Page 96 of The Christmas Highland Lodge

‘Yes.’

‘Then please let me give you my number.’

Jason reeled it off and I jabbed it into my phone.

Desperation rung out in his voice. ‘Please let me know as soon as you find him.’

I offered them both my best reassuring smile. ‘I will. I promise. And please try not to worry.’ I pressed my lips together. ‘Look, I can’t promise Blake will even listen to me, but I will try to talk to him.’

Jason nodded. ‘Thank you. That’s all I can hope for right now.’

* * *

Where had Blake got to?

I trampled through the woodland, calling his name.

It must have been an awful shock for him, discovering his father was standing in front of him after so many years. It would throw anyone.

How wrong could I have been about the whole situation? And I had thought Jason Driscoll was some newspaper reporter, intent on revealing all about Blake and what had happened to him after his TV series was pulled. I had been right that all the questions Jason Driscoll had been asking were suspicious but it hadn’t been for the reasons I had thought. That was why he had been hanging around outside the shop too, in the hope of seeing Blake there with me.

My cheeks flipped with colour as I thought again about how wrong I had been about everything. All I had wanted to do was protect Blake and make sure he wasn’t hurt. That hadn’t changed.

I called out ‘Blake!’ again as I pressed on, my boots scrunching across the woodland carpet of twigs and dead leaves. No wonder he’d taken off like that. He probably just wanted to put as much distance as he could between himself and Jason right now.

No doubt Blake wanted to get away and think things over, rake through his own thoughts and get everything clarified in his own mind. Everything Saffron had told him and led him to believe had been shot down in flames by his father. He had grown up thinking his dad couldn’t care less about him and nothing could be further from the truth.

I hated the thought of him sitting somewhere on his own right now with what Jason had told him screeching around in his head. He must be struggling to comprehend everything and sort fact from fiction. Jason wasn’t perfect, but Blake didn’t know the whole story and he deserved to. He needed to. He shouldn’t spend the rest of his life carrying around all these untruths.

I tightened the belt of my coat. I knew he wasn’t interested in anything other than friendship. Blake had made that plain. But even though my hurt and disappointment still festered over him and what had happened between us – or more precisely, what hadn’t happened – I wanted to be there for him. Even if he just wanted to sound off about his parents and how frustrated and let-down he felt. I would be more than happy to listen.

I reached the other side of the woods. I could just make out the stippled roofs of the log cabins. They seemed so far away now.

I whirled around on the spot, taking everything in from each direction. Where the hell was he?

A dark thought clung to me. Bloody hell. Blake wouldn’t try to go climbing up some fierce hill, would he? The temptation to claw out his frustration and anger by taking himself off up Ben Linn again lurked at the edges of my mind. No. Surely, he wouldn’t be so stupid and pig-headed as to do something foolish like that?

I conjured up images of him marching away from Jason and Rob without even so much as a backward glance. Goodness knows what he was thinking about everything right now. He might not be thinking straight. I so wanted him to know that he could talk to me and that he wasn’t alone.

No wonder I had labelled Blake complicated. He had experienced an unsettled life growing up.

And no wonder he didn’t like Christmas. What had happened on Christmas Eve all those years ago, would linger on in anyone’s memory, especially when his mother refused to celebrate the festive season from then on.

I paused for a moment, my breath sliding out of my mouth into the frosty air and spiralling into smoky coils. The waggling, stripped tree branches and the odd bird darting in front of me was almost hypnotic.

Learning what I had about Blake’s parents splitting up and him being told by his late mother that his father had in effect cancelled Christmas for them by leaving, let me see even more clearly now why he relished surrounding himself in nature. The mountains and the hillsides never let you down. They were constant and always there, ready to be appreciated.

But the idea of him taking himself off up another mountain right now filled me with horror. His head wouldn’t be in the best place. He would be distracted and angry, his head jostling with thoughts that he couldn’t reckon with.

My head brimmed with rising worry. I had to find him. My desperation was growing. ‘Blake? It’s Lottie,’ I called out, before feeling foolish. Who else could it be? ‘Please, Blake. Where are you? I’m worried about you.’

There was no reply.

I let out a panicky gulp of air.

I drew up again and tried to rationalise. So where might he have gone? Something told me Blake would not have returned to Craig Brae. At least not straight away. The town was a hive of activity with last-minute Christmas shoppers. He wouldn’t want to be surrounded by festive jolliness. That would be his idea of hell.

Much more likely then that he would choose to go somewhere quiet and seek solace. If I were him, I would want to take myself off somewhere I could sort everything out. But where? The woods up here rambled on for a few miles. He could be sitting anywhere in amongst the trees.