Page 31 of The Boathouse by the Loch (The Scottish Highlands #4)

‘What is he doing here?’ A tearful and exhausted Faye answered the door to her flat and immediately spotted her father standing behind Jake. ‘Is this some kind of joke?’

‘Please, Faye. Just hear me out,’ said Jake, cupping his hands together.

‘He’s not coming in,’ said Faye, her tone of voice stressing that the subject was not open for debate.

‘Faye, he only wants to help.’

‘No one can help,’ said Faye. ‘This is all my fault.’ She left the front door ajar and walked into the house.

Jake followed her inside. ‘What are you talking about?’

She turned around to face Jake. ‘We had a row and I think … I think she ran away.’

‘Ran away? Why didn’t you tell me this before I—’ Jake stopped abruptly. He felt too embarrassed to divulge just what had taken place at Patrick’s apartment, thinking it was him who’d had a hand in abducting Natty; it had been like something out of a Tarantino movie.

‘I didn’t tell you this before,’ continued Faye, ‘because it only just occurred to me when I saw you at the door. ’

‘What’s it got to do with me?’

‘It’s got everything to do with you, Jake. I told her she couldn’t see you anymore.’

‘You did what?’ Jake was shocked. He grabbed Faye’s arm. ‘Why did you tell her that? I was only on holiday. You knew I was coming back.’

‘You’re hurting me, Jake.’

‘Sorry.’ Jake hastily let go of her arm. ‘But I don’t understand!’

‘It wasn’t about your holiday. Things were getting too … too …’

‘Complicated?’ suggested Patrick as he walked past them both and popped his head around the door to the lounge.

‘I thought I told you that you’re not welcome here,’ Faye glared at Patrick.

‘Faye,’ Jake touched her arm gently. ‘Tell me what I’ve done wrong. Everything seemed okay between us, chatting on the phone when I was away in Scotland.’

‘When you were away, I had time to think.’

Jake did not like the sound of that.

Faye looked at Jake for a long moment. Finally, she said, ‘Natty was just getting too attached to you, Jake. Look what she said to you the other day; she called you Daddy.’

Patrick, who had been scouting around the lounge, overheard Faye. He reappeared in the hall and stared at Jake. ‘She really called you her daddy?’

Faye turned to her father and said, ‘It’s none of your business.’

‘Since when is my granddaughter none of my business?’

‘Since you sided with Yousaf when I broke up with him, you moron.’

Everyone fell silent .

Jake and Patrick exchanged surprised glances. Even Faye looked shocked at her own outburst. It was obvious that she was completely stressed out, and Jake, her father, and the whole world were in the firing line until she got her daughter back safe.

‘Alright,’ said Patrick, holding up his hands in an effort to defuse the situation. ‘Suppose I go have a look upstairs.’ It wasn’t a question because he was already heading for the stairs.

‘I thought I told you to leave.’

‘Did you check to see if anything was missing?’ said Patrick. ‘Perhaps she took something with her this morning that she would not normally take to school. It might give us a lead.’

The look on Faye’s face said she hadn’t thought of that.

Patrick said, ‘Didn’t one of the police officers ask to see her room?’

‘I don’t know,’ Faye said in a small voice. ‘I wasn’t here. I left a friend here. I was out searching for my daughter.’

‘Well, I’m here now,’ said Patrick taking charge. ‘Let’s find her.’

All three of them scooted up the stairs. Patrick followed Faye along the landing into Natty’s bedroom. Faye set to work opening cupboards and drawers, rummaging through her daughter’s stuff.

Jake stood in the centre of the room, at a loss as to what he could do to help. If he had been searching through Natty’s stuff at his house, he would know if something was missing, but not in her bedroom at home.

‘Now, what have we here?’ Patrick was on his hands and knees, peering under the bed. ‘What do you suppose she was doing with this?’ He pulled out a map.

Jake and Faye came over as he spread it out on the bed.

‘It’s my old road map of Great Britain,’ said Faye. She must have been looking at it when she was on the phone to you. ’

‘Yes’ said Jake thoughtfully. ‘When I spoke to Natty on the phone from Scotland, she asked me where I was on holiday, said she had a map. Now I come to think of it, she was asking a lot of really specific questions.’ Jake paused to look at the map realising she must have been looking at it in secret in her room while they were chatting, before Faye returned to take her phone back.

‘What sort of questions?’ asked Faye.

Patrick added, ‘Tell us as much as you can remember from that conversation.’

Jake nodded. He recalled she’d asked where he was, and he’d told her he was in the Cairngorms. But when she’d asked which town, he’d said it was so small, she might not find it on a map of Great Britain, which is what he had gleaned she was looking at when he’d heard the distinct sound of the rustling of paper.

He’d asked her if she was looking at a map.

‘So, it turned out that it was your old map,’ said Jake, glancing at Faye, who clearly wasn’t happy with what he’d said.

Jake moved swiftly on. ‘Anyways, by the sound of it, she traced with her finger where she was in London all the way to the Cairngorms, which she told me she’d found on the map. She said it was a long way away.’

The three of them stood there, eyeing the map.

‘She wanted to know where I was, the name of the place in Scotland. Isn’t that just like her?’ added Jake. ‘Wants to know every last detail.’

They all fell silent. It had become glaringly obvious; Natty had been trying to locate him on the map. Faye had told her she wasn’t seeing him anymore, so Natty had decided to go and see him by herself. She was out there on the streets all alone.

Faye turned wide-eyed to look at him and said, ‘And you didn’t talk her out of it?’

‘Talk her out of what?’

‘Why – coming to find you, of course.’

Jake wished the ground would swallow him up. It was all his fault.

Patrick stepped in. ‘Are you sure you told her you were in Aviemore?’

Jake thought hard. ‘Yes, I’m pretty sure.

’ But there was no marking of any kind on the map to indicate where Natty was off to, if indeed she had decided she was somehow going to attempt that journey.

But knowing Faye’s stubborn, headstrong, and very bright little daughter, Jake guessed she wouldn’t have put a mark on the map, just in case her mum found it.

That didn’t mean she hadn’t somehow got it into her head that she was off to Scotland, even though she wouldn’t get very far travelling on public transport before someone alerted the authorities, surely.

‘I discovered her iPad is missing,’ said Faye. ‘She always takes that if she’s going on a long journey.’

Patrick raised his eyebrows. ‘So, that’s where she thinks she’s going,’ he said, stabbing the map with a stubby forefinger, right dab in the middle of the Scottish Highlands.

‘This is all your fault,’ Faye turned on Jake.

Jake said in a small voice, ‘I never meant for any of this to happen …’

‘Faye, I don’t think you can blame it on—’ Patrick began.

‘You stay out of this.’ She pointed a finger at Patrick, then turned her attention swiftly back to Jake.

‘Actually, this isn’t your fault; this is my fault for not seeing the signs earlier.

I kept all my dates out of Natty’s life so she wouldn’t get attached to another man who would walk out of her life at a drop of a hat, like her father, like her grandfather … ’

‘Now, Faye, that’s not fair …’ began Patrick.

‘I said, will you stay out of this!’ She rounded on her father. ‘Can’t you see what’s happening here? I had it all figured out. Guys could come and go so long as I stuck to one simple rule; there were no instant families here. That way she wouldn’t get close, she wouldn’t get hurt.’

‘Who are we really talking about here?’ interrupted Patrick. ‘Natasha or you ?’

She fell silent.

Jake scrutinised her closely because that was an interesting question.

She’d had a number of dates with one particular guy who, according to Faye, wasn’t willing to commit.

This seemed a tad confusing to Jake when he considered the conversation he’d overheard on the doorstep of her house one night during babysitting duties.

Faye had just arrived home after an evening out.

Jake had just nipped upstairs to check on Natty, who was fast asleep.

He was walking back down the stairs when she’d opened the front door and he’d overheard a snippet of conversation between Faye and her then beau.

The gist of it was that he was serious about her and wanted them to take the relationship to the next level.

He owned some plush city apartment, and he wanted them to move in together.

He’d even taken the liberty of hiring a personal shopper to set up a child’s bedroom, along with a playroom as a surprise for Natty.

‘I’d love to meet her, you know.’ Jake distinctly remembered that line.

He’d hated the thought of another guy in their lives.

Jake never heard mention of the guy again.

At the time, this had pleased Jake no end, not because he didn’t like the guy – he didn’t even know him – but because he liked things just the way they were.

Jake knew that in time, he would have to face up to the possibility that Faye would get into a relationship that turned serious.

But still, he found himself absurdly fretting over each new guy, wondering if he was the one she’d fall head-over-heels in love with, unaware, until Patrick had made that comment, that Faye was committed not to have a relationship, that she had been playing the field with no intention of letting anything get serious; with no intention of letting anybody get close.

Jake should have recognised the signs; after all, he had been just as guilty of playing that game himself these past few months.

This should have made him feel relieved.

Instead, it made him feel uneasy because he realised that he had become that guy with the apartment, that guy who had taken the liberty of setting up the bedroom and playroom for Natty.

Jake had got too close, and like that guy, Faye was cutting him loose.

‘Everything was working just fine until you came along.’ Faye stabbed a finger into Jake’s chest. She turned to her father. ‘He’ll get promoted,’ she said. ‘Then he’ll be transferred to another school. Oh no, wait – you’re going back to the Ross Corporation.’

Patrick turned to look at Jake in surprise. ‘Really?’

‘No. Not permanently.’

‘Never say never!’ Faye spat. She turned to her father. ‘And he’s never short of female company.’

‘That does not surprise me.’

Jake frowned at Patrick. He wasn’t helping.

Faye was on a roll. ‘And babysitting Natty will go out of the window as soon as one of them turns serious.’

Jake was just about to object when Patrick cut in with four words. It shocked Jake to hear them out loud.

‘He loves you, Faye.’

Jake stood there, open-mouthed. Had he just said that?

Faye stared at her father. ‘What did you just say?’

‘I said he’s in love with you. My God, you should have seen him at my apartment. I think he would rather have killed himself than come back here and tell you he hadn’t found your daughter.’

‘You’re serious, aren’t you?’ said Faye, turning to look at Jake. She regarded him for a moment. ‘You’re very quiet all of a sudden. Aren’t you going to tell my father what a blithering idiot he is?’

Jake looked across at Patrick. What he wanted was to tell Patrick to shut the hell up.

But it was his own fault. He hadn’t told him outright that he was in love with Faye, but he might as well have.

Jake thought about the conversation back at Patrick’s flat.

Patrick knew he was in love with Faye, but Jake hadn’t anticipated he’d come right out and say it – the fool.

Now, because of him, any chance he might have had with Faye was lost; it was over before it had even started.

Patrick had said it himself: Faye was committed not to have a relationship.

Now she really would steer clear of him, if that was what she thought he was after.

He could feel Faye’s eyes boring into him, the impatient tap of her foot on the carpet, signalling that she was waiting for a response. Jake continued to look at the floor, the ceiling, anywhere but directly at Faye.

‘Jake?’

After that revelation, courtesy of Patrick, just for a moment, he imagined a fantastical scenario whereby she simply fell into his arms and expressed the same hidden feelings about him.

Over the past few months, he’d thought he’d picked up a vibe that she might just feel the same way about him.

And she had told him she missed him terribly when he was in Scotland.

Or had it all just been wishful thinking on his part?

He loved Natty like she was his own child.

And he loved Faye. Didn’t those things count for something?

Apparently not.

To Jake’s dismay, she just stood there and stared at him like he was some village idiot who deserved to be ridiculed. He couldn’t think of a worse way to find out he’d been wrong.

He was saved from the excruciating embarrassment of it all by Faye exclaiming, ‘God, what am I standing around here for, talking to you two? I need to find my child.’ Jake was the first out of the bedroom door.

The knowledge that Natty had run away just so she could go and see him was weighing heavy on his shoulders. Faye was right: this was his fault.

As he raced down the stairs, wondering how exactly Natty thought she was going to get all the way from London to Scotland, he was surprised by the sound of Faye’s telephone in the downstairs hall.

Jake stopped halfway down the stairs. He looked behind him.

Faye and Patrick had stopped dead too. They were all pinned to the spot, unable to move, afraid what it meant.

Then, suddenly, all three were hot-footing it down the stairs, making a mad dash for the phone, all thinking the same thing – why weren’t they calling Faye on her mobile?

Jake got there first and held out the receiver to Faye.

She looked at the phone, and shook her head, motioning for Jake to answer.

Jake put the receiver to his ear, his hand shaking, and listened.

Everybody was holding their breath in anticipation of some news.

The second Jake heard the words he repeated them to Faye. ‘They found her. She’s fine.’

Faye fell into her father’s arms, great sobs of relief bellowing into his shoulder.