7
7
Callum
Dear Callum,
You know me, it’s not in my nature to overstep, yet I couldn’t help but notice you’d yet to book the pitch for the Portree game next week.
Rest assured I have it all in hand, as well as the training pitch for Thursday evening.
Portree plays a strong defence and we need to be prepared, especially without Brodie’s speed on the ball.
You’ve been rather distracted of late.
If the captaincy is proving too much, I’d be happy to take the lead in your stead.
For the good of the team, of course.
Duncan
Duncan,
Thanks for your concern but I have it all in hand.
Callum
A knock to the examination room door dragged me from my furious scrolling.
Saving the assisted living home in Kyle to my bookmark, I dropped my phone onto the desk.
Today had been … not great.
Though she tried to disguise it, I could tell from the weary set of her shoulders that Mum was exhausted.
Permanent lines strained her features that hadn’t existed a year ago.
She’d lost weight—
Knock.
Knock.
Fuck . “Come in.” Even when I was here, I wasn’t really here .
Kelly popped her head around the door, a bright smile on her face.
“Jill Mortimer is here for her appointment.”
“ Again? It’s barely been a week?”
Kelly shrugged, tight brown curls bouncing off the collar of her pink scrubs.
“It’s Coco this time.”
Resisting the urge to curse, I drew up Jill’s extensive file on my computer.
“Send them through.”
I was draping my stethoscope around my neck when the polished blonde I’d attended school with strolled in like she was walking a red carpet.
A floaty, floral skirt, a touch too summery for the cold snap we were having, curled about her calves.
“Callum.” She grinned from ear to ear, the lead to a beautiful King Charles Spaniel clasped loosely in one hand.
“We need to stop meeting like this.”
“Ms Mortimer.” I offered the best smile I could muster and crouched to greet the dog I’d examined no less than ten times this year alone.
“How are you doing, lovely?” The words were obviously aimed at Coco, yet Jill fanned her face with feigned delight.
“My, my, Callum, you were always a charmer. I think my girls are as fond of you as I am. Almost .” She added the last bit with a wink I pretended not to notice.
“I doubt that’s true, Ms Mortimer.” I stood just as her hand clasped my bare forearm, long red nails curling against the skin until the tips bit in.
Something about those long red nails always made my stomach twist. Or perhaps it wasn’t the nails, rather the owner.
Because whenever I saw Juniper’s neatly manicured nails – always tipped in black – I imagined them buried in my back.
She could grow talons and I’d be into it.
I had nicknamed her harpy, after all.
“Callum, how many times have I told you to call me Jill?” Her nails dug in a little more before releasing, dragging over my wrist in a move undoubtedly meant to be seductive.
“We are old friends , after all.” Never had my sixteen-year-old self expected a single drunken kiss at a high school beach party to come back and bite me in the arse quite as often as that one did.
Trying to get this over with, I nodded to Coco.
“What seems to be the wee one’s problem?”
“Oh … Coco, of course . Her back leg is bothering her.”
She’d trotted in just fine, but dogs could be sneaky about hiding their pain.
“Let’s get her on the table and take a look.” I scooped her up before Jill could.
Starting at her back legs, I gently smoothed my hands over her fur, looking for any sign of discomfort.
“Has she been eating as normal?”
“Yes. Just like her mum, she loves her food.” Jill’s laugh was just this side of self-deprecating as she traced her palms over her curved hips.
Bloody hell .
I cleared my throat.
“Any pain during urination?”
“None.”
“That’s good.” I reached the dog’s front, checking inside her ears and eyes just for good measure.
Coco licked my arm as I worked, completely at ease.
“I can’t see any obvious problems,” I said at last, drawing back to rinse my hands.
“It could be a slight muscle strain but that’s nothing to worry about unless it persists.”
“Hmm.” Jill worried her lower lip between her teeth.
“Do you think I should make a follow-up appointment for next week?”
“That won’t be necessary, but you can always phone in if you’re worried.”
Her smile brightened and I inwardly winced at my fuck-up.
“What would I do without you, Callum? You have such a big heart.” Right .
Turning to the computer , I gave her my back and input a few details in Coco’s file.
“You should let me take you to dinner, to properly thank you.” My fingers stalled on the keys.
“Just as friends, obviously. I’m not ready for anything more after my divorce.”
Jill and her ex had officially split six months back and she’d been a constant thorn in my side ever since.
I felt like an arse to even think it, but I knew, despite her words, Jill would be in my bed in a heartbeat if I wanted it.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea. I have a lot going on right now.” The reply felt shitty.
I might as well have said, It’s not me it’s you.
I should have shut her down harder the last time she asked, but I’d felt guilty.
Too worried about hurting a lonely woman.
“Oh.” She deflated like a day-old balloon.
“Perhaps in a few weeks? Remember you offered to help clear out my gutters?”
With a start I realised I had offered that.
Heat rose in my cheeks, the desire to please almost forcing a vague, Yeah, maybe , past my lips.
I needed to be honest before I hurt her.
Shut her down in a way she couldn’t misconstrue.
“Jill, I’m sorry—” Fuck .
“But I’m not interested in you … like that . I can still help with the gutters but that’s all it will be.” Her entire face shuttered, lips pinching, and I knew I’d made a mess of it.
God, I was going to hell.
“Let me see you out.”
* * *
My phone rang in my hand as I trudged the short slice of land between my place and Ivy House.
Booted feet thudding on the sturdy, moss-covered planks that bridged the burn between the properties, the bank fringed by lush ferns and pine needles.
Mum. My stomach sank and, for a terrible, selfish second, I considered not answering.
“Hey,” I pinched the bridge of my nose as I picked up.
“Everything all right over there?” I hadn’t even been home yet.
It was after eight p.m. and I’d rolled out of bed at the arse crack of dawn to get to Murray’s.
I needed to get out of these scrubs and shower off the clinging scent of wet dog.
I needed to eat. Needed to sleep.
I needed …
“Hi, love.” Her voice wavered on the other end.
“Everything’s fine, just checking if you know where that Jimi Hendrix record your father loves has gotten to?”
“ The Last Experience ? Mum, all the records are in the hall cupboard. Do you need it now?” Alarm made the words tight, and I took a breath, willing the roiling in my chest to settle.
This was becoming our new norm, Dad growing agitated, Mum coming up with fresh schemes to bring him back to himself.
“He’s restless again tonight, the doctor said listening to his favourite music might soothe him.”
“The box along with the record player are on the top shelf, don’t get it alone, it’s too heavy.”
“I’ll use the ladder.”
“ Mum —” My gaze drew longingly to the inn door, my entire being straining toward it.
It was like it could sense Juniper through the walls.
Anticipate whatever snarky barb she’d throw at me and turn this clusterfuck of a day around.
“I’m about to go into a meeting, can you wait an hour?”
“At this time?”
“I’m helping a friend with something,” I said too casually.
“All right, love.”
“Try playing the song on your phone until I get there.”
“He doesn’t like it the same. We shouldn’t have put the player away.”
I swallowed my sigh.
The man hadn’t glanced at that record player in almost a decade.
“I’ll be as quick as I can.”
Setting my phone to loud just in case she rang again, I attempted to squash my worry as I pushed through the small outcrop of trees and Ivy House appeared, velvet night contouring its crooked edges.
I’d grown tired of waiting for Juniper to come to her senses, it was time for a different approach.
I was almost at the deep green door when my phone rang again.
Expecting it to be Mum, I stalled on the first step, certain I was hallucinating when Juniper’s name flashed across my phone screen.
I squinted and – holy shit , still there.
Juniper. Calling me .
I didn’t think she’d ever called me.
I fumbled the phone, almost hanging up with my clumsy, too big fingers.
“Juniper?” Silence. “Hello?” I glanced up at the inn, half expecting to see her at a window.
“How did you know it was me?”
I shivered, her voice like a warm exhale down the back of my neck.
Deeper and far more intimate when it was right beside my ear.
I had to clear my throat before I said, “There’s this cool invention called caller ID. I can come over and explain it to you if you like?”
She must have been going for blood tonight, because instead of arguing, she completely cut me off at the knees.
“I accept your offer.”
Just like that, sweetheart?
Something was off. “What offer might that be?”
“Do you get off on being a smug prick, Macabe? Or were you born this way?”
My first smile of the day broke across my face and I dropped back against the wall, a hand pressed to my racing heart.
“You sound intrigued, harpy, are you certain you still hate me because this is starting to feel like a ruse to get my attention?”
“I don’t know why I ever thought we could have a normal conversation.”
“Don’t lie, you love our banter as much as I do.” I saw the fire in her eyes every time we bickered.
She burned with it. A stark contrast to the ice queen her body played host to the other twenty-three hours of the day.
It had been five years of intense foreplay.
“Oh, it’s banter? My mistake. All this time I thought I avoided you because whenever we speak, you act like an entitled arse.”
I loved it when she gave me shit.
“Is this why you disrupted my evening? To insult me?”
“No. You’re sending me off track.” She fell silent again and I could practically feel her reinforcing her walls for what came next.
“If the offer of help still stands … then …”
“Tick tock, I don’t have all night.” Come on, sweetheart, give me something .
“ Fuck! I accept. I accept , okay?”
Relief punched through me.
I’d gotten exactly what I wanted …
just like that. And yet the opportunity to mess with her just a little was always too good to pass up.
“Say you need me, Juniper. Say you need me and I’ll do it.”
“Fuck yourself, Macabe—”
“Wait, wait, I’m joking. Don’t hang up.” I grinned in the dark knowing she couldn’t see me.
But shit, the way she said my surname with that vicious little tongue made me hard as a rock.
It always did. “You still there?”
“ Yes .” And that breathy tone laid claim to a completely different organ.
My next words were rough.
“Yes. The offer still stands.”
“What’s the cost?”
“We’ll discuss it face-to-face.” Unfolding myself from the wall, I climbed the few steps to the front door, rapping my knuckles.
“Open up.”
“What?”
“I’m outside, harpy.”
“Since when?”
Ignoring her, I kept knocking.
“Open up, I don’t have all night.”
Then from behind me, “Hey! Want to quit acting like an oversized oaf? I have sleeping guests!”