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

Chapter 22

When Tara hesitantly went downstairs, fully awake now and having thrown her clothes on, it was to find Cal in the kitchen, his face ashen.

‘Cal, I’m so sorry. I was half asleep and I thought I was late.’ She gulped, mortified that Yvaine had caught them in a compromising position. ‘I heard what Bonnie said. I’m sure she’ll be OK with the situation when she’s calmed down and has had a chance to think about it. After all, it’s not as though it changes anything. You’re not the one who is whisking her off to Portree when she doesn’t want to go. She’ll still see you every other weekend. She’ll still visit you here. And if she doesn’t want me around, I can always make myself scarce.’

‘She told me she hates me.’ Cal’s voice was strangled.

‘She doesn’t mean it. I used to say that to my mum all the time, and I definitely didn’t mean it.’

He slumped against a worktop. ‘Yvaine threatened to stop me from seeing her.’

‘She can’t do that,’ Tara replied with more conviction than she felt. She had no experience of custody or parental rights, but she’d heard enough horror stories. But surely Yvaine wouldn’t be so vindictive. She was just annoyed, that was all. She didn’t want Cal herself, but neither did she want anyone else to have him.

Cal’s expression was troubled. ‘Tara, I—’

‘Why don’t you speak to Bonnie after work? I’ve got to go, I didn’t realise it was so late and I need to pop to the post office before I open up this morning. That’ll teach us to drink the best part of two bottles of wine when we’ve got work the next day.’

She walked over to him, wrapped her arms around his waist and laid her head on his shoulder. After a brief hesitation, he put his arms around her.

‘Look at it this way,’ she said. ‘At least we don’t have to sneak around any more. Although to be honest, I think everyone except Bonnie and Yvaine knew about us anyway. You said it’s impossible to keep anything secret in Duncoorie.’

She lifted her head to give him a kiss, but he was staring out of the window, lost in thought, so Tara gave him a squeeze instead. ‘I’ll see you later. I’ll cook this evening, so what do you fancy?’

‘Anything.’ He didn’t look at her, and she suspected he was still reeling from his encounter.

She didn’t want to leave him, knowing that he was hurting, but he had to go to work and so did she. She had so much to do that she didn’t know where to begin, and the wine, combined with a rather late night and being woken so abruptly, wasn’t helping.

Hoping Cal wouldn’t brood too much and he would kiss and make up with Bonnie, Tara returned to the boathouse to get ready for the day. But later, as she worked on those all-important details on the interior of Bonnie’s doll’s house, checking them against the series of photographs she’d taken when she’d viewed Yvaine’s cottage, her thoughts kept returning to Bonnie.

Her heart went out to the child as she imagined Bonnie at home, feeling betrayed that her father had broken his promise to her. Tara wished Cal had told her about it, although she wasn’t sure what difference it would have made. She wanted to tell him he was silly to have made such a promise in the first place, but he had, and the damage was done. Tara hoped it wasn’t permanent and that Cal’s relationship with his daughter could be repaired.

It would be, she was certain. Bonnie’s reaction this morning had surely only been shock. She’d come around, of course she would. She and Bonnie were friends, weren’t they? They got on well together. This was just a little blip, and they’d soon get over it.

But even as she told herself this, Tara felt unsettled. She couldn’t shake the feeling of dread that had shrouded her ever since she’d realised who had been knocking on Calan’s door.

Tara was right, Cal thought. He did need to speak to Bonnie and explain. Bonnie liked Tara and they got on well, so he hoped that once his daughter had calmed down, she would be more amenable to the idea of him having Tara as his girlfriend. Tara wasn’t some random woman who Bonnie had never met until today, and if that had been the case he could fully appreciate her reaction. As it was, he thought Bonnie had been overly dramatic and would soon get over it.

As he set about ticking things off his job list for today, he came to the conclusion that Bonnie’s major gripe wasn’t because Tara was his girlfriend, but because Cal had broken his promise to her. He wasn’t entirely sure how he was going to remedy that. After all, a broken promise was a broken promise. It couldn’t be un broken. However, he was fairly confident that if he apologised and explained what had happened, Bonnie would forgive him.

Yvaine’s car wasn’t on the drive when Calan came to a halt outside her cottage, so he decided to wait.

Wondering whether Yvaine had taken Bonnie to her meeting, or whether she’d found someone else to look after her, Cal cursed himself yet again for failing to take his mobile phone up to bed with him. He’d been too eager to dive into the shower with Tara to think about his phone and had left it on the worktop next to his keys and the picnic basket. When he’d looked at it after Tara left this morning, he’d discovered two missed calls and a message, and wanted to kick himself. Although Cal couldn’t have known Yvaine’s father would be taken ill overnight, he was the one who was insisting on keeping his and Tara’s relationship low-key and that he didn’t want Bonnie to find out just yet, so it had been up to him to ensure she didn’t.

As he waited for Yvaine and Bonnie to show up, he went over and over the events of this morning in his mind, and the overriding image was of Bonnie’s accusing face as Yvaine drove off. He had a feeling it would stay with him for some considerable time.

Calan’s heart lurched when he caught sight of Yvaine’s car in the distance. Emerging from his own vehicle, he stood nervously on the pavement as she swung onto the drive. Her expression was set, but it wasn’t his ex-wife who claimed his attention. It was his daughter, who was refusing to look at him. Her little chin jutted out and she stared straight ahead, but he knew she had seen him.

It didn’t bode well for the chat he wanted to have with her.

Should he give her more time and try again tomorrow, or would Bonnie perceive his departure as him not caring? And why was being a parent so hard? He’d always thought he had a good relationship with his daughter, but right now he felt he was walking on eggshells.

Yvaine got out of the car, Bonnie immediately afterwards. His daughter continued to avoid looking at him, but Yvaine had no such qualms and she glared as he approached.

She unlocked the front door and pushed it open. ‘Go inside, Bonnie. I’m just going to have a word with your father.’

Bonnie stomped indoors, her back rigid, her movements jerky.

Cal’s heart clenched at the sight of her obvious distress. ‘Can I speak to her?’ he asked Yvaine. ‘Please?’ He hated having to plead.

‘You are an arse, Cal.’

‘I know.’

‘How could you make a promise like that when you were already sleeping with Tara? Then you had the brass-faced cheek to lie to my face.’

‘I can explain.’

‘I don’t want to hear it. I’m over you, Cal. You can’t hurt me any more.’

‘I never meant to hurt you at all.’

‘But you did anyway.’ Her eyes flashed fury. ‘Go away, Cal. I’ll let you know if Bonnie changes her mind, but don’t hold your breath. She follows me – I don’t forgive people who break their promises either. You promised to love, honour and cherish me . Remember?’

Cal didn’t have the words. What Yvaine said was true. He had made those promises on their wedding day.

And when she slammed the door in his face, he realised there was only one way to win Yvaine over. He had to sacrifice his own happiness for his daughter’s.

When Tara returned to the boathouse and saw Cal’s car parked outside

his cottage, her heart fluttered uneasily. She’d been on edge all day,

hoping he would be able to make up with Bonnie, and she’d been tempted

to ring him once or twice, but she hadn’t. He wouldn’t have had anything

to report until he’d spoken to his daughter anyway, and this morning

she’d sensed he needed a bit of time to get his head around Yvaine and

Bonnie catching them together.

Thankfully, Bonnie didn’t have a key to Cal’s house, otherwise Tara dreaded to think what might have happened.

She was about to head over to his place when she spied him on the jetty. He was sitting on the end of it, his feet dangling over the edge. His shoulders were hunched, and Tara felt another twinge of unease. Clearly things hadn’t gone well with Bonnie.

Her heart went out to him. Cal could probably do with some TLC this evening – if he didn’t prefer to be left alone.

Tara was prepared for either eventuality.

She consoled herself with the thought that Bonnie would unlikely sulk for long. The child would soon get used to the idea of having Tara in her life, and they could start to build a family unit of the three of them, albeit a part-time one. She would continue to be circumspect regarding any outward displays of affection towards Cal when Bonnie was around though, because she was conscious that Bonnie might feel a little possessive and not want to share her father.

Tara walked down the beach and stepped onto the jetty.

Cal appeared to be lost in thought, and it wasn’t until she put a hand on his shoulder did he realise she was there.

Sitting next to him, she said, ‘I take it Bonnie still isn’t speaking to you?’

‘No. Tara, I, um…’ He trailed off as his voice caught, and Tara’s unease turned to dread.

Something was very, very wrong.

‘What is it?’ she asked in a strangled voice, terrified what his answer might be but even more scared not to hear it.

He cleared his throat. She had an awful feeling he was close to tears, and her own eyes prickled in sympathy.

‘We can’t go on seeing each other,’ he said in a rush. ‘I’m sorry, but—’

‘Wait! What did you say? ’

‘It’s over. Me and you, we can’t go on.’

‘I don’t understand. You’re dumping me?’

‘Not dumping as such, but we can’t be together any more.’

Tara barked out an incredulous laugh. ‘Isn’t that what dumping means?’

‘It’s not like that, Tara.’

‘What is it like?’

‘I’m trying to explain.’ His eyes were damp, but not as wet as hers.

Tears brimmed and spilt over to trickle down her cheeks.

He stared into the distance, refusing to meet her eyes. ‘I have to do this. God knows it’s the last thing I want, but Bonnie is my daughter and Yvaine is refusing to let me see her. She’s using the fact that I broke my promise to Bonnie as the reason, and that Bonnie doesn’t want anything to do with me. The only way I can think of to put this right is for us to split up. If I can convince Bonnie that I’m truly sorry…’ His voice thickened and he swallowed hard.

Tara couldn’t believe what she was hearing, and she stared at him open-mouthed, his face blurring through her tears. She understood, she truly did. Bonnie had to come first. Cal was in an impossible situation. But that didn’t make it any less painful. It didn’t make her heartbreak any less bearable.

‘We can still see each other as friends and colleagues,’ he said. He sounded desperate, and Tara choked back a sob.

Shaking her head, in disbelief as much as anything, she said, ‘We can’t, Cal. Not after what we’ve done, the things we’ve said to each other. Oh, God!’ She pressed a hand to her mouth to hold in the anguish.

Her heart was being torn out of her chest and slashed into little pieces in front of her eyes. The first time he’d dumped her had been bad enough, but this was way worse. Tara had never felt agony like this. She couldn’t breathe. He’d stolen the very air from her lungs.

He was carrying on speaking, as though he could say something to lessen the pain. ‘It won’t be forever. She’ll come around to the idea in time.’

Tara uttered a disbelieving sound. ‘That could take months, years even.’ Or Bonnie might never accept her at all. Was Cal asking her to wait? To keep their love on ice until his daughter was ready to accept that her father was entitled to a life of his own?

Part of her wanted to do precisely that. She wanted to cling to the possibility that they might one day be together, but what kind of a life would she be living in the meantime if she did? She would be stuck in limbo, halfway between the darkness and the light, a twilight of an existence, yearning for what she couldn’t have.

She could far too easily imagine how awful it would be to see him every day, to hear him, to know he was nearby, yet not be able to hold him or tell him she loved him. It would be worse than making a clean break.

With a distraught cry, Tara scrambled to her feet. Cal reached for her, but she brushed him off. He’d made it clear that it was over. That they were done.

Running to the boathouse, Tara knew she couldn’t stay here any longer, not without the only man she had ever loved – the only man she would ever love.