Page 9 of Sailing Free at Loch Tunnagan (Loch Tunnagan #1)

T he world was still and silent when Jess woke.

She slipped down from the bed and padded over the soft carpet to reach the window.

A crisp blue sky greeted her when she pulled the drapes back.

The only evidence of the storm was the leaves and small branches that were scattered around the hotel's gardens.

Cal had slept in the area which housed the sofa as well as a dining table. The door was still shut and Jess couldn’t hear any movement so she presumed he must still be asleep. She quietly made her way to the shower.

When she emerged clean and fresh she popped her head in to say hi and was greeted by MacTavish bouncing excitedly at her feet.

She bent down to pat the affectionate little creature.

Cal was placing an assortment of breakfast items on the dining room table.

The sleeves of his shirt strained against his arms as he carried the trays to the table.

Trying to focus on his face she noted his deep brown eyes with tiny flecks of gold that reflected the morning sun.

Looking in his face wasn’t helping her. She turned her attention to the mug of coffee in his hands; it smelled good.

“Angus brought some breakfast up,” Cal smiled. “I think he forgot there are only two of us.”

Jess laughed as she saw the spread of dishes filled with pastries, fruit and the components of a full Scottish breakfast, “I could get used to this!”

Placing a pancake and some fruit on her plate Jess asked, “Do you live full time on your boat?”

“Pretty much. I used to stay in the living quarters here but a couple of the staff had issues with the place they were renting and couldn't find anywhere else to stay so I moved out and they moved in.”

“That was a really decent thing to do. Not many bosses would give up their home to their staff.”

Cal shrugged, “The staff here are like family to me and anyway moving out did me the world of good.” Jess thought she saw a hint of a shadow cross his face but before she could ask anymore her attention was drawn to her phone ringing.

Paul’s name flashed up on the screen. A knot of guilt rose in her stomach. She had abandoned all her responsibilities at work and poor Paul had been left to pick up the pieces. It was time to face reality. She pressed to answer, “Hi Paul, how are you?”

It felt good to hear his voice, “I’m good but I miss you. Work isn’t the same without you in the office. Ryan has been in a foul mood for obvious reasons and Steph is strutting around as if she owns the place.”

Jess could hear the familiar sound of the printer in the background.

She could picture Paul moving around the office working efficiently with the phone pressed between his ear and his shoulder.

He continued, “However, the silver lining is Alan; the temp assistant that we hired. OMG he is amazing. Jess I’m in love with him… .can we keep him?”

Jess laughed, “You do deserve a treat after everything you’ve done for me.”

“How is life on the boat?” asked Paul.

“Good, I’m actually really enjoying it. But there was a big storm last night so Cal woke me up in the middle of the night and took me to stay at the hotel.”

“Hang on…. pause for a second!” exclaimed Paul. “Who is this Cal that you’ve been shacking up with?”

Jess sneaked a quick sideways glance at Cal. Paul didn’t have the quietest of phone voices and it was clear that his side of the conversation had reached Cal’s ears. Cal was leaning back against his chair; his arms crossed over his chest. Their eyes met and he smiled.

“I’ll take this in the bedroom,” Jess mouthed as she pointed at her phone.

With her coffee in one hand, she snuggled back against the headboard of the bed and chatted away to Paul, explaining the situation with Cal and the boats.

As the conversation drew to an end Jess swithered whether to ask about Ryan. She hadn't gone a day without talking to him in eight years. It felt weird to have had no contact with him over the last few days.

“So, Ryan’s been in a foul mood?”

Paul sighed “He’s not looking great Jess. I think he’s crippled with guilt.”

Jess mulled over Paul’s words as she sat in the passenger seat of Cal’s truck on the way back down to the boats.

She knew she was being anti-social but she just couldn’t muster the energy to speak.

It felt like there was a weight dragging her down to a really dark place.

Conflicting emotions were at war inside her.

The image of Ryan emerging from their bedroom with Steph flashed into her mind.

It made her feel sick. Sick with anger, sick with shame and sick with sadness.

But then flashes of their life together would appear and she would feel a sense of nostalgia.

Memories of his arms wrapped safely around her as they gazed up in awe at the Northern lights, memories of laughter erupting from them when they realised they had assembled their wardrobe the wrong way in their first flat, memories of him kissing her tenderly, telling her he loved her. What had gone wrong?

She aimlessly scrolled back through their messages; searching for something; some clue. And then it hit her. If you replaced the ‘Love you x’ at the end of each message with a ‘Yours sincerely’ or ‘Regards Jess’ then the texts pretty much read as dialogue between two work colleagues.

How had she let this happen? Had their personal relationship ended and been replaced solely by business?

“Shit.”

Jess’ thoughts were broken by Cal’s expletive.

They had pulled up to the jetty and to Jess’ horror a huge tree was blocking their path.

They couldn’t get a visual on the boats as the branches of the now horizontal tree were blocking their line of sight.

Cal stepped out of the truck and nimbly climbed on top of the fallen tree…

Jess followed suit in a less nimble fashion.

She accepted Cal’s outstretched hand as he pulled her up onto the trunk.

Her heart sank in dismay. A large branch had fallen across the two boats.

“How bad do you think it is?” she asked Cal.

“I’ll need to get down for a closer look,” he replied. “Stay here, I'm not sure how safe it is.”

Cal slid down the tree and Jess watched as he moved around the boats assessing for damage.

“We’ve come off pretty lucky,” he called up. “The hulls look sound on both boats, no major structural damage. They’ll stay afloat.”

He climbed on to each boat taking a closer look amongst the smaller branches that covered them.

Wincing he looked up, “Have you got insurance? Your window has cracked and there’s some superficial damage to the bow. Same on mine.”

Jess sighed, “I’m going to have to speak to Ryan about the insurance. He dealt with that side of the business.”

“I’ll need to go get my chainsaw; do you want to come? Or I could drop you off at the hotel on the way. You could get a coffee while I sort out the tree.”

Jess shook her head, “I’m not going to leave you to do all the work. I’ll come.”

They drove past the hotel and up a narrow winding road.

The track got rougher as they ascended into the hills, causing Jess to bump slightly in her seat.

A large wooden barn that sat just off the road came into view.

When Cal stopped the truck MacTavish jumped out and trotted straight to the barn door.

Jess laughed, “I guess he’s eager to get to work. ”

Cal shook his head grinning, “He’s eager to get to the dog biscuits that he knows are kept in there.”

A warm, earthy smell permeated the air in the barn. It was a pleasant, comforting smell. It smelled like Cal.

She looked around. Stacks of wood were neatly piled according to shape and size and tools hung in place on the walls, “Are you a bit of a neat freak?” smiled Jess.

“When it comes to my barn; yes. You should feel very privileged to be in here. It’s normally only MacTavish that gets to come.”

As predicted MacTavish was sitting obediently at the foot of a counter that held a large jar of dog treats, “There you go buddy,” Cal gave the dog a pat as he wolfed the biscuit.

“Where did the name MacTavish come from?” asked Jess.

There was the briefest of pauses before Cal answered, “My wife named him. I know it’s a bit of a cliche; you know, a Scottie dog being called MacTavish, but my wife was English and she loved everything Scottish. She thought it suited him.”

“It does,” smiled Jess.” She looked curiously at Cal. He spoke as if he wasn’t married anymore. “Are you divorced?” she asked.

Cal shook his head, “Widowed.”

“Oh, I’m sorry Cal.”

Cal swallowed, “No worries.”

Clearing his throat he looked away, “Shall we grab the tools and get going?”

A few hours later Jess hobbled weakly into Olivia’s Cafe and collapsed into one of the chairs near the window. “What happened to you? " Asked Olivia as she approached with a notepad in hand.

“A tree came down on the jetty and hit the boats. Cal and I have spent hours chopping and shifting logs. My entire body aches.”

“Oh no, that’s awful, were you in your boat when the tree came down?”

Jess shook her head, “No, Cal had luckily taken the initiative to get us off the boats and up to the hotel last night.”

The bell to the door rang and Jess looked up to see Edith entering. She came straight over and clasped her hands around Jess’. “Oh love, thank goodness you’re ok. I've just been down at the boats and got such a fright when I saw that tree.”

“Edith, I’m so sorry ‘The Sauncy Lass’ took a bit of damage when the tree hit. I know how much she means to you.”

Edith looked at her incredulously, “Don’t be daft love, I’m just glad you aren't hurt. I see Cal’s boat was hit too. Is the lad, ok?”

Jess smirked at Cal being called a ‘lad’. “Yes, he is fine. We started to cut up the tree and move the logs to Cal’s barn but he needed to take a break to do some work in the office at the hotel. I’m using the time to slowly die here… I didn’t realise how unfit I was.”

“You need a decent lunch, what can I get you?” asked Olivia.

Jess placed her order and Edith sat down opposite her. They chatted amicably about the book they were reading for book club. Jess reminded herself that she would likely be back in Glasgow by the time the book club next met and felt a pang of sadness at the thought of leaving.

The tinkle of the bell announced another customer had come in, Jess looked up to see it was Cal.

“He’s a handsome one, isn’t he?” Edith whispered knowingly as she followed Jess’ gaze. “He has a heart of gold too.”

Jess nodded. She could see the eyes of other women in the cafe surreptitiously follow Cal as he walked in.

“Such a shame what happened. To him; and to Olivia too,” she heard Edith mutter more to herself than to Jess.

Before Jess had a chance to respond Cal had pulled up a chair, “Are you ready to get back to it?” he grinned.

Jess whimpered melodramatically, “My muscles are staging a protest.”

He laughed; the sound rumbled from deep in his chest and his eyes sparkled.

“Come on,” he placed his hand on her upper arm and gently pulled her to a standing position. “I’ll take you up to the hotel and then I can finish dismantling the tree.”

“No way,” Jess said stubbornly, “I’m not quitting.”

Cal held up his arms, “Ok ok, hobble this way and I’ll give you a lift to the jetty.”

Jess had a feeling Cal would probably have sorted the tree out in half the time if she hadn’t been ‘helping’.

He worked skilfully with the chainsaw; each cut he made was clean and efficient.

His body seemed built for this kind of work whereas Jess felt awkward as she carried the logs to stack them in the back of his truck.

Despite this she was actually really enjoying the manual labour.

Working outdoors with natural materials was good for the soul.

The light was starting to fade by the time they were done and the loch had turned an inky black.

“Do you think it’s safe to go back on the boats?”

“We can go on to grab some of our stuff but we won’t be able to sleep on them until the damage is fixed.

I checked the bookings when I was up earlier.

The Glen Monarch suite is still the only one that has any availability.

I’ve reserved it on the system for the next two weeks.

It’ll probably take a while to get the insurance sorted and for the work to be done.

You’re welcome to stay up there again, if you don’t mind bunking with me. ”

Jess was glad that dusk was setting in as she could feel her cheeks redden at the thought of ‘bunking with Cal’. She had been with Ryan for so long that she’d never really paid any attention to other men. However, she felt bulldozed by her body’s response at being in Cal’s presence.

Jess realised Cal was still waiting for a response and asked, “Are you sure?” She didn’t really have any other options at the moment.

“Of course,” Cal replied.

“Thank you! I really owe you for everything you’ve done to help me out.”

“I’ll sleep on the sofa,” she added.

“You will not. You’ll bruise my masculine ego if you take the couch.”

Jess laughed, “Well ok, thank you. But I’m going to find a way to pay back all the kindness you’ve shown me. Honestly Cal, I don’t know what I would have done.”