Surprises on the Scottish Isle (Coorie Castle Crafts #1)

Chapter 17

When Cal arrived to pick up his daughter the following Friday, Bonnie gave him a quick hug, then scampered down the path and into the car. Cal made to follow her, but his ex-wife held him back.

‘You’re going to have to step up to the mark and look after Bonnie for a while,’ Yvaine announced.

‘Excuse me?’ It wasn’t a question as such, more of an expression of disbelief. ‘Are you accusing me of not stepping up to the mark?’ He checked that Bonnie was in the car and not within earshot.

‘Of course not.’

‘Good, because you’re the one who decided what “the mark” would be. Every other weekend and anytime between when you fancy a break from her.’

Yvaine flushed. ‘It’s not like that. You make it sound as though I dump her on you whenever the mood takes me.’

Cal glowered before dropping his eyes to the ground. Maybe he was being unfair, but she made it sound like he didn’t pull his weight where Bonnie was concerned. Which was totally untrue, of course, as he would have Bonnie all day, every day, if he could.

Yvaine’s stony expression softened a little. ‘She breaks up from school at the end of next week and my parents have to go to Aunty Jacqueline’s tomorrow because she’s not been well. They could be there a while,’ she explained, somewhat more reasonably.

Jacqueline was older than Yvaine’s mum by several years and had lost her husband recently, Cal recalled. Yvaine’s parents usually looked after Bonnie during the school holidays while Yvaine was at work, and although Cal helped with his daughter whenever possible, he knew how difficult she sometimes found it to juggle work and childcare.

‘Do you want me to have her every day?’ he asked. He hoped it wouldn’t be a problem, but even if it was, Cal would find a way around it because Yvaine and Bonnie would be moving into Lenn’s house in Portree soon, and Cal wanted to spend as much time as possible with his daughter before that happened.

He knew how upset she would be, and he intended to be there for her for as long as she needed him. With so many imminent changes to her life, he vowed to be the one constant she could rely on.

Yvaine said, ‘Not every day, because I’ve arranged to work part-time for the duration, but I want to supervise the renovations. Lenn has given me free rein to do what I like with the house.’

This last was announced with satisfaction, and Cal gritted his teeth. He knew he shouldn’t take it as a dig, but he couldn’t help it. When they were married, they’d lived in rented accommodation on the estate (hell, he still lived in rented accommodation on an estate, albeit a different one), and she’d always resented it. As long as he’d had a roof over his head and enough food on the table, where he lived hadn’t bothered him unduly. It had bothered Yvaine, though. She thought she deserved more, and perhaps she did.

‘So, you want me to look after Bonnie, not because you have to work, but because you want to choose whatever shade of white you’re going to paint the living room?’ He couldn’t resist biting back.

‘It’s a bit more involved than that.’ Yvaine pursed her lips. ‘We’re having an extension built on the back – a sunroom, if you must know – and we’re opening up the kitchen, dining and living room, so it will be one large family space.’

Cal bet Lenn wasn’t thrilled with that idea. Lenn didn’t strike him as a ‘family space’ kind of guy. He never appeared to be entirely at ease around Bonnie, which got Cal’s back up. Didn’t the man realise that Yvaine and Bonnie came as a package? Or was Lenn hoping that Cal would be willing to ‘step up to the mark’ more often so he could have Yvaine all to himself?

Even as he had those thoughts, Cal recognised that he might be reading more into the situation and Lenn’s feelings towards Bonnie than was warranted. He suspected he might feel this way about any chap Yvaine took up with.

As he returned to the car and an impatient Bonnie, he wondered how Yvaine would feel if he became romantically involved with someone. Would her nose be put out of joint at the thought of Bonnie spending time with another woman whilst she was being looked after by Cal?

Wait up… If he became romantically involved? He already was. There was no doubt about it. Not after those kisses at the top of The Old Man of Storr. Or the kisses he and Tara had shared several times since. They’d been to the pub together for a drink and had taken another walk, this one along the shores of the loch, so not nearly as strenuous. And on both occasions, kissing had been involved.

Remembering them made Cal burn. Each time, he’d been forced to hold himself in check, scared to give in to his desire. If they made love, there would be no going back. And the reason he was scared was twofold. One, he didn’t want to risk his heart being broken again, although admittedly, the first time he’d had no one else to blame but himself; and two, he’d promised Bonnie that he wouldn’t have a girlfriend. A promise he feared he’d already broken. Which was why he needed to speak to Tara and warn her before she inadvertently mentioned anything to his daughter.

He’d have to take things nice and slow when it came to Bonnie and Tara. It was great that Bonnie liked her, so that was a good starting point. If he built on that, his daughter mightn’t object when he told her he and Tara were an item. All he had to do was to ensure Bonnie didn’t find out until then.

Tara laid out some white polymer clay and a selection of circular cutters ranging from 0.75 to 1.5 cm in diameter. She’d also laid out a thin acrylic block to use as a thickness guide, and a variety of tools to form the edges around the tiny plates she was about to make. Then she put out paints and fine-tipped brushes. All she needed now was for Bonnie to ‘give her a hand’.

What she got was Cal.

Tara wasn’t complaining, but she’d been expecting his daughter. He was supposed to fetch her after school because she was staying with him for the weekend.

‘Where’s Bonnie?’ she asked, looking past him into the courtyard.

‘Plaguing Cook for some cake,’ Cal said. He glanced over his shoulder. ‘I haven’t got long, but I wanted to ask whether you’d mind not mentioning anything to Bonnie about us. Me and you.’ He looked shifty, and Tara immediately suspected something fishy was going on.

She didn’t say anything, waiting for him to elaborate.

‘She’s not taking the move to Portree well and I don’t want to give her anything more to worry about. Can she get to know you better, before we tell her that we are…?’

‘What?’

‘Dating.’

‘Is that what we’re doing?’

‘If you want. We’ve not talked about it and I completely understand if you don’t want a relationship with me, after what I did. If I could turn the clock back, I would.’

Tara placed a hand on his arm and smiled into his eyes. ‘No, you wouldn’t – because you wouldn’t have Bonnie. You told me that yourself.’

‘But all those wasted years…’

She shrugged and dropped her hand. ‘Who says we would have stayed together?’

‘True,’ he conceded.

‘Let’s take this one step at a time, shall we? And of course I won’t say anything to Bonnie.’

‘Thank you. Ah, talk of the devil. Here she is!’

Bonnie bounced into the studio, all pigtails and knobbly knees. ‘Dad, you said I can help Tara. Did you mean it?’ She turned to Tara. ‘Can I?’

‘Absolutely! I’m going to show you how to make incy wincy plates. And if we’ve got time, cups and saucers.’

Bonnie squealed and leapt up and down. ‘I want to be a doll’s house maker when I grow up,’ she declared.

Cal laughed. ‘I thought you wanted to be a felt picture maker?’

‘I can do both, can’t I?’

‘You can do whatever you want to do, be whatever you want to be,’ her father said, and the love in Cal’s eyes brought tears to Tara’s.

‘Come on, you,’ she said to the little girl. ‘I’ve got to make a whole load of these before teatime.’

‘Is Tara having tea with us?’ Bonnie asked Cal.

‘If she’d like.’

Bonnie pleaded with her, ‘Please say yes. Dad can be so boring.’

‘Thanks!’ Cal pulled a face.

‘Sometimes he falls asleep in the chair. And he snores.’

‘Does he now?’ Tara smirked.

‘I do not.’

She smiled at him over Bonnie’s head and mouthed. ‘You do.’

Cal narrowed his eyes. ‘I’m sure Tara doesn’t want to spend time with someone so boring that he falls asleep in the chair and snores.’

Tara said, ‘Oh, I think I can put up with it. I’d love to have tea with you and your dad, Bonnie. Thank you for asking me.’

Bonnie did a little jig. ‘Yay! You can go now, Dad. Me and Tara have work to do.’

Tara watched him go for a moment, then gave herself a mental shake and joined his daughter at the workbench.

Bonnie was such a sweetie. Hopefully it wouldn’t be long before the two of them were the best of friends, and she and Cal wouldn’t have to keep their budding relationship from her.

The glass studio was run by two brothers, Fergus and Shane. Fergus

was the glassblower, and Shane’s speciality was stained glass – windows

mostly, but he also made beautifully intricate glass paintings and

gorgeously colourful suncatchers. Today Tara was going to have a go.

Nothing too difficult, but it would give her a taste of the craft.

She’d joined a workshop on Sunday morning to make a leaf-shaped suncatcher, and was currently in the process of choosing the colour of glass she wanted to use. It would have to be an autumn leaf, she decided, picking out a piece of glass that was a wonderful shade of deep orange, almost an amber colour. It was only a few shades lighter than Cal’s glorious eyes.

Shane had already printed off a paper pattern for his students to use as a template, and her first task was to cut the pattern into its component shapes. They were numbered, so it should be easy to put them together again.

Tara had always wanted to try stained glass making and this was a real treat. But, like anything beautiful, it required skill, and Tara only fully appreciated how talented Shane and his brother were when she studied her finished creation with critical eyes. It looked vaguely like a leaf – if she squinted a bit and the lights were dimmed. Still, it wasn’t too bad for a first attempt, although it may well be her last. Glass cutting was harder than it looked, and little slivers of glass from using the nippers to achieve the correct shape tended to get everywhere unless you were careful. Those bits were sharp!

Tara was having a lovely weekend, despite not being able to grab more than a minute or two alone with Cal. However, she was worried that she was intruding on Bonnie’s time with her father, despite Bonnie insisting on involving her.

Yesterday afternoon Tara had been forced to tell the child that she needed to concentrate on work in the studio (which was true) and therefore wouldn’t be able to let her help for a while, because she thought Bonnie needed to spend time with other people, not just with her. But Bonnie had been waiting for her when Tara had locked up, had grabbed hold of her hand and dragged her to Cal’s cottage to join them for a pizza.

They’d played board games until a huge yawn and drooping eyes had indicated that it was time for Bonnie to go to bed.

Conscious of the little girl asleep upstairs, Tara had resisted the temptation to sit on Cal’s lap, wrap her arms around his neck and kiss him senseless. Instead, they’d taken a glass of wine onto the deck and watched bats swoop and dive for insects, as they quietly chatted about the castle and the people who worked in it.

The conversation touched on the past occasionally, but they were careful not to discuss anything too deep or serious. Tara was just enjoying being with him. She felt like she was getting to know Cal all over again.

And now here she was, trotting down the lane with a poorly made suncatcher in her hand, about to eat Sunday lunch with him and his daughter. Roast chicken, she guessed, sniffing the air when Bonnie answered the door and dragged her inside.

‘I helped Dad make the batter for the Yorkshire puddings!’ Bonnie cried. ‘We’ve made a lot, so Dad said we can have pancakes with the leftovers if we’re not too full.’

‘My, your dad is a real whizz in the kitchen.’ He always had been, she remembered.

Lunch was a jolly affair, and a walk along the shore afterwards was fun and light-hearted as Cal challenged everyone to a ‘find the roundest pebble’ competition. But as the time grew nearer for Bonnie to go home, Tara sensed a change in the child as she became quieter and more introspective.

Guessing that Cal might appreciate some alone time with his daughter before he had to drop her back at her mum’s, Tara said her goodbyes and returned to the boathouse.

Maybe she would see him afterwards…