Finding Hope at the Loch (Loch Lannick Book 7)

by Hannah Ellis

  “Looks like it’s you and me!” Alasdair said to Isla as he moved to get roped up.

  “I’m sorry,” Isla said, looking to the women. “I think my skills are probably on a level with Mum’s!”

  She did marginally better than Christine, but Alasdair won easily.

  “So far we’re tied,” Lexie said as they moved away from the climbing wall and back towards the activity centre. “But I’m sure the women are going to take the lead on the water!”

  It took a while to get everyone into wetsuits and life vests, but finally they were out on the jetty helping everyone into kayaks.

  “I go with Daddy,” Arran said when Lexie instructed Rory on which kayak to take.

  “You’re going to come with me,” she told Arran.

  He shook his head. “I want to go with Daddy.”

  “Daddy’s not very good in a kayak, though,” she said with a smirk. “Why don’t you come with me instead.”

  “No. I’ll go with Mummy,” he said, looking around for Elspeth, who was standing behind him.

  “I’m not very good either,” she told him.

  “Shall I tell you a secret?” Lexie said, crouching to Arran’s level. “I’m the best at kayaking. I bet you’re really good too so if we go together we can beat everyone!”

  He looked thoughtful, then nodded.

  Lexie got herself into a kayak then gestured for Alasdair to pass her Arran. She lowered him between her legs and told him to put his hands on her knees so she didn’t catch his fingers with the paddle.

  “I don’t want to fall in,” he said, squeezing Lexie’s knees.

  “It’s a good job you’re with me then,” she said. “I never fall in. But if we did, you’ve got your life vest on so you’ll float and I’d be right beside you. Okay?”

  “Okay,” he said, not sounding convinced.

  “I’ll show you something fun,” she said, paddling over towards Nick. “If I push the paddle over the water like this …” She dragged it across the water, spraying Nick. “We can get people all wet!” She moved to do the same to Isla, much to Arran’s delight.

  “You guys are mean,” Nick called happily, while Isla wiped drips from her face.

  “I know,” Lexie said mischievously. “And the great thing is you can’t get me back because it would be really mean of you to soak a four-year-old.”

  They floated around as a group for a while, then Lexie organised a relay race which the women won. That might have had something to do with Lexie spraying the men and generally getting in their way. Arran thought it was brilliant and giggled away.

  Fairly predictably, Logan and Alasdair ended up tipping each other into the water, at which point Lexie decided to get everyone back on dry land.

  “This has been so much fun,” Isla said to Lexie when they were all warming up over coffee and cake in the comfort of the activity centre.

  “Just one question,” Logan said loudly. “Who did the catering?”

  “I baked the cakes myself,” Lexie said.

  “That’s unfortunate,” Logan said. “I have very high standards when it comes to cake. I’m fairly sure this isn’t going to live up.”

  “It definitely won’t,” Lexie said. “But I thought I’d give Elspeth a break.”

  Logan took a bite of the chocolate cake. “I suppose I can slum it for once.” He winked at Elspeth, who was sitting on one of the couches with her parents.

  “Lex!” Tim called from the doorway. He gave her a look and she nodded and gave him a thumbs up.

  “Does he want us to clear out?” Isla asked.

  “No,” Lexie told her. “He’s just letting me know that it’s time for the next event.”

  “What else are we doing?” Logan asked, putting an arm around Isla.

  “I invited some special guests.” Lexie looked to the door and Tim walked in followed by a man and a woman who Lexie had never met before.

  “That’s Heather Redcroft,” Isla said. “My old art teacher from the college in Portree.”

  “And Geoff taught woodworking when I did the construction course,” Logan said. They both looked at Lexie for an explanation.

  “The next event will be an art class where we’ll see who’s any good at painting. And then Geoff is going to teach us about woodwork. I believe we’ll be making birdhouses.”

  “No way! That’s brilliant.” Isla gave Lexie a hug. “I knew you’d be better at organising something than my sisters.”

  “You did a great job organising all this,” Nick said, joining Lexie as she watched Logan and Isla cross the room to greet their old teachers.

  “I had quite a lot of help.” It was actually Nick who’d organised the art and woodwork lessons. Geoff and Heather were his colleagues at the college, so he’d arranged it with them.

  “What are we doing now?” Arran asked, taking Lexie’s hand.

  “We’re going to do some painting next. And then we’ll learn how to make a birdhouse out of wood.”

  “Can I be on your team again?” he asked.

  “Yes.” She ran a hand over his hair as he leaned his head against her thigh. “We can work together.”

  The art and woodworking classes were just as much fun as the outdoor activities, and there was a lot of banter and laughing. As the afternoon wound down they all set off for home to get changed before regrouping at the pub. They’d all have a drink together before the men went into Portree for the evening.

  “Were you planning on going out in Portree with the lads?” Lexie asked Nick as they walked up to the pub, hand in hand.

  “I hadn’t decided but I’m not that bothered about it. Have you got an excuse to get me out of it?”

  “Say your wife won’t let you!”

  “Okay. Why won’t my wife let me?”

  “She’s got other plans for the evening. We’ll just stay for one drink in the pub, then slip away.”

  “What have you got planned?”

  “A little surprise,” she said with a flirty smile.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  “Was Isla upset about you leaving the party early?” Nick asked when they got in the car for the short drive to the mystery destination. He’d kept asking Lexie where they were going, but she refused to give him any clues.

  “No. She didn’t want to stay out long either. She was really happy with today, though. Besides, considering Elspeth didn’t bother to come up to the pub at all, I don’t think I need to feel bad about leaving early.”

  “Why didn’t she come out?”

  “Rory said she was tired. She was quiet today, wasn’t she?”

  He shrugged as though he hadn’t really noticed. “It seemed like Rory was intent on a big session anyway. He was knocking back beers.”

  “I noticed that. You’re lucky I got you out of going to Portree with them. I’d say there’ll be some sore heads tomorrow.”

  Nick squinted out of the window. “Why are we back here?” he asked as Lexie turned in to the activity centre.

  “I keep telling you, it’s a surprise.” She parked the car and they got out. “Wait here a minute.”

  “You’re leaving me alone in a dark forest?” He looked dubiously at the wall of pine trees nearby.

  “I thought you liked nature?”

  “I do. But there’s a big difference between a forest in the daytime and at night. It’s like a Disney film versus a horror film. I definitely prefer Disney.”

  “Come with me then.” She took his hand and led him towards the garage at the side of the building. The security light flicked on as they approached, and Lexie stopped at the padlocked door.

  Nick shifted his weight. “This is starting to remind me of a film I watched where this couple were madly in love, but as soon as they got married the husband started to show his true colours. Turned out he was a psychopath and took the woman out to a cabin in the woods intent on chopping her into pieces.”

  Lexie paused with the key in the lock. “What’s your point?”

  “M
y point is you’ve brought me out here in the middle of the night and I’m not sure why.”

  “It’s half past eight!”

  “Well, it’s dark. And there are too many similarities with that film for my liking. The rusty old padlock on the door, the hoot of an owl, the crack of sticks underfoot.”

  “This is a new padlock,” she said with amusement. “There’s no owl, and the only stick that broke is the one that you trod on. Can you relax and stop being so jumpy?”

  “You’d be jumpy too if you were just figuring out you’d married an axe murderer.”

  “Stop joking around.” She twisted the key in the lock and slid the door open. “You’re going to make me nervous in a minute and you’ll ruin the whole evening.”

  He followed her inside. “Seriously, though. What are we doing?”

  “Going on an adventure.” Walking to the quad bike, Lexie picked two helmets off the back of it and held one out to Nick.

  “You’ve got to be kidding? We can’t go joyriding at night. Tim would go crazy.”

  “Tim said it’s fine. Stop worrying so much. We’re not going far.”

  “Just far enough that no one will hear me scream?”

  “Nick!” She laughed and shoved the helmet at him. “Put that on and get on the back.”

  It was exhilarating riding along the dirt track in the dark. The beam of the headlights lit up the uneven ground and cast creepy shadows all around. Lexie had been along that track so many times she would have sworn she could navigate it blindfolded, but it looked completely different in the dark. She had to concentrate not to miss the turn that led to a small clearing. The tent in the middle was illuminated by the headlights as she drove towards it.

  “Surprise!” Lexie said as she killed the engine. She kept the lights on so they weren’t plunged into darkness.

  “What’s going on?” Nick asked, hopping off the bike.

  “I thought a night away would be nice. And I really thought you’d enjoy a little camping trip, but you might have ruined it with all your talk of axe murderers.”

  “Sorry. It was a great idea. And now that I’m here it’s definitely more like something from a romantic film.”

  “Marty came out and set everything up for us. The campfire is ready to be lit and there are sleeping bags and blankets. There should be a flask of hot chocolate and snacks too.”

  “It’s perfect.” Nick kissed her cheek, then went and unzipped the tent.

  “We need to light the fire straightaway,” Lexie said. “Then I can turn off the lights so I don’t flatten the battery on the quad.” She pulled a lighter from her pocket. There was plenty of kindling at the base of the campfire. She had a good blaze going in no time. While Lexie was busy lighting the fire, Nick had got blankets from the tent and made them a cosy spot to sit.

  Soon they were sipping hot chocolate and roasting marshmallows.

  “I’m really glad I’m not out in Portree with Logan and his mates,” Nick remarked, putting an arm around Lexie’s shoulders and pulling her closer. “This is great.”

  Lexie set her mug down and snuggled into Nick. Her heart was beating furiously and she focused on the flames as she tried to drum up the nerve to veer the conversation to the subject that had been niggling at her for days.

  “I’ll be honest,” she said, then cleared her throat when her voice came out croaky. “I actually had an ulterior motive for the camping trip.”

  “Does it involve an axe?”

  “Nick!” She gave him a shove and withdrew from him a little. “I’m trying to be serious. Can you stop making jokes about psychopaths?”

  “Sorry.” He tried to pull her back to him but she resisted. “What’s wrong?”

  “There’s something I wanted to talk to you about but I never seem to find the right moment. So I thought we could have a night out here with no distractions and maybe we could have a proper chat …”

  “Okay. I’m intrigued. What do you want to talk about?”

  The orange flames danced above the logs, and the wood gave the occasional crackling sound. Lexie found it mesmerising. “You need to promise to be honest,” she said. “Not just say whatever you think I want to hear.”

  “I can do that,” he said hesitantly.

  Lexie felt her shoulders tense as she tried to pluck up the courage. “It’s about the cake,” she said in a rush, then shook her head. “Not about the cake really, but the cake got me thinking and now I can’t seem to stop thinking.”

  “You’ve lost me,” Nick said. “Can you back up a little?”

  “The top tier of the wedding cake. Traditionally it’s saved and used as a Christening cake, but you said we’d eat it at Christmas. Which is fine, but it got me thinking about us having a baby some time and I know we talked about children, but we never talked about when so I just wondered if you’d thought about when we might have a baby … and it’s fine to wait a while, but I’d kind of like to know how long you’d want to wait.” She paused for breath. “Sorry, I’m blethering.”

  In the gentle glow of the fire, Lexie scrutinised Nick’s features, trying to read his mind as his forehead wrinkled to a frown.

  “You want to have a baby?” he asked, shifting slightly to face her.

  “Yeah.”

  He paused, looking thoughtful. “And you want to start trying to get pregnant straightaway?”

  “Yes. I can’t seem to stop thinking about it. But it’s also fine to wait, I just thought it would be good to have a conversation about it.”

  “I guess I’d imagined us waiting for a year or two.”

  “That’s fine,” she said quickly.

  Gently, Nick put a hand to her face and wiped away the tear that she’d hoped he wouldn’t notice. She couldn’t deny the disappointment in the pit of her stomach. Waiting a wee while made sense, though. Her sudden desire to have a baby was slightly irrational. Though if she was honest, it wasn’t that sudden. It had been niggling at the back of her mind since she got together with Nick.

  “We don’t have to wait,” Nick said.

  “Don’t do that,” she said, sniffing and wiping at her cheeks. “It’s not like we’re choosing what to eat for dinner. You don’t have to agree to whatever I want.” She moved to sit between his legs, leaning her back into his chest and pulling his arms around her. “Waiting a year or two makes sense. We should enjoy it just being the two of us for a while.” She nodded, telling herself that was probably the best plan. A year or two was nothing really.

  Nick held her tightly, resting his chin on her shoulder. “I don’t know why I assumed we’d wait. And you’re right that it’s good to talk about it.”

  “So we’ll wait a year and see how we feel then?”

  “I suppose I thought you’d want to wait, so I hadn’t really considered anything else. But I do want to have a family with you. I imagine it all the time.”

  “Really?” she asked, her voice hoarse.

  His stubble scratched at her neck when he nodded. “I kept looking at you with Arran today and thinking that I couldn’t wait until it was our kid you were playing with. You’ll be such a great mum.”

  “Do you think so?”

  “I know so. Our kids are going to be very lucky to have such amazing parents.”

  She tilted her head so her cheek rested against Nick’s. “I think so too.”

  “Let’s not wait,” he whispered.

  More tears filled Lexie’s eyes. “Are you sure?”

  “Yes.”

  “You don’t have to decide now. You can think about it.”

  “It won’t make any difference how much I think about it. I want us to have a baby. As soon as possible.”

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Isla felt a wave of pride at waking up on the morning after her hen party without even a hint of a hangover. Presumably Logan wasn’t faring quite so well, wherever he was. Him not making it home wasn’t a huge surprise. She guessed he’d crashed at Gary’s place and wouldn’t surface until at least
lunchtime.

  After taking Jasper for a walk, Isla made herself breakfast and was all set to get on with some work when her phone rang. Puzzled at seeing Gary’s name on the screen, she answered it hesitantly.

  “Logan’s ignoring my calls,” he said gruffly. “Can you put him on? I really need to speak to him.”

  “He’s not here. I thought he was with you.”

  The silence made Isla nervous.

  “Where on earth is he?” she asked, trying not to panic prematurely. “What happened last night?”

  “We got into a bit of an argument,” Gary said, with a definite edge of guilt to his voice. “He left really early.”

  “He didn’t come home,” Isla said. “Who did he leave with? Maybe he went back to Alasdair’s?”

  “Alasdair and Rory stayed out. Everyone was pretty drunk. But we thought Logan had just gone home in a sulk. Or, that’s what I thought. I guess everyone else thought he’d had too much to drink.”

  “What did you argue about?” Gary had been best friends with Logan since their school days and she couldn’t really remember them arguing.

  He let out a sigh that was part groan. “You know I split up with Lilac?”

  “Yeah. I heard.”

  “Well, I’m sort of seeing someone else. And I asked Logan if it would be all right to bring her to the wedding. Logan flipped out. I told him he was over-reacting, but he told me he didn’t want me to be his best man any more.”

  “Of course you’ll be his best man. He was probably just drunk. He’s been stressed about the wedding. I’ll talk to him and get him to call you.” She stared out of the window of her workroom, telling herself not to panic. “I just need to find him first. Can you call around the rest of the rugby lads? Check he didn’t crash on someone’s couch.”

  “Aye. Will do.”

  She ended the call and immediately tried calling Logan, but got no reply. Next she rang Leana. When he wasn’t at their place, she hurried down the stairs and pushed her feet into her shoes. She was almost at the cottage when the door burst open. Half expecting Logan to stumble out, she was disappointed at the sight of Elspeth. She walked outside, pulling on Arran’s arm as he screamed and shouted at her. Clearly her morning was going about as well as Isla’s.