Chapter 5 #2
I shrugged, not entirely comfortable with being commiserated. The bairn was a real person, after all. “It is what it is.”
“What did your family say?” He gestured to a cosy booth across from the juke box, and I sat.
“Haven’t told them yet. Hang on.” I extracted my phone from my pocket, opened the button that contained my family’s group chat, then hit the microphone.
“The wee bairn is mine,” I told the phone.
“It’s a girl. A month old. Show you the pic later.
” Then I hit send and grinned at Sawney. “Now they know.”
His brown eyes crinkled at the corners. “How drunk are you?”
Scarlet returned. “Not nearly drunk enough. Bring us beer, good man. And snacks. Please and thank you.”
Sawney tapped the table and bounded away.
I stared at Scarlet, whisky coursing through my system. “I want to see my daughter.”
“You will.”
“I also want to tell you about her mother. Will that be weird?”
She shook her head emphatically. “Zero chance of that. I’m dying to know.” She chewed her lip. “She wasn’t your girlfriend, was she?”
“No. Ye remember I used to put videos online? Me and Wasp dicking around on the estate? Kaylee subscribed to those. She used to comment on them. Every single one. Eventually, we met up. She wanted… Er…” I trailed off, not wanting to say the next bit.
“To sleep with you? I remember.”
I gaped at her. “You knew about that?”
“Ally, everyone knew when you lost your virginity. The whole town probably knew.”
Sawney popped up next to our booth and placed a tray on the table, delivering drinks and bags of crisps. “Aye, we did. I was jealous as hell. She was a pretty lass. God rest her soul.”
“Seriously?” I put my head in my hands.
A group of people entered the bar room, bringing noise with them. It was probably around six, so the end of the working day. My friend retreated back to his post. I opened one eye to watch him go.
Careful fingers rubbed the back of my head. “Do you have a picture of Kaylee?”
“No. Last week, I reactivated my old accounts to read her messages again, but her account was gone. I don’t even have a profile pic.”
“That’s a pity.”
I glanced up at Scarlet. “I feel odd talking to you about this.”
“Why? We’re friends, aren’t we?”
I huffed a laugh. No, we weren’t. Not really. Friends were people you didn’t dream about taking to bed almost constantly.
Scarlet took a long swig of whatever beer Sawney had poured us. “Continue. You had a teenage hook-up. What then? How did you get to see her again?”
“We kept in touch, just general chat. She confided in me…” I paused now, the whole telling uncomfortable in one way or another.
Did it matter that I told Scarlet Kaylee’s personal stuff?
Probably not. I doubted I was that special to her.
“Her parents were both dead, and she didn’t have much family.
Then I didn’t hear from her for ages until one night, she called me.
A phone call, right out of the blue. She was crying. ”
A lump formed in my throat, and I swallowed it away.
“It was a few weeks before Christmas last year.”
“About ten months ago,” Scarlet said, her mouth twisted.
“Aye. She said something about her best friend moving abroad, some woman named Gia, and she was desperately lonely. She asked if she could stay over, and I agreed, so long as it was just the once.” I gave a hard laugh.
“I used to say to all my hook-ups that it was one night only and not to expect anything more, like I was some great man, offering out a one-time deal on my services.”
Scarlet winced. “You were honest, at least. Last guy I slept with took my number and arranged a date for the next day. Then an hour later, he cancelled, and I never heard from him again. At least you weren’t that guy.”
Jealousy, hot and uncomfortable, swirled in my stomach.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” Scarlet leaned in, peering into my eyes. “You’ve never been interested in me. Apart from that one kiss in Milan.”
“Two kisses.” I held up two fingers.
She gave an easy shrug. “Who’s counting?”
I was.
“That guy was a fucking moron,” I muttered to her.
“Yeah. His loss.”
My phone buzzed. Three times in quick succession. Voice messages from my family. I pushed it away.
“Drink.” Scarlet tapped my beer.
I raised the glass and chugged it, swallowing the pint down in one. At the bar, Sawney gave a raucous laugh.
Yeah, I was a joke all right. “Another!” I yelled. Tonight, I was going out in style.
Later, like, dark-o’clock-later, Scarlet hopped up on the low wall that separated Sawney’s pub from the road.
“I won’t fall!” she yelled into the black sky.
“Get down.” I pulled the bar door closed behind me. About an hour ago, I’d switched to water, the destructive part of me giving way to a previously unknown sensible side.
Scarlet was hammered. She needed taking care of.
So I’d sobered up.
“You can’t make me!” she yelled again. “Dad will never know.”
She’d mentioned working with her dad over the course of the evening. In a few years, she’d be running the company. I could already see it.
“Watch me, Ally!” She reached the gate and put one foot up on the post.
“Seriously? You’re going to break your neck.” I closed the distance and took her by the waist, then I lifted her from the wall.
She slid her incredible body down mine. My balls ached with a pang of pure lust.
Too close, she gazed into my eyes. “Why do you call me Scar?”
“Not telling.” I stared back, enjoying the cosy hold. “What happened to that polaroid of us kissing?”
“Not telling,” she replied. “Maybe it went to the same place as my secret picture of you in a kilt.”
I paused, wondering. “Why aren’t you judging me hard for this situation?”
She didn’t answer immediately, just kept up her watch.
“I bet your dad was all over that phone call like a rash,” I added, remembering the scene in the hotel corridor.
Scarlet inclined her head. “He was. But I told him to leave you alone.”
“Ye did?”
With a giggle, she placed both hands on my chest. “I was going to ask you for a fling. A full-on fuck-my-brains-out love fest. I could hardly let Dad bad-mouth the man I was sleeping with. Or wanted to sleep with.”
“Jesus.”
“I know! It would’ve been epic.”
I wanted to demand to know why this was past tense, but I got it. I understood. And I wasn’t sleeping with anyone for a long time. Maybe ever again.
I shook my head, still gazing down at her. “If ye keep talking about sex, I’m going to explode like a firework.”
Scarlet’s cheeks flushed pink, clear even in the pub’s single outdoor light. “I want to kiss you right now.”
“Ye do?” This was a bad idea. A really bad idea.
“I really liked our last kiss.”
“You’re drunk.”
“So are you.” She inched forward, and her lips met mine. Not in a kiss, not exactly, just tracing the outline. Teasing us both. Back. Forth. The scent of her sweet lip balm filling my nose.
“Scar,” I warned her.