Page 58 of Summer Escapes on the Scottish Isle

Retracing her steps, she said to Mack, ‘Have you taken a chair upstairs already?’

‘I have. It only took but a minute.’

‘Thank you.’ Blimey, he didn’t hang about; then she realised that he probably had to get to work. ‘What time does your first trip go out?’

Mack tilted his arm to see the dial on the diver’s watch he wore. ‘About now.’

‘Shouldn’t you be on it?’

‘You heard what Mhairi said: they can manage without me. I’m beginning to feel redundant.’

Vinnie said, ‘Join the club, lad.’

Mack screwed a bit into the drill and tightened it. ‘You miss it, don’t you.’ It wasn’t a question.

‘Wouldn’t you?’

‘Aye, I would. I’m surprised you don’t have a wee skiff, to keep your hand in.’

‘It’s not the same.’

‘No, I suppose it isn’t, although you could always fish for your supper. Cal, the daft wee bugger, catches them and throws them back, then goes and buys fish from the supermarket.’

‘I could eat a nice bit of fish for my dinner,’ Vinnie said.

Freya said, ‘There’s some smoked basa in the freezer. We can have it with quinoa and salad, but I’ll have to take it out now if it’s to defrost in time for tea.’

‘Quinoa?What the hell is that?’ her dad demanded.

‘It’s a bit like couscous.’

‘Couscous?’ He shuddered. ‘I’d prefer chips.’

‘You can have chips if you want.’

‘And I don’t want salad. I want peas. And I don’t want it for tea, either. I want it at dinner time.’

‘Mmm… battered cod, chips and mushy peas,’ Mack said. ‘I could go for that myself.’

The two men exchanged glances, then stared at her hopefully.

Freya took the hint. She stared back with narrowed eyes, her focus on Mack. ‘I thought you said you didn’t want payment?’

‘I don’t. I can buy my own fish and chips.’

‘But you wantmeto go and get them.’

‘I’ll fetch them myself as soon as I’ve finished this. I was merely wondering whether you’d like to join us.’

Freya threw up her hands; she knew when she was beaten, and she was clearly outnumbered. ‘I’ll go.’

‘It’s not open yet,’ Mack said.

Freya was confused. ‘It opened at seven, didn’t it?’

Her dad piped up, ‘Not the supermarket, hen, the chippy. We don’t wantyoucooking it, we want proper fish and chips from the chip shop.’

‘Thanks a bunch,’ she spluttered.

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