Chapter 14
Isla
My entire body stiffened, like I’d been dropped into ice water.
“You okay?” I barely heard Alistair say over the internal screaming filling my head.
Sunlight gleamed off Cameron’s silver wristwatch. His home-gym-crafted body lithe in a crisp dress shirt as he walked pointedly in our direction. Brown hair perfectly styled into an artfully messy comb-over he favoured for style over function.
Annoyingly, he still had a headful of hair.
I was certain I wouldn’t have cried into a pillow for a week straight if it only took one stiff wind to reveal the secrets of his widow’s peak.
“I didn’t realise he was going to be here,” I said quietly. “He never came to stuff like this with me.”
“Want to get out of here?” Alistair offered, squeezing my hand. “My Land Rover has a full tank of petrol; we could probably make it all the way to the English border before we have to stop.”
“Bit late for that—”
“Isla.” Cameron came to a stop on the other side of the counter, his slow gaze shifting between me and Alistair like he was trying to solve an equation that didn’t quite make sense.
The happy feeling that had been steadily stretching my chest all morning deflated like a balloon left in the sun.
“Are you here to pick Teddy up early? She’s around here somewhere,” I said, wringing my hands. I hated it, the way Cameron felt familiar and a stranger, all at the same time.
I knew he always liked to sleep with the window cracked, and the precise tenor of his voice was imprinted in my mind like a thumbprint. But I no longer knew what song he sang in the shower or where his favourite football team sat in the league table.
His eyes fixed on me. “I wanted to talk to you actually,” he replied, voice flat. Almost mad.
What could he possibly be mad at me for now?
My stomach sank. He was here to cancel on Teddy, I realised. Again.
Alistair’s hip brushed mine. His steady shoulder pressing. It might have been my imagination, but it felt like an offer . . . to back me up if I told Cameron to go to hell.
Unfortunately, I strove to give Teddy a drama-free life. “Of course.” I forced the words through my teeth, then turned to Alistair. “Will you be okay here for a few minutes?”
“It’s a cake stand, Isla; how hard can it be?” Cameron muttered.
My cheeks burned as his mocking tone rolled over me.
“Hey.” Alistair’s hands clasped my face, forcing my eyes to meet his. He held the stare so long – so intensely – I thought he was going to toss our rules to the wind and kiss me.
Then his thumb stroked over my cheek, and he released me. “Hurry back, honey.”
Honey.
I guess the cat was out of the bag.
His parting smile was faint. Crooked. Just teasing enough to make my legs wobble down the van stairs.
Though he’d stormed over here, demanding my time and presence, the second my feet hit grass, Cameron spun on his heel, leaving me to trail behind him like a lapdog.
It reminded me of the holiday we’d taken to Amsterdam a few years ago.
He’d continuously strode ahead, rarely glancing back to see if we could keep up.
Eventually Teddy and I had got so lost in the maze of crooked canal houses, we were forced to catch an Uber back to the hotel.
This time, I slowed my gait enough that he paused and turned to me. Staring until the silence began to feel awkward. I curled my toes in my trainers, forcing myself not to be the one to break it.
I won.
“What are you doing, Isla?” Cameron said.
“I work the food market every month.” He must have registered my confusion because his frown deepened, eyes flicking over my shoulder to the paint-chipped food van. The man waiting for me inside it.
“I meant Alistair Macabe. It’s a bit sudden, don’t you think?”
Did my jaw hit the floor? It felt like it. “Not really, we’re neighbours.” It was true, yet my voice came out too high pitched. The way it always sounded when I lied. “We’ve known each other for a while.”
I don’t know what reaction I’d expected when Cameron learned about Alistair and me. Quietly accepting or entirely unbothered would have made the top of the list. So, the squared jaw and flared nostrils caught me completely off-guard.
“Annie told me you guys had put in an application for the Cairn he’s the village doctor. And Annabelle is living with you.”
Could he be any more of a hypocrite?
“That’s different, Lala. Annie is my girlfriend. We’re committed to each other.”
“You barely even waited a week to move her into Teddy’s life!”
“You’re right; I did a shitty thing.” To his credit, he looked guilty. Face pinched, full lips twisting into a pained grimace. “And I get how this sounds coming from me, but I’m always going to look out for you. My relationship with Annie doesn’t change that I will always care about you.”
He reached for my hand, but I snapped back, pulling out of his reach. “Maybe I don’t need you to care for me.”
Idly, I became aware we were beginning to attract stares.
I didn’t care.
Cameron didn’t seem too either. “I was your first everything, Lala. First kiss, first love. I’m the only man you’ve ever—” He broke off, and my cheeks burned.
“I don’t want you making rash decisions that affect our daughter because your heart is broken.
You should have informed me the second you brought him into your life,” he finished, as though I were a child who needed scolding.
Part of me wanted to laugh again, but something sharp was lodged in my windpipe, making it impossible.
I don’t know what was worse. That he was questioning me as a parent or that he presumed I must still be so torn up over him, four months on, that he couldn’t even contemplate my looking at another man, much less dating one.
I mean, I didn’t want to date anyone, but that was my choice.
A choice that had nothing to do with him.
“So you want to know every tiny detail of Teddy’s life now? She fell over and cut her knee last month. Should I have informed you about that?” I spat. “Or how about when she caught the chickenpox over the Easter break and cried for three days straight? Did you expect me to call you then?”
His eyes flared, surprised that I was actually arguing back. I could hardly believe it either. “Yes. I’m her dad.”
A trap. And he was so arrogant he’d walked straight into it. “That’s funny,” I sneered, glaring up at him. “Because when I called, it went straight to voicemail. Three times.”
He winced, running a hand down his perfectly shaved face. “Shit. We were slammed at the restaurant around then, I barely even had a chance to look at my phone. Why didn’t you leave a message?”
I laughed sadly. Always an excuse. Always someone else to blame. “I shouldn’t have to leave a message to get you to call your daughter back. Or beg you not to cancel your weekends with her.”
“I’m sorry, okay? I’ve been distracted and busy; it’s a shitty excuse.
But my concerns about him are still valid.
” He blew out a slow breath. “You forget that I grew up here, I remember Alistair from school. I know how ambitious he is, how quickly he’ll throw people under the bus to get what he wants.
Look at what he did to Juniper Ross. The entire village was gossiping about how he punched his own brother in the face when he came home last autumn,” he said quietly, letting the warning hang.
“That’s the kind of man you’re bringing around our daughter, Isla. ”
The words hit their mark. Left room for that niggle of doubt – that I was way over my head with Alistair – to creep in. Followed quickly by a rush of disgust. Disgust for Cameron.
Yeah, Alistair had his own baggage. A lot of it.
But that was his business. Information I wasn’t entitled to as his fake girlfriend.
Even if Cameron did believe we were a couple, it was brand new.
Alistair didn’t owe me the same loyalty as a man whose child had grown inside me and nearly torn my body in half during the birthing.
A man who’d asked me to stay home and raise his family, while he made a life for himself.
A man who’d asked me to accept his gorgeous, successful high-school girlfriend as my friend, then turned around and blamed me for his betrayal because our relationship had grown stale.
I’d been so blindly trusting.
And he’d taken that trust and twisted it into something nasty.
He’d abandoned his family and now truly believed he had the right to stand in front of me with that lost-little-boy expression on his face, like I was the cruel one for not taking him at his word.
I folded my arms, done with this discussion. “We shouldn’t be talking about this here.”
“You’re smarter than this.” He pressed on. “You can’t actually think he wants to date the sad single mother next door? You’re just an easy lay to him. A convenience. I don’t want you to get hurt. Or – or embarrassed.”
Four months ago, his words would have devastated me. His casual cruelty. Now, I was mad. Mad for me. Mad for Teddy because she deserved so much better.
“Again, you mean. Embarrassed again,” I said. “Thanks for the concern, Cameron. Save it for the next time your daughter gets sick. Or at the very least, you could loan me the money for her school trip like you said you would.”
Shock slackened his features and his head snapped around, checking to see who might have overheard. Because that was more embarrassing to him than the fact it was true.
I might have felt smug, were I not so heartbroken for Teddy.
A high-pitched voice saved both of us from speaking further. “There you are! Baby, I’ve been looking everywhere – oh my god!”
Annabelle slipped under Cameron’s arm, then stumbled, hand tipping, when the toe of her wedge heel caught on a divot in the grass. Heat followed – violent and immediate – and I leaped back, crying out as hot coffee splashed down my chest, the burn seeping into my apron.
“Shit, Isla—” Cameron reached for me. But a firm set of hands got there first. Curling around my shoulders, holding me upright.
“You okay?” Alistair. Of course it was Alistair pulling the steaming fabric away from my body.
“I’m fine.” I winced, glancing down at myself. “The apron took the brunt of it.”
“You don’t look fine,” he clipped, already in full glowering-doctor mode. “You could have been scalded.”
Still might be. My stomach felt medium rare.
Annabelle’s eyes widened in delayed horror. “I’m so sorry, Isla. I tripped.”
“It was an accident,” Cameron interjected.
Annabelle’s arm linked through his, the action claiming. “And such a shame too because that T-shirt is so . . . unique. You know how brave I think your sense of style is.”
It burned almost as much as the coffee.
Even Cameron looked startled. “Isla, let me—” he started.
“I got it, Cam,” Alistair said. Like I’d let Cameron anywhere near me right now, anyway.
“It’s Cameron.” Cameron sniffed.
Alistair didn’t even glance his way, too busy unlacing my apron with quick fingers and tugging it up. “I want to check you out myself.”
“It’s honestly fine,” I said, smoothing my ruffled hair that got tangled in the fabric.
“And I honestly don’t care.” He pressed a kiss to the top of my head and winked. Woah. The sheer hotness of Alistair winking was not something I’d prepared myself for. “Consider this a perk of having a doctor for a boyfriend.”