Page 29 of A Summer of New Beginnings
14
Joan had been right about the showers. As Zara stood under the pounding hot cascade she could have fallen asleep on her feet. It was only the promise of food that dragged her back to reality. She dried and rifled through her bag for dry clothing.
‘Hmm, what should I wear tonight? Leggings and a base layer, or maybe a base layer and leggings just to change it up? Ooh, I know…leggings and abase layer.’ She huffed and looked forward to the day her outfits could be varied again and not weight dependent. She dropped her towel and wash bag back at her tent before making her way over to the gang of biker women.
‘Ah, here she is. We thought you’d washed away.’ Joan laughed.
‘Oh, yes, I know, sorry about that. You were so right. Those showers are incredible.’
‘They are. Anyway, graba burger and I’ll introduce you to the rest of the gang. Not that we’re an actual gang. Don’t be thinking that. It’s not like Daughters of Anarchy or anything.’ She burst out laughing and Zara joined in. She tried to picture the group of women before her on the hit US TV show. Somehow it didn’t quite work.
‘Zara, I’d like you to meet Carrie – she’s the one who cooked for us tonight.’ Zara noddedand smiled at the blonde woman. ‘Next to her is her wife, Melody.’ Melody was dark-haired and olive-skinned. ‘Then this here is Claire.’ Claire was petite with chestnut hair and sparkly eyes. ‘I’m Joan, obviously, this is Jan and, finally, this here is Sally.’ Jan was around forty and had fiery red hair whilst Sally was tall and slim with short mousey hair. Everyone seemed incredibly friendlyand Zara felt right at home immediately with them.
‘So, tell me how you all came to be up here on your motorcycles. Is it a regular thing you do?’ Zara asked, intrigued.
‘We get together as often as we can and usually have one week a year where we go off and tour somewhere new. But this is our second time doing the NC500,’ Jan informed her.
‘And the great thing is, it gives us a break fromthe men in our lives.’ Sally laughed. ‘Well, with the exception of Carrie and Melody. But they don’t seem to mind spending so much time together.’
It was Melody’s turn to laugh now. ‘Yes, they keep telling us we’re still in the honeymoon phase but we’ve been married since 2014 and we were together around five years before that.’
Joan rolled her eyes. ‘I get the feeling they’ll never tire ofeach other, those two. It’s sickeningly sweet.’ She grinned and nudged Carrie with her shoulder.
‘Right, ladies, I don’t know about you but I’m ready for checking out some proper Scottish music,’ Jan yelled and followed this with a whoop.
The others clinked beer bottles together and Zara wolfed down the delicious bean burger she’d been munching on. She could’ve eaten another but didn’t wantto be the party pooper.
The group walked into Ullapool and it didn’t take long to find a pub with a live band playing bouncy music that had Zara nodding along before they even walked in the door. The pub was alive with an almost tangible buzz as the group entered. They shared wide-eyed glances, each grinning like the Cheshire Cat as they made their way to the bar. People clapped and whooped alongwith the musicians, who were clearly enjoying themselves. The band on stage were a three-piece comprising a fiddler, an accordion player and a guitarist who could make his instrument sound like a variety of instruments, including a drum. A gathered throng at the front, close to the small raised platform being used as a stage, were twirling each other round in time with the music as the rest ofthe crowd watched and clapped along.
Zara couldn’t help the grin that spread across her face as she soaked up the atmosphere and watched the packed pub full of enthusiastic dancers and singers enjoying themselves.
Joan nudged her. ‘Bloody brilliant, eh, pet?’
Zara nodded emphatically. ‘Oh, yes, it’s incredible. What an atmosphere.’
Before she could even take a drink out of the glass she waspassed by Carrie, an elderly man grabbed her by the hand and swept her to the makeshift dance floor.
She squealed and laughed before shouting over the music, ‘I’ve no idea what I’m doing!’
The man leaned a little closer and replied, ‘Dinnae fash, lass, just follow my lead!’
She tried her best as the man, who was spritely to say the least, swung her round and twirled her this way and that. Theresult was that she almost looked as if she could dance. At the end she was thoroughly out of breath but grinning like an idiot. She hugged the man and thanked him.
‘You didnae do too bad, lassie. You’re a natural,’ he told her.
When she got back to her new friends they applauded her and she was enveloped in a group hug as they told her how fantastic her dancing had been. Her ego was boostedeven if they were just being kind. The band announced a short interval and in a few minutes the pub was filled with the sound of more contemporary music coming over the sound system.
‘So, what’s your story, Zara?’ Melody asked, her head tilted to the side.
Zara shrugged, still a little out of breath. ‘My story? I don’t really have one.’
‘How come you ended up all the way up here on your tod?You sound like you’re a long way from home.’
Zara explained to the intrigued group the whys and wherefores of her trip to the Highlands and somehow managed to mention Josh in the scheme of it all – not just the fact that he had been the sales person to ensure she got the correct kit.
Sally shook her head. ‘Well, he sounds like an idiot, honey, and to be honest you’re better off out of it. Itall sounds too complicated and love shouldn’t be like that. You need to look for a man who knows his own mind before he decides to drag some poor unsuspecting woman into his drama.’
Zara smiled briefly. ‘Nah, I think I need to just swear off men. I was better off before when I was without one.’
