Paul Webster has come out the army after a twenty-two year stretch with a trick hip and no idea what to do with his life. He takes a few weeks walking along the Welsh coast to get his head on straight.<br><br>Kevin Davies is a veterinary nurse and an artist. He's getting lonelier and lonelier in his cottage on the edge of the sea, kept company by his cats and a friendly flock of crows.<br><br>What happens when the two men hunker down together to wait out a wild March gale?

As the Crows Fly

Kev found his pencil moving almost under its own steam. Oval face. Dark brown hair that was coming into wild curls where it was longest. Thin eyebrows. Cheeks slightly hollowed...he was a bit thinner than he should be, probably. Perhaps because of his time in hospital? An interesting face rather than a handsome one. Attractive, though.


His dark, loose clothes concealed a lot of his stature, other than being quite a bit taller than Kev and narrow with it. Difficult to tell whether there was muscle under them.


Kevin was pulled from his haze of concentration when Web opened his eyes and looked straight at him.


Kevin felt himself blushing to his hairline, but neither of them moved for what seemed an eon. The fine-spun awareness that had been there since they met in the car park yesterday drew a little tighter.


Then Web stirred, smiling, and Kevin could breathe more easily.


“Sorry,” Web said, sitting up and rearranging the reluctant cat. “I fell asleep,” he added unnecessarily.


Chapter 9