Page 31 of Sailing Free at Loch Tunnagan (Loch Tunnagan #1)

I t was Olivia's birthday night out and James pulled the car up next to the pub.

“Thanks for the lift. Love you!” Lorna leaned in to give him a kiss.

Olivia’s face poked through from the back seat, “I love you too.” She kissed the top of his head.

“Do me a favour, and don’t let her drink too much more wine,” smiled James.

They had met at Olivia’s so they could give her their gifts and she’d invited them in for a glass of wine. The birthday girl had drunk a glass or two more than the rest of them and the effects were starting to show.

As they walked towards the pub, Olivia put her arm around Jess and leaned in, “Jess, you are such a good photographer, I love my picture of Amelie with the hedgehog. It’s honestly the best photo I have of her now. Thank you so much.”

“I’m glad you like it,” replied Jess, “Amelie is a wee cracker. You’ve done so well with her.”

“Thanks,” sighed Olivia, “but I can’t help but worry about her. She’s been asking about her dad a lot recently. Playing Mum’s and Dad’s seems to be popular in the playground at the moment and I think it’s making her question things.”

“Does she ever see her dad?” asked Jess tentatively.

Olivia shook her head, “Jack’s serving time in prison and I refuse to take her through to visit him. Prison is no place for a child to be hanging around. I bloody well told him a million times to quit getting involved with all that eco warrior shit. Him and Lainey were both too deep into it.”

Jess would have liked to chat more but Dawn waved at them from the corner of the room, “I’ve got us a good table.”

The Bramble and Thistle was the epitome of a cosy village pub. Dark wooden beams were illuminated with strings of soft fairy lights and an open fire spread warmth around the room.

Jess sat down next to Dawn, “Where’s Lorna gone?"

“She’s over by the bar.” replied Dawn “She’s getting the first round of drinks.”

Olivia put her finger drunkenly to her lips and turned to Jess, “I’m going to tell you a secret.

Lorna is our secret weapon. Do you see that perky dancer's bum of hers? It has gotten us quite a few free drinks in the past. The bartender has a bit of a thing for our Lorna so we always send her up. She doesn’t know though so shhhh. ”

Lorna arrived back at the table with a tray of drinks, “That was nice. Gerry said these ones are on the house because it’s your birthday Olivia.”

Olivia shook her head knowingly. She discreetly pointed down at Lorna’s rear end. Dawn and Jess hid their smiles behind their glasses.

“How’re you getting on with plans for the boat race?” asked Dawn.

“Pretty good,” replied Jess, “I’ve only got a week left here before I need to go back to Glasgow so I’m trying to get all the loose ends tied up.”

She looked at them pleadingly, “Actually, a photographer from the local paper has said she’ll come out and take some pictures but we need people to sit in the boat. Will any of you be free next Saturday?”

“Sorry Jess, I can’t. I’m working,” apologised Dawn.

“I’m in as long as it's in the morning. I’m teaching classes in the afternoon,” said Lorna.

“Me too. I’ll text Edith now and see if she can cover the cafe for a couple of hours on Saturday.” Olivia's reply came out a little slurred.

“Fab, that works out perfectly. It will be the three of us and Cal in the boat for the photos.” Jess was thankful she could tick another thing off her 'to do' list.

“I can’t believe you're leaving in a week,” Olivia swirled the last dregs of wine around the bottom of her glass. “It feels like you belong here.”

Jess silently agreed. She had travelled so much as a child due to her parents' jobs but never once had she found anywhere that felt more like home than Loch Tunnagan.

She sighed, “I need to figure out what I’m going to do about work. …and I need to face Ryan.”

“Have you spoken to him much?” asked Dawn.

Jess shook her head, “I asked him to leave me alone for a month so I could clear my head. It’s weird, sometimes I forget what he did and start to miss him and then it all comes crashing back.”

“I know exactly how you feel,” muttered Olivia.

Jess’ phone vibrated on the table next to Lorna, “Speak of the devil!” Lorna handed Jess’ phone over to her, “Ryan’s calling.”

Jess held the phone up to her ear and tried to calm the butterflies in her stomach as she made her way out to the quiet of the car park. A shiver ran up her spine, she wasn’t sure if it was caused by the cool March air or from hearing Ryan’s voice again, “Jess?”

“Yeah?” replied Jess.

“Is this a bad time to talk?”

“I can speak for a minute or two, why are you calling?”

“I want to speak to you properly before you come back.” There was a slight pause, “There have been some developments.”

“Like what?”

“I’ve booked a room in the Tunnagan Hotel on Friday night. Will you meet me there for dinner and we can discuss everything then.”

Jess couldn’t respond. Her mind was too occupied by a million different possible scenarios.

“Please Jess,” Ryan pleaded.

“What developments Ryan?”

“Just meet me for dinner and I’ll explain everything that’s going on.”

“Ok,” relented Jess, “what time?”

“Does 6:30 pm work for you?”

“Yeah, see you then,” she sighed.

Jess entered the pub again and made her way over to the table to find a guy in a chequered shirt sitting in her chair. He was facing Olivia and seemed engrossed in their conversation.

Olivia looked up and smiled, “Hey Jess, this is Clark.”

“Hi, nice to meet you,” Jess accepted Clark's outstretched hand.

“I’d better get back to the guys and give you back your chair.” Clark stood up to let Jess in.

“Enjoy the rest of your birthday Olivia.”

“He seems nice,” Jess watched Clark join a group of guys who were all ordering drinks at the bar.

“Clark was Olivia’s high school boyfriend,” smiled Lorna.

“I reckon Clark wants to revisit the high school days.”Dawn raised an eyebrow. “There was definite chemistry there.”

“He was just being friendly.” Olivia sounded nonchalant but Jess couldn’t help notice the smile that crept over her face.

“Clark bought Olivia a bottle of wine for her birthday. Looks like Lorna’s not our only secret weapon,” Dawn whispered discreetly to Jess as she leaned over to top up her glass.

Lorna was looking down at her phone, “James, says he can’t come to pick us up because someone has just handed in a hedgehog. Apparently, he’s sent us the next best thing though, whatever that means?”

The door to the pub opened, “I think the next best thing just walked in,” grinned Dawn.

Jess turned and immediately felt a flutter in her chest as she watched Cal stroll into the pub. He greeted the group of guys at the bar and then made his way over to their table.

“Hey ladies, James sent me a text to say that I’m on chauffeur duties.”

“Thanks for coming through Cal,” said Lorna.

Cal looked down at their full glasses, “I’ll go and hang out with the lads and let you finish your drinks.”

As Cal wandered off towards the bar, two women emerged from the ladies. The cloud of perfume that surrounded them penetrated Jess’ nostrils.

“Hey look, Cal MacDonald is over at the bar.”

The blonde one with the perfectly sculpted curls locked her gaze on him, “God, I forgot how hot he is, I’m going to go say hi.”

She sauntered towards Cal and Jess felt a stab of jealousy.

The woman stretched up to whisper something into Cal’s ear, making the corners of his lips twitch up in a smile.

Her tight jeans clung to long toned legs and the mid cut top revealed her taut stomach as she held her arm up to get the barman’s attention.

Dawn followed Jess’ gaze, “She’s wasting her time.”

“What makes you say that?” questioned Jess.

“I know Callum, he’s not interested,” shrugged Dawn. “Look at his body language, that’s his polite smile, not his genuine smile and also he’s trying to turn away from her to talk to the guys again.”

Looking at the encounter through Dawn’s eyes made Jess feel better, however an uncomfortable feeling still settled at the pit of her stomach. How had she let herself become so captivated by Cal?

Dawn continued, “Mandy had a thing for him when we were younger and never had any success. I’m pretty sure she hung out with me just so she could see more of Cal.”

“Is everyone finished?” asked Olivia peering into each of their wine glasses. “Let’s go over and rescue Cal.”

They all gathered their things and headed over, “Hi Mandy, it’s been a while,” said Lorna.

“Yeah,” Mandy placed her hand on Cal’s arm and leaned into him, “Cal and I have just been reminiscing about the good old days, haven’t we.”

Cal nodded but his eyes were locked on Jess’.

“You look nice tonight, Jess.”

Jess felt a ripple of pleasure run through her, “Thanks,” she smiled back at him.

“Hmhm, excuse me,” Olivia, waved her arm around the rest of the group.

“Apologies,” smiled Cal, “You all look beautiful tonight.”

“That’s more like it,” grinned Olivia.

“Shall we get going?” asked Cal.

“See you later Mandy,” he said, removing himself from her grasp.

They all climbed into Cal’s truck apart from Olivia who seemed to be having problems with the task. “I see the birthday girl has taken full opportunity of her night of freedom,” smirked Cal as he assisted her into the seat, “Geez how much did you drink Olivia.”

“Callum, remember your eighteenth? That one encounter with alcohol has rendered you with the inability to comment on anyone else's drunkenness for the rest of your life,” stated Dawn.

“Oh, you need to tell me about that!” exclaimed Jess. “Angus mentioned it too.”

“Dawn!” Cal gave her a warning glare but she paid him no heed.

“Ok, so here’s what happened,” Dawn spoke with glee. It was Callum’s eighteenth and we went out to the pub for the first time. Callum discovered he really liked whisky. And I mean REALLY liked whisky.”

“I don’t like whisky anymore,” muttered Cal.

Dawn carried on, “He got unbelievably drunk. We somehow made it back up to the hotel and Callum said he felt sick. He went into the bathroom and he was in there for ages. I remember knocking on the door but I couldn’t get him to reply and so I started to panic.

His mum and dad were sleeping and I didn’t want to wake them because I thought they would be angry that we had got so drunk. ”

“You were right,” remarked Cal.

“Angus was the night porter that night so I went to get him. He came back with me and couldn’t get a response from Callum either. He managed to jimmy the lock and get the door open.”

She turned in her seat to face Jess, “Oh boy, the scene that hit us is something that I will never be able to wipe clean from my brain.”

Cal reached over and put his hand playfully over Dawn’s mouth, “I think that’s enough story time for now. Do you really need to tell the rest?”

Dawn moved his hand out the way, “Yes, this is the best bit,” she grinned.

“Callum was lying fast asleep on the bathroom floor wearing nothing but my underwear!”

Jess laughed, “How did he go from feeling sick to wearing your underwear?”

“From the evidence we saw in front of us and from the bits of information Callum was able to tell us, we have managed to piece together what happened. Just picture this.”

“Don’t picture it,” interjected Cal. “No need to visualise.”

“Callum is sitting on the toilet with his boxers down at his knees. He feels sick, leans forward and vomits into his boxers. He tries to take them off to clean everything up but because he is so drunk the sick ends up everywhere so he needs to take all his clothes off.”

“I think that goes in my favour,” voiced Cal. “Even when that inebriated, I tried to clean myself up.”

“Nothing goes in your favour in this story,” smirked Dawn.

“Anyway, I was staying at his place that night and I had left my bag of clothes in the bathroom. He must have rummaged through it to try and get some clean clothes, found my pink lacy pants, put them on and then fell asleep after the exertion of squeezing into girls underwear.”

“Not my finest moment,” muttered Cal.

“Best story ever.” laughed Jess.