Page 33 of The Village of Lost and Found

‘Well done,’ said Tom. ‘He normally won’t come out to anyone. I wonder if he’s thirsty. I’ll go see if Amber’s got a bowl of water for him.’

Lucy stood up and the dog sat down on her feet as he had done the first time they had met.

Hearing footsteps, she realised it was one of the people she had seen in the pub garden the night before but hadn’t gotten a chance to meet.

‘Hiya,’ he said, giving her a wide grin. ‘I’m Del.’

‘Hi. I’m Lucy,’ she told him, realising that this must be the infamous Dodgy Del that she’d heard about.

‘I know,’ he said, with a chortle. ‘You’re that that famous one.’

‘Not really,’ she said. ‘Just in the wrong place at the wrong time.’

‘Story of my life, love,’ he said. ‘Look, I’ve gotta ask. Do you know that fancy one fromLove Island? You know, with the purple hair.’

Lucy shook her head. ‘Sorry. No, I don’t.’

‘Pity,’ said Del, looking disappointed.

‘Morning all,’ said Tom, suddenly appearing at the bottom of the steps, holding a bowl of water. ‘I hope you’re not harassing this nice lady, Del.’

‘Nah, mate!’ said Del, holding up his hands. ‘Honest. I just wanted to know if Lucy knew that sexy bird fromLove Island.’

‘And if she did, do you really think you’d stand a chance?’ asked Tom.

Del shook his head. ‘No, but she might have had an ugly friend to hook me up with.’

As Del headed into the shop, Tom placed the bowl of water for the dog, who instantly began to drink thirstily.

‘Did you have a nice time at the pub last night?’ asked Tom.

‘I did,’ she said slowly.

‘What?’ he asked.

She glanced over his shoulder before whispering, ‘The food was pretty awful.’

Tom laughed. ‘Why do you think I call it the Mucky Duck?’

She smiled. ‘Yeah. Now I get it!’

‘So you’re up and about early for the weekend,’ he said.

‘I was about to say the same thing,’ she replied. ‘Were you at work?’

‘Don’t judge me, but I really don’t have a life outside of the newspaper.’ His smile softened his self-depreciating words.

‘I grew up with two parents who never stopped working, so I understand,’ she said. ‘Do you need help with anything?’

He shook his head. ‘Thanks, but I’m just getting together all the articles for next week’s paper.’

She laughed. ‘We haven’t delivered all of this week’s yet!’

‘Yeah, I know.’ Tom sighed heavily. ‘Del says he’ll get round to it this week, but I also heard him say that he had quite a few coach tours in the next few days. There’s a reason why his delivery service is so cheap – it hardly ever happens.’

‘Well, I can deliver them again,’ said Lucy. ‘I need to take Uncle Frank shopping for some new trousers this morning, but after that I’m free.’

‘You surely don’t want to work at the weekend,’ he told her.