I nodded. “I’m from Surrey originally, but we met in Edinburgh. Bounced around Scotland while he gained experience at various restaurants. Now he lives with his new girlfriend – Annabelle Taylor? You probably know her too; they were each other’s first love or whatever, so I probably should have seen this coming.”Greattimetostoptalking!If only it were that easy. “That’s why we moved to Kestral Cove, Teddy and I. They got back together so we needed somewhere new to live . . .” I trailed off. Not only was my sad little life story so short I could sum it up in less than thirty seconds, but I’d blurted it out to my neighbourwhose only concern was whether he’d be forced to hear me cry about it through our shared wall.
“You wanted to?”
My mouth turned dry. “I didn’t really have a choice. He owns the house.”
He nodded slowly, and we slipped into heart-thundering silence. He collected the empty wrappers and used gloves and set the first-aid kit back on the wall before he finally spoke. “That sounds exactly like the Cameron I remember.” The venom in the comment took me a back, but I’d take it over the usual pity any day.
“Thanks for the heads-up. Where were you eight years ago?”
A rhetorical question, but I got the feeling he couldn’t resist answering any question posed to him. “Just finished my three years of GP training.”
“Right. I almost forgot you’re nearly a decade older than me.” I stood. It only emphasised how small the staffroom was because my shoulder brushed his chest. “The surliness makes more sense now: you need your beauty sleep.”
One side of his mouth hitched higher. It wasn’t exactly a smile, but I was taking it. “You’ll have to square that away with my neighbour, she blow-dries her hair at ungodly hours and plays Fleetwood Mac at the crack of dawn.”
“She sounds like a real pain. If you stopped leaving passive aggressive notes in her recycling, she might be inclined to wait until seven fifteen.”
He tilted his head, watching me with that probing gaze. I felt like bacteria under a microscope. “Seven thirty.”
“No deal. I have a lot of hair to contend with.”
I could have sworn his eyes ran the length of it, a trick of the light because he was already turning for the door. “You should probably take the rest of the day off, go home andget some rest.” My shoulders pulled tight. Given my lack of funds, that wasn’t an option, even if I wanted to. “I could write you a sick note.”
“That won’t be necessary.”
For a beat, I thought he might argue, but he only nodded. “Take it easy then, sit down if you feel faint.”
7
Isla
Calendar reminder: Kinleith Village Committee Meeting
Truthfully, Alistair Macabe wasn’t the worst neighbour in the world.
Aside from the occasional wall thump and tampering with my recycling, he spent so little time at home, it would be easy to forget he lived there if he wasn’t so . . .Alistair. The adjoining door had never once opened since that first day, and sometimes he accidentally mowed my half of the grass. I couldn’t even reasonably put the recycling into the cons column, when all he was really doing was correctly separating my cardboards from plastics.
Serial-killer tendencies perhaps, but he definitely had his uses on bin collection day.
It had been nearly a week since he’d patched me up in the Brown’s staffroom, and I still didn’t have my head on right. Jumping at every rev of an engine, or the groan of taps in his shower. Signs of life, yet I hadn’t laid my eyeballs on him physically.
If I were a conceited person, I might have suspected he was avoiding me.
Teddy was still pushing her super-spy theory, on the days she was talking to me, at least.
On Saturday morning, when the reality that she wouldn’t be seeing Cameron over the weekend fully sank in, she didn’t talk to me at all. Just quietly sat on the sofa eating dry cereal and watching reruns ofBlueywhile I stress-cleaned the skirting boards with a toothbrush.
Her nightmares returned in full force for the next three nights, and she crawled into my bed, clutching Bluebell to her chest. I held her close, watching the tears dry on her pudgy little cheeks, feeling the little flutter of her pulse that told me while her heart was broken, she was still whole and healthy.
I’d said screw it to my truce with Alistair, quietly playing her favourite songs until her breaths evened out and the frown between her brows smoothed as she finally fell asleep.
A fist thumped on the wall. Single and to the point.
I didn’t know why, but it had brought a smile to my lips. It was stupid, but knowing someone was on the other side of the wall made me feel a little less alone.
So stupid, Isla.
By the time I leaned my bike against the whitewashed stone wall of Kinleith Whisky Distillery on Tuesday evening, my stomach was rumbling and my feet were burning from my eight-hour shift at Brown’s. I was ready for my bed. Ready to hug Teddy and hear every little detail about her day at camp. But in-person sign-ups at the Kinleith Village Committee meeting were the only way to guarantee a spot in the Cairn & Crust contest before registration opened to the general public.
