Page 19 of Highland Games
Rory stopped, the ladder suspended in his hands. Then he appeared to come to a decision and snapped the final extension down, lifting it to put it back on the roof of his truck. ‘I can’t. I have to get back.’
‘To visit your girlfriend?’
Rory turned abruptly. ‘What?’
Zoe frowned and chewed her lip thoughtfully. ‘Well, you told the owners of The Time is MEOW! Basil was a present for your girlfriend. And I’mdefinitelynot your girlfriend, so I’m just a teeny tiny bit confused as to why he ended up with me. Unless as soon as you’ve hounded me out, you’re going to install her here and turn my home into your love nest?’
Rory’s cheeks flushed. He opened his mouth as if to speak, but Zoe cut him off.
‘Oh, save your breath. Get your ladder and look at my roof. I have no idea why you hate me so much you resorted to buying a rat to get me out, but you could at least credit me with a modicum of intelligence. I mean, look at him. He’s beautiful, house-trained and clearly comfortable around people. Anyone who thinks Basil could pass for a wild rat needs their eyes tested. Oh, and you also owe me a new step after you sent Clarrie the cow and her friends round for tea.’
Zoe could see embarrassment, guilt and rage fighting for supremacy across his face. She giggled. ‘What’s the matter? Rat got your tongue?’ At her own joke, she guffawed with laughter until she snorted like a pig, which set her off even more, doubling over at her own hilarity.
Rory freed the ladder from the truck roof and walked it to the side of the cabin. ‘What do you want?’
Zoe swallowed. What she wanted, what she really,reallywanted, was for him to drop the ladder, throw her over his shoulder again, carry her into the cabin and lay her down on top of her sleeping bag. She wanted him to tear his shirt off and bring his body down over hers.
‘Well?’
Zoe, flustered, quickly rallied. ‘Erm, well, the roof is leaking and I need to know if I can just replace some of the shingles or if the whole roof has to go. I then need to know how much each shingle costs, where to get them, and if I can fix the roof myself. I also need to know about replacing the guttering and setting up a greywater system.’
Rory nodded, fixed the ladder against the side of the cabin and climbed up. She started running for the outhouse.
‘Where are you going?’ he called after her.
‘I’ve been stuck up a tree for the last two hours. I need to pee!’ she yelled back.
Rory was alreadyup the ladder when she returned and had crawled to the top of the roof. She got her laptop out and stood with it wedged on a rung whilst he relayed how many shingles were loose or needed replacing. She then ordered an assessment of the guttering, firing out questions and tapping in the answers.
She’d twisted her curls to the top of her head and secured them with a pen, but one tight corkscrew had escaped and hung down by her neck, acting as a toy for Basil. She heard Rory sigh and looked up, to see his gaze flick away from her.
‘What?’
‘Nothing, just thinking about the state of your roof,’ he replied.
Had he just saidyourroof rather thantheroof? She felt light, like a fluffy pink marshmallow of happiness was expanding in her tummy.
‘I know it’s bad. I just didn’t know how bad. I’ll have to do the bare minimum to keep me watertight and warm until I can save up for extravagances, like a toilet or a chandelier.’ She grinned up at him. He stared back at her, blankly. Her smile wavered. She turned back to her computer screen as he looked back to the roof.
Ten minutes later he was done. Zoe closed her laptop and graciously allowed him to step off the ladder. Rory indicated the computer. ‘Can I see what you’ve been doing?’
Zoe stopped, surprised. ‘Yes, yes of course. We can sit down and I’ll go through it with you.’
She walked up the steps to the porch, hesitated about inviting him in, then sat on the top step, scooting her bottom to the far right-hand side as if she had to make room for a sumo wrestler next to her.
She cleared her throat, opened the laptop on her knees, and began. ‘So, I’ve done a few simple spreadsheets to cover the renovation of the cabin and anything else I might need for my life here. I’ve created a pivot table so I can easily see which bits, for example, the roof or greywater system will cost, as well as some work on forecasting and allowing contingency of different percentages into each section, so the less I know about a job, the bigger the contingency. It’s easy and quick to update and adapt and gives me a clear overview of exactly how I can’t afford what I want to do.’
As she spoke, her fingers flew like startled birds across the keys, going from spreadsheet to table, to projection, showing him different views and calculations. He pinched the bridge of his nose. ‘Are you all right?’ she asked.
Rory nodded, let his hand drop and stared out into the distance at the loch. ‘Numbers aren’t my thing.’ He stood abruptly. ‘I’ve got to go.’ He walked off to the truck.
Zoe called after him weakly, ‘Okay, bye then.’
She closed the laptop and watched the truck drive off. What on earth had just happened? For a moment she actually thought they were getting on. He wanted to see what she was doing. He’d asked to see it. But then he shut down. She was well aware her job wasn’t exactly synonymous with excitement. No little kid ever ran around their school playground pretending to be an accountant. But numbers helped you order the world, make sense of it. Without her spreadsheets, she wouldn’t have a clue where she was with the cabin.
Was she that boring on top of every other negative emotion he had for her?
Zoe smiled, remembering his face in the tree when she’d played dumb, when she told him she knew he bought Basil, and when she blackmailed him into helping. His face had been a picture, so transparent. One day she was going to challenge him to a game of poker and fleece him for everything he owned. She’d even have the shirt off his back.
