Page 28 of Sailing Free at Loch Tunnagan (Loch Tunnagan #1)

J ess woke early the next morning and groggily made her way to the kitchen to make some breakfast. She automatically grabbed two bowls and filled them with yoghurt and granola then shook her head after realising what she’d done.

She was about to throw the contents of the spare bowl in the bin when she spotted movement from over on Cal’s boat.

She hesitated then decided to take the spare bowl over to him in case he hadn’t had time to eat yet.

Jess emerged onto the walkway and laughed when she saw Cal standing with two coffees.

“Come on in.” She indicated for Cal to sit at the table and popped the bowl in front of him.

He slid the coffee over to her, “Habits are hard to break,” he grinned.

“I’m actually glad you came over,” she took a sip of coffee and savoured the familiarity of Cal's blend, “I wanted to show you some posters I’ve designed for the boat race. I used Nancy and Edith's old photos alongside some that I took the other day so I’m hoping that will catch people’s attention. ”

“These are brilliant Jess, you’ve put so much effort into organising everything!”

“I’ve actually had a lot of fun doing it,” replied Jess.

“What’re you up to today?” asked Cal.

“I’m taking a break from the boat race and hanging out with Lorna. She’s doing a hedgehog talk at the school and Maurice is going to be the star of the show. I volunteered to tag along and help out.”

“His first day at school? Your baby is all grown up!”

Jess nodded, “Lorna messaged to say he’s put on enough weight now and will be ready to be released in a couple of days.”

“How do you feel about that?” asked Cal.

“A bit mixed,” sighed Jess, “I’m obviously happy that he’s healthy enough to be released but it breaks my heart to think that I’ll probably never see him again once he is back in the wild.”

Cal gave her a warm smile, “He’ll not be able to resist the luxury of that castle you’ve designed for him. I bet he’ll be back to hibernate there each winter.”

“I’ve not even finished building it,” said Jess with dismay. She looked up at him with pleading eyes, “Is there any chance we could get back up to the barn in the next couple of days?”

“You’d actually be doing me a favour if we went up now,” replied Cal. “I’ve left the hedgehog houses that I made for the school up there. I’ve got an hour or so before I need to be at the hotel so we could work on the castle for a bit and then I could give you the houses to take to Lorna.”

“That would be perfect,” smiled Jess.

She went to her room to get ready and when she returned Cal was washing the breakfast dishes.

“Oooft back to reality,” she sighed, “It was nice not having dishes to do up at the hotel.”

“Washing dishes is good for the soul," replied Cal. “It’s therapeutic.”

“Where did you get that idea from?” teased Jess, “A spa day is therapeutic, rubbing your hands around in dirty dishwater; not so much.”

Cal rolled his eyes, “Let’s go.”

“Hey,” Lorna greeted Jess as she jumped in the 4x4. “Thanks for picking me up.”

“No worries,” replied Jess, “It makes sense seeing as I have all of Cal’s hedgehog houses in the boot anyway.”

She leaned over to peer in the pet carrier that was perched carefully on Lorna’s lap. She was met by a little snout sniffing curiously up at her,

“Hello Maurice, you’re looking well.”

“He really is,” replied Lorna, “He passed all his health checks with flying colours so we can release him tonight.”

Jess felt a mix of emotions swirl in her stomach, “Would it be possible to wait until tomorrow evening? Cal and I are babysitting Amelie tonight and I would really like to be there to see him off.”

“Yeah, of course,” replied Lorna, “It’s actually better if you’re there because it’s good to release him back where you found him. We’ll need you to show us.”

“Ok, fab,” Jess let out a sigh of relief. “We finished making his hedgehog castle this morning so we can put that down too.”

“His hedgehog castle? That’ll be a first for any of the hedgehogs around here,” smiled Lorna.

Jess pulled into the car park at the school and they were met by the receptionist who helped carry in the hedgehog houses. She guided them to a classroom and asked them to wait by the door while she informed the teacher that they had arrived.

A few seconds later a young teacher with a warm smile popped her head round the door, “Thank you so much for coming, the children are going to love this!” She beaconed Jess and Lorna into the room.

A large group of children sat cross legged on the floor. Their index fingers were pressed against their lips but their eyes were bulging with excitement and they looked fit to burst with pent up questions.

“We have some very exciting guests in our classroom today; can anyone guess who our visitors are and what they are going to teach us about?”

A sea of hands shot up; each child stretching their arm as high into the air as possible in a bid to draw their teacher's attention.

The teacher pointed at a boy with copper red hair and a sprinkling of freckles across his little nose, “Yes, Thomas?”

“It’s Lorna. She’s going to teach us how to dance!”

“Lorna does teach dance,” agreed his teacher, “but that’s not why she’s here today. Does anyone else have any guesses?”

The sea of hands shot up again, “Amelie, what do you think?”

Jess hadn’t spotted Amelie amongst all the children. She gave her a subtle wave.

Amelie’s chest puffed up a little as she answered, “It is my Auntie Lorna and Jess and they have brought Maurice so we can learn about how to look after hedgehogs in the wild.”

“Yes Amelie, that is exactly right. I think you may have had some insider information,” smiled the teacher.

Lorna gave a short presentation about the plight of hedgehogs in the uk and Jess helped by handing out pictures of what healthy and unhealthy hedgehogs look like. They then showed the children a hedgehog house and told them that they could take one home to place in their garden.

This information set off a barrage of excited chatter that had to be quieted by fingers being placed on lips again. Once there was a calmer atmosphere in the classroom the children were allowed to head over; one at a time to take a look at Maurice and ask any questions they may have.

When the final child had been to see Maurice, their teacher asked them all to sit down quietly again, “Does anyone have any last questions before our wonderful guests head home?”

Amelie’s hand shot up, an earnest expression rested on her little face as she spoke to her teacher, “I was wondering if Jess will read me a story tonight when she is at my house?”

Jess held back a smile, “Yes, Of course I will Amelie. I look forward to it.”

When Olivia opened her door to them that evening, Jess was almost knocked over by the force of Amelie slamming into her legs. She wrapped her little arms around Jess’ knees and Cal who was standing in the doorway caught them just in time.

“Hey Amelie!” Jess bent down to give her a hug.

Olivia smiled over at them from where she stood at the sink washing dishes, “Thank you so much again for doing this.”

She took in the scene at the door and looked apologetically at Jess, “Amelie, you need to let go of Jess so she can actually come in.”

Amelie moved back so that Jess and Cal were able to make their way into Olivia’s flat.

“She normally goes to bed at about 7:30 pm but I’ve said she can stay up a little bit later tonight. Help yourself to anything in the kitchen. Amelie will show you where everything is. I’ll be as quick as I can.”

“Take your time. We’re looking forward to hanging out with Amelie,” smiled Jess.

Amelie tugged at Cal’s arm, “Cal, can you and Jess come see my new dinosaur. It’s a T-rex!”

“A T-Rex? Oh, I don’t know. I think Jess might be too scared,” replied Cal.

Amelie looked thoughtful, “Hmm if Jess is scared then I’ll bring her my octopus. They're not scary.”

“That would probably be best,” nodded Cal.

“Come give me a hug goodbye before you start playing,” interjected Olivia.

Amelie ran over and gave her mum a quick hug then returned straight away to drag Cal and Olivia towards her bedroom.

They turned their heads back to shout bye to Olivia who mouthed, “I won’t be long,” before closing the door behind her.

“Do you want to play mum’s and dad’s?” asked Amelie.

“We’d love to,” replied Jess.

“We would?” asked Cal with a raised eyebrow, “I was kind of excited about the dinosaurs.”

“Don’t worry,” replied Amelie earnestly, “the T- Rex can be your baby.”

“Er ok, I was thinking more along the lines of ferocious dinosaur fights,” replied Cal as a T- rex was thrust up towards him.

“Here is a dummy for his mouth. Remember to rock him to get him to sleep!”

Jess had to stifle a laugh as she looked up to see Cal; the image of a doting father, gently cradling the T-Rex in his arms as he attempted to place the dummy in its predatorial mouth.

“Oh, silly me,” Amelie put her hand up to her mouth, “I forgot to marry you first.”

“You want to marry me?” asked Cal.

“No silly,” Amelie laughed, “I’m the big sister. You need to marry Jess. She’s the mum.”

Jess looked up, worry crept over her as she wondered if talk of marriage might trigger painful memories for Cal. She gently got down on her knees so she could speak to Amelie.

“Remember, we had a chat in the car the other day. We spoke about how families come in all different shapes and sizes. Maybe in this one there is just one Dad.”

Disappointment flashed across Amelie’s face. The excitement faded from her voice,

“Oh ok.”

Jess sneaked a sidelong glance at Cal. He subtly nodded his head and gave a smile as if he could read her thoughts. He was giving her the ‘go ahead’ signal.

“Actually, do you know what? Let’s play mums and dads. I would love to marry Cal!”

A smile tugged at the corner of Cal’s lips, “You would?”

Amelie’s mouth broke into a huge grin, “Great, I’ll get the veil.”