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

He froze and heard his own sharp intake of breath as if it had come from someone else.


Kevin’s head was bowed, not meeting Web’s eyes. He was watching his own hand, Web realised, as his fingers started to trace very gently over the veins visible through the thin skin of Web’s inner wrist. It felt shockingly intimate.


The click of his swallow was loud in the quiet room.


Sliding his hand down and twining his fingers with Web’s, Kevin swung round in the chair to face him and got to his feet. Web couldn’t move.


Kevin grinned up at him. He was about six inches shorter than Web.


“You know what,” he said, the laughter still bubbling under his words.


“No?” Kevin started to unlink their fingers and step backwards.


Web tightened his own. “Wait,” he said. “Just. What? What are we doing here?”


Kevin looked up at him, smiling. “What do you want to do?” he asked.


Chapter 13