Lingerie Wars (Invertary 1)

“After dinner. A couple of hours. That’s all the time you’ve got. Surely that’s enough time to do this.”

“Oh, I’m sure it’s enough time for us,” said Shona, “but I’m not sure it’s enough for Lake.”

They all fell about laughing. Kirsty shook her head and left them to it. She had other things to think about, like what to make for dinner and how far she could let Lake take things before she freaked out completely.

Rainne was wearing waders that came up to her armpits, standing in the loch. Although she had on several layers, she was pretty sure that her toes were turning black from frostbite and were about to fall off.

“Is this the right time of year to do this?” she asked Alastair, who didn’t seem bothered by the cold or the fact he couldn’t see where his feet were standing.

“It’s always the right time of year to learn to fish.” He gave her his megawatt smile. “Might not be the right time of year to catch anything, but we don’t really care about that, do we? Especially since you screamed so loud last time you caught something that people came running.”

“I’m a vegetarian,” Rainne grumbled.

Alastair busied himself with the hook at the end of the fishing line. Weeks he’d been teaching her to fish and she honestly couldn’t tell you one thing she’d learnt. Every time he got close all she heard was that lilting voice of his and all she felt was the heat coming off his body. The words were pointless.

“Do we have to do this now?” she grumbled.

“As opposed to when?”

“Spring?” she said hopefully.

Alastair stilled.

“Are you planning to be here in spring, Rainbow?” His voice was casual, but she could tell from the tension in his shoulders that he was anything but.

She felt the weight of the question hang between them. Man, but he was pretty. Even in the dreich wet weather that you only found in Scotland, with rain that wasn’t heavy enough to fall properly but was wet enough to soak you to the bone.

“Where else would I go?” she said. “Once Lake gets fed up playing shop and is satisfied that I’m not flushing his money down the toilet, then I’ll have a business to run. I can’t very well leave with that to do, can I?”

Alastair smiled softly, but kept his eye on whatever he was doing to the hook.

“No, you can’t leave with a shop to run,” he said. Then he looked up at her and she felt her world tilt. “But I’m hoping it isn’t the only reason you want to stay in Invertary, Rainbow.”

Rainne blinked hard, then pulled her rain hat tighter on her head for something to do. Alastair came up behind her, as he usually did when he was showing her how to cast. They’d done this about a million times now and they both knew Rainne could cast, but they both wanted to be close, so they went through the pretence of a beginner’s lesson at the start of each fishing session.

“Now, don’t forget to let the line slide,” Alastair’s breath whispered over her cheek as he leaned in behind her. “The line wants to fly out over the water, it wants to find fish, and you don’t want to be the one getting in the way of that.”

She smiled ahead of her at the murky water as she watched Alastair grasp the rod.

“I don’t ever want to leave here,” he said wistfully.

Rainne stilled as he wrapped his arms around her, all pretence of teaching her to fish now gone.

“This is my home,” he said. “I can’t imagine being anywhere else, and I want you here with me, Rainbow.”

“I told you, I’m staying,” she said, trying to keep her tone light.

“No, I mean I want you here forever. To become a part of this place the way I am. To get married here. To have children here. To be at home here.”

He didn’t say to be married to him, or have children with him, but Rainne heard it in his words. A ripple of excitement raced through her. It wasn’t the kind of thing people said, and it sure wasn’t the kind of thing they meant.

“You don’t know what you’re saying,” she said. “People don’t plan the rest of their lives when they’re twenty. You’re too young to know what you want.”

“I might be younger than you, Rainne, but I know what I want. I’ve always known what I want. To be here. A part of the landscape and the heritage. To be a tiny piece in a history that spans time. I want to grow old surrounded by people I know, and comfortable in places I know. I don’t have a burning need to be anywhere else.”

She shook her head as she felt his arms tighten around her, as though he wanted to keep her rooted with him.

“I don’t understand that feeling,” she said. “We moved all the time when I was a kid. My parents still live out of a bus. I’ve no idea where they are half the time. If they hadn’t gotten mobile phones they’d be lost forever. I don’t know what it would feel like to be a part of a place. The way you talk about it is strange to me.”