‘I – er—’ Cam’s eyes were like a rabbit in the headlights. ‘I um – would love to congratulate Jenna. Is it your birthday – a special birthday? Twenty-five? Thirty?’
‘Thirty?’ Jenna said, feeling awkward. ‘No, that was last year. No ...’
‘Jenna’s getting engaged!’ Kerry bellowed. ‘She wanted to keep it all low key, but we don’t. It’s Friday, so we – and Nate – booked a room at the pub and it’s going to be a big celebration.’
Jenna turned back to her friends.
‘Oh, I see. Right.’ She felt overwhelmed. She’d no idea Nate had been planning anything so big – or so public. She’d only accepted his proposal a few days previously, and only then on the proviso they waited for a year at least before planning the wedding. It was typical of Nate, though, to want to organise everything and get things ‘tied up’, as he’d put it when he asked her. Jenna was the cautious one while Nate was all in, so while this big party had come as a shock, it probably shouldn’t.
‘Look,’ she said, as cheerfully as she could. ‘This isn’t fair on Cam. He was here for a meeting. I promise I’ll be out any moment!’
‘It’s fine. We’d almost finished anyway.’ Cam was smiling broadly.
Her colleagues left, chattering excitedly in the main office next to hers.
‘OK. I never expected that. Clearly. But that’s part of the job, to expect the unexpected ... um ... you were saying something about meeting up?’ She peeled a strand of silly string from the screen.
‘Yeah. If I’m in the area. Begreatto meet the team. Now you’d better go and celebrate.’
‘Thanks,’ Jenna said, still in shock that Nate had had a hand in organising the party without consulting her.
‘And Jenna, congratulations to you and er—’
‘Nathan.’
‘You and Nathan,’ Cam echoed. ‘I’m sure you’ll both be very happy.’
Chapter Two
Cameron
Hello, Cam. I can see you today!’
Cam forced a smile to his face. ‘Hi, Jenna. Great, except I can’t see you, unfortunately.’
‘Oh, hold on. Sorry, I had the camera off. Doh.’
Her face popped up, frowning then quickly smiling again.
‘Great,’ Cam said. Then, ‘Hold on while I turn up the volume. The rain is lashing down here. We’ve caught the tail end of a storm. You can’t even see the Firth,’ he added, waving behind him at his misty window, where the strait that separated the north Scottish coast from the Orkney Islands was usually visible.
‘Really? It’s been pretty sunny here all week.’
‘Winter has returned with a vengeance up here.’
‘Winter?’ Her eyes widened in horror, which made Cam want to smile – and he’d had precious few opportunities to do that in the past week. ‘It’s officially June now.’
He forced a wry grin, the kind that normally came naturally to him whenever he was in her virtual presence. ‘Aye, well, Scotland didn’t get the memo. Again.’
She laughed, rather dutifully, Cam thought. It had been a week since her colleagues had burst in with silly string and exploded a bombshell into his life.
That moment when his faint hopes had been instantly obliterated had kept him awake over the last few nights. Before he’d met Jenna, he hadn’t really thought about time’s march or that each day marked a moment in his life he could never see again. Only old people complained of how fast the years were turning: not young men in their early thirties.
Since losing Rachel, he’d become more conscious of time and opportunities passing. He hadn’t realised that that morning in Edinburgh would be their last together. If he’d only known, he would have asked her sooner to marry him.
After her passing, he’d slowly learned to be content with the life he had with Lachlan, his sister and his parents, running three times a week, pub quizzes with his friends. But ever since the first video call with Jenna, something had begun to shift. Once more, he was reminded that time always marched on ... whether you wanted it to or not. Sometimes you didn’t know when you’d have your last chance ... all the missed opportunities.
So he’d decided to seize the moment and ask Jenna out after a year ... because if his feelings for her hadn’t faded by then, they probably weren’t going to.
