Page 6 of Sailing Free at Loch Tunnagan (Loch Tunnagan #1)
W hen Jess stepped outside the cafe, the scene was very different from before. The light had dimmed considerably and what heat had been there during the day was drifting up into a cloudless sky. The dark velvet blanket above was filled with stars as sharp and sparkling as diamonds.
It was a darkness that she rarely got to see any more.
In the early days of the business, Jess had been the in-house photographer.
The job took her and Ryan on countless adventures in some of the wildest parts of Scotland’s landscape.
However, she had done her job too well, they now had a huge bank of photos, and there was little reason to head out on adventures any more.
Now, she was firmly immersed in the city under a carpet of orange light pollution, normally viewed from the office window as she ate cold takeaway food and fielded e-mails.
E-mails! God, she had switched her phone off when she was having dinner. When was the last time she’d done that? Most meals with Ryan had involved a steady rhythm of them both stopping to check and answer yet more messages. She switched her phone back on and the pings started instantly.
Jess took an odd satisfaction from having a clear inbox. The counter now displayed the number ‘62’. She couldn’t think of a time she had ever had sixty-two unanswered emails. The thought of all those people waiting for responses brought her out in a cold sweat.
There were voicemails too. A lot of them. She listened to the first one from Ryan all the way through. It was a long, anguished message that finished with, “I’m so sorry Jess. The flat feels empty without you here, please call me back.”
Jess felt no inclination to answer his plea. Not tonight at least.
She skipped the other messages from Ryan but listened carefully to the ones from Paul. By the third message Paul had earned himself a Christmas bonus for that year and then some.
“Hi Jess, just a quick message to keep you in the loop. I put in a request to hire a temporary admin assistant; Ryan approved it without question. It'll give you a bit of breathing space.”
He carried on, his voice picking up pace as he spoke animatedly, “Also, in a show of solidarity, I hid all the office biscuits. Ryan and Steph have lost their rights to the biscuit stash. Only me and the new admin assistant will have access to them. Oh, and speaking of the new admin assistant, a really hot guy handed his CV in the other day. I’m going to persuade Ryan to hire him.
He has loads of experience plus I think he might be my future husband! ”
Jess smiled with love for her friend. Paul had worked wonders in a single afternoon. Bookings were all covered and admin tasks were, for the most part, covered too.
However, despite Paul’s best efforts there were still those sixty-two emails in her inbox. She looked again at them and read the first three. They were all outside of Paul’s jurisdiction and she couldn’t bring herself to dump all of that on him when he’d already gone above and beyond his remit.
Instead, Jess selected all sixty-two emails and clicked ‘forward’. The full inbox could be Ryan and Steph’s problem now. With the emails ‘dealt with’, Jess moved them into the relevant folder. Her inbox was empty once more. Jess closed her email app feeling satisfied.
She was putting her phone away when she heard the screech of brakes.
Jess looked up to realise she had walked right out onto the road.
The red pickup that she had parked next to earlier had come to an abrupt stop in front of her.
The headlights shone in her eyes making it impossible to see the driver but she waved a hand of apology and quickly moved out the way chastising herself as she went.
Jess awoke the next morning in a state of deep confusion. Why was the room moving?
It took a moment for reality to flood in. A pang of pain hit her. She had so many questions but she wasn’t sure if she actually wanted an answer to them. Was that the first time Ryan had slept with Steph? Was he in love with her? She felt nauseous at the thought.
She grabbed a blanket and wrapped it around her shoulders. As she popped on the little stovetop espresso maker a wild cacophony of sound came swirling through the portholes high above her eye-line.
Jess stepped out to investigate what was happening and saw that there was a wildly excitable little dog running around on the boat that was moored alongside hers. The tartan bandana it wore stood in contrast against its black fur.
A deep voice, warm with affection, laughed and called the dog back into the cabin. Something in that voice reverberated through Jess and left her with a comfortable warmth in her chest. The excitement of the dog’s barks was soon replaced by the rhythmic sound of water lapping against the boat.
Jess turned back to her all-important coffee, adding a splash of milk to the sunshine yellow mug.
She took the beverage, slash, hand-warmer out to the seats on the deck, trying to convince herself that she was simply enjoying the last remnants of sunrise, and not in the slightest bit interested in catching a glimpse of the man attached to that voice.
He didn’t seem inclined to venture out though so Jess returned her attention to the Lochside around her. The whole area was in a state of change, the warm sun highlighting Spring as it awoke the wild hills from their lifeless winter slumber.
Through force of habit Jess grabbed her camera; it had been in the car from the previous day when she was taking promotional photos of 'The Sauncy Lass’. She peered through the viewfinder and snapped a short burst of pictures, capturing the golden light that climbed up over the russet hills.
The moment of calm broke once more as the dog re-emerged from the cabin on the adjacent boat. Something was caught in its collar. Was that a pair of shorts being dragged behind him?
It was then that Jess spotted the target of the dog’s excitement. A little girl was out on the jetty, throwing bread to the ducks. She had a lot of bread and there was a growing crowd of ducks who wanted some of it.
The dog was growing wild with excitement, spinning in circles on the small deck of his boat and barking over to the dozens of birds just feet away from him.
Jess heard the man’s voice, and once again, her body reacted.
Then the owner of the voice emerged. He had his back to her but the tall, broad outline of his body matched the voice she’d heard perfectly.
Dark curls of hair stood in relief against a clean white top.
He clenched his fists in frustration as he yelled to his dog, “MacTavish, no! I’ve told you a hundred times, you leave those ducks alone. I said no!”
Too late. The dog was in the water, dragging the shorts in with him and stirring the ducks into a frenzy.
MacTavish paddled frantically in the direction of the birds but as the water seeped into the material of the shorts the added weight became too much and he started to struggle.
The man cursed under his breath and pulled off his boots.
“Bloody dog!”
There was a massive splash as he jumped into the water, drawing closer to the dog with confident, practised strokes.
The water must be freezing but it seemed to cause him little discomfort.
He reached MacTavish and managed to unhook the chain that was connecting the shorts to the dog’s harness.
As soon as MacTavish realised, he had been freed from the burden of the shorts he shot off again.
The dog was in no mood to be caught and was surprisingly agile in the water. He swerved past the man and turned back on his path. The dog was now on a direct intercept course with Jess’ boat.
Before she could do more than stand up from her seat, the dog had pulled himself up the three shallow steps that led to her deck and bolted into the cabin. One wet beast was followed by another as the man pulled himself up onto Jess’ deck.
“So sorry, he’s normally great but birds set him off.” He indicated to the cabin, “Do you mind if I go in and get him? Don’t want him to wake anyone up.”
Jess nodded and the man placed the sodden shorts down on the deck before bolting into the galley kitchen.
She called after him, “It’s OK, you’re not disturbing anyone. It’s just me…”
She followed him into the cabin. He’d already wrestled the dog into submission and the two of them were seated in front of the couch, dripping on to a plain cream rug. The man followed Jess’s gaze and jumped up.
“Oh God, I’m sorry, we’ve dripped all over your rug. We’ll get out of here.”
As the man stood up, Jess caught her breath. Water dripped down his dark curls and curved around a warm smile. Deep brown eyes looked down at her.
“Sorry again for disturbing your morning.”
“It’s no bother, really. Like I said, it’s just me here.”
She was mortifying herself here. Why was it so important to her that this man knew she was alone?
Back in Glasgow she would never have dreamt of letting a strange man know that she was somewhere alone.
What was different here? What was different about him?
She looked away for a second, sure he could see her blushing.
Jess followed them to the door and caught a glimpse of a strong thigh through his sodden pyjama bottoms as he bent down to pick up the shorts.
He explained, “The chain for my keys at work are attached to my shorts. They somehow got caught in his harness which led to the series of events that ultimately resulted in this puddle on your deck.”
He shot her a guilty look, “Give me two minutes and I’ll get a mop to clean it up.”
“I think you have enough to deal with," she glanced down at the soaking dog in one hand and the shorts in the other. “I’ll get this cleaned up in two minutes.”
“Thank you,” he gave her a grateful smile before turning and making his way towards the jetty.