Page 42 of The Castle in the Bay

She stared at the laptop, the cursor blinking back at her like it had a nervous tick. A to-do list was stuck on a post-it on the keyboard. Should she prioritise that stuff? And what did Mark want?Oh shit.He was supplying food for the barbecue, and she hadn’t got back to him. This was turning into another Iona shitshow. She also needed to send out reminder emails, arrange the logistics for the surf gear, and touch base with the sponsors. But instead, she found herself scrolling through social media.Fuck’s sake.

‘Get it together,’ she muttered to herself, rubbing her temples. The frustration was building, but she couldn’t seem to channel it into productivity. Her mind kept wanting to return to Monty and when it did, she cringed, replaying their conversations and wanting to rewind them and start again. She must look like a total idiot.

With a heavy sigh, she threw back her head, trying to push Monty out of her thoughts. A knock at the door made her jump.

Catriona poked her head around. ‘Are you sure you’re ok? You don’t seem yourself.’ Catriona sat down opposite her. ‘Do you need a hand with anything?’

‘Maybe, but I’m fine. I’ve got a lot on my mind with the festival, that’s all.’ Iona avoided eye contact.

‘What can I do to help?’

‘Maybe help me reply to some of these emails. I could log you in on the other laptop.’

‘Ok. I can do that.’ Catriona raised an eyebrow as she got up to fetch her laptop. ‘Is it just the festival that’s bothering you, or is it something – or someone – else?’

‘What do you mean?’ Iona directed her focus back to the screen.

‘I thought the guy who checked in yesterday was being a bit annoying.’

‘Oh, yeah… He was a bit, but I sent him off.’

‘I know you did, and that kind of surprises me too. He seemed right up your street.’

‘I’m just not in the mood.’

‘No?’ Catriona’s sharp eyes were boring into her. ‘I thought maybe our guest in the annex had caught your attention.’

‘What? No. Absolutely not.’ Iona hammered the mouse to open her emails. ‘That’s ridiculous. Why on earth would you think that?’

Catriona put her laptop on the table. ‘No reason. But why not? He’s a nice guy.’

Iona opened her mouth to argue, but shut it again. She didn’t want to protest and make herself look even more guilty. ‘So what if he is? He’s just another guest. Nothing special.’ And she had to make herself believe that, though she’d probably take a lot more convincing than Catriona.

Catriona shrugged. ‘If you say so. Now, help me get into the emails.’

Iona pulled her laptop over and logged in. As always, when someone else was there to ‘hold her hand’ she worked a lot better, but Catriona was already so busy, and guilt mites nibbled Iona’s tummy at stealing her away just because she couldn’t focus. Catriona’s questions had also stirred more confusion inside her. What exactly did she feel about Monty? Because hewasjust another guest… Not that it would be the first time she’d hooked up with a guest, but she didn’t want to hook up with him. Not really. Somehow, that didn’t seem right. She shook her head, trying to push the thoughts away. There was no time for this. She had work to do.

But as she stared down at her laptop, she couldn’t help but wonder: what was it about Monty that had got under her skin? And why did she care so much?

Chapter Fifteen

Monty

Monty made his way from the annex to the farmhouse, picking a path over the soaked yard in his boots; big puddles had collected in the uneven ground. His skin chafed a bit as he hadn’t bothered to put on socks after showering. He knocked on the door and waited, ignoring the discomfort on the soles of his feet. So much for a nice early morning run. What had it achieved? If it was helping him to stay fit, then that was aboutthe only positive, because as well as getting soaked, he now had sore feet, and he’d upset Iona. Again. He really had a bad habit of doing that – but she had a very annoying habit of getting grumpy with him. And he didn’t really get why. What had he done wrong? Or did he just have a face that annoyed her?

He’d been on many holidays in his life and normally didn’t meet local people other than those who served him in shops or restaurants, but the folk here had really got under his skin. Especially Iona. Her being cross bothered him… In fact, everything about her bothered him more than it should.

‘Hi.’ Catriona opened the door and gave him a quizzical look. No doubt he looked a fright. He hadn’t dried his hair after the shower and had just thrown on a t-shirt and sweatpants. ‘Are you ok?’

‘Not exactly.’ He mussed up his wet hair. ‘I can’t seem to get the radiator in the annex working. I need to dry out my trainers and running shorts. I’ve been fiddling about with the controls, but nothing is happening. Am I missing something?’

‘Maybe the main power isn’t switched on. Sometimes guests switch it off if they can’t work out how to turn off the radiators. I usually check, but I can’t remember if I did this time,’ Catriona said, leading the way. ‘It’s not the easiest system to work out. We tend to leave them on all winter and turn them off in the summer but obviously on a day like this, you need to dry stuff, and warm up.’

‘Yeah. I might need my trainers again soon.’

‘Absolutely.’

‘Um… Have you seen Iona recently?’

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