Page 70 of Animal Instincts
Declan huffed. “You know what I mean. You’re made for each other, you’d have to be blind not to see it. Don’t compare yourself to you know who. It’s like comparing a turd to a… a…”
“Please don’t say a scone. But thanks.” Joss smiled, as he tried his best to convey the confidence he wasn’t feeling. Declan wasn’t taken in.
“Don’t let the guy rattle you. He’s not who or what Oliver wants. That’s you. Cuteness trumps male model looks any day of the week.”
“I’m twenty-two, I stopped being cute when I was five.”
“You’ll be cute when you’re a hundred-and-five, so you may as well get used to it.”
They both laughed, and the tension slackened off in Joss for a few moments, but it wasn’t long before it was tightening the knots once more.
“It wasn’t just how he looked.” Joss hesitated, unsure how to find the words to frame his disquieting thoughts. “I could tell by looking at him that he’s experienced a bigger life. And I can’t help but compare that to me. What have I experienced? Love’s Harbour, that’s all. It makes me realise how little I’ve lived, how provincial I must seem.”
Joss hung his head. How could a charged confrontation, that hadn’t lasted all that long, have rocked and undermined him the way it had? But Spencer, even though he was a liar and a cheat, he was from the same world Oliver had been part of for so long. Somewhere bigger and brighter than this little corner of the West Country. Joss was a better man than Spencer, he knew it in his heart, but the other man shone a light on him and Joss had found himself wanting, inadequate under its glare.
Dazzling. That had been how Oliver had described Spencer. Yet, despite all the hurt and havoc Spencer had caused, dazzling was exactly what he was.
“Don’t let him get under your skin, Joss. He’ll be gone in a day or two, confined again to the rubbish bin. It doesn’t matter how pretty the packaging is, take it away and all you’re left with is a piece of crap. You hold the ace where Oliver’s concerned, and don’t forget it. Talk to Oliver, tell him how you feel. Just don’t let this fester and spoil what the two of you have. Promise me?”
Joss nodded, and smiled, hoping it didn’t look too much like a grimace.
THIRTY-SEVEN
“Why don’t we head off for a couple of days?” Oliver said. “A nice spa hotel?”
In other words, get away from any chance meeting with Spencer and Donald. They could be gone as soon as he turned theClosedsign on the door later today. A short break away, just the two of them.
On the other end of the line, Joss hesitated, and Oliver already knew Joss was going to say no.
“I can’t just skip off work at the café, and the pets of Love’s Harbour need their vet. We’ll just avoid The Fisherman’s Arms for the next day or two. And anyway, we don’t want to look like we’re running away. We’ve done nothing wrong.”
Oliver leant against the examination bench in his consulting room. Joss was right, of course, but Spencer’s unexpected reappearance had shaken him.
Spencer and Donald belonged to a past he had no desire to revisit, but turning up out of the blue had muddied the clear water his life, in Love’s Harbour with Joss, had become.
Oliver closed his eyes. Spencer and Donald would be soon be gone. The village washishome, where he livedhislife, and he’d be damned if he allowed his past to dictate his present.
“You’re right. Of course you are. They weren’t left in any doubt about how we feel. I’m confident we’ve seen the last of them, thank god. Come over tonight.” Just him and Joss…
Oliver made his way to the window and peeked through the blind. The weather was warm and fine. Dinner in the garden, a bottle of wine, all the world kept at bay.
“Oliver? Are you still there?”
“Sorry? Yes, yes, of course I am.”
A couple of minutes later they ended the call. Oliver stared down at his mobile and smiled.
Adorable, loveable, incredible Joss. Straightforward and uncomplicated, as different to Spencer as day was to night, or summer to winter. Joss was everything he wanted and needed, and that knowledge was growing stronger with every passing day.
Spencer’s unwanted reappearance was nothing more than a cloud floating across the face of the sun. It was fleeting, and insubstantial; all it would take would be a gust of wind, and it would be gone for good.
The clatter of the practice door opening and closing, and a loud bark, announced the arrival of his next patient.The pets of Love’s Harbour need their vet…Joss was right, just as he was right that they shouldn’t slink away. Within a couple of days, Donald and Spencer would be gone, and the waters would calm and clear, as though they had never been.
* * *
“I’ll be with you shortly, Mrs. Heath.”
Oliver looked at his watch; his next patient was early, but it didn’t matter. A very snappy toy poodle, Oliver needed to make sure he kept his fingers away from Bertie’s vicious little jaws.
