Page 101 of The Christmas Highland Lodge

‘It sounds like her pride and her hurt got in the way.’

Silence fell between us. The slosh of the loch in front of us was almost hypnotic. ‘Would you promise me one thing please?’

Even though it was evident he was still thrown by his father, he attempted a jokey lift of one brow. ‘It depends what it is.’

‘You’re not going to like it.’

I bundled myself into the warmth of my coat against the stirring breeze waltzing across the water.

‘Go on, Grant, out with it. The suspense is killing me.’ He tried to keep an indifferent look to his face. ‘If it’s dressing up as bloody Santa again or becoming one half of a pantomime reindeer, the answer is no.’

I laughed and gathered my resolve. ‘No, it isn’t that, although don’t put ideas in my head.’ I hesitated. ‘Please hear your dad out. You don’t have to throw your arms around him or buy him a pint, although if you did I think he would be overjoyed.’

Blake scowled and whipped his attention back to the loch.

‘Please. Just hear what he has to say before he leaves tomorrow to head home. He and Rob live in Brighton, so it’s not as if you’re likely to keep bumping into them.’

Blake kept his mesmerising eyes trained on the opposite shoreline. There was no noise, except for a random car negotiating the country lane behind us and the odd bird letting out an indignant cry.

‘I don’t know, Lottie. It won’t change anything, will it?’

‘No, it won’t change what happened, but it might help you to understand the whole situation a bit better.’

Blake sighed.

I squinted up at him. ‘My dad always used to say that it’s the things you don’t do that you regret, not the things you do.’

‘And you think I might end up regretting not talking to him?’

‘In the long run, yes, I think you would.’

Blake didn’t appear convinced. He stooped down and picked up another pebble. He turned the flat, shiny marbled stone over in his hand, before pulling back one strong arm and launching it into a skim across the silver surface of the water.

The pebble twisted and danced over the top of the loch, bounding and leaping for what seemed like forever, before it finally lost momentum and vanished with a delicate ‘plop!’ into the depths.

‘Oh, that was impressive!’ I said, trying to lighten the heavy mood for a few moments. ‘Please don’t ask me to do that.’

Blake gave me an attractive, if fleeting, lopsided smile.

‘How do you feel at the moment?’ I asked him. ‘About everything you just heard?’

‘Angry, resentful, mixed-up and so, so confused.’

‘There you are then,’ I said simply. ‘I think you’ve just answered your own question.’

Blake bent down to fetch another pebble. ‘What do you mean?’

‘You just said you feel mixed-up and confused, as anyone would be. And you will keep feeling like that, as long as you have all these questions swirling around inside your head.’

I stuffed my hands further into my coat pockets. ‘At the moment, you don’t know what to think or what you believe and the only way you stand any chance of coming to terms with what happened between your parents and why is to speak to your dad.’

Images of my own father lodged themselves in my mind and refused to budge. ‘I would give anything for even five more minutes with my dad. When people go, they take that window of precious time with them and you can never get it back.’ I bit back the crack in my voice. ‘There are so many things I wish I could tell him.’

‘I’m sorry.’

‘Oh, don’t be. I had him as my father for twenty-eight years and I wouldn’t give up a single moment of those memories for anything.’

‘You’re lucky.’ Blake shot me a wry look. ‘Since when did you become so wise on affairs of the heart?’