Chapter 25
Alistair
Alistair,
I’m pleased to share that I have a promising candidate lined up.
I believe this doctor could be a strong fit for your practice, particularly given the rural setting and unique demands that come with Kinleith Surgery.
I’ve attached Dr Radcliff’s credentials for your review. I’ll be honest with you: he’s willing to overlook the issues attached to the surgery because he’s confident he can turn it around, but that might be reflected in his offering price.
Let me know your thoughts and we can set up an interview.
Sarah
MedSearch
“You actually came,” Callum said, wide-eyed, making me feel like shit when we arrived at my parents’ house.
Mum’s house.
Hearing Ava and Emily playing in the garden, Teddy bounded ahead of us while I helped Isla out of her cardigan – pink with knitted strawberries – with my pie-free hand and hung it on the hook.
We were last to arrive. My family all gathered around the island, doling out cooking chores like we had when we were kids.
At the sink, Mum was washing lettuce in a colander, her customary Queen of the Kitchen apron tied around her waist. Heather was chopping cucumber, Mal and April cooking at the hob.
Well, April was stirring a pot of pasta sauce.
Mal was standing behind her like she might keel over and go into labour at any moment.
Their dogs, Boy and Dudley, slept in baskets by the empty fire grate.
Juniper and Callum appeared to be doing nothing but observing.
“Something smells amazing.” Isla stepped forward, extending a bunch of yellow roses to Mum. “These are for you, Mrs Macabe. Thank you for inviting Teddy and me. I can’t remember the last time I ate a meal I didn’t cook myself.”
Fuck, this woman was making it so hard to not bundle her up in cotton wool.
“Oh, you needn’t have bothered, love,” Mum said, drying her hands before pulling Isla into a tight hug. “And please just call me Iris.”
She was right, Isla shouldn’t have bothered. I’d barely been able to contain my scowl when she’d hastily peeled the price sticker off the flowers I knew damn well she couldn’t afford.
“And blueberry pie,” I added, sliding the still-warm dish onto the counter.
“You baked?” Heather gasped.
“Isla baked.”
“In that case.” Heather dragged it closer to herself, rolling her eyes back as she inhaled. I’d almost done the same when Isla gave it to me to hold on the way over.
“You’re family now,” Mum continued, grinning at the two of us. “I’m so happy the two of you are together.”
“Shocked – she means shocked,” Heather said. Sticking her tongue out when I flipped my middle finger.
Isla’s face paled, almost guiltily. But it was exactly the excuse I needed to sweep my hand into the tantalising little dip where the side of her dungarees sat slightly lower than the hem of her cropped T-shirt, and urge her toward the free stool at the counter.
“Drink?” I whispered, feeling the weight of my family’s stares and using it as an excuse to linger.
Somewhere between the moment Isla, wearing only a nightshirt, had slipped through the connecting door this morning to use my shower and the drive over to Mum’s, I’d decided to go balls to the wall on this thing.
We’d avoided each other all week. Cooled things down. I’d tried to forget the way she looked blissed out. Panting from the pleasure I’d brought her. Still, I’d jerked off so many times, I was half worried I was about to defy the laws of science and my cock would fall off.
But if I was already torturing myself, I might as well do it thoroughly.
Maybe it was the email from Sarah, which I hadn’t yet replied to, that had me suddenly acting like the hourglass was ticking down.
“Oh, anything is fine.” Her cheeks turned a pretty pink.
“Great.” Something else I was starting to learn about Isla: she was determined to not be a bother to anyone. “Now tell me what you really want?”
Little did she know, giving her everything she wanted was beginning to feel like the perfect use of my time.
I had a list forming:
Take care of Teddy’s school trip.
Make Cameron regret the day he was born.
Fix her car.
“A Coke would be great.”
“Coming right up.” I couldn’t resist grazing my thumb up the length of her spine – no bra, again; fuck – before going to the fridge.
“I picked this up for you too.” I handed Mum the box tucked beneath my arm.
“Arrived in the post this morning.” And was delivered to Isla’s house – I’d swear the postman was pranking us at this point.
At least now it was an excuse to go over and make her and Teddy breakfast. The memory of Isla’s perpetually bare cupboards made me antsy.
“What is it?” Mum squinted without her glasses.
“A robotic vacuum.” I grabbed a Coke from the top shelf, cracked it open and added it to a glass with ice.
“Oh, I have one of those! I love it,” Heather said, shoving a piece of cucumber in her mouth. “Saves me so much time.”
The deep lines at the corners of Mum’s eyes creased. “What would I need one of these for?”
“So you can stop pushing around that relic you’ve had since nineteen eighty-five. Did you know that twenty-five to thirty-five per cent of people over sixty die within a year of breaking a hip?”
“So glad we invited Dr Doom to lunch,” Callum said.
“Do you know something I don’t?” Mum set the box down on the counter.
Perhaps I could have been a wee bit more tactful. “It’s better to be on the safe side, don’t you think?” She’d become a little less steady on her feet the past few months. Nothing I was concerned about, but with her living out here alone, it was better to alleviate any risks.
“I don’t need a robot cleaning for me.”
“It’s not the worst idea in the world,” April agreed.
“I’m still getting used to the camera doorbell you installed last month. It keeps talking to me every time someone comes to the door.”
“That’s the point.” I set the glass down in front of Isla, my hand going right back to that spot at her waist. “It’s a safety precaution, so you can see who’s at your front door without opening it.”
Mum waved her hand. “I don’t need you wasting your money on me. Not when I can’t even work the blasted thing.”
“Is anyone remotely surprised?” Heather asked. “Alistair’s always been that way. It’s his love language.”
“My what?” I asked as my siblings all laughed.
“Your love language,” Heather repeated. “Everyone has one.”
“What’s mine?” Callum asked eagerly.
“Given the way you’ve been stroking Juniper for the past hour, I’d say physical touch,” April chimed in.
“I can attest to that,” Juniper said, the sentence ending in a cackle as he pulled her tighter against his chest. Everyone laughed. I felt myself smirk. It might still be a little weird seeing them together, but I couldn’t deny that they brought the best out in each other.
“What about Mal?” April tapped a finger against her lips, glancing at her husband, who started transferring dishes from the counter to the table.
“Is worrying a love language?” Callum offered.
“Fuck off,” Mal said.
“Words of affirmation,” April finally said. His face shone a deep scarlet, but he didn’t look unhappy about it.
“So, what does that make Alistair?” Isla asked, tucking a golden curl, escaped from her braid, behind her ear. The entire drive over, I’d imagined myself tugging on it, just to watch it jump back into place.
“Acts of service,” Heather said, not missing a beat. Like it was obvious.
I choked on my drink, feeling it slide into my trachea. “Don’t think it counts when I’m serving myself.”
All of my siblings scowled at me. Juniper remained notably quiet.
“You remember Mrs Jackson, right, Alistair?” An evil little grin spread over Heather’s face. I knew where she was going with this.
“Teddy’s teacher?” Isla asked, not picking up on Heather’s shit-stirring tone.
Callum laughed. “Still too early to tell her all your secrets, aye?”
Did siblings ever grow out of being a pain in the arse?
“We should go check on Teddy.” I tugged Isla’s hand and flicked Heather on the nose.
“Wait, wait, wait—” Isla gripped the counter. “I think I need to hear this.”
“It’s a boring story,” I assured her, but Heather had already started.
“So, when Alistair was seven years old, he thought he was in love with his school teacher—”
“I never said I was in love. You’re making this way more dramatic than it ever was.”
“Yes, you did,” Mal piped up, returning to April’s side.
“Anyway,” Heather continued. “Alistair decides to handmake her a Valentine’s Day card.”
“You handmade it?” Isla asked, glancing back at me in disbelief.
“Of course I did. Give me some credit.”
April’s hand covered her heart. “That’s so cute, I think I’m going to throw up.”
“Nah.” Mal stole the wooden spoon from her hand and tucked her close. “I think that’s a combination of the three doughnuts you just ate and the baby resting on your intestines.”
“Back to the story please,” Isla cut in.
There was no stopping this now. So I gave in to the urge, tugging on that stray curl in punishment.
“My parents get a phone call on Valentine’s Day.
It’s the school, and they need someone to go in ASAP.
” Heather spread her hands on the counter dramatically.
At least she was finally putting the childhood acting classes to good use.
“Mum finds Alistair in the headmaster’s office, thinking he’d gotten into a fight or something, and she’s already defending him.
Turns out he’d put six months’ worth of pocket money – fifty British pounds” – she flashed her fingers five times; in case Isla couldn’t count – “in the card and told Mrs Jackson to buy herself something pretty because the bus didn’t run on Sundays so he couldn’t go to the shops. ”
My cheeks flushed.
“How is that sweet and equally creepy at the same time?” Juniper mused as everyone else, including my mum – traitor – burst into laughter.
“I was trying to be thoughtful,” I countered, feeling Isla’s rumble of laughter against my rib cage. That, I didn’t mind so much. She could laugh at me all day, as long as she kept that smile on her face.
“How did Mrs Jackson take it?” Isla asked.
“I think she saw the funny side,” I said. “But her husband had a thing or two to say about it.”
That was putting it mildly. Thirty years later I still crossed the road when I saw Rory Jackson walking through the village. “If we’re done recounting my embarrassing childhood, maybe we can actually eat.”
“I like the embarrassing stories.” Isla grinned at me, sliding off the stool while Heather called the girls in from the garden.
The perfect ordinariness of the day washed over me. This was how every weekend went for my family, how it would continue to be when I left in a few months. And I’d go back to spending my weekends in the gym. Or in line at a soulless coffee chain with a dozen strangers.
I knocked the thought aside, like an errant fly.
“Care to share one of your own?” I rumbled in her ear. I don’t know if it was my words or my proximity, but Isla’s cheeks caught fire.
I’d never wanted to kiss someone so badly in my entire life. And for the first time since this scheme began, I might just be weak enough to actually do it.