Tony shook his head. The potential for poverty was turning him paranoid. Besides, the coffee machine was a great idea. Lorry drivers were always stopping in looking for a late-night cup, and who knew? Maybe the locals would like a cup of herbal tea or something before heading home after a big night.
Buy herbal tea. He added the item to his mental grocery list, along with bread, bananas and milk. Maybe he’d see if there was any of that new-age herbal tea stuff that made you sleep. Normally he’d do what his dad had always done and have a cup of hot milk with a dash of malt to send him off. But lately it hadn’t done the trick and he’d spent more hours tossing and turning than he had actually sleeping, his mind ticking over with mounting bills, mounting problems and not a hell of a lot of solutions. Heck, he was so bone-tired he wasn’t even all that interested in girls. Maybe that was the problem? Maybe he needed to tire himself out …
‘Hey, baby brother!’
‘Might be. But I’m still taller than you.’ Tony grinned at his sister and two nephews as they piled into the pub. ‘How you doing, you little scallywags?’
‘Scallywags?!’
Tony laughed as the boys feigned insult and horror in perfect unison.
‘You heard me. Now come and give your old uncle a hug.’
The boys flew at him, nearly knocking him over as they hurled themselves into his outstretched arms. He drew them in and held them, breathing in the heady mix of mud and cinnamon scent that he was pretty sure they’d been born with.
‘Have we cuddled you long enough? Can we have a lemonade now?’ Tyler peered up at him with a hopeful eye.
‘And a bag of crisps?’ asked Jordan, his voice filled with anticipation, and just a hint of cheek.
‘Each?’ They pleaded in perfect unison.
Two peas in a pod those boys were. And the loves of Jody’s life. Since the day she’d found out she’d fallen pregnant to a man she’d met during a shift at the pub, a random, a one-nighter, she’d sworn off all men until the boys were old enough to fend for themselves.
Tony watched as the boys grabbed a bag of crisps each and poured two glasses of lemonade and wondered at what point Jody would decide they were old enough, because at nine they looked pretty well sorted, and he was pretty sure he spotted flashes of loneliness in her eyes when she saw couples holding hands over the bar’s leaners.
‘So what’s with the shiny new toy?’ Jody jerked her head down towards the end of the bar.
‘It’s what’s going to save this place.’
Jody snorted and took a sip of Tyler’s lemonade, ignoring his wail of displeasure. ‘It’s going to take a whole lot more than coffee to save this dump.’
Tony bristled. Just because this place wasn’t the love of her life it didn’t mean it wasn’t the love of his, and just as she wouldn’t hear a bad word said about her boys, he didn’t like a bad word said…
‘And don’t get all grumpy on me, Tony McArthur. I know you love this joint, but it needs more than one person running it. You need to …’
‘If you say settle down, I’ll turn the soda dispenser on you.’
‘Oooh, soda water, colour me scared.’
‘Not soda, dear sister. Raspberry fizzy. Sweet, sticky and staining.’
Jody stuck her tongue out. ‘But you should, you know, settle down. It’ll do you good having a partner in crime.’
‘You’re one to talk.’
‘I’m well settled down and I’ve got two partners in crime, right, boys?’
Tony laughed again as the boys rolled their eyes, then took off upstairs to his quarters where his old gaming console lay gathering dust.
‘Besides, you’re only going to piss off the café girl with that machine in here. You’re treading on her turf, and frankly it’s not a particularly gentlemanly thing to do.’
Heat washed over Tony’s face. Even though he had a reputation for liking the ladies he always tried to treat them well. But that was pleasure, and this was business. Not just business, it was life and death. Actually, it was livelihood or death. And he intended to keep on kicking for as long as possible. Without the bar he was nothing. No one.
‘Well, I can see by the flaming shame on your face that she’s seen it.’
‘Yep,’ he sighed. The more he looked at the hunk of metal the worse he felt about what he’d done. There was an unspoken rule among the business people of Rabbits Leap that they didn’t poach customers. It was akin to stealing. Yet he’d done just that in a bid to save The Bullion. What was worse, he’d done it to a member of the community he actually respected and always had time for.
‘Tony, you’ve got to apologise, and then take the machine back. Do something. It’s a small town and the last thing you need is to be bad-mouthed or to lose customers. Find a way to make it work.’
***
Ting-a-ling.
Mel looked up from arranging a fresh batch of scones on a rose-printed vintage cake stand to see who’d walked in, her customer-ready smile fading as she saw her tall, broad-shouldered, blond, wavy-haired nemesis.
‘Get out.’ Her words were cool and calm, the opposite of the fire burning in her veins, in her heart. No one was taking away her café, her chance at a stable life, especially not a pretty boy who was used to getting what he wanted with a smile and a wink.
‘Is that any way to treat a customer?’
‘You’re not a customer. You never have been. I’ve not seen you step foot in here since I opened up – not once.’ Mel pointed to the door. ‘So get out.’
‘Well, maybe it’s time I decided to change that. And besides…’
She watched Tony take in the quiet café. Empty, bar her two regulars, Mr Muir and Mrs Wellbelove, who were enjoying their cups of tea and crosswords in separate silence.
‘…It looks like you need the business.’
Mel rankled at the words as they hit home. She’d hoped setting up in Rabbits Leap would be a good, solid investment, that it would give her security. But that ‘security’ was looking as tenuous as her bank balance. The locals weren’t joking when they said it was ‘the town that tourism forgot’. In summer the odd tourist ambled through, lost, on their way to Torquay. But, on seeing there was nothing more than farms and hills, they quickly ambled out again. As for winter? You could’ve lain down all day in the middle of the street without threat of being run over. And this winter had been worse, what with farmers shutting up shop due to milk prices falling even further.
‘Really? I need the business?’ She raised an eyebrow, hoping the small act of defiance would annoy him as much as he’d annoyed her. ‘I’m not the one putting prices up. Unlike someone else standing before me...’
Tony threw his hands up in the air as if warding the words off.
Good, she’d got to him.
‘Look, Mel, I’m not here to fight.’
‘Then what are you here for?’
‘Coffee. A flat white. And a scone. They look good.’
‘They are good.’
‘Then I’ll take one.’ Tony rubbed his chin. ‘Actually, make that two.’
Mel faked ringing up the purchase on the vintage cash register she’d found after scouring auction sites for weeks and weeks. ‘That’ll be on the house.’
‘That’s a bit cheap, isn’t it?’ Tony’s lips lifted