Chapter 11 #2
He could lift her and carry her home any day of the week.
‘Hey,’ she whispered.
Jamie stopped mid push up and turned to look at her whilst resting on one throbbing yet distinctly capable arm.
Fuck me.
‘Oh, hey.’ He lowered himself to the ground before rising to his full towering height, like an old-fashioned gentleman standing when a lady enters the room. Chad would have continued doing push ups as if it were some emblem of his manliness. ‘Sorry. Did I wake you?’
‘Er, no. You can’t sleep either?’ Was it bad to admit that when she’d been given the bed?
‘Ach, turns out that chair doesn’t convert to a sofa bed after all. Was trying to tire myself out to see if I could get sparko on the floor.’
‘The floor?!’ Alicia couldn’t let Jamie sleep on the floor of the bothy. It was freezing and probably had remnants of cowpat and sheep-dropping encrusted boots all over it, and who knew what else?’
‘Listen,’ she said. ‘You should sleep in the bed with me. There’s plenty of space.’
‘Naw, it’s fine. I want you to get some decent rest and you don’t know me from a bar of soap.’
‘True, but you’ve shown you’re honourable. I trust you. I can trust you, can’t I?’
‘Aye, Alicia, you can trust me, but I don’t want you to have to worry even one wee bit about this.’
‘Jamie, look. If you were going to do something to me, these flimsy drapes here wouldn’t make the blindest bit of difference.
We’re in a bothy in the middle of I don’t know where and I hate to say it, but my safety is completely in your hands.
So far, you’ve looked after me, so what I am saying is, I would like you to get some sleep. ’
‘And I would like you to get some sleep but how likely is that with some random guy snoring his arse off in the bed next to you?’
‘You snore? Through your ass?’
Jamie laughed. ‘Well, no on both counts. However, I’d still rather you have the bed to yourself.’
Alicia swung her legs through the drapes and lowered herself down to the bumpy stone floor. Even through her socks, the cold shocked her feet.
‘Where are you going?’ Jamie asked. ‘Not to use that outdoor loo in the dark?’
‘No, definitely not. I’m coming to get you.’ She shuffled over to him in the flickering candlelight, his commanding outline backlit by the dim amber glow. The shadow on the wall twice the man. He watched her approaching him. Still. Solid. Scrutinising.
Alicia stumbled in the dim light and in one swift movement he was there, catching her, his chest a buffer. Oh, the heat of him. Alicia could sleep here. Standing up.
‘Hey.’ As if she were a feather, Jamie helped her back to an upright position. ‘Careful. Go back to bed.’
‘I will go back,’ she said. ‘As long as you come with me.’
Jamie sighed. ‘Alicia!’
‘Jamie. Come on. You have to sleep. I need a capable and well rested orienteer to guide me back to the hotel tomorrow. So it’s in my best interests, you see?’
‘I see. How can I argue with that? Okay, I’ll come to the bed, but I am taking the wall side, and you are having the whole blanket.’
‘I suppose that’s a decent deal.’
‘I’m really not comfortable with this, though.’ Jamie looked for his hiking pants which were hanging on the back of another chair.
‘Well, I am, if that makes you feel any better. We’ll leave the candle on and keep the drapes open.
And don’t worry about your pants. I’m sure you’ll be much more comfortable in those thermals.
‘Come on.’ The urge to grab his tricep was strong but he wasn’t grabbing any part of her body so she should respect his.
‘Don’t take offence,’ Jamie said, as he rolled himself over to the wall side of the bed, ‘but I’m going to face the wall. Just so you know where my hands are.’ He waved his hands in the air like a magician. Their span was huge and they looked like they could do tricks.
‘Okay. Thank you.’ Alicia stomped on her own wayward thoughts.
‘You’re welcome.’
‘I hope you sleep okay.’
‘You too.’
She tucked the blanket up to her chin, tried not to think about how many other people had been under it before her, and closed her eyes.
But it was never going to be the blanket that kept her from sleeping.
‘Jamie.’ She whispered his name ten minutes later. ‘Are you asleep?’
‘Aye,’ the answer came back.
Alicia giggled.
‘Are you not?’
‘No. I can’t sleep.’
‘Me neither. Is it too quiet for you?’
‘That could be the reason.’ Alicia knew it was not. The silence was serene. It was Jamie. Being next to him was like being plugged into a power grid. She was too stimulated to sleep.
‘Want me to snore?’ he suggested. ‘Remind you of the LA traffic.’
‘That’s the last thing I want reminded of.’
‘You’re not a city girl then?’ Jamie rolled onto his back.
‘Well, I live in the big city, and it has its conveniences, but I’m not sure in my heart that I’m a “city girl”. Don’t they wear suits with shoulder pads and drink iced lattes and broker deals with London by noon?’
‘Hmm. Not being a city girl myself, I couldn’t say, but you don’t strike me as that type.’
‘I’m not. I live in LA because my family is there,’ Alicia was bolstered in confidence by the dim light and Jamie’s lack of prying.
‘I didn’t mention it last night but my parents are actors.
We lived in Norway for a short time when I was young because my mom is of Norwegian heritage, but Dad was spending so much time travelling to the States for work that they decided to move back.
’ She paused, her words hanging in the darkness like a rope swing, expecting Jamie to swing back on them with a question about what shows her parents had been in. But he didn’t.
Instead, he said, ‘That must have been a tough decision. Although it would be a no brainer for me.’
‘Country boy, huh?’ Jamie had told her the night before that he lived in a small village called Kinshore, about 150 miles away, where the family distillery was located.
‘Through and through.’
‘Small-village life is all you’ve ever known?’
‘I’ve travelled for work, so it’s not that I’m set in my ways.
My brother Cal and my sisters live near Edinburgh, so I visit them and we hang out in some great places.
I’ve visited Niall, another of my brothers, in Australia where he runs a surf school.
But my heart will always be here, away from the bustle and hustle. ’
‘Hustle and bustle,’ Alicia corrected.
‘And this is my point. Imagine me trying to cross the road when there’s more than one car coming or trying to catch one of those trains that goes under the ground.’
Alicia giggled again. ‘I’m sure you’d be fine.’ She turned onto her side towards Jamie. ‘So, tell me more about your role at this whisky company. You like your job?’
He looked at her for a second, eyes flashing with interest at something – her curiosity perhaps – but remained on his back.
‘I love it. The company was founded by my ancestors over two hundred years ago. My dad’s the CEO and he wanted all of us to work for him, but it was only me that ended up doing that, although my brother Sean works for a cooperage that makes the barrels for our whisky. ’
‘So are you and your dad quite similar?’ Alicia was conscious she was like a small child who’d eaten too much candy after midnight, asking all these questions, but Jamie intrigued her and talking in the inky anonymity of the box bed was easy.
‘In some respects, yes. The company means a hell of a lot to both of us, but if I were in his position, I think I’d be more willing to relinquish certain duties. Although maybe I wouldn’t. Who can say?’
‘His position?’
‘Aye.’ Jamie’s voice turned a semitone more sombre, his words more measured. ‘He’s got a terminal illness. Motor Neurone Disease – ALS – and likes to pretend it isn’t happening.’
‘Oh, my goodness.’ Was this where the sadness she had witnessed earlier came from? ‘That must be so hard on all of you.’
‘Yeah, it was especially hard at the start. He was given up to five years to live, and we all focused on the end for too long, but we’ve learned to shift our focus to enjoying the time he has.
He’s still with us, still trying his best to keeping working while he can.
But ultimately, he needs to retire, promote someone to my job and then I can do his job. ’
‘And that’s not going to happen?’
‘He doesn’t want to let go without being certain the company will keep thriving amidst new competition. The reason I came to the hotel was to come up with some innovative marketing ideas.’
‘Oh! I see. Is that what you were scribbling in your book earlier?’
‘Aye. Or trying to. Turns out it’s hard to innovate when you’re in holiday mode. All I want to do is chill and sleep.’
Jamie’s family sounded so very different from the large dynasty of egotists Alicia had assumed from the article online.
And Jamie himself exuded warmth and naturalness.
She knew she’d done the right thing in bringing him up here to the bed.
And by the encroaching sleepiness in his voice, he would be out like a light soon and no more of a threat to her than a puppy dog.
‘Speaking of sleep,’ she said, ‘you sound tired. We should get some.’
‘Mmm, aye. I’ll go back to my corner.’ Jamie turned to the wall again.
‘You don’t have to do that, you know.’
‘I do.’ Jamie murmured and Alicia smiled as his breathing fell into a steady rhythm. Already she was warmer and more relaxed, by his mere presence. Tentatively, she edged nearer to his masculine frame, not enough to wake him up but enough to feel a little more of his body heat.
Imagine this was your man and you got to sleep next to him every night like this, protected and safe. Your big Scottish bear. Imagine.
Imagine.
Stop imagining. Try and get some sleep.