Page 41 of A Summer of New Beginnings
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When she heard the news about her wrecked bike, Zara’s eyes widened. ‘What? Oh, my God! What am I going to do? Where is it?’
Lachy pointed to the trailer. ‘Tosh loaded it and your bags up already. It’s not roadworthy, I’m afraid.’
She glanced over the side of the trailer at the twisted hunk of metal and suddenly wanted to cry. ‘Oh, no, I’m so sorry, SD,’ she whispered. But then her heartrate increased as panic set in and she gripped her hair. ‘But… it was an expensive bike and it was on loan. And… the North Coast 500. And my school reunion.’
Lachy held up his hand. ‘I know. I know. Look, I’m sure if we contact them they’ll be fine. They must have insurance for things like this.’
She knew there was insurance, but it didn’t take the sting away. ‘That’s not the point. This isa disaster of epic proportions. How the hell do I explain…? What do I say to…?’
Lachy placed one large hand on each of her shoulders. ‘Look, there’s no point stressing about it. Let’s get you back to mine and get you settled, eh? We can sort the rest out tomorrow. Try not to worry.’
She gazed up at him; his face was kind and reassuring. She nodded. ‘You’re right. Not a lot I can do right now.I just feel so stupid.’
He smiled and she could tell he was going to tease her. ‘Well, youdidthink you’d travelled back in time, so I’m not 100 per cent sure of your mental state but… Look, these things happen. It was an accident. And it wasn’t your fault the tractor ran over it. It’s a narrow road and it was a choice between avoiding youoravoiding the bike. I’d like to think he chose wisely.’
‘Ugh, I don’t know. Maybe he should’ve chosen the other way.’
He helped her into the car and closed her door. Once he was seated behind the steering wheel he started the engine and Florence and the Machine blared out of the speakers at full blast. Her favourite song too.
‘Oh, I love “Delilah”.’ She smiled and, for the first time in the last couple of hours, calmness washed over her.
‘Aye, Ido like a bit of Flo and the Machine. Especially this track. Gets me right here.’ He patted his chest.
She knew exactly what he meant. It was such an uplifting song; empowering even. It was the kind of song you listened to when you were feeling low and couldn’t help dancing to it. Although she couldn’t exactly imagine Lachy dancing round the kitchen in his underwear as she’d tended to do beforeher lodger moved in. Now it seemed that Marco had taken over that particular baton, as she had discovered when she’d arrived home late and found him waving his arms and singing ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ at the top of his voice wearing only his designer fitted boxers. He had all the operatic parts off pat, but the crazy thing was he hadn’t even cared when he’d realised he had a gobsmacked audience ofone. In fact, he had tried to encourage her to join in.
Lachy set off in the direction of his croft and they both sang along in mumbled tones to the track until it had finished, neither wanting to really let go for fear of embarrassment.
‘So, school reunion, eh? I hate those bloody things. I can’t believe you actually want to go to one,’ Lachy said out of the blue.
Zara scrunched her nose.‘My best friend, Shelley, is suddenly desperate to go and show everyone what we’ve achieved. And I think I’d like to show them too, in a way.’
‘Seriously? Why does that even matter? And thisthemyou speak of, I gather you weren’t keen on them when you were at school so why go to the trouble of attending an event you don’t want to attend just so you can showthemhow well you’ve done? Isn’t thatwhat social media is for?’
She laughed. He did have a point. ‘Yeah, I don’t really go on much, to be honest, except for work. And if I did I wouldn’t be friends with any ofthatlot. They used to call me and Shelley names and we were excluded from everything fun. We had our own little group.’
‘I bet you were the brainy bunch or something.’
‘Now who’s being cheeky?’
‘I can just tell you’reintelligent. It’s not an insult. I mean, you work for a well-known travel magazine. So in spite of your penchant for time travel I’m guessing you’re quite bright.’ He was grinning at her again. Her stomach flipped.
Stop it, Bailey. Stop noticing how attractive he is.
They pulled up outside the croft and Zara felt happy to be there again. The house was a pretty, stone detached building. Quitesizeable but not overly large. It was homely and its isolation wasn’t intimidating as she might have expected. She hadn’t really taken much notice of the exterior the last time she was there, so now she was having a good look at the typically Highland architecture. It was more function over attractiveness, but in being so it was more appealing. Like someone who was beautiful but didn’t go braggingabout their looks.
Lachy came round and opened her door. He held out his hand to help her down, and rather than insist that she could manage, she accepted his help. The feel of his strong hand on hers made her arm tingle and she snatched it away as soon as her feet hit the floor.
They entered the house and were greeted by Bess, whose whole body was wagging excitedly. Zara bent to stroke her,but a spell of dizziness took her again and she grabbed a chair to steady herself.
She felt Lachy’s hand on her arm. ‘Hey, are you okay? Come on, I’ll help you into the lounge and I’ll go and get you some painkillers, eh?’
She nodded, trying not to think of the nausea bubbling up from her stomach. Lachy led her into a room off the kitchen at the opposite side to the staircase and helped herto a leather couch. The room was cosy and had an inglenook fireplace. It was a little dated but the couch was more modern. She wondered if he had brought that along when he’d moved home again.
Once she was seated Lachy asked, ‘Will you be okay whilst I go get some wood for the fire and get you those tablets?’
‘Absolutely fine. Thank you.’
