Page 36 of A Summer House on Arran (Scottish Romances #3)

Olivia was pleased to hear that Kitty’s evening with Logan had gone well, and that they were spending the day together before he left for his next tour.

She felt so much better after yesterday’s horrid hangover.

She decided to have a more productive day and go for a run.

After waving off Kitty, Olivia switched her old phone on briefly to remind herself of her email password.

Although it pinged incessantly with texts and voicemails, she managed to ignore them.

After reminding herself of the information she needed, she quickly switched it off.

She knew she would need to log into her emails just to make sure there were no urgent work-related messages.

Otherwise, she may well find herself unemployable when she did return home.

Although it suddenly dawned on her that she had no idea where that was, now that her possessions were in storage and she had moved out of Patrick’s place.

Thinking about next steps was too much right now and she couldn’t bring herself to go there.

She would ask Kitty if she could borrow her iPad later and log in to check her messages.

There was no point in worrying about anything else at the moment.

Pulling on her trainers, she lightly jogged on the spot and did a quick few stretches, reaching down to touch her toes.

When the doorbell rang, she jerked upright and felt her blood run cold.

Who could that be? Creeping to the lounge, she stood to the side and peered out one of the windows at the front. She relaxed when she saw who it was.

‘Hi, Amy,’ she said, opening the door.

‘Sorry, Olivia, is this a bad time? You look like you’re on your way out?’

‘I’m just going for a run. But it’s okay, there’s no hurry, come in. What’s up?’

Amy stepped inside and followed Olivia through to the lounge.

‘Well,’ she said, looking around the room. ‘I wondered if you might be able to help with something.’

Olivia gestured to her to sit down on one of the chairs. She sat down on the sofa.

‘Am I right in thinking that you’re a dancer? Or that you teach dance?’

‘Yes,’ said Olivia hesitantly. ‘How do you know that?’

‘I’m not quite sure,’ she said honestly. ‘I think you perhaps mentioned it. Or it might have been Kitty, or it could have been my boyfriend, James. He’s friends with Logan. Did you tell him?’

Olivia nodded, still unsure where this was leading.

‘Sorry, I’m totally digressing, my memory is brutal. Anyway, you know the Highland Games that are coming up? In August?’

Olivia nodded, intrigued to hear what she was going to say.

‘There’s always a dance competition for the kids — any kind of dance, by the way, it doesn’t have to be Highland dancing.

It can be anything — ballet, hip-hop, tap, jazz, anything really,’ she added quickly.

‘The teacher who normally coaches the kids has been called away to the mainland suddenly. Her father has taken ill.’

Okay, now she had a sense of what Amy was about to ask, and she felt a rush of adrenaline.

‘I know it’s a big ask. Huge. But the kids will be so disappointed if they can’t take part.

I was just at the post office this morning and heard a couple of parents in the queue talking about it.

Apparently one of the wee girls cried herself to sleep last night, she was so sad at the thought they could no longer perform. ’

Olivia felt goosebumps form on her arms as she thought about getting back into teaching again and encouraging these kids. ‘I would love to help,’ she said immediately.

Amy’s shoulders slumped in relief. ‘Oh, I’m sooooooo happy you said that, Olivia. You’ll make their day. They’ll be delighted.’

‘Just tell me what I need to do,’ she said. ‘Should I talk to their teacher just in case there’s anything that she wants me to pick up on?’

‘Oh, would you? That would be brilliant. I’ll get hold of her number and pass it to you. From what I gather, the kids practice a couple of times a week in the village hall.’

Olivia was immediately thinking about scheduling more rehearsals than that.

She wanted to give these kids a fighting chance of winning .

She thought about the moment of standing on stage in darkness, then the lights going on and the music starting.

Then she reminded herself that this wasn’t an international tour or a high-stakes competition.

It was a chance for the kids to come together and learn, and most of all have fun.

Amy jumped up and clapped her hands together in excitement. ‘Honestly, you have no idea how pleased they will be. Especially when they realise who you’ve danced with.’

Olivia was confused.

‘I have a confession to make,’ she said sheepishly. ‘I checked out your Instagram page. I mean, impressive or what? Janet Jackson? And Pink?’

Olivia’s cheeks coloured. ‘Oh, it doesn’t matter. I don’t want to make a big deal about any of that stuff or the kids might be a bit daunted.’

‘Sure,’ said Amy quickly. ‘No big deal at all. Now, I’ll go and let them know and be in touch. But you may well have saved the day.’ She flung her arms around Olivia and hugged her.

‘I’m just glad you thought to ask,’ she said when Amy stepped back.

‘Okay, I’ll let you get on and head off for your run. Thanks again and hopefully I’ll see you and Kitty at yoga.’

‘Definitely,’ said Olivia, waving goodbye. ‘We’ll try and come along soon.’

As she jogged lightly down the hill, everything felt so much more colourful.

She noticed the red sandstone cottages with their dinky doors, the clouds dancing along in the sky and shrouding the top of Goatfell.

As she ran along the path by the sea, Olivia felt excited about having a project to focus on over the next few weeks, and was thrilled that she could do something meaningful with her time.

She always loved teaching kids, and this would be a brilliant opportunity to help in the community she was growing to love.

She started thinking about potential songs she could suggest to the kids, and before long she had covered five kilometres.

When she arrived back at the house, kicking off her trainers in the hallway, she realised her phone was still pinging on the floor. She must have failed to switch it off properly. Pressing her thumb down hard on the off button, she took it into her bedroom and threw it into a drawer.

‘Alexa,’ she said to the speaker in her room.

‘Play Janet Jackson.’ She smiled and started to sway her hips in time to ‘Control’.

That had been one of her favourite routines when she had toured with Janet, and she quickly found her groove, slipping effortlessly back into the moves.

Her head was now buzzing with ideas, and she couldn’t wait to get started with the kids.