Kirsty sank to the floor she was laughing so hard.
There was no water for coffee. There was no water for a shower. There was no water to brush his teeth. If Lake had been more awake, if he’d been able to get his hands on a mug of coffee, he might have smelled a rat a lot sooner than the hour and forty minutes it actually took him. He was going soft. In all his years in the army, he’d never needed coffee to get going in the morning.
He pulled on his faded blue jeans and his paint-splattered grey work T-shirt and went in search of the mains valve. It was mangled beyond repair. He didn’t need to look in his meagre toolbox to know that he lacked the gear to fix it. Back in the shop, he dug out the dust-covered phonebook and called the first plumber on the list. Before he even gave his name, he knew what the answer would be—and he was right. There were now no available plumbers in Invertary. The message he kept getting, almost word for word, was that he should try Fort William—or even better, Glasgow. Lake hung up the phone and stared at the wall. He smiled with amusement. It’d take a lot more than this to win a war against Lake Benson. He’d spent years living in hostile territory. As he kept telling the gorgeous Miss Campbell, he knew war.
“I’m going out,” he shouted to Betty.
There was silence. He hoped that meant she was napping. He’d left her in the office to go through the four hundred years of paperwork she’d accumulated. He’d given her strict instructions to be tough with herself and only keep the important stuff. Then he’d spent the last hour listening to a running commentary about each treasure she’d unearthed. The silence was a blessing.
He pulled on his denim jacket and wandered out into a perfect Scottish autumn day. He took a good, deep lungful of clean air and headed up the street to the hardware store. The street was coated with the fallen leaves, a carpet in orange and red. The blue sky was crystal clear and the rows of little white houses were picturesque against the rolling green hills behind them. It felt like he was walking through a photo of Scottish perfection.
“Hi, Lake,” a group of girls called to him.
He nodded and they giggled. Lake almost rolled his eyes. That newspaper article was annoying him more than helping him. Now half the women in town wanted him to charm them out of their underwear, and the other half were scared he would try! He had to do something to sort the problem soon or he’d go insane. Which, come to think of it, would mean he’d fit right in here.
After he’d given a huge chunk of what money he had left to the guy in the hardware store, Lake had an idea. The shop was painted. The lingerie and fittings were en route through Glasgow. All he needed was a plan to get the women of Invertary onside. The best way to do that was to give them what they wanted. And he had just the thing. He’d run a self-defence class.
Lake felt quite cheery as he set about undoing the shoddy sabotage job in the alley beside his store. He was fixing the trashed valve when he spotted someone out of the corner of his eye. Lake took off his protective goggles to find Kirsty staring at him. Today she was wearing a pale grey figure-hugging dress, which had her signature high neck. And, be still his heart, it looked like she wore thigh-high black boots under the dress. His mouth began to water.
“Thought you might need this,” she said.
From behind her back she produced a two-litre bottle of Highland Spring water.
Lake almost smiled.
“I didn’t think you’d own up,” he said as he took the water.
It was sparkling, not his favourite. He unscrewed the lid and had a long, slow drink, keeping one eye on Kirsty as he did so. Kirsty cleared her throat. Suddenly the old brick wall was fascinating to her.
“I’m not responsible,” she said. “But I do know what happened.”
Lake capped the bottle and used it to point at the pipe.
“And you came to gloat?”
“Damn right I came to gloat.”
Lake grinned at her.
“You can gloat at me any time, Kirsty Campbell,” he told her. “Want some?” He held out the bottle.
“No.” She folded her arms across her chest.
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He was pretty sure the action was supposed to be a barrier to him; instead it made him step closer. Her eyes widened slightly.
“Are you going to give up now?” she said.
Lake grinned widely.
“You thought a morning without water would make me surrender?”
Her eyes flicked away in uncertainty. That was exactly what she’d thought.
“That’s cute,” he told her.
She frowned as she took a step away from him.