‘This is much more fun than watching TikToks about Blake Lively,’ I declared, frowning slightly as my first dud sank on impact, a few feet in front of me. ‘So wholesome.’
‘The phone reception isn’t always very good,’ he deadpanned. ‘We have to make our own fun.’
‘You really don’t think you’d ever move back here?’ I asked, throwing another pebble. Skip, skip, sink.
Callum’s determined gaze was set on the horizon as he tossed his stone. Skip, skip, skip, sink.
‘Last week I’d have said no,’ he replied. ‘Took me long enough to get away, why would I be thinking about coming back?’
‘And now?’
‘And now I’m re-evaluating lots of things I was certain about three days ago.’
With one last stone in his hand he pulled back his arm and threw. It travelled so far, I could only see the ripples on the water when it landed.
‘Your friend had a lot of questions about my love life,’ he said, still staring after his stone. ‘Did you put her up to that?’
‘No!’ I exclaimed. ‘No, I would never. I told you, she’s a monster. Honestly, I wouldn’t pry like that. You and Shiv, that’s none of my business.’
Whether I liked it or not.
He turned to face me, blue eyes squinting against the wind but his expression kind.
‘Because you can ask me anything, you know. I’m an open book to you, Laura.’
‘As is my right as your fake girlfriend,’ I replied with an uncomfortable laugh.
‘As is your right as my friend.’
Friendzoned by my fake date.
I squeezed my last pebble, not noticing its sharp edge until it bit into the flesh of my palm. Silently, I pitched it across the water, my heart sinking with it as it disappeared beneath the surface.
‘If we’re going into Inverness to get you a phone and make it back to Braewick in time for the carol service, we should get going,’ Callum said, dusting off his handsto the tune of Desi and Joel yelling, each trying to shove the other into the water. ‘Do we really have to take them with us?’
‘You’re the one who said they could stay,’ I reminded him, pushing the sting down down down, as far as it could go, and burying it alongside all the other emotions I preferred to ignore. ‘They could be safely over the border, cruising past Newcastle by now.’
He stuck his hands in his pockets, one corner of his mouth quirking up.
‘What can I say? I like to make my life difficult.’
‘You and me both,’ I muttered under my breath as I followed him off the beach and back up the path that led to the car.
Chapter Twenty-Three
As anyone alive might’ve predicted, Desi and Joel adored The Clach.
‘It’s so cool,’ Desi cooed as she got stuck into her second glass of scotch. ‘Like, totally authentic vintage aesthetic vibe.’
‘If you mean it looks as though they haven’t altered a thing since before any of us were born, you’re right, they haven’t,’ Callum replied, expertly opening a packet of salt and vinegar crisps for everyone to share. ‘It’s not a vibe, it’s just old.’
I followed Joel’s eyes around the room, drinking in the oak beams, the low ceilings, the patinaed mirrors on the wall. ‘The best thing about my job is I can do it anywhere,’ he said. ‘Which means I don’t have to leave until I’ve tried every single malt behind the bar.’
‘What is your job?’ Callum asked.
‘Accountant. I thought about running away to join the circus but I couldn’t be arsed.’
‘You think he’s joking,’ Desi chimed in when Callum laughed. ‘The three of us went to Vegas after me andhim graduated and he kept threatening to stay behind to join Cirque du Soleil.’
