Page 38 of Fixing a Broken Heart at the Highland Repair Shop

His resolve weakened. How was he supposed to do this without dissolving away entirely? He caught her eye and shifted through the people, a smile fixed on his face.

* * *

‘You made it!’ Ally cried. He looked good.

The scar was silvering nicely against his summer tan.

She hadn’t seen him in over a week since that day at the bothy.

They’d both had the excuse of being extremely busy and distracted; Ally had been co-ordinating the skills share plans, and Jamie had his volunteer hours to complete.

All this busyness had meant staying away from her and the repair shed.

They’d both chosen to believe this was for the best, in the circumstances.

‘I said I would.’ Jamie was looking around at the people milling about, his hands in his pockets. ‘You did it then. All this. Amazing, but not surprising.’

He’d always been able to make her flushed and bashful. Today the pride in his voice made her eyes want to stream. She fought the feelings back.

He seemed to think for a moment before propelling himself forward to kiss her swiftly on the cheek. ‘Congratulations.’

‘Thanks. So… all set to leave?’

‘Yup.’ He checked his phone screen. Ally knew it meant they had minutes only. ‘And you’re all good? Packed for your flight and everything?’

Ally nodded. ‘We’re leaving at six on Monday morning for the airport.’

‘Your mum and dad taking you?’

Another nod. Ally wished now they’d made time to meet up since the day on the mountain. Ten minutes might have settled things in her mind. But there had been too many loose ends to tie up and plans to make, and Ally had prioritised spending precious time with her family and her old friends.

Plus, Jamie hadn’t actually asked her to meet up, and she hadn’t suggested it either. He’d made it clear he was pleased for her and he was letting her go without a hint of possessiveness or making her feel bad for chasing her dream of launching herself into adult life at last.

‘Dad and Karolyn say hi, by the way. They wanted me to tell you good luck.’

‘They’ll be looking forward to having you home.’

He smiled a flat smile, nodding.

‘They said you were welcome to come and visit, or… stay a few days, if you were flying back for Christmas, or…’

She shook her head as soon as he started saying it. Ally had to stop him before the hope cracked both their chests open. ‘I did consider it, cos I’ll have a few days off, but the flights are so dear, double the price of the rest of the year, and I’ll not be making much money and…’

‘Of course.’ Jamie was the one stopping her now. His eyes had lost their lustre. This was beginning to hurt way too much. ‘Is Murray going back with you?’ He looked around as if to ask where her brother had got to.

‘He’s not going. He spoke with his boss, well, our boss, and she wanted him there, but he just couldn’t face it. Going back would be too hard, or so he says.’

‘Wow, what happened to him over there?’

‘I think he needs some time to process things. Bit of a sibling trait.’

‘But you always get there in the end.’ He smiled. It was so simple and so reassuring.

Rhona appeared with a cake in a bag. ‘For your train journey home,’ she told Jamie tearfully before hugging him and disappearing back to her little café corner.

‘Someone has a soft spot for you,’ Ally said, trying to wear a grin, not sure she was succeeding.

She watched as Jamie sniffed a laugh, but as her words hung between them, his face fell and he seemed to want to say something.

She wasn’t sure if she should drag him outside, right round the back of the barn and hug him and cry and kiss him hard and promise him everything if he’d just wait for her, for twelve to eighteen months, say?

Part of her wanted him to leave now so he wouldn’t see her in agony and she couldn’t be tempted to ask him why he was so glad she’d got the job and what had it all meant to him that day they’d got lost in the clouds, and in each other, on the mountain.

Instead she did nothing, her face surely conveying the message that if anyone had a soft spot for him, it was her. The tenderest of spots.

Sachin was directing someone over towards her. Oh no , she thought. This can’t be it? She’d have to fix someone’s alarm clock or iPad while he walked away from her, unkissed and confused. After everything they’d been through.

‘Laura?’ The name jumped from her lips as the grocer, and Gray’s girlfriend, approached. ‘You’re wanting something fixed?’

‘You could say that,’ she said, shamefaced.

Jamie looked between the two women and made to go.

‘Just wait a minute, OK?’ Ally stilled him with a spread palm.

‘Don’t worry,’ he said. ‘I won’t leave without saying goodbye.’ He made his way towards her dad, who was re-attaching a spade to its handle under the gaze of its owner.

It was so like Jamie to want to say goodbye to her parents too. The soft spot grew fonder and ached terribly.

Laura was watching all of this, curiosity etched on her face now. ‘You two are…?’ She pointed between them.

‘No,’ Ally said, then wanted to kick herself.

‘Sort of. Well, we’re good friends.’ She was annoying even herself.

‘Is there something you want, Laura?’ She tried not to be tetchy.

It wasn’t Laura she was upset with, never had been.

It was herself all along, the overly cautious, content-to-settle-for-unspectacular, stuck in the mud Ally McIntyre, but that version of her was almost completely gone now.

‘I came to say I was sorry,’ said Laura.

‘You really don’t have to?—’

‘I do,’ she cut her off. ‘Gray crawled back and I let him in, and…’ Laura shrugged. ‘It wasn’t very sisterly of me.’

Ally fought the impulse to say, that’s OK, you’re not my sister, but something sad in Laura’s demeanour stopped her.

‘He’s dumped you, hasn’t he?’

Laura nodded, unable to look her in the eye. ‘There’s somebody else, apparently. A new lassie, at his work. I heard one of his pals laughing about it when I delivered the bacon rolls on Friday.’

‘I’m sorry.’ Ally meant it. ‘He wasn’t anything special, honestly. You’ll see that eventually.’

‘I think I already knew, but there’s just not many lads around, is there? And you’re supposed to be settling down around about my age, and here I am delivering bread and cheese, and I’m single all over again.’

‘I know a wee bit about that,’ Ally said, unable to stop herself smiling softly.

‘You’re not missing out on anything, believe me.

It’s hard all the way up. You’re exactly where you’re supposed to be.

’ An idea hit Ally. ‘In fact, why don’t you go grab Senga over there.

She’d got some ideas for expanding the café, running some baking sessions.

It’s all part of this expansion of our offering.

’ She swept a hand, gesturing to the bustling room with Roz at the centre, handing out leaflets asking locals to consider volunteering their time and their skills at the shed, and gathering names on a clipboard of interested parties.

‘Aye, I will do that,’ Laura said, stepping back, picturing how that might work and liking what she saw. ‘It’d be nice to come back to the repair shop again. And… if you don’t mind, I’d like to start bringing your deliveries, instead of Keeley doing it. Can I?’

‘Of course you can.’ Ally decided to let Laura discover she wasn’t going to be here come the next repair day in her own good time. ‘The Gifford sisters will get you back in the loop.’

Laura smiled, relieved, and was making her way through the crowd to the café corner, when McIntyre stopped everyone in their tracks.

‘Can I say a few words?’ he was announcing from on top of an actual soap box in the middle of the room. Roz stood by him, supporting him with a hand through his belt loop at the back.

‘It’s wonderful to welcome you all today, and to the first of our skills share and social events.

There’s many more to come, just keep an eye on our braw new website…

’ This raised a little cheer from Sachin who’d been joined by his wife and adult daughters at the triage desk.

‘And you can follow us on our…’ he looked to Peaches and Willie.

‘Socials?’ they said simultaneously, before exchanging matching amused glances.

‘That’s it, our socials! We’ve had our ups and downs this summer but we’ve emerged stronger, I think we can all agree?’ He was looking straight at his daughter now.

Ally gave him a nod. He wasn’t wrong.

A movement caught her eye. Jamie making his way through the stilled bodies as her father’s speech went on, whispering excuse mes and apologies as he went. Ally’s heartbeat picked up a new erratic rhythm.

‘Someone very clever told me that to make change happen, all we have to do is imagine a world where it’s already happened, and work towards that,’ McIntyre was saying.

‘I can imagine a sustainable world of sharing where we make sure everybody has enough before any one person has too much. I can imagine a world where we’re less isolated and we’re not afraid of reaching out.

And since you’re all here today, I believe you can imagine that too.

’ He held his coffee mug a little higher.

‘So, here’s a toast. To the repair revolutionaries and the world we’re imagining into being. ’

Ally didn’t want to give in to crying, but the impulse made her chest juddery as she sniffed back tears.

The whole room was raising cups and cookies and shouting cheers.

She should have been jubilant like them.

The photographer from the paper captured the moment, capturing also the look on Jamie’s face as he wordlessly conveyed to Ally across the crowded room that he really did have to run for his train if he was going to make it on time.

* * *

Jamie fought his way to the door at the same time as the parents and kids and Carenza’s special guest, the speech and language therapist, were shoving inside, and it felt like being caught in a tide, but he really did have to get out of here.

Ally was on her way towards him, and together they were like two salmon swimming upriver, fighting the currents. They both burst out of the doors together at the same time, into the fresh, cool air of the very last days of the summer.

‘I’m sorry,’ he told her, showing her the time on his phone.

‘I know,’ she said, urgency in her eyes. What was she going to say to him?

‘I’ve loved every second of this,’ he said.

‘Me too.’

‘I’ll go smash the fitness test, with any luck, attend the new intake day tomorrow and…’ he spread his hands, ‘Ta-da! Regular Officer Beaton at your service! Hopefully.’

She smiled. It looked like pride and sorrow mixed together.

‘And you go get ’em in Zurich! Show them some of that Ally McIntyre go-getter magic! Change the world.’ Like you’ve changed mine , he thought.

There was only time for a hug, a kiss to her cheekbone. No I’ll miss you or I’ll call you or anything. Just goodbye.

He let go of the woman he’d wanted to hold to his heart from the first second he’d laid eyes on her, and somehow he walked away.

Mhairi Sears, with Jolyon by her side holding his mum’s hand and eating a great big chocolate cookie, came up behind Ally and caught her just in time before the tears started to fall.

‘I’ve got you,’ Mhairi told her old friend, and they hugged in the courtyard while the visitors kept arriving in their droves.

It was the biggest, most successful day of Ally’s life to date, and all Ally could do was break down as the best, sincerest, most supportive man she’d ever met walked away to begin the next chapter of his life without her.