Shane's head ached the next day, but he knew it would have been far worse if Lucie hadn't wandered along. He would have stayed out far longer, drank far more and spiralled much further.
It had been a particularly rough day, with not much reason. It wasn't as if he'd had a bad day at work - it had just been work. Marnie hadn't been unreasonable; not that she ever was, her understanding nature could be so frustrating at times. Yesterday had simply felt like hell, so he had gone out to the lake in the hopes of drinking himself into a mild oblivion.
Dragging himself out of bed was a marathon task, but he managed it. Breakfast seemed like a step too far, however, and so he settled for simply the cup of coffee that Marnie handed him. Silence filled the kitchen whilst he drank it. Marnie seemed to be pretending very hard to mask her concerned look over her mug, but the waves of sympathy kept rolling off her.
Shane cleared his throat and pushed himself upright in his chair.
"Ran into the newbie last night," he said abruptly. That caught Jas' attention. She dropped the slice of toast she was holding back on to the plate and leant forwards.
"What's she like? Is she nice - she seems nice. Well, she's pretty and pretty people are often nice. I think she's pretty anyway - do you think she's pretty? Does she like chickens?" The barrage of questions tumbled over each other, the words sliding into each other. Despite himself, Shane smiled into his mug.
"What did we say about one question at a time, Jas?" Marnie teased lightly. It didn't phase Jas in the slightest, she simply kept beaming eagerly at her godfather. Marnie raised an eyebrow at Shane, and added: "Well? Is she nice?"
A pause. Then:
"She seems very nice. I think you'll like her, Jas, she's very chatty." Shane lifted the cup to his lips, then paused. He looked over the mug at Jas, who was still staring at him, wide-eyed, over the table. "I don't know her stance on chickens."
Jas leant back in her chair, deep in thought. She took a bite of her toast and chewed it slowly.
"Do you think she's pretty?" Jas looked straight into Shane's eyes, and he choked on his coffee. Spluttering slightly, he tried to recover himself whilst Marnie smiled across at Shane.
"Aunt Marnie," he coughed, "stop looking at me like that."
"Like what?" Marnie asked, innocently. Shane glared at her. He caught Jas's eye - a mistake, as she then doubled down on her question. Shane stood up, edging towards the door, making excuses about being late and having to get to work. He managed to get to the door before Jas latched on to him and held on tightly to his leg.
"Do you?" She demanded as Shane opened the door. Shane unpeeled the young girl, lifting her back inside the house.
"Fine! Yes!" He relinquished. "Now I have to go!"
Jas grinned triumphantly at her godfather, who shook his head slightly. He spun, still holding on to the open door, taking a step as he turned, and came face to face with an amused Lucie.
"Good morning," Lucie grinned. It was a good morning - the sun was unusually bright and warm for a spring morning. Hints of mist still lurked over the lake, cloaking the land in a wispy disguise which only made it seem more beautiful. Lucie leant to the side to smile at Jas, the sunlight tangling its beams through her hair as she did so, throwing hints of a reddish hue through the brown strands. She lifted a hand to wave to Jas, then straightened back up. Shane was still standing stock still in the doorway. "Hi?" Lucie repeated, a little more uncertainly.
"Hi." The word came out of Shane's mouth far too quickly. He silently cursed himself as he felt his face flush. Silence reigned over the doorway as Jas was quickly and quietly ushered away from the two of them. That being said, Marnie and Jas stayed close enough to watch the scene unfold.
"Wha-"
" I was jus-"
They both cut off at the same moment. Lucie opened her mouth to explain just as Shane began to speak again.
"What do you want?" It came out far more hostile than Shane meant it to, the phrase instinctively feeling aggressive. Lucie's warm smile had faded a while ago. She rubbed her upper arm with her free hand and bit the inside of her lip.
"I was headed to the mines and just thought I'd see if you fancied walking there together - but no, it's fine." She felt the words pour out of her, her face burning and freezing all at once. She backed away down the path, gesturing over her shoulder. "This was my mistake - I'm sorry - no, no , no seriously, it's okay, I shouldn't - I'll go." She reached the gate as Shane found the words. He was too late. The attempt to get her to stay was in vain, and she rushed off in the direction of Pelican Town.
Lucie found the nearest bench she could and buried her face in her hands. God, that was humiliating. For half a second she had allowed herself to believe that she was getting to know people, but obviously, her ability to judge characters was way off. To think that she had even tried to look cute today rather than going down the practical route, and for what? For some guy she barely knew? A guy who clearly wanted nothing to do with her and only had talked to her when he was too drunk to know better?
"You shouldn't slouch."
The voice cut into her reverie of self-pity. Lucie glanced up at the speaker, finding the other end of the bench was occupied by a beautiful young woman who was toying with her shoulder-length golden hair. The woman glanced, slightly haughtily, over at Lucie. She sighed loudly and rolled her eyes.
"When you slouch all anyone sees is a person with bad posture. When you're more upright you look almost pretty."
"Thanks?" Lucie frowned.
"Whatever. I'm just saying, you look better when you don't slouch." The woman dismissed Lucie's thanks with a toss of her head.
"I'm Lucie." She held out her hand. It was ignored.
"I know. You're the new farmer," The woman responded, still not looking at Lucie. She glanced across, then sighed. "I'm Haley. I live over there with my sister Emily." She gestured vaguely behind her. Lucie's gaze followed the gesture, but had no idea which house she was referring to, the gesture was so vague. Instead she made eye contact with Shane, and felt the pink flower on her cheeks once more.
Unfortunately, Haley caught the blush.
"Oh, my God," she gasped. "Is there something going on between you and the Town Drunk? You have to tell me everything!"
Lucie groaned, rubbing her eyebrow wearily. Haley scooted along the bench eagerly and nudged her. "Come on, nothing interesting in this town has happened in so long, I need to know!"
"Okay, fine," Lucie relinquished. "But in exchange, you'll tell me what his deal is?"
"Yay!"
