Lorna smiled back and took it. ‘You were cute.’
‘Cute.’ Innes’s brow furrowed. ‘Not a word any man ever wants to hear, if I can be totally honest with you.’
Lorna leaned her head on his shoulder.
‘I know. But now we’re here … I mean, it’s ridiculous. I remember you eating that slug.’
‘Hamish ate one first!’
‘Yeah, and he liked it.’
They both smiled.
‘I remember when you got all those spots on the end of your nose and locked yourself in Flora’s room for the evening,’ said Innes.
‘Yes, and none of you were remotely helpful,’ said Lorna, screwing up her face in mortification.
‘Oh, come on, you were my wee sister’s annoying friend! Of course we weren’t.’
‘But did you have to make up a song about me?’ She smiled at the recollection. ‘Except for Fintan. He lent me his tea tree oil. Where did he even get tea tree oil?’
‘How did we never suspect?’ said Innes, shaking his head.
‘I think what I’m saying is …’
‘We’re family,’ said Innes. He nodded his head. Then he looked at her.
‘You do look good in that dress though. Compared to, you know. Spotty Muldoon face.’
‘Thank you.’
Innes frowned. ‘Flora totally told me you had the hots for me.’
‘She told me the same thing!’
‘Oh my God! Let’s kill her!’
‘She was trying to promote incest!’
‘No,’ said Innes. ‘Let’s pretend we had a massive outdoor session.’
‘Abso-bloody-lutely not!’ said Lorna. ‘There are parents down there!’
‘Come on, I have to tell them something. Tops?’
‘Tell them we really appreciated Colton’s champagne. Or don’t tell them anything!’
‘I’m sure everyone’s too pished to notice we’ve even left.’
‘That,’ said Lorna, watching the remains of the barbecue waltzing crazily around the farmyard far below, ‘is absolutely right.’
And they toasted each other with the little plastic glasses and smiled – at an accident averted and a friendship renewed – and everyone went to bed alone, although some felt more alone than others.
Back at the Manse, Fintan was still shaking his head.
‘Quite a gift, eh? And you thought the pitchfork-wielding locals would set us on fire.’
Colton scratched his neck.
‘I don’t remember putting it quite like that.’
‘Remember when you arrived …? Ooh, I’m in Mure to keep private … I can’t speak to any locals or hire them …’
Colton smiled. ‘Well, that’s before I got to know you.’
‘You sound so dodgy. Come here.’
Colton smiled sadly as Fintan widened his arms, and came in for a reluctant hug. Fintan started kissing him.
‘Ah, babe, I’m exhausted.’
Fintan blinked. ‘Are you sure? I thought it was after the wedding you were meant to start going off me.’
‘It’s not that,’ said Colton. His painkillers were in the locked cupboard behind the bathroom door. He needed to get to them and quickly. How many weeks to the wedding? he calculated. Could he hang on until everything was signed and done?
Well. He had to.
‘I’m just exhausted. It’s been a great day. I love you.’
‘Are you sure?’ said Fintan suspiciously. He started to kiss up Colton’s neck.
‘No, baby, honestly.’
‘Fine,’ said Fintan, slightly insulted, but too good-natured to take it personally. ‘Hey, did you taste that new cheese?’
‘I did,’ said Colton, relieved to be back on safe ground. ‘You’ve done a terrible thing to cheese.’
‘It’s Mrs Laird who pickled the onions. All I did was put them into cheese.’
‘A terrible, terrible thing.’
Colton’s hand shook as he opened the cabinet. He couldn’t bear, couldn’t deal with the idea of the fuss and upset that would be unleashed if what Saif had unearthed – and Joel already knew – got out. It would be horrendous.
All that pity, and people thinking Fintan was only marrying him because he felt sorry for him, or worse, because he wanted his money, and all those hospitals, and tests, and being forced into shit he didn’t want.
If he could just make it through the wedding then Fintan would be his next of kin – without being suspected of being in cahoots with him – and they could make the right choices. Together. That was all he had to do. In Colton’s life, he’d always done what he needed to do. Normally by just working harder than other people. By gritting his teeth and getting on with it. He was going to grit his teeth and get on with it for as long as he was able.
‘Are you still taking all those vitamins? You’re going to rattle, you big Californian freakbag,’ came Fintan’s voice from the other room.
Colton washed them down, wincing.
‘Yeah,’ he shouted back. ‘On the other hand, they might also make me more in the mood …’
‘Yeah, baby!’
Chapter Fifty-nine
Back at the Rock and somewhat drier, Joel wanted to drag Flora to bed immediately. He felt, for the first time in so long, good and positive and suddenly – as soon as he’d seen her face – so much more sure. About everything.
Flora was having none of it.
‘You have to talk to me.’
‘About what?’
‘About you. About your life. About what makes you be like this.’
‘Like what? Come on, Flora …’
‘No,’ said Flora. ‘Otherwise we’ll start up again and it will be just the same and you won’t let me in, and it’ll end. Badly. And you’ll go off and work for my evil arch-nemesis so she can sneer at me.’
‘What?’ said Joel, bamboozled.
‘I’m not kidding,’ said Flora. ‘I want to know. All of it.’
‘There’s nothing to know,’ said Joel. ‘I told you. I was brought up in care. Get over it.’
‘You can’t get over it!’
‘I’m fine!’
‘You’re not fine!’
‘This isn’t your business.’
‘It is!’
‘It isn’t! Goddammit, Flora! I just wanted … I just wanted to have something pure. Something that isn’t part of that life. My selkie girl.’
He couldn’t have picked a worse thing to say.
‘That’s not me, Joel! That’s not me, some easy-going water bloody sprite that comes and goes and asks for nothing. For nothing. Because I’m not a real girl; I’m some stupid fantasy you have of an island and a life that just does nothing but sit around and wait for you and takes care of all your needs but doesn’t get anything in return. Because I get nothing from you!’
He was suddenly furious. ‘You have all of me. You have everything I have ever had to give.’
‘IT’S NOT ENOUGH!’ screamed Flora.
Suddenly, in his fury Joel threw the chair on the floor. Flora stared at it, then up at him.
And then he was right in front of her, breathing hard, and she was staring back up at him, her heart pounding furiously, and, even as she cursed herself for her utter stupidity, she couldn’t help herself: she grabbed his face and before she knew it he was kissing her, furiously hard, almost painfully, and she was tearing at him, half from frustration and rage and everything she felt overspilling as if she didn’t know how else to express herself. Every word she had spoken had been pointless. Everything had been a waste. What did she have left, after all? And she grabbed him and pulled him tight towards her and they fumbled their way to the door, both of them aware that Mark might be back at any moment. They opened the door. A cleaner was at the bottom end of the corridor wielding a duster and pushing a trolley full of towels.