Page 4 of Fixing a Broken Heart at the Highland Repair Shop

‘I’d rather not do it here,’ Gray said, warily eyeing McIntyre across the room.

Ally’s first instinct was to laugh. It wasn’t her dad he had to worry about. Not when the café women already had their sleeves rolled up and were advancing upon him.

Ally was surprised when Laura, who she didn’t really know outside cheery greetings while she dropped off the café’s provisions, took her hand and led her outside. Gray followed behind.

As soon as they were standing on the gravel in the morning sunshine, he started. ‘Look, I was going to tell you I’d met somebody.’

‘Exactly which of us were you going to tell?’ Laura demanded.

Gray pointed a guilty finger at Ally. She felt it like a knife point.

‘Sorry,’ he gulped, eyes fixed on Ally, who found she momentarily couldn’t form any words.

Laura, however, was having no such trouble. ‘Wait a minute. Weren’t the café women saying something about a proposal?’ Gray took a big step back as Laura squared up to him, all five foot two of her. ‘Were you going to ask Ally to marry you?’

Oh God ! Why did she have to go and say that? Wasn’t this humiliating enough?

Gray shook his head, emphatically. ‘A proposal? Jeez, naw! I mean…’ At least he had the humility to appear embarrassed once he heard himself. ‘Sorry, Ally. I didn’t mean it like that. I thought we were having fun, that’s all. It was fun, wasn’t it?’

Something in his expression made Ally’s heart crack. He really believed what he was saying, and she had to admit they hadn’t actually promised each other exclusivity. Only, after a whole year, Ally had simply assumed. That was reasonable, wasn’t it?

‘Oh no!’ was the only sound that escaped her lips. The embarrassment was too much. ‘Oh no!’ she said again.

Laura, however, was only just getting into her stride.

Ally wondered if she was actually enjoying this a bit too much.

Cars were pulling up into the gravel lot at the front of the McIntyre property.

More repair clients got out, all of them craning their necks to get a good view of the unfolding drama.

‘So you strung her along?’ Laura went on.

‘Look at her, Gray. She’s heartbroken! Here she was expecting forever and you were taking me to see the chuffing polar bears and buying me diamonds!

’ She struggled to roll the bracelet off her wrist before throwing it to the gravel at his feet. She was definitely enjoying herself.

‘It’s OK, you don’t have to defend me…’ Ally began, but Laura wouldn’t be stopped.

‘What do you have to say for yourself?’

Gray was backing away. ‘Look, I’m sorry, all right? I never said we were anything. And you pair were never meant to meet.’

‘How many more of us have you got on the go, eh?’ Laura called after him as he crossed the car park, leaving the diamonds in the dirt, hastily retreating towards the gap in the stone boundary wall that led to the riverside footpath.

He kept his hands jammed in his pockets and his head down.

Laura saw him off with a barrage of expletives, all highly appropriate, before turning to Ally who was only just beginning to think of all the questions she’d have asked him had they had an ounce of privacy.

Had he been shacked up with Laura Mercer all those nights recently when Ally could only get through to his voicemail, and later when she’d quizzed him he’d said he’d been visiting his granny?

Hadn’t he meant it when he said he was falling in love? All those times in his bed when she’d gazed at their clasped hands in soppy wonder and they’d planned their futures and he’d joked about them having a whole five-a-side team of little Grays? Was it all said in fun ?

‘What a lowlife!’ Laura was growling, turning to Ally. ‘You’re crying! No, no, no! Don’t do it. He’s not worth it.’

But it was too late. Ally’s mortification was complete. Gray, who she’d misread so completely, had walked away, seemingly without a care.

Laura tried to pull her in for a hug but it made Ally bristle.

‘I’m fine,’ she insisted. ‘I’m fine.’

Even more customers were arriving now, some getting off bikes on the drive, some coming on foot from the riverside path, pulling broken-down machines in carts, shouldering sacks, hauling armfuls of old treasures in open boxes, and all of them casting wary glances at the two women.

Ally turned away, swiping at her cheeks.

She couldn’t bear going back inside and facing the volunteers, or the TV camera for that matter, and staying here to be consoled by Laura – evidently more riled up with the drama of it all than she was heartbroken – was out of the question.

So she ran back across the mossy lawn towards the McIntyre family home, fumbling for her key before locking herself inside.

She leaned against the door before sliding right down onto the kitchen’s cold quarry tiles.

She’d allowed herself to get carried away on a romantic fantasy, listening to all the old clatterers egging her on, getting her hopes up when there’d been no definite sign Gray felt the same…

other than all the lovely dates and the long, lazy Sundays in bed together at his flat, and the flowers and cards and texts and ‘ I think I love you ’s.

He’d looked her in the eyes and seen her, gullible and hungry for love, and he’d lied, over and over again while she ate up his empty promises like Valentine’s sweeties.

There, winded on the kitchen floor, while her mum and all the concerned repair shop women knocked to get in, Ally McIntyre made a tearful, bitter promise to herself. She would never ever allow this to happen to her again as long as she lived.