Page 40 of Fixing a Broken Heart at the Highland Repair Shop

Ally looked around at the dewy morning. Cairn Dhu mountain was capped with white on its highest, northernmost face, the heather below the mountain pass was in its fullest flush of copper and purple.

Someone on the high street had a summer fire lit in their grate, casting out a good sooty smell of smoke that would always transport her right back to the winters of her childhood.

She let herself take it all in, feeling more than ever how twelve months was a very, very long time.

She looked to the repair shed. Its doors were locked, the tools stilled and silent, the craftspeople, bakers and busybodies all still asleep in their beds. Soon it would be bustling again, alive with gossip and drilling, dauding, sawing, and Bhangra beats from Sachin’s radio.

It was her repair shop, her community, when before it had just been something her dad did, something she’d been reluctantly roped into. Now it was as much a part of her as it was stitched into the fabric of Cairn Dhu and its people.

‘I’m proud of you, my girl,’ said her dad, seemingly reading her thoughts.

‘Och,’ she smiled this off. ‘I’m proud of us.’

‘You were the one turned our fortunes around, and got us all back on our feet at the shed. You got me back on my feet. All these years it’s been my job to look after you and then suddenly, there you were, knowing just what to do when I was at a loss.

And now you’re leaving, flying away with the summer swifts. ’

He hugged her tight.

‘We should save it for the airport. If I start crying again here, we’ll never get away,’ she said.

‘Come on then.’

He made his way round to the driver’s door. Roz delivered a swift kiss to her daughter’s cheek, still unable to find the words to even begin to say goodbye, then she made her way to the passenger seat and closed her door.

Ally stood by the car, finding her legs moved stiffly, stalling her. Something wasn’t right.

She wanted to go to Switzerland. She was ready for it. She was all packed. She’d prepared for this. Yet, her heart was thumping hard and telling her she needed Jamie.

She thought of him asleep in his childhood bedroom. She’d never even seen him dreaming deeply. Never laid beside him and held him for longer than a few minutes. There was so much she wanted to do with him and they hadn’t had the chance.

She’d miss his first day of work as a regular officer, miss seeing him passing out in his uniform.

She’d miss autumn walks and crunching through fallen leaves with him.

There’d be no wrapping gifts for under his Christmas tree or mistletoe kisses or Hogmanay ceilidhs.

In another life, where their timing wasn’t off, and where they were better matched, she’d want all of that.

With a hard sigh, she told herself to get moving. There is always some aspect of self-denial and sacrifice in pursuing what you want. Always inconvenience and bad timing. It’s a fact of adult life.

Ally was right back where she’d started, with a broken heart. Only now, she had memories of laughing and kissing, plotting and working together, hiking and talking, holding hands, feeling seen and being wanted. Fleeting, brief, summer moments, but they’d been worth it.

She found her legs loosening, and she lifted her head again, reaching for the car door.

She’d message him on the drive to the airport.

Tell him she was glad for him, passing his physical and getting what he wanted at long last. He’d worked so hard, he deserved happiness.

She’d really mean it too. So long as he was happy, she could be glad for him.

Her hand on the cold metal of the handle, her breath clouding the crisp morning air. She was really leaving.

‘Wait!’

At first, she thought it was Murray, somehow coming at her from the gap in the courtyard walls. The voice turned into the hard crunch of gravel, and a streak of blue and black came thundering into the drive. Jamie Beaton, red cheeked and puffing.

She almost dropped her phone at the sight of him.

‘I thought I was going to miss you!’ He could barely breathe. ‘I ran all the way from the station… early train… Christ!’ He leaned over, hands on his knees. ‘Surprised I passed that physical!’

‘What are you doing here?’ She watched him in wonder, catching sight of her mum’s face through the car window, beaming back at them both.

He tried to catch his breath, straightening up again. Darkest blue jeans, blue jumper. Like an off-duty police officer.

She knew she was wide-eyed like a woman on the verge of losing it.

‘I had to see you,’ he gulped. ‘We have to talk.’

‘OK?’ She nodded. That’s just what she wanted too.

‘I wanted to thank you, first of all,’ he said, brown eyes wild and sparkling. ‘I should have told you when I had the chance. You see? When I met you, I was stuck. And so was Dad, actually. For a long time.’

Ally nodded. ‘I know.’

He took her hand, the words tumbling out.

‘I only really started moving on when I came here. When I met you. You showed me the Nithy Brig and got something unstuck in me.’ He thumbed his chest, right where his heart was beating so hard Ally thought she could see it through his clothes.

‘You helped me remember a bit of Mum out there.’ His eyes locked fast with hers.

‘And you let me hear her voice again.’ His own voice trembled.

‘And hearing her got something moving inside Dad as well. He’s trying bereavement therapy, you know?

After all these years. That was you who did that! ’

The burst of warmth in her chest made its way to her face. She was grinning wildly back at him. ‘It’s never too late,’ she said.

‘Never,’ Jamie agreed. ‘I think Mum will be watching him and feeling proud, you know?’

‘I think she’ll be proud of you too,’ said Ally.

He was looking right into her, wonder lighting his face.

‘It feels like you brought me closer to her than I’ve ever been.

Or rather, you’ve brought me closer to myself.

You taught me to imagine a world where things were better and work towards that.

You showed me healing was possible. You showed me…

’ he stumbled closer. ‘You showed me love was possible.’

His hands travelled up over her arms. She answered his body, pulling him closer. It turned into a tight hug.

‘Thank you, for all of that,’ he said close to her ear.

When he pulled back, he kept his hands on her arms.

‘Jamie,’ Ally began, wondering if she could express in words this great warmth blooming inside her.

She hadn’t dared imagine she’d see him again, and here he was holding her.

‘Jamie, I have to thank you too. For giving me courage. For making me unstuck. And for letting me go too. I mean, I don’t mean letting me go, exactly; I mean encouraging me to do what I need to do. ’

‘Me too, I feel the same way.’

‘Yes, but…’ she knew it was coming, could feel it welling up. ‘I’ve fallen in love with you.’ She blinked in astonishment as the words stayed in the air between them. They sounded so good she said it again. ‘I’m actually in love with you.’

Jamie, to her surprise, laughed brightly. ‘Me too. I fell for you the second I saw you, and that day in the bothy, I was a goner.’

Ally crushed him to her, hugging him so tight she thought they both might pop. He squeezed her and they rocked, laughing like children.

Warmth. Simple joy. This must be what it feels like to get what you need.

Ally pulled back, suddenly sharply aware of the time ticking on.

‘What are we going to do?’ she asked, dazed. ‘Are you going to wait for me?’

‘Yes, I am. If you want me to?’

She laughed again at the very notion of not wanting him. ‘I’ll be gone for ages.’

‘I know. I even looked into transferring to the Swiss police!’ He laughed too. ‘But no dice.’

‘Oh.’ She wasn’t even that deflated. He was talking crazy now. It was all so wonderfully mad.

‘But I am moving here to Cairn Dhu,’ he said, his tone assured. ‘As a Regular.’

‘You’re what?’

‘In the new intake. Edwyn’s already signed off on it. They need officers here, and I’m going to be one of them.’

‘What about Edinburgh?’ she said, eyes moving across his beautiful features in fascination.

‘Ach, they’ve got Rebus and plenty other gritty, city cops. I’d rather be a Highland officer any day. And it means I’ll be right here,’ he pointed at the spot where they stood, ‘when you come home. I’ll have cleaned up these mean streets by the time you return.’

His lips, saying those words, looked better than they ever had, and she had to kiss him again.

After a long moment, he pulled away a little. ‘I thought maybe I’d fly out for Christmas in Zurich, see what all the fuss is about?’

‘Oh my God, yes!’ More kisses, every one sealing their promises. ‘I’d love that.’

‘Are you coming to wave her off from the airport with us, or what?’ Roz called from the rolled-down window.

Their smiles turned bashful. Jamie raised a hand to the back of his head.

‘ Can I come along?’ he asked.

‘Hop in,’ said Ally, her excitement returning, and they scrambled into the back seat, clicking seatbelts, laughing giddily.

‘All fixed?’ said McIntyre, glancing at them in the rear-view mirror and turning over the engine.

‘All fixed,’ chimed Ally and Jamie at once, and their lips met in another quick kiss before their car rolled out of the driveway and into the bright mountain morning.