Chapter 50
Cal
Cal showed Bea to her bedroom with adjoining en-suite.
‘I’ll let you freshen up and do the same myself along the corridor. I’ll call back for you in an hour and take you down to dinner.’ He planted a soft kiss on her cheek then headed off to change.
An hour later, Bea opened her bedroom door and Cal’s jaw crashed to the floor.
She looked like she’d been sewn into a deep-red figure-hugging dress, her lips were stained crimson and she wouldn’t be out of place on a red carpet.
He sucked in a breath. Blood was rushing around his body in a way that was most inconvenient when he was about to introduce her to his family.
‘Bea, you look stunning. Did you manage to talk to Amira?’ Hopefully a change of subject would keep his body in line.
‘Thank you. I did and it was exactly what your mom told me. It really is true.’ Bea glowed.
‘That’s incredible.’ Cal planted a congratulatory kiss on Bea’s cheek so as not to smudge her lipstick, although if they hadn’t been going downstairs he wouldn’t have cared about smudged anything.
‘Your books are going to be known and loved all over the world, Bea. So, can I take this famous author to meet my family?’ He held out his arm for her to link into.
His family would love her; she was beautiful and charming and a delight to be around and could talk to anyone about anything.
His brothers might even try to flirt with her, but they wouldn’t get anywhere, because he wouldn’t let them.
But there could be questions from certain family members about what their future held.
Which was a good point – what did the future hold?
Well, maybe tonight was the time to find out.
Cal decided that after dinner, he would take Bea down to the beach and tell her he was in love with her.
He had to hang onto her. Letting her go couldn’t be an option anymore.
She was far too amazing to be a holiday fling this passionate, dedicated American goddess.
The other topic that was bound to arise was the family business.
Jamie was the only Butler sibling employed by Butler’s whisky.
Working alongside their father was not a job for wimps.
Jimmy Butler was a workaholic and expected nothing less of his son, but he was also vulnerable now and coming to the stage where he would need to think about passing the reins over.
This would mean a gap in the executive arm of the business.
There were people who could easily fill it, but Cal knew – and he knew that Jamie knew – that his father would prefer if one of his children filled the post. And both Jimmy and Amanda deserved that reassurance.
Cal wondered, as he entered the large drawing room where glasses were clinking and friends and family congregated, if Jamie might remind him how much this all meant to their dad, might question how Cal could get involved, somehow, to give Jimmy confidence that his company was in good hands.
‘Lovely Bea,’ Amanda chimed. ‘Come and let me introduce you to the family.’
‘It’s fine, Mum, I can do it.’ Cal would far rather he be the one to introduce Bea to his siblings and father.
But his mother was off, and Bea, being polite and having no apparent choice in the matter, was following her. Cal didn’t pursue because he knew he would end up a third wheel while his mother paraded Bea around the family, clearly set on the idea that this was her future daughter-in-law.
Instead, he watched from afar and chatted to a family friend, casting glances when he could to see how Bea was doing.
The answer appeared to be thriving. But Cal knew she would.
Bea could charm a stone into doing the Highland Fling.
She had certainly worked her magic on him, and he’d been stone-like for a long time.
Cal sidled up to Jamie when he saw his brother was free.
‘How’s it going, J?’
‘Aye good, thanks.’ Jamie squeezed Cal into one of his trademark bear hugs. ‘How’s you? Like I need to ask, obviously excellent after meeting your date for the evening.’
Cal nodded but said nothing more. He was close to Jamie but he didn’t want to comment until he’d talked to Bea and, hopefully, had good news. Otherwise, all he’d hear would be people telling him that it would be hard to let her go. So, instead, he asked after Jamie’s girlfriend of ten years.
‘How’re things with you and Katie? She not here?’
‘She’ll be along later. And we’re the usual. She keeps busy with her book group and cocktails with friends, and I keep busy with work and hiking and a dram by the fire. Can’t complain.’
‘Aye, you can’t complain about a dram by the fire. And is business alright?’
‘Aye, I think so.’
‘You think so? Is everything okay with the company? With Dad.’ Cal worried that maybe his father had taken a downturn, and this was why he hadn’t yet shown face at his own party.
Jamie reassured him. ‘Things are fine with the business. I mean, we always want sales to be as strong as possible so we’re looking at ways to maximise those, but nothing that isn’t another day at the office.’
‘Right. And how’s Dad doing? You know, his health?’
‘As well as can be expected. Still trying his best to work as normal, but it’s early days. He’s only recently got the diagnosis.’
Cal nodded.
‘We’re all worried, but you know Dad; he’s got this way of making out like you’re the one that he needs to be worried about.’
‘I know. So then we have double the worry. We’re worried about his health and worried about how much he’s worrying about us and what we can do to stop that worry.’
‘Aye, something like that,’ Jamie chuckled.
‘I know you don’t fall into that category since you fell into line and didn’t let him down.’
‘Ah, well, it might surprise you to learn that I still feel I’ve let him down on a daily basis. I think it might be a hazard of having such a successful father. You never quite believe you can live up to his reputation.’
‘Tell me about it.’
‘You know, he is proud of you.’
Cal shot Jamie a look of surprise. ‘Aye, right.’
‘Of course he is. He’s always talking about his son who runs the bar – soon to be bars – in the city and how you’ve made sure the folks in Edinburgh are drinking Butler’s.’
‘I don’t think I’m the reason people are drinking Butler’s, but okay.’ Cal was glad he was having this conversation with Jamie. It was going some way to improving how he felt. Although he couldn’t take Jamie’s word for things. He would need to talk to his dad.
‘Speak of the devil.’ Jamie nodded to the door.
Cal turned to see that his father had entered the room.
He seemed smaller and more vulnerable, his tall frame diminished somehow, although to those who didn’t know him so well, such as Bea, he probably looked like a man of seventy rather than sixty.
Cal could have sworn his father had shrunk a little.
Seeing him like this, an incredible sense of guilt swooped over him.
It didn’t matter what Jamie said, Cal wasn’t sure he could shift the niggling that he’d let his dad down somehow.
This, compounded with the looming loss of Bea, made the foundations of Cal’s life disconcertingly unstable.
And if there ever was a legacy of his childhood, it was that Cal would do anything to avoid that feeling, even if it meant painting over the cracks with the wrong colour of paint.
There were toasts to Jimmy Butler before the meal. As the eldest son, Cal was seated next to his father at the top end of the main table, Bea to his left, Eilidh to the left of her. The room buzzed with loud chatter.
‘How’re you doing, Dad?’ Cal asked as he watched his father watching everyone else.
‘Aye.’ Jimmy turned his attention slowly to Cal. ‘I’m … alright. Pretty much … the same as … the last time we spoke, which … could be good … or it could be bad.’
Cal noted that the protraction evident in his father’s voice was something new since he’d spoken to him on the phone a few weeks previous. It unnerved him, seeing his dad as anything less than robust and invincible.
‘I see you’re doing well though.’ Jimmy nodded towards Bea, having been introduced to her at pre-dinner drinks.
Cal had only seen the conversation from across the room, and Bea hadn’t had time to fill him in on how it had gone.
‘And can I say that I fully approve? This woman is going to keep you on your toes, I can tell.’
Cal turned to Bea, who was smiling at his father’s words.
He was right; they did like her, and she would appear to like his family, too.
It was great, but it also wasn’t since it was a temporary fling and he’d have to let his dad down again and tell him that his firstborn couldn’t hold on to a woman.
‘Did you get a chance to look at that list I sent you? Of the therapists and stuff?’ Cal asked.
‘Aye, I looked.’ Jimmy nodded and met his son’s eyeline square on.
He wasn’t avoiding the topic but he was also telling Cal that giving the list a cursory once over would be all he would do, or admit in public to having done.
Cal couldn’t push the matter, certainly not in this context.
He reached for his wine, hoping that something in the glass might help make this situation better.
‘How’s business?’ he asked as a detour that would hopefully lead back to the previous topic.
‘Things are grand,’ said Jimmy. ‘Jamie’s heading up a great team … and we’re expanding further into Japan. And, closer to home … maybe turning some of the old distillery cottages into holiday accommodation.’
‘That sounds great, Dad. Are you sure you can keep working, though?’
‘For the time being, aye.’ Jimmy reached for his glass of water and Cal could see that he didn’t have a firm grip on the glass. ‘I could do with a real drink, though.’
‘Want me to get you a wine?’
‘Your mother says I’m not allowed.’ Jimmy smiled. ‘And to keep her happy I’m going along with it. For now, anyway.’