Chapter 2

Okay let’s fast-forward a year, I am a year older and hopefully a year wiser. I am still a volunteer on the lifeboat, and I now have over sixty more shouts under my belt. It is the middle of the summer and I am not on call this week. I left work on Friday evening and headed down into the village. The place is full of ‘emmets’ as we Cornishmen call tourists.

I was hungry and fancied a pint of beer or two. I had the next week off on annual leave, so I was well happy. I had a few plans, needed to buy some clothes etc and but it was mostly a week of rest and relaxation for me!

I went for a walk around the village before I headed into the pub, there were plenty of tourists making the most of the gorgeous weather and the gorgeous surroundings.

The great thing about tourists in the summer, a lot of the girls wander around in swimwear or short summer dresses which always gives you something to think about as you have a wander around.

The bar at the ‘sailor makers arms’ was heaving so I went around the corner to the only other pub in the village. The ‘lobster pot Inn’ was less of a tourist place. So, it was always a bit quieter.

A few of the locals nodded at me and said hello. I had found that being on the crew of the lifeboat always made you popular and It was a small village, as we all knew each other to be fair.

I ordered a pint of doom bar ale, pie, and chips before I went and sat at a table in the corner. They told me the food would be around half an hour but that did not bother me at all. It gave me more time to have a couple more beers.

We never drink more than one pint when we are on call so on our weeks off, we always made the most of it. I drank my first pint and was about to go to the bar to order another when Lizzy the barmaid placed another one down in front of me.

“That’s from the bird at the bar Zak,” she said with a wink., “Looks like you have a fan?”

Lizzy and I had been at the same school, she was a couple of years older than me and she liked to wind me up. To be fair she was a good lucking girl, but I was not her type if you know what I mean, she preferred her lovers with a nice pair of boobs, so we had that in common, I guess.

“and if you do not chat her up, I will! “Lizzy said with a cheeky wink.

I looked around her; there was only one woman at the bar. She waved and I waved back. I racked my brain to think where I knew her from, had I chatted up in a bar somewhere?

Had I worked with her or for her?

She did not look like a local that was certain, as I said it was a small village and we all knew each other.

She raised her wine glass in salute, and I did the same. Again, I searched the old memory banks, but I could not place her. Shit she was walking over to me, panic set

“Hello there, its zak isn’t it?” she said, her accent was from London or Essex to be fair they all sound the same to us, Cornish people.

She was older than I was by at least ten years, but she was fit, curvy with a nice pair of tits under her sweater. She had a really cute smile; her long curly blonde hair was tied up in a ponytail.

“That’s right Mrs, “I said standing up, shit I was thinking to myself, who was she was where did I know here from. My head was rattling as I tried to place her.

“Hey, the last time we met I told you to call me Danni,” she said with a smile, “May I sit down?”

“Sure thing, Danni,” I said and as I said it, it all came flooding back.

She was the bird off that yacht the one with the two kids and the bloody mad husband. What was his name again?

Adam? Archie? Adam? Andy that was it, the mad twat. I had heard he had been put before the courts and he had been fined for the attempted assault on me and bound over to keep the peace for a year. I hoped she was not going to kick up a fuss about all of that!

I glanced around her looking to see if he was hanging around.

“I take it Andy’s not with you?” I asked glancing around the room.

“No ... No, he is not with me thank God, “she said with a smile, “After all the fuss he caused that night I gave him the elbow!”

Phew, that was good, I can take care of myself but the last thing I needed right now was a scrap with a mad fucker like him. Saying that there were quite a few farmer types in the bar, and they loved a god tear up.

“And the kids are they both okay?” I asked I seemed to remember she had had two kids.

They had been cute kids; I remember that they sent thank you cards to the lads at the lifeboat station a couple of weeks after the rescue. It always cheers the lads up stuff like that and we all love an ego boost.

“Yes, they are thanks to you, and they were his not mine, but I still speak to them on birthdays and stuff” she smiled. That smile again, a smile that made me go weak at the knees, a smile that made my heart race.

“So, you and him?” I asked now getting more and more interested.

“Oh, we had been seeing each other for a few months but after his little outburst I told him to do one,” she said, flashing me that sexy smile again.

“He was very wound up that was sure!” I laughed, that had been the funniest rescue I had ever been part of. Funny and scary at the same time, we still talked about it when we were having a few beers and telling ‘war’ stories.

“YOU RISKED YOUR LIFE TO SAVE US AND HE WAS AN ARSEHOLE!! She said loudly, so loudly people turned to see what was going on.

“It’s my job it’s what I do, and yes he was out of order but that’s life I guess,” I said trying to smooth things over. To be fair me and the rest of the crew thought he was a complete and utter wanker, but we had to rescue anyone and every one no matter how much of a prick they were...

“I didn’t know it was a job, I thought you were volunteers,” Danni said as she sipped her wine. “I didn’t know much about the service before that night, but I did a lot of research afterwards”

“Yes, that’s true, we are all volunteers, I work at a local fruit farm, “I told her.

She asked me about my daytime job and how the work in the lifeboat fitted inn and I told her all about it.

As we were talking my food arrived. Lizzy placed it down in front of me and gave me a cheeky wink and blew me a kiss, lucky for me Danni did not see it.

I ordered another round of drinks, another pint of doom bar for me and another dry white wine for Danni.

“Do you mind if I tuck in?” I asked looking down at the plate of delicious-looking food, “I am starving”

“No not at all, should I leave you to it?” she said with a smile, she had the sort of smile that made men go weak at the knees

“No please stay!” I said, perhaps I sounded a little too eagerly.

Danni was pleasant company, and she was easy on the eye. So, I ate, she chatted and every now and then stole a chip off my plate. Now if anyone else had tried to steal a chip they would have had my fork in the back of their hand, but Danni could have what every she wanted off my plate, she was a real babe.

After I had eaten, we got another round of drinks for us and found a seat in the beer garden. It was a nice evening; we had a few more drinks and chatted about this that and the other. She told me she had taken a cottage for a couple of weeks, just to get away from London and the hustle and bustle. She had been in the village for a week already and she said she loved the slow pace of life.

She told me that since the brief relationship with Andy she had been single. She asked me more about my work and my life with the lifeboat crew. It was nice to just sit and chat.

Then I saw that Danni had tried to stifle a yarn. She saw me watching and gave me an apologetic smile.

“Sorry it’s been a long day,” she said, “and the sea air always makes me tired”