them with one final wistful look at all that open affection and headed toward the other side of the lot. He’d spotted Jackie and Alyssa hauling boxes out of the trunk of Alyssa’s car. Joel appeared a moment later, carrying a table out of the church hall. Wrapped up against the weather, he looked handsome in a heavy wool coat, his hair hidden under a dark hat. Ollie smiled, his mood lifting.

“Hellooo, Ollie!” Jackie trilled.

Joel looked up, their eyes met, and he gave a small guarded smile of greeting. No doubt wary around Jackie now, he was keeping things low-key. Even so, Ollie felt the warmth in his gaze, and it did his weary bones good.

“Hey,” he said coming over. He smiled at Jackie. “What needs doing?”

“Mwah!” she said, air kissing both cheeks. “I’m going to be very naughty and ask you boys if you can manage the rest of the set-up alone.” She fluttered her eyelashes flirtatiously and Ollie had to smile. “Alyssa and I both have children in the choir, and we need to head up to the school to help them, er, get ready.”

“Nothing to do with Finn Callaghan and Josh Newton turning up to sing with the kids,” Alyssa said in a stage whisper. “No sirree Bob.”

Finn Callaghan was a TV actor. Not only did his brother live in town, but Finn had recently invested in the Majestic Hotel. So he and his husband often visited New Milton. Ollie had never caught a glimpse of them, at least not so far as he was aware. But TV shows about vampire hunters had never really been his thing; he preferred his fictional crime solving to be of the forensic variety.

Joel said, “Josh Newton used to teach music at the school when I first started there. Nice guy. Kinda quiet.”

“Handsome, too,” Jackie said with a girlish giggle.

Joel turned his attention back to unpacking the boxes. “Well, I wouldn’t know about that.”

Something heavy settled in Ollie’s chest to hear Joel deny himself like that. Disappointment, he supposed. “You should head up to the school,” he told Jackie. “Joel and I can manage.”

“Sure we can,” Joel said. “I bet Rory’s going to help us too, aren’t you?”

“I’mgonna see Santa.”

“Yeah? Is Luis going with you?”

Rory shrugged. “I don’t know. Luis only wants one shoe on.”

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