Josh sighed heavily. “I’ll put the door back on today.”
“That would make us all thankful,” his father grumbled as he thumped up the stairs.
A giggle erupted from Caroline. She wasn’t sure if it was from the absurdity of the situation or the humiliation of it. Josh gave her one last hard, but short, kiss before rolling over to the edge of the bed. He picked up his jeans and pulled them on. Caroline watched in fascination as the muscles in his back and thighs rippled. Suddenly she wished his briefs were gone so she could watch all of him ripple. Josh turned to her as his dad passed their room and slammed into the bathroom.
“We’re not done here,” he promised.
With a wink, he disappeared down the stairs.
Josh left Caroline in bed while he dealt with his father. After his trip to the bathroom, the man glued himself to the TV. He was methodically working his way through the snacks Josh had bought.
“Are you going to sit there all day watching TV?”
His father grunted.
“Don’t you want to sort out your marriage?”
Silence.
“How about getting lost so I can spend some time with my fiancée?”
“Not going to happen, son.”
Josh pulled out the big guns. “I’m calling Mom.”
“Yeah, good luck with that.” He went back to eating potato chips.
“At least put on some pants. No one wants to see you sitting around in your underwear.”
Josh resisted the urge to knock some sense into his father. Instead he went into the kitchen, refilled his coffee mug and called his mother. It was another pointless exercise in parental intervention.
“He acts like we should be in an old folks’ home,” she told him. “He doesn’t want to do anything. Go anywhere. Socialise with anyone. He barely talks to me, and when I talk to him he doesn’t hear me. I can’t keep living like this. I’m sorry, Josh, but I can’t.”
“What can he do to fix it?” Please. Let there be something.
“I don’t know if there is anything he can do. This is who he is. He can’t change just for me. It isn’t possible.”
“Maybe there’s something else behind his behaviour? He’s always been moody, but this is overboard. Maybe we should get him to a doctor? He isn’t behaving rationally. And he’s a pain in the backside.”
“I thought of that. I had a quiet word with our doctor before his yearly check-up. There’s nothing wrong with him.”
“Nothing a good psychiatrist wouldn’t sort,” Josh mumbled.
His mother sighed. “Some people mellow as they get older. He isn’t one of them.”
“Mom, he needs to come back to the castle. Caroline and I need privacy and Dad barely tolerates her.”
“I’m sorry, Josh. You’ll have to find somewhere else for him to go. I can’t have him here.”
And that was the end of that. Between his mother’s stubborn streak, Caroline’s obsession with historical restoration and the gung-ho attitude of the work crew that had taken over the place, the castle was now out of bounds for the McInnes men. With a sense of doom, Josh started calling around the accommodation in Invertary. He was prepared to beg, or bribe, to get his father a room. Whatever it took to get some time alone with his fiancée. He was on his third failed attempt at finding his dad somewhere to go when Caroline rushed into the room.
“You let me sleep late. I’m never late.” She grabbed her briefcase from beside the kitchen table. Her hair was slightly ruffled and she still had that sleepy-eyed look. Cute.
“I didn’t let you do anything. You were the one who rolled over and snuggled in.”
“If you hadn’t been in my bed, I’d have been up hours ago.”
Josh came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. He kissed her neck and felt her shiver. “If I hadn’t been in your bed you wouldn’t have woken with a smile on your face.”