Return to the Lake House (The Scottish Highlands #3)

Chapter 1

Jake stirred and opened his eyes to see Faye gently lifting her daughter.

Half-asleep, Natty clung to Jake’s neck. ‘No, I want Daddy,’ she protested.

‘It’s alright, Faye – I’ll take her up to bed.’ They’d fallen asleep on the sofa downstairs. Jake awkwardly hoisted himself up from the settee with the child still clinging to his neck.

‘I don’t wanna go upstairs,’ a sleepy voice said, muffled against Jake’s neck.

‘Sorry, kiddo. The boss has spoken.’ He winked at Faye.

She did not return his smile, he noticed. She switched the TV off as he crossed the lounge and headed for the stairs.

Jake tucked Natty into bed. She’d fallen asleep again and didn’t stir. Before he returned downstairs, he made sure there were no chinks of light filtering through the curtains. It wasn’t even five in the morning, but the sun was already up. June had been a very warm, sunny month, and Jake thought they might be in for a lovely summer.

He checked she was still asleep before pulling the door until it was slightly ajar and heading downstairs.

Faye was in the lounge, opening the curtains. Jake was about to step into the room when Faye approached. She didn’t say a word as she walked past him and out of the room.

Jake followed her into the small kitchen next door. ‘Faye?’

She switched the strip light on in the kitchen and put the kettle on.

Jake stood in the kitchen doorway. He closed his eyes and rubbed the back of his stiff neck. In his experience – and he reckoned most people would agree – the couch never made for a good night’s sleep.

‘I’m making coffee. Do you want some?’

Jake opened his eyes. There was something in her tone of voice that said she was cheesed off. ‘I heard Natty get up. I know I should have put her straight back to bed, but she’d had a nightmare, and I didn’t want to wake you upstairs,’ Jake explained. ‘So, I brought her down for a glass of milk, and we watched some TV.’ He was getting the distinct impression he had done the wrong thing.

Faye didn’t turn around.

Jake watched her open a cupboard and get out two mugs. He held out his hand in a conciliatory gesture. ‘Look, I get it. I was out of line.’

Faye spooned two teaspoons of coffee into the mugs and filled them with boiling water.

‘Faye?’

She turned to face Jake, holding a mug of coffee in each hand. ‘She called you Daddy .’

Jake sighed and shuffled into the kitchen, still rubbing his sore neck. He pulled out a chair and motioned Faye to sit. He sat down opposite her as she passed him a mug of coffee. Jake smiled and looked at his watch. ‘In a couple of hours, over breakfast, why don’t you ask your daughter who she thinks I am? You know what she’s going to say?’

Faye sipped her coffee in silence.

‘She’s going to say that I’m just Jake, her mum’s friend, who watches over her while her mum is at her evening classes.’ Jake frowned. ‘Words to that effect.’ It was way too early in the morning to think coherently, let alone string a sentence together.

Faye hadn’t been at an evening class this time. She’d been gone the whole day on a course, and had got stuck in a long traffic jam on the way home.

Faye listened.

‘Natty was half-asleep and confused when she woke up. I mean, how often do I crash here, Faye?’

Faye didn’t answer. It was a rhetorical question. Despite the numerous times he’d babysat, it was the first time he hadn’t gone home once she returned. He’d stayed the night on the couch rather than take the tube across London to his own place late at night.

‘How’s the course going?’ he asked.

Faye was on an eighteen-month course, studying for a higher qualification to become a headteacher. Some of her classes were held in the evenings locally, but some were at a college outside London, which meant she didn’t get back until late. Either way, she needed a sitter – Natty was nine; too young to be left on her own.

Faye didn’t have any close relatives living nearby that she could leave Natty with, which meant she relied on babysitters. But lately, this had not worked out. Faye desperately wanted to further her career. Currently a deputy head, she was good at her job and wanted to eventually run her own school.

The previous evening, Jake had kept an eye on the time, getting worried when she didn’t arrive home. Natty had become exhausted, and by the time Faye did get back, he’d already put her to bed.

Whilst this was the first time he’d crashed at Faye’s, by the look of things, it would also be the last. He raised his mug and drank his coffee, waiting for Faye to say something – anything.

‘You’re right. I don’t know where she’d get a crazy idea like that from.’

Jake nodded in agreement. ‘Besides, Faye, you know what a bright kid you’ve got there. She’s really on the ball, always asking questions. I swear she’s going to be a lawyer or something when she grows up.’

‘Yeah, how crazy if she becomes a lawyer just like you … were.’ Faye dropped her eyes to her coffee mug. It had developed over time, this unspoken understanding they shared. Talk revolved around the job – Jake was a teacher too – and around Natty, which he knew was fine by Faye. She’d told him that as a deputy head, some colleagues – and she wasn’t naming any names – talk incessantly about any and every problem they had, as if her office was some sort of confessional box. They seemed to forget that they were colleagues. I’m not at work to make friends , Faye had said.

Jake had wondered why none of Faye’s female colleagues had offered to help with babysitting. Perhaps that was what Faye was afraid of – striking up a friendship which would result in endless hours of listening to their problems once she returned home.

With Jake, there was no chance of that. He wouldn’t talk about his past life – or his problems – and she knew it.

Faye had a life outside of teaching. Jake knew that she loved her job – but Natty was her priority. Work was work; that was all, even if she did have career ambitions. And Jake understood this, even if he had stepped into her private life on occasion – on several occasions now; too many to count. The trouble was that he was enjoying Faye and Natty’s company. The last thing he wanted was for Faye to end his babysitting duty.

She glanced at Jake, thinking this was a mistake . Jake staying over was innocent enough, considering the circumstances. But the rule, their rule, was bending before her very eyes, and she was the one bending it. She wanted him to stick around. What she couldn’t figure out was why.

They both finished their coffee in silence. Jake got up and put his coffee mug in the sink. Faye turned in her chair, feeling like some sort of apology was in order. She shouldn’t have mentioned his past. She wouldn’t like Jake to think she had been looking into his personal history. ‘I didn’t Google you or anything like that, Jake.’

‘I know that, Faye.’

‘It’s just common knowledge. God, that sounds awful.’

‘It is awful. But when you come from a background like mine, everything is out there, on the news, on social media, for Joe Public to see.’

Faye cringed. She recalled one of the standard questions at the job interview for the first teaching position he’d applied for, which had happened to be at her school. As the deputy head, she had been one of the interviewers asking him about his previous work experience.

She remembered when they’d been shortlisting for the position and discussing the candidates. They were all intrigued as to why Jake had left his lucrative position as a high-flying corporate lawyer working in the Ross Corporation. They knew about his background with the Rosses. She had read about him in the papers; about how he’d been taken in by the Rosses when he was a young child after his parents had tragically died, and had married Eleanor Ross.

Of course, they wouldn’t bring that up in an interview, nor the tragic skiing accident in the Cairngorms the previous Christmas that had taken his young wife. But they had asked about his previous career – it was a standard question – and why he’d decided to apply for the Initial Teacher Training course to become a maths teacher in an inner-city school.

Even while the head was asking that question, Faye had already had a good idea why Jake had made such a drastic change. She imagined that after losing his wife, he wanted a completely fresh start away from the company; away from the life that reminded him of her. And perhaps the life, the career he’d had in the Ross Corporation, wasn’t for him anyway. As sad as it was that he had lost his wife, the career he was now forging, training on the job to teach, was a better fit. From Faye’s perspective, she certainly thought he’d made the right decision; Jake showed great promise, was a natural in the classroom, and had a fantastic rapport with the classes he taught.

‘I’m sorry, Jake. I didn’t mean to bring up your past.’

‘So am I.’ Jake walked out of the kitchen.

Faye cursed under her breath. She got up from the table and put her cup in the sink.

‘By the way,’ Jake called out as he headed for the sofa, ‘whoever her father is, he doesn’t know what he’s missing.’

‘Yes, he does.’ Faye stared miserably into the sink.

‘What was that?’ Jake turned to see Faye emerging from the kitchen. She crossed the lounge and sat in the single armchair.

‘I said he does know what he’s missing.’

Jake sat on the sofa and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. He sighed. ‘The past is always following you around like a permanent hangover just itching to spoil your day.’

Faye had the sudden urge to show Jake he wasn’t the only one with unresolved personal issues; he wasn’t the only one hurting. ‘Do you know, my father doesn’t see my daughter – his only grandchild?’ She anticipated his shocked response: How could he? What’s wrong with the man? Instead, she was the one in for a shock.

‘I know,’ Jake answered nonchalantly. ‘He blames you for leaving Natty’s father and thinks that as you took it upon yourself to be a single parent, you shouldn’t expect family members to step in.’

Faye was stunned. ‘Who told you that?’

‘Your daughter – who else?’

‘Oh.’ Serves me right for having such an outspoken nine-year-old , Faye thought. She wondered about the last time she had spoken with Natty’s grandfather, when he had made a rare visit to their house. Had their raised voices woken Natty? Had she got out of bed and sat on the stair, listening to that blazing row?

Jake held up two hands. ‘Look, I didn’t ask, okay? One day she just started talking about the grandfather that she rarely sees, and I guess she must have overheard some adult conversations she shouldn’t have.’

Faye leaned back in her chair to look through the open doorway into the hall, expecting to see Natty sitting on the stair, listening. Of course, she wasn’t there; she was tucked up in bed, fast asleep. All the same, the next time she spoke, Faye lowered her voice. ‘I didn’t tell her the truth, you know.’

‘About her father?’

Faye nodded. ‘I did leave her father, it’s true.’ She paused. ‘Her grandfather got on really well with him.’

‘Oh, I see – so your father sort of sided with him when you broke up?’

‘Yeah, he couldn’t understand why I’d ditch such a lovely bloke, but our relationship, it just wasn’t working out. We wanted different things. It was just as well we never married. He was a foreign student over here doing a PhD at a London university. We met when I was doing my Master’s in education. I got pregnant. He kept asking to marry me.’

‘He was a foreign student?’

‘From the Middle East; Oman. He wanted me and Natty to live with him in his country. But my life was here. Perhaps if we hadn’t had a baby together, we’d have parted ways a lot sooner.’

Jake nodded. ‘I’m so sorry to hear things didn’t work out.’

Faye smiled. ‘I wouldn’t change a thing, because I have a beautiful little girl. As you’ve gathered, she takes after my ex in the looks department, with those big brown eyes, glossy dark hair, and olive skin.’

‘But she’s got her mother’s features, and she’s going to break some hearts someday,’ Jake blurted.

Faye stared at him.

In the awkward silence that followed, she noticed him looking around the room, avoiding eye contact, until his attention settled on a cushion beside him on the sofa. She watched him pick it up, put it on his lap, and examine the pattern intensely. He seemed embarrassed; she thought he was probably wondering what on earth had made him say such a thing.

She imagined he was beginning to feel that it had been a bad idea to crash at hers. She suddenly felt self-conscious in her silk pyjamas, with her blonde bob, normally straightened, all askew. He’d never seen her in casual clothes before, let alone in her pyjamas. She always looked professional, choosing to wear suits for work, even when she attended her evening classes.

‘Now that sounded like a really bad chat-up line,’ Faye joked.

Jake looked up and smiled weakly. She caught him looking at his watch, which reminded her that if she returned to bed straight away, she might get an extra hour before Natty woke up.