Page 16 of Summer Escapes on the Scottish Isle

He bent down to peer at the offending piece of furniture. ‘It might be an idea to take the headboard off.’

She waved an adjustable spanner at him. ‘Now why didn’t I think of that?’ she drawled.

‘Would you like me to have a go?’ Mack flexed his muscles.

‘Nah, I brought you up here to watch,’ she snapped back, but when he smirked and she realised how that sounded, she blushed again.

Mack resisted the impulse to duck when she raised the spanner, thinking she was going to brain him with it, but she merely handed it to him.

Unfortunately, from his position at the top of the stairs, he wasn’t able to reach the grub screws that bolted the headboard in place. Which meant he had to try to heave the cumbersome frame back, and hope he wouldn’t damage the wallpaper in the process. It was already dented and had a slight tear, but he was wary of making it worse.

‘If I take the weight, can you shuffle it back?’ he asked.

Freya nodded, brushing the hair off her face before planting her feet apart and grasping the end of the footboard.

With some delicate shifting to and fro, enough of a gap appeared for Mack to squeeze through, and then he was on the landing, pressed against Freya as she held the bed steady to prevent it from moving again.

When he positioned himself in front of her to relieve her of the weight of the damned thing, he felt the heat and softness of her chest against his arm, and it sent a bolt of desire through him.

Down, boy, he silently told his libido. Now wasn’t the time to be having those kinds of thoughts.

Freya moved back, putting some distance between them, but the scent of her lingered in his nose and he breathed it in.

‘Are you OK there?’ she asked.

‘Grand,’ he replied, jerking his head to indicate that she should step away, and in a matter of minutes he had the pesky bed into a position where he could get at the grub screws to loosen them. As he applied the spanner, it was clear why she hadn’t been able to undo them herself. The blasted things were welded on, and it took all his strength to shift them. He prided himself on not cursing, though, despite being tempted to utter an expletive or two that would rival Freya’s.

‘There,’ he announced triumphantly, when he’d managed to separate the headboard from the rails and the base. ‘Let’s get this downstairs, then I’ll take the footboard out. Where do you want it?’

‘The sitting room, please.’

He carted it downstairs and saw that she’d already cleared a bed-sized space in the sitting room. A sofa and two armchairs had been pushed together, and he could see how cramped the room would be once the bed was set up.

‘How’s your dad?’ he asked, propping the headboard against the free wall.

‘Getting there.’

‘When’s he coming home?’

‘Sometime next week, hopefully.’

‘We’ve got time, then.’

She narrowed her eyes. ‘Time for what?’

‘To take one of the chairs upstairs. It’ll give you more room. You won’t be able to swing a cat in here once we’ve got the bed down.’

‘Swinging cats is the least of my worries,’ she muttered.

He didn’t bother pursuing that conversation, even though he’d heard what she’d said. Having her dad in the hospital must be a concern, and he guessed she wouldn’t find it easy when he came home. Vinnie could be an ornery so-and-so, despite having a heart of gold.

Mack remembered the reason the old chap had given for hanging up his fishing nets; he’d claimed that he’d had enough of early mornings and heaving seas, and that he was fed up with being cold and wet. But everyone knew he’d been struggling for a while. Operating a trawler, even a small one, was damned hard work, and the body took a battering.

Now that the bed was apart, it took minutes to bring the rest of it down and put it back together again, then Mack carried the hefty double mattress down single-handedly, refusing Freya’s offer of help. He was showing off a bit, but he couldn’t seem to stop trying to impress her, despite knowing how shallow he was being. However, he suspected it would take more than muscles to impress Freya Sinclair.

When the job was done, and not wishing to outstay his welcome, he said, ‘I’ll be off – unless you need me for anything else.’

He saw her puzzled glance at the three-piece suite, crammed together with barely an inch between them. ‘I thought we were going to take a chair upstairs?’ she said.

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