Page 75 of Surprises on the Scottish Isle

‘She told me she hates me.’ Cal’s voice was strangled.

‘She doesn’t mean it. I used to say that to my mum all the time, and I definitely didn’t mean it.’

He slumped against a worktop. ‘Yvaine threatened to stop me from seeing her.’

‘She can’t do that,’ Tara replied with more conviction than she felt. She had no experience of custody or parental rights, but she’d heard enough horror stories. But surely Yvaine wouldn’t be so vindictive. She was just annoyed, that was all. She didn’t want Cal herself, but neither did she want anyone else to have him.

Cal’s expression was troubled. ‘Tara, I—’

‘Why don’t you speak to Bonnie after work? I’ve got to go, I didn’t realise it was so late and I need to pop to the post office before I open up this morning. That’ll teach us to drink the best part of two bottles of wine when we’ve got work the next day.’

She walked over to him, wrapped her arms around his waist and laid her head on his shoulder. After a brief hesitation, he put his arms around her.

‘Look at it this way,’ she said. ‘At least we don’t have to sneak around any more. Although to be honest, I think everyone except Bonnie and Yvaine knew about us anyway. You said it’s impossible to keep anything secret in Duncoorie.’

She lifted her head to give him a kiss, but he was staring out of the window, lost in thought, so Tara gave him a squeeze instead. ‘I’ll see you later. I’ll cook this evening, so what do you fancy?’

‘Anything.’ He didn’t look at her, and she suspected he was still reeling from his encounter.

She didn’t want to leave him, knowing that he was hurting, but he had to go to work and so did she. She had so much to do that she didn’t know where to begin, and the wine, combined with a rather late night and being woken so abruptly, wasn’t helping.

Hoping Cal wouldn’t brood too much and he would kiss and make up with Bonnie, Tara returned to the boathouse to get ready for the day. But later, as she worked on those all-important details on the interior of Bonnie’s doll’s house, checking them against the series of photographs she’d taken when she’d viewed Yvaine’s cottage, her thoughts kept returning to Bonnie.

Her heart went out to the child as she imagined Bonnie at home, feeling betrayed that her father had broken his promise to her. Tara wished Cal had told her about it, although she wasn’t sure what difference it would have made. She wanted to tell him he was silly to have made such a promise in the first place, but he had, and the damage was done. Tara hoped it wasn’t permanent and that Cal’s relationship with his daughter could be repaired.

It would be, she was certain. Bonnie’s reaction this morning had surely only been shock. She’d come around, of course she would. She and Bonnie were friends, weren’t they? They got on well together. This was just a little blip, and they’d soon get over it.

But even as she told herself this, Tara felt unsettled. She couldn’t shake the feeling of dread that had shrouded her ever since she’d realised who had been knocking on Calan’s door.

Tara was right, Cal thought. He did need to speak to Bonnie and explain. Bonnie liked Tara and they got on well, so he hoped that once his daughter had calmed down, she would be more amenable to the idea of him having Tara as his girlfriend. Tara wasn’t some random woman who Bonnie had never met until today, and if that had been the case he could fully appreciate her reaction. As it was, he thought Bonnie had been overly dramatic and would soon get over it.

As he set about ticking things off his job list for today, he came to the conclusion that Bonnie’s major gripe wasn’t because Tara was his girlfriend, but because Cal had broken his promise to her. He wasn’t entirely sure how he was going to remedy that. After all, a broken promise was a broken promise. It couldn’t beunbroken. However, he was fairly confident that if he apologised and explained what had happened, Bonnie would forgive him.

Yvaine’s car wasn’t on the drive when Calan came to a halt outside her cottage, so he decided to wait.

Wondering whether Yvaine had taken Bonnie to her meeting, or whether she’d found someone else to look after her, Cal cursed himself yet again for failing to take his mobile phone up to bed with him. He’d been too eager to dive into the shower with Tara to think about his phone and had left it on the worktop next to his keys and the picnic basket. When he’d looked at it after Tara left this morning, he’d discovered two missed calls and a message, and wanted to kick himself. Although Cal couldn’t have known Yvaine’s father would be taken ill overnight, he was the one who was insisting on keeping his and Tara’s relationship low-key and that he didn’t want Bonnie to find out just yet, so it had been up to him to ensure she didn’t.

As he waited for Yvaine and Bonnie to show up, he went over and over the events of this morning in his mind, and the overriding image was of Bonnie’s accusing face as Yvaine drove off. He had a feeling it would stay with him for some considerable time.

Calan’s heart lurched when he caught sight of Yvaine’s car in the distance. Emerging from his own vehicle, he stood nervously on the pavement as she swung onto the drive. Her expression was set, but it wasn’t his ex-wife who claimed his attention. It was his daughter, who was refusing to look at him. Her little chin jutted out and she stared straight ahead, but he knew she had seen him.

It didn’t bode well for the chat he wanted to have with her.

Should he give her more time and try again tomorrow, or would Bonnie perceive his departure as him not caring? And why was being a parent so hard? He’d always thought he had a good relationship with his daughter, but right now he felt he was walking on eggshells.

Yvaine got out of the car, Bonnie immediately afterwards. His daughter continued to avoid looking at him, but Yvaine had no such qualms and she glared as he approached.

She unlocked the front door and pushed it open. ‘Go inside, Bonnie. I’m just going to have a word with your father.’

Bonnie stomped indoors, her back rigid, her movements jerky.

Cal’s heart clenched at the sight of her obvious distress. ‘Can I speak to her?’ he asked Yvaine. ‘Please?’ He hated having to plead.

‘You are an arse, Cal.’

‘I know.’

‘How could you make a promise like that when you were already sleeping with Tara? Then you had the brass-faced cheek to lie to my face.’

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