Chapter Seventeen
‘Good morning,’ she chirped, breezing in with a smile. ‘I’m just away for a wee run, Gran.’
Iris glanced up briefly and smiled. ‘Right, dear. See you soon. Oh, blasted thing,’ she muttered, her tone implying that she was frustrated that her guesses hadn’t helped her get closer to the morning’s word.
Flora pulled on her trainers and headed into the garden, stopping to admire Brodie’s handiwork so far.
He’d certainly made impressive progress in the short time he’d been here.
Having cleared the wild tangle of weeds and flowers from the borders, they were now raked and tidy.
Iris had mentioned that she wanted some raised beds for planting herbs and vegetables and they had also somehow appeared.
The grass had been cut and everything he had done already made such a difference.
It was clear he had been working hard since he started on Monday.
Which reminded her that she really should apologise for being too quick to judge him and jumping to her own conclusions.
Opening the gate, she headed in the direction of the beach where she followed the curve of the shoreline.
It was a bit cooler this morning and the mist wrapped itself around her.
She groaned — running had really never been her thing at all.
Her legs felt like lead and she was panting like a dog.
Her chest was burning and she kept trying to talk herself out of continuing.
Just go home and have a cup of tea with your gran.
This is pointless. You’re wasting your time.
You could have a nice piece of toast with butter and that delicious bramble jelly.
But she kept going, ignoring the voice in her head, reminding herself that she had to keep moving forward one wee bit at a time.
Which felt like apt life advice right now.
Just as the conversation with the girls had reminded her last night.
The swirling mist was a bonus as it made her feel invisible and protected and she could move along the beach in obscurity without anyone noticing her.
Her breath eventually started to steady and her feet adjusted to the feeling of running along the shingle.
Finally, she found a bit of a rhythm — steady and slow, but she was fine with that as she wasn’t in a hurry.
Her mind drifted back to the discussion last night and whether she could start up her own business while she was here.
She would definitely have a chat with her gran later. It was worth exploring the possibility.
Ahead, a cabin loomed out of the mist, its edges softened and blurred by the fog.
She frowned, unsure what it was until she remembered her gran had mentioned the sauna that was on the shore.
She had tried to encourage Flora to book a session over the Christmas holidays but she had shivered any time her gran had mentioned it.
She had pictured a basic and small hut rather than this fancy large wooden cabin.
As she neared it, she saw it had panoramic windows stretching along its entire length with views right across the loch.
Flora was walking briskly now, as per Jo’s running instructions, and so she went towards it, assuming that it would be empty at this time in the morning.
Even from the outside she could smell the lovely scent of fresh, warm wood.
She took a step closer and pressed her face up against the window to get a better look.
Then she realised there were two people sitting inside, grinning and waving back at her.
She jerked back feeling utterly mortified.
Nightmare. They would think she was spying on them.
She was about to turn to run — and fast — when the door swung open and out walked a man, closely followed by another.
Why did it have to be him?
‘Morning, Flora,’ Brodie said cheerily, a grin on his face.
If only the ground would open up now. ‘Um, morning,’ she stuttered, pulling out her earphones. ‘I was . . . um . . . just having a wee peek. I didn’t realise anyone would be here so early.’
The other man smiled. ‘Hi, Flora, I’m Reuben. Jess’s other half. I heard you had a good night last night?’
‘Yes, it was great. And it’s good to meet you,’ she said in as friendly a tone as she could muster. Really though what she wanted to do was just disappear.
‘I’m just away to cool off before I change my mind.’ Reuben, pointed at the loch and jogged down to the water and waded in.
Meanwhile Flora had been trying to keep her eyes up since Brodie came out of the sauna, with not much success.
Now she was staring at a bare-torsoed Brodie.
His muscles were honed and defined from hours of gardening and heavy lifting.
There was a sheen of sweat on his skin and her eyes lingered on the small tattoo on his right pec.
It was subtle, and looked like it was perhaps a symbol, inked close to his heart.
She was curious and wondered what it signified.
Realising she had been staring, she looked away.
She should tell him she was sorry that they’d gotten off to an unfortunate start but couldn’t help but wonder whether now, him half-naked and sweaty, was quite the right time to apologise.
Maybe not. ‘You’d better get in the water too,’ she said briskly. ‘Get all those pores closed.’
A smile played on his lips. ‘You’re right. Otherwise I will easily talk myself out of it. The water is pure freezing.’
‘You just need to embrace it, Brodie,’ she teased as she started to relax a bit even though she was still slightly mortified to have been caught lurking around the sauna.
‘Cheers, Flora. Are you normally this charming to everyone?’ His voice was light and his eyes crinkled.
‘I’m just acting in your pores’ best interests.
’ She grinned as he smiled back at her with a flicker of something in his eyes; it was making her stomach do little somersaults.
‘Well, good luck.’ She fiddled with her earphones, getting ready to run again and lose her embarrassed thoughts in her music.
‘Enjoy your run. See you later at the boathouse.’ He ran down to the loch and sliced through the water.
She nodded as casually as she could and turned to start running. But just before she flicked her music on, she heard another voice call her name. Looking back, she saw Emmet walking towards her.
‘Good morning.’ He beamed in delight. ‘I didn’t realise you were a runner, too.’
‘Oh, I’m not really. I just like to do the odd wee jog to keep me fit.’ She was trying not to look at Brodie and Reuben splashing about in the water.
‘We should go for a run together sometime,’ suggested Emmet looking at her hopefully as he then stood on one leg and pulled the other into a thigh stretch. ‘Or a cycle. There’s a great fifty-kilometre route I could take you on.’
‘Sure,’ she said quickly with the kind of enthusiasm she had when booking in at the doctor’s surgery for a smear test. She was sure Emmet was a nice guy but, given the fact he was currently dressed in Lycra shorts and a tight top, he looked like a man who took his sporting activities very seriously.
And she did not. ‘I’d better get on . . .
I don’t want to let my heart rate drop.’ Did she really just say that out loud?
He nodded approvingly, switching and pulling the other leg into a stretch. ‘Absolutely, I completely understand that. Don’t let your muscles cool down. Get yourself back in the zone. I’d better check the heat in the sauna for these chaps,’ he pointed to the water. ‘I’ll be in touch to make a plan.’
Her heart sank at the thought but then quicky recovered with a flutter as she caught a final glimpse of Brodie as he ran back up to the sauna grinning.
He glided past her like an Adonis which was highly annoying, especially as she was finding it hard to drag her eyes away from him.
She turned and fixed her gaze on the view ahead and started to jog.
She hadn’t expected Brodie to be working today as it was Saturday but the thought actually gave her a bit of a lift.
The sun was warmer now and the mist had started to disappear.
There was something about him that intrigued her each time she saw him.
He did seem kind and considerate especially when it came to her gran.
And he had been really friendly just now.
Yet there was something about him that made him sometimes seem aloof when he was around her at the boathouse.
He always said the right things when she spoke to him and he wasn’t rude.
But it was as if his mind was somewhere else.
He was the type of guy who was annoyingly hard not to notice though.
And the thought of seeing him later made her reluctantly grin.