‘Why? You always look lovely.’
She pulled a face. ‘You’ve only ever seen me in one of my two pairs of shorts, or my jeans. I can look well turned out if I try.’
Unsure why she was reacting in this way, Joe said, ‘I can well imagine. I didn’t mean to infer that you didn’t bother, you know. Only that…’ What had he been trying to say? He wasn’t exactly sure. ‘I suppose I’m just taken aback that anyone can own as many clothes as Lindy.’
The taxi driver drove away, leaving the four of them standing in the yard.
‘Here,’ Brodie said, going over to Gareth and picking up the first two heavy cases, his face reddening and cheeks bulging when he felt the weight.
Aware he needed to do follow suit, Joe did the same. ‘Oh my word!’ he exclaimed as he lifted them.
‘Heavy?’ Skye asked, looking sympathetic. She went to pick up the two cabin bags.
‘No, I’ll take those,’ Gareth said. ‘You take Lindy’s bag, if you will. I’m bound to put it somewhere I shouldn’t and annoy her.’
Joe followed Brodie into the house and wondered how well Gareth and Lindy got on during their trip. Both had always spent their lives working in different areas of their farm, Lindy taking charge of the house, guests and her baking while Gareth took charge of the farm animals and crops. Spending weeks together, with no family to distract them, must have been interesting.
‘Leave one of the cases at the bottom of the stairs, both of you,’ Gareth said. ‘I’ll take them up to the bedroom afterwards.’
‘It’s fine,’ Brodie called from halfway up the first flight.
‘Yes, no worries.’ Joe was glad they had stopped at the four cases. ‘We’ll have these up there for you in no time.’
He followed Brodie into the bedroom and placed the cases he carried next to Brodie’s.
‘Hell, those were heavy,’ Brodie grumbled, shaking his hands. ‘I’m sure I’ve damaged the circulation in my hands.’
Joe laughed. ‘You’re not the only one. What have they packed in them, lead weights?’
They were still amused as they reached the ground floor and found Skye in the kitchen chatting to Gareth as he waited for the kettle to boil.
‘It sounds amazing,’ she said. Then noticing Brodie and Joe enter the room, added, ‘Gareth has been telling me all about their transatlantic journey, then stopping at ports along the east coast. It sounds incredible.’
‘It was astounding. The beauty we’ve seen and the magnificence of some of it.’ Turning to Brodie and Joe, he asked, ‘Tea, coffee or beers for you lads?’
‘Coffee for me, please,’ Brodie said. ‘I have to get back to the surgery.’
‘Yes, I’d better only have a hot drink too,’ Joe said. ‘I’ll have coffee as well.’
‘I wonder how Lettie’s getting on?’ Brodie said, half to himself. Then appearing to realise Gareth was in the room and how what he’d said might sound, added, ‘Sorry what I meant was?—’
Gareth laughed. ‘It’s fine. My wife is ecstatic about her granddaughter.’
‘Our granddaughter, Gareth,’ Lindy reminded him as she and Lettie entered the room.
He pulled a face filled with sarcasm. ‘Yes, I know Isla is our granddaughter, Lindy. I’m also not kidding myself that I will have to take a step back and wait my turn when it comes to giving her a cuddle.’ He rolled his eyes and smiled. ‘As I was trying to say to our family and friends here, I never imagined you would cut short our trip even for this adorable baby.’ He addressed everyone else. ‘But my darling Lindy insisted she couldn’t wait to get back.’
‘Neither could you, Gareth. Don’t make out this is all me.’ She sighed. ‘We’re sorry it took as long as it did for us to arrive back here though,’ she said to Lettie and Brodie.
‘Don’t be. We understood, Mum.’ Lettie kissed her mother’s cheek.
‘Of course we did,’ Brodie agreed. ‘We took the opportunity to spend some time by ourselves at the cottage and made the most of Joe and Skye being here to look after everything.’
‘And we were happy to do that, weren’t we, Skye?’
‘We were.’ She gave Joe a look that to anyone else might just reaffirm what she had just said, but Joe read the meaning in her eyes and it made his stomach clench.
He wished his mother had found somewhere else to live so he and Skye could move to his bungalow for a while, at least until she decided to return to Edinburgh. Realising the others were watching him and probably waiting for him to speak, he added, ‘It’s probably worked out well for everyone that things turned out this way.’
