Lindsey changed into dry clothes while her mom got the camping stove going. By the time she was done, a mug of steaming tea was ready for her.
“What is it?” Lindsey asked, seeing the way her mom was looking at her as they sat together on the fold-out chairs. “What have I done?”
“You need to stand up for yourself, Lindsey. You can’t let people walk all over you your entire life.”
“I know,” she replied, her toes curling. “I just don’t like confrontation.”
“What are you going to do when you finally get a man? Let him make all the decisions because you don’t want to make a fuss?”
“If men are like Richard, I’m all right without them, thanks.”
“What, bald and middle age spread doesn’t get you going?”
“You forgot about the dandruff.”
“How does a bald man even get dandruff?”
“I’ve no idea but he manages it somehow.”
Rhona laughed. “You’ll meet a nice man soon enough. God knows, you can’t spend your entire life without one. I’d had about ten by the time I was your age. You need to get out there. Go wild. Sleep with a few strangers.”
Lindsey wracked her brains for a way to change the subject. The last thing she needed was to think about her mom’s exploits with the opposite sex. “Any luck finding the locket?”
Rhona laughed. “All right, I get it. You don’t want to hear about your mother’s conquests. But you forget it was those youthful experiments that led to me having the most perfect thing in my life.”
“That vacation in Belize?”
“No, you, you little grumblekin.”
“I’m not perfect.”
“Yes, you are.”
“I’ve got a rubbish job with no future. I’ve got no money and no prospects. All I want is to have enough to help you and I can’t. I can’t even get us somewhere nice to stay while you fix this place. I can’t do anything and hooking up with some stranger won’t change that.”
“Listen,” Rhona said, reaching over to the desk to pick up an envelope. “Take this.”
“What is it?”
“I haven’t got time for the vacation. I need to go talk to the bank. I don’t want it to go to waste. You go.”
“But you paid for it when you got the all clear. Besides, I’ve got work. I can’t go.”
“You can. You don’t go back into that cafe until he pays you and if that oily boss of yours has anything to say about it, he can come and talk to me.
“You can take the book and finish reading it. See if there are any clues I missed about where the locket is. And you never know, you might meet some handsome Highlander who sweeps you off your feet while you’re there.”
“A Highlander who’s staying in Iona Campbell’s Loch Tay Bed and Breakfast? Presumably, a Highlander who’s a fan of chintz and tiny little porcelain dolls?”
“And tartan tea towels. Don’t forget them.”
“Would Mrs. Campbell even let him in?”
“Only if he leaves his sword outside.”
“And takes his muddy boots off.”
The two of them laughed. Lindsey looked down at the envelope. It might be nice to take a vacation. She’d worked twelve days in a row and the thought of going in again tomorrow was not an appealing one. But she had to. She had the keys.
