Page 24 of From Scotland with Love

Callum nodded, with a distracted look. “I think I was wrong about them being Porpoises. They looked like white beaked dolphins.”

Lori looked up at him, wide-eyed, and then lay down on the sand with head resting on her hand.

“They’re actually pretty rare to see, especially around here.” He poured himself some tea from the flask, adding: “this is great news, I can mention it on our website!” He kicked the sand with enthusiasm and lay back, propped up on his elbow.

“Thank you, Callum, that was just so amazing.”

He looked at her. “A special moment.”

“Until I fell in!”

“Well that made it an especially funny moment!”

She playfully shoved him, almost spilling his tea.

“Hey!” He steadied his cup, chuckling at Lori’s reaction.

She took off her wet trainers and let her feet feel the grains of cool sand beneath them. The sun was now setting and the sky was ablaze with vibrant pinks. They lay together in relaxed silence, Lori comfortable just being there with Callum, glad that a rather horrible day had turned into a wonderful evening. Callum placed his hand in the sand and moved it around carefully creating patterns. Lori watched quietly.

“Have you been with Karen long? You make a good team,” Lori ventured, hoping to elicit an answer to the question that had been niggling at her for the last week now.

“Yeah she’s a great worker, so good with people. Some days I can’t face dealing with human beings, but she’s always on an even keel and takes everything in her stride.”

“What, you’re moody? Jeez I would’ve never thought that...!” Lori chuckled to herself and it was Callum’s turn to push her.

“OK OK, sometimes I may not always be ‘on form’.” He made speech marks with his fingers. “But she’s great.” He paused. “She works for me though, that’s all.” He took another sip from his cup. “Have you ever been married?”

“Oh god no, I’ve been married to my work for ten years!” Lori spoke the words and realised there and then that she had been married to her work. It had been her sole focus all these years, and she hadn’t really noticed – only when the panic attacks came along did she have the urge to step back, to fight her way out and retrain her way of thinking. Callum had gone off on adventures, adventures that she had planned to do herself. But instead she’d got caught up in the nine to five - the promotions, the luxury clothes, and all those experiences she had wanted to have had never actually happened. “Did you get married?”

Callum nodded. “Yes, I was married for about seven years. She worked along with me for a bit. I actually met her in New Zealand.”

“Oh?” Lori tried to sound unaffected by the news, though for some reason she felt like her gut had received a sharp punch. She hadn’t realised he had been married; no-one had told her, why had no one told her?

“Yeah, turns out I wasn’t enough though. She left me.” He looked down at his hands that were submerged in the sand.

“I’m sorry Callum.”

“Hey, it was a long time ago. In reality, it was me that left, but she had cheated, you see. I couldn’t forgive her in the end.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. You don’t need to tell me anymore,” Lori said softly, unsure of what the best response might be. She thought for a second of Tammy, and sighed. There were two sides to every story.

“It’s actually good to say it aloud. I’ve struggled for some time with it. But she’s back in New Zealand. I think it worked out for the best in some ways.”

“Do you have children?”

“No, thankfully. That would have complicated things!”

Lori nodded, wondering how to change the conversation, but nothing came to mind. Instead they both lay there watching the last of the sun leave and dusk start to settle in, the sound of the waves sloshing impassively up and over the edges of the shore.

14

Lori spent the next morning baking with Gran, who had promised to take some shortbread to the community centre for their habitual tea morning, and a batch of red velvet cakes for a Whist drive later that evening.

“I swear Gran, I have no idea where you get all your energy. You don’t need to bake this much, aren’t there any other locals who can do it?” Lori poured the last of the red cake batter into paper cases, while Gran fiddled with the knobs on the cooker, which, she never could master and forgot how to work almost every time she used it.

“Nonsense! There’s lots of others baking. It’s a community, Lori. The leftovers certainly won't go to waste! This is just how things are in rural life, did you forget that?”

Lori smirked; she knew her Gran was in one of those moods which meant if Lori really wanted to, she could wind up the old lady very easily.