(He says “lotch”. I let him.)
“And they serve haggis!” he goes on, looking delighted. “Oh, we’re definitely going. Come on, Lexie, let’s do it. You must want to get away from all of this, too?”
He gestures at the closed curtains, then looks at me with a sad expression and puppy dog eyes. He’s completely irresistible, much to my disgust.
“Rock, Paper, Scissors?” he suggests, with a devilish grin.
I sigh in defeat.
“Okay, okay,” I tell him. “Best of three?”
We play three games of Rock, Paper, Scissors. And even though I win every time, once we’re done, I get up and fetch my bag.
“Come on, then,” I say, rifling through it for my phone. “Looks like we’re going to The 39.”
Chapter 29
As it turns out, it’s harder than you might think to find someone willing to be a bodyguard at short notice in the Highlands.
Which is why Jett and I are currently walking up the steps to The 39’s lochside restaurant with Alfonso McTavish in front of us.
“Comin’ through, folks. That’s it, if ye could just a’ get out of the way, that would be grand,” McTavish says importantly, holding out his hand to block the view of a pair of startled looking pensioners who are exiting the restaurant as we arrive.
“And nae photos, please,” McTavish warns them sternly, making the woman’s eyes widen in fright. “I’ve got ma eyes on ye, ye ken.”
“Are you sure this guy’s a bodyguard?” Jett whispers suspiciously as the old couple scuttle apologetically past us.
“No, he’s a farmer,” I tell him. “Sorry. He was the only person I could find at the last minute. And he said he needed the cash.”
The truth is that McTavish was the only person who actually answered my call, and he says he only did it because he’d deleted my number from his contacts, so he didn’t realize it was me.
Oh yeah, he hates me too, just in case it wasn’t obvious. He’s one of Emerald’s best friends: he was never going to be Team Lexie on the whole ‘Town Hall’ issue, was he? But it’s true that he did need the money, and once I’d doubled Jett’s suggested fee, then added a bit more to it, he grudgingly agreed to help us out.
And now it seems he’s decided to really throw himself into the role.
“Right,” he says now, turning back to us both, and showing a set of implausibly white teeth, which I happen to know are the handiwork of Mike-the-dentist, McTavish having knocked out the originals during the fire at the town hall. “Here we are.”
He pushes open the door at the top of the stair, and we follow him into the restaurant, my heart hammering wildly in my chest as we cross the room to a table by the window that’s been reserved for us.
I was half expecting the place to fall silent as I entered the room; for the music to stop, and for the ensuing silence to be broken only by the cry of “witch” that would immediately be taken up by the entire crowd.
Actually, though, nothing happens.
The music keeps on playing. The world doesn’t stop. And, other than a few curious glances, most of the other diners don’t even look up from their meals as they pass us.
It’s a bit of an anti-climax, really. If it wasn’t such a relief to have made it all the way across the room without seeing Emerald, I’d probably be disappointed. As it is, though, I sink gratefully into the chair Jett holds out for me, and hide quickly behind the menu as he sits down opposite me. McTavish looks around and then, spotting a vacant table, goes over and grabs one of its chairs, which he holds triumphantly aloft as he carries it back to us like a trophy, before sitting down on it to join us.
“Right then,” he says, rubbing his hands together gleefully. “What are we a’ having?”
“Ummm—”
“Errrr—”
Jett and I exchange confused looks, as I frantically wrack my brain, trying to remember exactly what I said to McTavish on the phone earlier, and what part of it he’s managed to translate as an invitation to join us for dinner.
He has, though. I open my mouth to object as he takes the menu out of my hands, then close it again, seeing Jett shrug in my direction.
Might as well go with it, his expression says, and I swallow down the disappointment that it’s not going to be just the two of us.
