Page 44 of Animal Instincts
Bloody hell… the Grannies’ Grapevine. The internet had nothing on the older ladies of Love’s Harbour.
Gran chuckled as she set down the piled-high plate of breakfast Joss wasn’t sure he wanted any more.
“What is it about the village? You can’t as much as scratch your bum in this place without somebody passing comment on it.”
“It’s the way of small communities the world over, my love. Secrets never stay secret for long. But why would you want to keep you and the good Dr. Strachan a secret?”
Joss looked up. “I don’t, but we work together and that could be awkward.”
Gran sniffed. “Only if you make it so. Just…” Gran hesitated, and Joss’ brow scrunched as he studied her across the table from him. She was hesitant, unsure, when she so rarely was.
“Just what, Gran?”
“You’re a good boy, Joss, you always have been. I don’t believe there’s a bad bone in your body. But then I suppose I’m biased seeing as I’ve brought you up from not much more than a babe.” She squeezed his hand, her bony grip deceptively strong. “Just… Be careful, I suppose.”
“You said that to me last night, when Oliver called for me. What do you think I have to be careful of?”
Gran’s whispered words, he’d forgotten about them with all that had happened, but here they were again, an uninvited guest at the table.
Gran spoke slowly, picking her way through her words.
“I like him. He’s a good man. I can read people, and it’s rare I’m wrong about a person.” She gazed long and hard at Joss, her eyes sharp with keen intelligence. “And he’s a catch, as we said in my day.”
“Then what have I got to be careful of?”
Joss licked his dry lips as he met Gran’s unwavering gaze.
“Make sure you don’t hurt each other.”
“What? I—”
“He’s a wounded man. Oh, he’s making a passing good job at keeping that hidden, but something or someone has injured him. Wounds don’t heal overnight, and for some it takes a long time to mend. So just be careful you don’t add to them. And you, my love, you’ve got a good heart. A soft heart, and soft hearts are easily bruised.”
Something or somebody has injured him…
Gran, eccentric, maddening, at times completely loopy — and never wrong when it came to summing up those she met.
“You’re right, Gran, somebody did hurt him. Who, and why, I don’t know, but I’m not planning on inflicting any wounds on Oliver, or giving my soft old heart a battering either.”
“No, you wouldn’t do that deliberately.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Joss snapped, his words sharper than he’d intended.
“You’ve got plans to leave Love’s Harbour. Or have you forgotten?”
Joss jerked upright. All his thrilling, bright plans… “Well yes, but—”
“You want to make a life for yourself someplace bigger, somewhere exciting with better opportunities. I don’t blame you, Joss, I really don’t. If I were your age, I’d be thinking the same. But you have to remember that while you’re planning on going, Oliver’s come here, to the village you want to leave, to make his home. You can’t ignore the fact that whatever the two of you have started, it’s going to run out of road very soon. All those applications you’ve made, to big practices for a training position, one of those will come good before too long. When the time comes for you to go you don’t want to be untying too many knots, do you?”
Joss stared down at the breakfast he’d hardly touched, long after Gran had left him alone in the kitchen.
Applications… A job in the city, any city… He’d forgotten about all of them.
* * *
“Macchiato, please, and a Danish pastry.”
Joss looked up into Oliver’s eyes and swallowed.
