Page 23 of Sailing Free at Loch Tunnagan (Loch Tunnagan #1)

She quickly added, “Cal let me sleep in one of the guest rooms when our boats were damaged in a storm.”

“I see,” replied Val with a tight smile.

“He sleeps on the couch and I sleep in the bed,” Jess rambled on, wishing someone would stop her.

Thankfully Val shook her head, “No, no need to take MacTavish. We love to spend some time with our little Grand puppy when we’re here.”

She gracefully knelt down on one knee and patted MacTavish, “I’ve brought you lots of treats.”

“Where’s Edward?” asked Cal.

“He nipped in to book a table in the restaurant. We thought we could have lunch together.” She turned to Jess, “Care to join us?”

“Oh, no thanks,” replied Jess hurriedly, “I’ve got lots of work to do. I’ll just be on my way.”

She turned and gave Cal a quick wave and made her way up to her room. Sighing, she slumped down on the couch and let her mind drift over the events of the morning. Her thoughts settled on the look that had passed over Val’s face when she spotted Cal with his hand over Jess’.

It must have been painful to see him with someone that wasn’t Lainey.

Would it feel like her daughter was being replaced or forgotten?

Despite the fact that nothing was going on between her and Cal, Jess worried that she had somehow made an already difficult encounter more awkward. She hoped Cal was coping ok.

A knock on the door roused her from her thoughts. She padded across the deep pile carpet and opened the door. Dawn stood in the hall, “Hi, I have some fresh towels for you.”

“Thanks Dawn,” Jess took the pile of soft, gleaming white towels. “You honestly don’t need to treat me like a guest. I could easily have come down and got them from the laundry room.”

“Don’t be daft,” replied Dawn,“I’m literally delivering them to all the other rooms in your corridor so I’d be walking past your door anyway. Can I come in and grab the dirty ones?”

“Yeah of course, I’ll go and get them for you,” replied Jess as she headed into the bathroom.

Dawn waited for her in the living room, “How was Maurice when you went up to visit him?”

“Lorna says he’s doing well.” Jess called back through from the shower room, “We just need to wait for him to put on a bit more weight and then we can release him.”

Jess came back through to the living room laden with towels. “We’ve built up quite a pile,” she apologised as she dumped the load into Dawn’s cart.

“Do you want to see some photos of Maurice?”

“I’d love to,” replied Dawn, “let me finish up with the laundry and then I’ll come back up.”

“Fab, I’ll pop the kettle on,” grinned Jess.

Ten minutes later they were sitting on the sofa, warm cups of tea in hand, looking through the photos that Jess had uploaded to her laptop.

“Aww Maurice is a wee cutie!” exclaimed Dawn. “These are amazing photos Jess, you have talent! Have you shown the ones of Amelie to Olivia yet?”

“No, replied Jess, but it’s her birthday on Saturday so I’m going to get one printed and framed for her.”

“She’ll love that,” replied Dawn. “Are you coming to the pub with us all?”

“Yeah, Lorna mentioned it the other day. It’ll be good to have a girl’s night out.”

“Glad you can make it. I guess I’d better get back to work,” sighed Dawn. “We’re still a bit short staffed and Callum will be taking some time off over the next couple of days so I need to get ahead of things.”

“He didn’t seem in a great frame of mind when I left him earlier,”Jess bit down on her lip. “Lainey’s parents turning up unexpectedly seems to have left him pretty stressed.”

Dawn's brows furrowed, “Callum’s way of coping has always been to shut down. When Lainey died, he put up defensive barriers that stopped him feeling the full force of emotions at the time. I doubt he’s ever been able to process them properly.

So now anytime he has to face anything related to Lainey it’s like he’s experiencing everything as if it just happened. ”

Jess nodded and tried to put herself in Cal’s shoes, “Seeing Lainey’s parents must feel like torture. Has he ever tried counselling?”

Dawn shook her head, “No, I suggested it to him but he wouldn’t go.”

“I guess he needs to do things in his own time,” pondered Jess.

“Yeah, that’s my thinking too,” replied Dawn as she got up and made her way to the door. She paused and turned back to Jess.

“Callum lost his spark when Lainey died and it never fully returned. There’s something different about him when he’s around you. It’s like seeing the old Callum again. Maybe you could have a chat with him?”

Jess nodded, “Of course. I don’t know if I’ll be of much use but I’ll try.”

Dawn smiled, “Thanks, that would be amazing.”

She pushed the cart through the door then stopped and turned to face Jess, “There were some complications around the details of Lainey’s death. It's not my place to tell you everything that happened but I want you to know there is more to it than most people know. It’s made it harder for Callum.”

“Okay, thanks for letting me know Dawn.”

Jess thought back to the look that had passed between Olivia and Lorna when she had found the article about Lainey at the hedgehog sanctuary. Her gut told her that Olivia was somehow tangled in Lainey and Cal’s history.

Jess spent the rest of the afternoon curled up on the sofa reading her book.

She was so absorbed in the story that it was only when her stomach rumbled that she realised she’d skipped lunch.

She slipped her shoes on and made her way out into the corridor in the hope that she would make it down to the hotel's restaurant in time to order something from the lunch menu. She had just reached the top of the stairs when she heard her name being spoken. It was Val, she was standing in the foyer with Cal and a man who Jess presumed must be Lainey’s dad.

Jess stopped and peered over the banister to look down on the group.

Val had her hand on Cal’s arm, “Jess seems nice, Callum.”

Cal cleared his throat and shifted his weight from foot to foot. It was subtle but Jess could see he was uncomfortable.

“Yeah, she is,” he replied.

Val rubbed his arm gently, “I want you to know that we would never expect you to hide your new relationships from us. I’ll admit it was a shock to see you together but that’s only natural. You deserve to have someone in your life. Lainey would want that for you, and so do we.”

Cal’s gaze was focused on the carpet, he shook his head slightly, “There’s nothing going on with Jess. She just needed somewhere to stay,” he replied. “Sorry, I’d better get back to work,” he mumbled.

Jess watched from above as Cal made a bee line for his office; leaving Val and Edward standing in the foyer.

She debated for a moment whether to retreat back to her room or carry on down the stairs and risk an awkward encounter. She waited long enough to ensure Val wouldn’t suspect she had overheard their conversation and then made her way down the stairs.

“Oh, hi Val,” she smiled politely. “Did you enjoy your lunch?”

“Hi Jess, nice to see you again. Yes, lunch was lovely, thank you. This is my husband, Edward.”

Jess shook Edward’s outstretched hand, “Lovely to meet you.”

“Please don’t think we are being rude,” continued Val, “but it has been a long day of travel and we’re both exhausted. We were just about to head back to our room for a lie down.”

“Of course, don’t let me hold you up.” replied Jess. “Enjoy your rest.”

She hovered in the foyer, standing half way between the restaurant and Cal’s office. Dawn’s words rang in her ear, asking her to try and speak to Cal. She took a deep breath and stepped towards his door, knocking lightly.

“Come in.” There was a tired strain to his voice.

Cal looked up at her as she made her way into the office, their eyes met but there was a dullness in his expression. The natural connection between them was absent. She felt it like a punch to the gut.

“Hi,” she said softly, "I just wanted to come and see how you’re doing?”

“I’m fine,” His voice was sombre, he sounded weary.

“How was lunch?” she asked.

He sighed and ran his hand through his hair, “It was fine.”

The silence stretched.

“Okay, well …. I’ll just get going.”

“Hmhm,” He stared at the computer but she doubted he was actually reading anything.

She waited a moment, expecting him to say something or at least look at her but his eyes stayed fixed to the screen.

Silently she made her way out of the office feeling shaky and unsettled.