Yes, she’d lost Dan, and her flat – that was never hers, anyway – they’d just shared the rent. She had lost her uterus, and her chance at having a baby in the usual way, but she’d also lost the pain and the bleeding, the bloating and the general terrible impact on her life that endometriosis had had. Thatcould only be a good thing. And she knew that Dan wasn’t right for her.
Deb thought, as she got out of her car and walked towards the front door of the Inn. Yes, some people seemed to be living their life in a romance novel, like Zelda and Hal, but they were the privileged exception. For some reason, something had blessed them both with love and luxury, and an international, jet-setting life anyone would be envious of. But that didn’t mean that Deb couldn’t have love. Just because Hal and Zelda were a power couple, deeply in love, didn’t mean that it couldn’t exist for her, too. Deb knew in her heart that there was no lack of love in the world, even if she’d been brought up to believe in the scarcity of love by Janice. That was an old story, and it wasn’t Deb’s story anymore. Especially not now, when Elise’s story, though it could never be forgotten, was at least being acknowledged and brought into the open by Hal.
That’s not my story. Not anymore, she thought, as she went into the bar, switched the light on and went behind the bar, looking for the bottles. Dotty had texted her with a description of where they were.
Happy Every After can be for me too. I don’t know when or how, but I believe that it can, she thought. And that gave her a good feeling. Hope.
TWENTY-SEVEN
Deb slowed her car, seeing that a car had stopped ahead of her. It was parked at an angle, half blocking the entrance to the blue painted bridge that linked the castle to the village, with its hazard lights on. She swore under her breath and pulled up behind it.
Unbelievable.
She’d already had to dip out of the party to pick up the liqueurs that Dotty and Eric had forgotten, and now the universe was apparently conspiring against her even further by putting a literal obstacle in her way as she rushed back to the party.
Deb got out of her car, taking her bag with her. If the driver had broken down, then she might need to call a rescue service – not that anyone was coming out to Loch Cameron in the middle of the night, she guessed.
‘Hey. Are you okay?’ she called out, walking around to the driver’s side of the car. ‘Oh, for goodness’ sake.Really?’ she exhaled with a mixture of irritation and disbelief when she saw Kyle Abernethy behind the wheel.
‘And a good evening to you too, Deborah.’ Kyle opened his partially-open window fully.
‘What’s happened?’ she asked, aware that she sounded terse. ‘I need to get over the bridge to the party.’
‘Well, I thought I’d just stop here and admire the view, sitting in my freezing cold car,’ he replied, a definite sarcastic tone in his voice. ‘Beautiful at night, don’t you think? I definitely wouldn’t rather be at home, warming myself by a log fire.’
‘Ha ha. Seriously. You broke down?’ She had got out of the car without putting her coat on, and now she was seriously regretting it. Kyle was right: it was absolutely freezing.
‘Yeah. It’s been a bit temperamental recently, and then it just cut out when I was driving up to the bridge,’ he sighed.
‘Right. Have you called a rescue service?’ Deb had clicked into practical mode. ‘I need to get up to the castle. It’s urgent.’
‘Okay, well, I was heading up that way, too. Also, fairly important I’m there,’ he said, levelly. ‘I have called someone, but they said it’s going to be hours. I was just going to push the car to one side a bit so I don’t block the road, then walk up, actually.’
Deb resisted the urge to ask why Kyle, the most hated man in Loch Cameron, was going to the May Day party. She thought that the evil eye he’d get from the crochet coven as soon as they saw him would probably dissolve him like a slug under a salt shaker, but she didn’t say it.
‘Oh. Well, I’ll give you a lift, then.’ She looked behind her, glad that there wasn’t likely to be a line of traffic forming behind her: everyone was at the castle. ‘And I’ll help you push the car to the side of the road. We don’t want to block the cars when people leave the party.’
‘All right, then. You’re not exactly dressed to push a Land Rover in the mud, though.’ Kyle gave her a quick look up and down as he got out of the car and handed her the keys. ‘It’ll start, but it doesn’t seem to want to do much else. Put it in neutral and steer. I’ll push, and then you can put the handbrake on when we’ve moved it.’
‘Okay.’ Deb climbed up into the cab of the black pickup, surreptitiously pulling down the hem of her skirt so that she didn’t accidentally give Kyle an eyeful of thigh and knickers. Not that there was an exciting knicker situation going on – in fact, Fiona had sold her some shapewear to wear underneath the bandage dress, so Deb was well and truly trussed up and covered in spandex.
‘Ready!’ Kyle shouted from the back of the truck.
She adjusted the driver’s seat so that she could reach the pedals – another reminder of just how large a man Kyle really was – turned on the engine and set the truck in neutral and let off the handbrake. Slowly, the car moved forward, and she steered it to the left of the bridge, where there was a narrow passing place.
‘That’s good,’ Kyle called out, and she put the brake on, grateful that she didn’t have to drive the big pickup properly. ‘Thanks.’ He reappeared at the driver’s side window, and she closed it and then got out of the cab gingerly, lowering herself down to the muddy side of the road.
‘It’s okay,’ she said, handing him his keys. ‘Right. Well then, you’d better come with me, before I die of the cold.’ She hugged herself, shivering.
‘I’m sorry.’ He followed her to her car and got in. ‘Did you spoil your nice shoes, or your dress?’
‘No, I think they’re all right.’ Deb cast a quick eye over her comfy heels, which seemed to be bearing the brunt of her sudden jaunt down to the Inn and back, including an impromptu car rescue, quite well. She started the engine, and resumed her drive up to the castle.
‘Sorry… You’re going to the party, too?’ she asked, curiously. ‘I didn’t think you were invited.’
‘I wasn’t. But the laird called me a couple of days ago and invited me.’ Kyle raised an eyebrow. ‘We had a bit of a chat. Cleared the air about some stuff, I think.’
‘You’d had a disagreement, I heard.’ Deb was still freezing, so she turned up the heating in the car to maximum. ‘Sorry. I need to defrost my toes.’
