Page 22 of A Secret Scottish Escape

I could hear Greg’s hesitant voice. “I really enjoyed the other evening. Did you?”

Faith sounded exasperated. “Of course I did. Why?”

I glanced across. Oh, I knew the look Faith was offering him. It was her don’t-push-me-as-I’m-frightened-of-commitment face.

“It’s just you said you would call me but you haven’t.”

“I’ve been really busy.”

My heart thudded in sympathy at the sight of Greg’s resigned nod. “It’s nothing to do with me being a single parent, is it?” Greg nodded towards his little son, who was hopping from foot to foot and singing something about a baby shark.

The colour of Faith’s cheeks deepened and she reached up to fiddle with her hair. “No. Don’t be silly. Not at all.”

I sighed to myself. Why was she lying to him?

I watched as she brushed a non-existent hair out of her eyes. “I’ll call you in a day or two, OK?”

Greg didn’t appear at all convinced. “I’ll ring you tomorrow, if you like?”

“I’m not around much,” she flustered. “I’m working.”

Now it was Greg’s turn to appear embarrassed. “Oh, OK. Right.”

“I’ll call you,” insisted Faith, offering a hasty goodbye and steering me away up the path.

Once we’d turned the corner of a hedge, I pulled up. “What was all that about? I didn’t know you were seeing someone.”

Faith flapped her hands. “I’ve been out with him a couple of times. It’s no biggie. I didn’t mention it because you’ve had all this going on with Mac.”

I stuck my head around the corner of the hedge for another look at Greg and his little boy. Greg’s shoulders were slumped and he was feigning interest in something Sam was telling him about a stone he’d picked up.

“He’s cute,” I observed.

“Which one?”

“Both of them, as it happens.” I frowned. “Greg seems vaguely familiar.”

Faith started to move off. She was playing with the fastening of her clutch bag. Her reluctance to discuss Greg and his son was palpable. “He works as a ranger with the forestry services round here.”

I eyed her. “He seems a nice guy.”

“Yes, he is.”

I blinked at her. “He’s very good-looking and also seems really keen on you, so what’s the problem? Do you like him?”

Faith squinted in the lavender light. “Yes, of course I like him.”

“Then what’s with all the off-hand behaviour? As soon as you spotted him, you looked like you had just stepped on a plug. Talk about mixed signals.”

Faith appeared to be inwardly debating whether to confide in me. She moved across to a nearby wooden bench that overlooked a section of Loch Harris and plonked herself down on it. I joined her.

She continued to stare across the murmuring waters of the loch, before finally revealing that she had met Greg McBride when he had dropped in to the tourist office a few weeks back to deliver some new forest walk maps.

“You know how it is,” she blushed, “when you first meet someone and you’re attracted to them, and it’s all flashing eyes and teeth.” She sighed. “Anyway, he popped into the office again a couple more times on some pretence or the other and then he asked me out.”

“And?”

Faith explained that she and Greg had been out on a couple of dates. “We went for a drink to a little country pub in Finton a few days ago. We had a lovely evening. Greg’s handsome and funny…”