‘Eating a piece of steak with my bare hands?’
There it was, that smile again. I felt an unexpected throb in the pit of my stomach.
No, lower. It caught me off guard and I clenched my thighs together.
‘Goodnight, Laura.’
‘Goodnight, Callum.’
I didn’t move when he let himself out. Instead, I sat in silence and listened for him in the room next door. Nothing. He said he’d heard me moving around. Had he really? Perhaps. I couldn’t hear him but I could feel him, sense his presence on the other side of the wall, imagine him sitting in the chair still, watching the night alongside me.
‘This is not good,’ I whispered to myself, pulling the blanket back up to my chin as I stared out at the loch, legs pressed tightly together. ‘This is not good at all.’
And for the second night in a row, I failed to get even a wink of sleep, all because of Callum McClay.
Chapter Sixteen
‘I’m sorry you’re not feeling well again. You’re sure you don’t want to come with us?’
Lizzie McClay stood with her spine so rigid, I was sure if someone were to flick her in the forehead, she would shatter into a million pieces.
With my duvet wrapped around my head and clutched underneath my chin, I shuffled across the kitchen floor. Behind his mother, Callum watched on, his face a picture of concern.
‘You’ve done enough,’ I sniffed from inside my cocoon. ‘I’ll be all right once it’s all out my system.’
‘I’ve never heard of anyone getting food poisoning from tap water,’ Lizzie said, wringing her hands. ‘You’re sure it’s not something you ate at The Clach?’
‘I didn’t eat at The Clach, they didn’t have anything …’ a dramatic hand pressed against my forehead, eyes closed, ‘vegan.’
‘You’re probably just hungry,’ she replied, turning to the fridge. ‘Let me make you some toast. Toast always helps when you’ve an upset stomach.’
‘No complex carbs,’ I protested weakly. ‘Think of my gut microbiome.’
‘Caroline needs to rest.’ Callum pulled his mother away from the fridge, reassuring hands on her shoulders. ‘You’ll be all right, won’t you, babe?’
Slumping over the kitchen counter, I closed my eyes, weakened by the effort it took to breathe.
‘Eventually.’
I added a pathetic cough for extra drama.
‘We won’t be gone too long,’ Lizzie said when Callum began to guide her towards the door. ‘Only we always visit Derek’s sister before she drives down south to see my nephew and—’
‘Go!’ I ordered, flinging an arm over my face to shield my sensitive eyes from the weak morning light. ‘Leave me be!’
Fighting a smile, Callum gave her a careful shove out the door.
‘Go on, Mum. I’ll be out in a minute.’
Lizzie looked to her son, full of alarm, but he nodded and, with great reluctance, she left the two of us alone.
‘Very well done,’ he emphasised his praise with a slow clap. ‘You look like a lunatic.’
‘Thank you, I do my best work under pressure.’ I dropped the duvet, leaning casually against the counter in my PJs. ‘How long do you think you’ll be out?’
‘It’ll be a while, Auntie Jean loves a chat and Dad will want to stop at the pub for a swift one with Uncle Jimmy. The whole family used to come here every year but my cousin, Drew, moved to England, so now we go to them on the twenty-third, they go south to him on Christmas Eve, and he comes back with his husbandfor Hogmanay. God forbid we break with a family tradition, you know how it is.’
‘We don’t have any so no, I don’t actually,’ I said with a bittersweet smile. ‘Actually no, that’s not fair. We used to have traditions.’
