Page 45 of A Summer of New Beginnings
Lachy reached over and topped up Zara’s wine glass. ‘So, how come you didn’t refuse to come here if it’s not your usual type of assignment? I know you’re hating it.’
‘Noah, my boss,he’s very persuasive. Or should I say he’s very good at laying guilt on thick?’ She took a sip of the fruity red wine and pondered his words. ‘You know, I haven’t hated it up here. Not really. I mean, the scenery has been spectacular.’
‘It’s like I said, the place gets under your skin. The people too. Honestly, I can’t imagine living in a city again. Life can be over so fast, why would I wantto rush through it with my head down when I can breathe in and look up?’
‘I’m beginning to understand that now. I’ve only been up here a few days in the great scheme of things but already the thought of being in the midst of the hustle and bustle fills me with dread. It’s like your life and mine are polar opposites.’ She smiled.
Lachy frowned and placed his glass down. ‘Yet I wonder which ofus is happier.’
A strange, heavy silence settled on the room as Zara contemplated Lachy’s words. She had never really questioned her happiness before. But then again London was all she had ever known. This whole experience had thrown her for a loop. She was still shocked at how a sense of belonging had rooted within her and, even though she had been angry, irritated, frustrated and on the vergeof packing it all in, the thought of leaving the Highlands made her incredibly sad.
She decided to try and lighten the mood. ‘I could just have done without the accident, the puncture and getting lost.’
He smiled and his face lit up again. ‘I suppose they were a tad inconvenient.’
‘Just a bit.’
‘I still can’t believe you thought you’d travelled back in time.’ His shoulders began to shake again.‘Honestly, I wish Tosh had snapped a picture of you. He says you were all cute with dirt on your cheeks and a look of sheer horror on your face.’
She laughed along. ‘Well, you’ve some room to talk. At least I wasn’t playing dress-up with a bunch of other adults carrying wooden swords.’
‘Fair point, fair point. I don’t even know how they roped me in to doing the damn re-enactment thing. I blameTosh. Known him since school when he was a wee munchkin of a lad.’
‘So why were they calling you Lurch?’
He rolled his eyes. ‘Oh, God, I forgot you’d heard that. Another remnant of school. I was the tallest one in my class and for some reason one of the teachers called me itone bloody timeand it stuck. The similarity to my actual name didn’t bloody help any.’
‘Ugh, kids can be so cruel. Ihad awful nicknames too, but it was worse for my best friend, Shelley.’
‘How so?’
‘Well, her name was…isMichelle Bean. So you can imagine what the kids used to call her.’
Lachy pulled his lips between his teeth and tried not to laugh but instead made a snorting kind of noise. ‘I’m sorry, I know I shouldn’t laugh. I blame the wine.’
‘Yes, and thanks to my plastic National Health specs I wasGranny Bailey.’
Lachy stopped trying to hold back his laughter. ‘Oh, God, that’s brilliant. Jelly Bean and Granny Bailey.’ He reached across the table and held out his hand. ‘Pleased to meet you, Granny, the name’s Lurch.’
She took his hand and shook it. ‘Hello, young man,’ she replied in a silly, old-lady voice.
Once their laughter had subsided Lachy fixed his attention on her again. ‘So,what will you do with your book once it’s finished?’
She shrugged. ‘Oh, nothing. I don’t think it’s good enough to actually publish. It was more of a challenge for me really. I just don’t seem to have the time with work.’
‘You know, one thing I learned when I was working in the city, you’ve got to make time to do the things you enjoy, like I said before. Make time for yourself. You deserve it.We all do.’
She knew he was right. Since she had embarked upon this trip she had begun to reassess her work-life balance and had come to the conclusion that there reallywasn’tone. She was either at work in the office, on assignment in some foreign country or planning for one or the other. There were a couple of brief meet-ups a month with her best friends and a trip home to see her family asoften as she could but there really wasn’t time for the thing she was passionate about. Perhaps she needed to make some changes now after feeling such a buzz over writing again?
‘I must admit, this place makes me understand why you think that way. I guess in the city everything is so impersonal and moves at such a fast pace. But everything is so convenient so you don’t need to make an effortfor things like you do up here. I mean, back home I have everything I need on my doorstep and I suppose I take it for granted. I have my close friends but they have their own lives. Shelley will be getting married and having kids soon and Marco… well, Marco’s a law unto himself.’ She glanced round the homely kitchen and imagined her mum standing at the range making her famous stew and dumplings. ‘Mymum and dad would love to live somewhere like this. I think Dad would love to work on the land instead of in the building trade. I could really imagine him as a farmer.’
Lachy huffed out through puffed cheeks. ‘It’s no picnic, that’s for sure. But I do go to bed every night feeling a good kind of tired, you know? Not a mental exhaustion like my work in the city. This is an honest to goodness,physical tiredness. But it’s really hard. I wouldn’t be doing it if I didn’t love it.’
‘It’s like you said, there’s a lot to be said for doing something you’re passionate about, I suppose.’
‘You got that right.’
