Finding Hope at the Loch (Loch Lannick Book 7)

by Hannah Ellis

  “But you know Rory’s right for you anyway, don’t you?”

  Elspeth nodded vaguely. Not long ago, she wouldn’t have questioned it for a second, but living together wasn’t as easy as she’d expected. “I should feel lucky with everything I’ve got, but sometimes I feel stifled. My life feels as though it’s all mapped out already.” She paused and frowned. “I think that’s why I was so upset about the wedding cake.”

  Lexie raised an eyebrow. “Wedding cake?”

  “Yes. Didn’t I tell you? Logan asked me to bake the wedding cake for them. He wanted to surprise Isla, except she found out and now she doesn’t want me to do it. She said she wants a professional to do it, so I’ve spent the whole day being furious and offended, but I think part of me was just excited about doing something different. I had this idea that if it went well, I might look at branching out and offering custom-made cakes.”

  “That’s a good idea. You could do it anyway.”

  “Yeah, maybe. But considering my own sister doesn’t have faith in my abilities, I’m not feeling particularly confident about it now.”

  “You’d be great at it,” Lexie said. “And I’m sure Isla doesn’t think you can’t manage it. Knowing Isla, she’ll have her own reasons.”

  “Probably.”

  “Are you sure you’re not hungry?” Nick asked, sticking his head around the door.

  “No, thanks.” Elspeth gulped her wine and stood up. “I’ll leave you to eat.”

  “You don’t have to,” Nick and Lexie said at once, then grinned at each other.

  “I want to get back anyway,” Elspeth said, amused by her two closest friends. “I’ve hardly seen Rory all week. I think I neglect him sometimes.” She reminded herself that relationships took effort. Tempting as it was to avoid going home, it probably wasn’t going to help the situation.

  She said goodbye to Lexie, then stopped at the front door and gave Nick a big squeeze. It seemed as though he’d finally got everything he wanted, and she loved seeing him so happy.

  Chatting things through with Lexie had helped, and Elspeth felt a little lighter as she walked home. She hadn’t got very far when a car horn made her turn. Logan’s van pulled up beside her.

  “Want a lift?” he called.

  Nodding, she climbed into the passenger seat. “That was good timing. I’ve just been at Nick and Lexie’s.”

  “Are they all right?”

  “Really good,” Elspeth said wistfully.

  “Are you all right?” Logan asked, giving her a sidelong glance as he set off again.

  “Yeah. Isla spoke to me this morning.”

  “Sorry,” Logan said. “I had no idea she’d cause such a fuss about the cake.”

  “It doesn’t matter.” They fell into silence until they arrived home a couple of minutes later. “Do you know what annoys me?” Elspeth said, unclipping her seatbelt. “I’d have done a great job with the cake. It would have been better than any professional could do.”

  “I know,” Logan said, looking at her sadly. “Shall I talk to her again?”

  Elspeth shook her head. “It’s not worth the argument. And if she doesn’t want me to make it, I’m really not that keen to.”

  After thanking Logan for the lift, she walked down to the cottage, reminding herself of all the good things in her life and trying to ignore the pang of disappointment. It was only a wedding cake, after all. And Lexie was right; she could still look at expanding her business, even without her sister’s support.

  Chapter Four

  When Logan had messaged Isla in the afternoon to say he was meeting Gary after work, Isla suspected he was still annoyed with her about the wedding cake. The way he avoided eye contact when he came home confirmed it.

  “How was your day?” she asked, as Logan made a big fuss of Jasper.

  “Fine.” He planted a chaste kiss on her cheek and moved to the kitchen. “How was yours?”

  “It was okay. Pretty uneventful.” She watched as he filled a glass with water and gulped at it. “I spoke to Elspeth about the cake. She was fine about it.”

  “Really?” Logan wiped at his top lip. “Because I just saw her and she didn’t seem fine to me.”

  “Well, she was a bit put out, but I thought it might be more drama.”

  Logan frowned. “I don’t understand why you don’t want her to make it.”

  “And I don’t understand why you’re more concerned about keeping Elspeth happy than me. It’s my wedding. And if you hadn’t agreed to it without discussing it with me, we wouldn’t be in a situation where I look like the bad guy for saying no.”

  “I didn’t agree to it,” Logan said. “I asked her. It was my idea, not Elspeth’s.”

  “Why didn’t you ask me first?” Isla demanded.

  “Because it never occurred to me that you’d have a problem with your sister making the wedding cake. Partly because you don’t seem to care much about anything else to do with the wedding, and partly because I thought it would be more personal if Elspeth made it.”

  “Of course I care about the wedding,” she insisted, going slightly shrill. Admittedly she wasn’t as concerned about the details as Logan, but he was making out as though she didn’t care about any of it. Which wasn’t true. Staring at Logan, she fought her emotions. Arguing over a cake felt ridiculous. And it reminded her why she’d been against a big wedding. If it had been up to her she’d definitely have chosen the registry office and a few drinks at the Old Inn. “Fine,” she said, turning to walk out. “I’ll talk to Elspeth tomorrow and tell her she can make the cake.”

  Isla set off upstairs, but only made it to the first step when Logan called her back.

  “What?” she snapped, swinging around to face him.

  “Cake’s our thing,” he said quietly.

  “No, it’s not,” she said, confused. “What are you talking about?”

  “Not our thing. Mine and Elspeth’s. The first time I came to your house Elspeth was baking. It was the first time she’d baked a cake and I was the first person to try it. And she’s baked me a birthday cake every year for as long as I’ve known her. I always tell her that her cakes are the best in the world.” He tilted his head slightly. “That’s why I asked her to bake the wedding cake. Because cakes are our thing.”

  Isla blew out a long breath and sank to sit on the stairs. “Why didn’t you tell me that to start with?”

  “I sort of thought you’d realise.”

  “Well I didn’t because I’m not as sentimental about things as you are. But that doesn’t mean I’m a horrible person.”

  “I never said you were.”

  “I know. But I feel like a horrible person. If you’d have told me why you wanted Elspeth to make the cake there’s no way I’d have had a problem with it.” She squeezed the bridge of her nose, then stood up and walked past Logan.

  “Where are you going?” he asked.

  “To talk to Elspeth. I won’t be long.”

  When she stepped outside, Jasper followed and stayed by her side as she strode down to the cottage. The door opened almost immediately after she knocked.

  “Hi!” Rory said. He had Arran on his shoulder with his arms stretched out.

  “I’m an airplane,” Arran announced happily. His face was smeared with what looked to be ketchup.

  “A filthy airplane who needs a dunk in the bath.” Rory continued to the stairs then glanced back. “Elspeth’s in the kitchen.”

  Jasper was already halfway down the hall and Isla followed after him.

  “I wondered why he was so keen to come with me,” Isla said when she found Elspeth feeding Jasper a dog biscuit.

  “I always keep a packet around in case Arran gets ideas about feeding him again. He knows he’s only allowed to give him dog food.”

  Isla nodded and realised Logan was right about Elspeth being upset about the cake. The random small talk and the fact that she didn’t seem surprised by Isla’s visit was a bit of a clue. She decided to get straight to the
point.

  “Would it be okay if I changed my mind about you baking the wedding cake?”

  Elspeth turned her back to her and set about loading the stack of dirty dishes into the dishwasher. “I’d actually rather not now that I’ve thought more about it. You were probably right about it being stressful for me. And I’ve never made a wedding cake before so there’s a good chance I’d mess it up. You should go with a professional.”

  Isla pulled out a chair at the kitchen table. “You’re not going to make this easy for me, are you?”

  “Nope,” Elspeth said, without taking her attention from the dishes.

  “I didn’t realise Logan had asked you to do it. I thought you’d volunteered and he agreed to it.”

  “What difference does that make?”

  “Because Logan told me why he asked you to do it. It turns out he’s really sentimental about your cakes.”

  Elspeth closed the dishwasher and turned to Isla. “He always tells me my cakes are the best in the world. If he eats any other cakes he jokes about how they don’t even come close to tasting as good as mine.”

  “Yeah. He really wants you to make the wedding cake. So I’d appreciate it if you would.”

  “Even though you don’t really want me to? Do you even think I’m capable of it?”

  “Of course I think you can do it.” Isla leaned forwards, resting her elbows on the table. “To be honest, so much of the wedding planning bores me to tears. Logan made me spend two evenings discussing invitations! And we argued so much about flowers that we’ve passed that job on to Mum to sort out. The one thing I thought might be fun was tasting a load of cake and figuring out the design.”

  “You could also discuss the design with me,” Elspeth pointed out.

  “I know. But if I pay a professional they have to listen and follow my suggestions. They’re not going to argue. You’re my sister, and I have no intention of paying you.” She gave a small smile. “So I’m concerned that if you don’t like my suggestions, you’ll go rogue and do whatever you want.”

  Elspeth pulled out a chair opposite Isla and sat down. “It’s your wedding. If I made your cake I would want it to be something you loved. There’s no way I’d just make something I liked.”

  “You said you wanted the design to be a surprise,” Isla reminded her.

  “I think it would be fun if you didn’t know exactly what it looks like until the day,” Elspeth said. “But how about we compromise? We can look through designs together so I get a feel for what you like and don’t like. You can give me some direction, then trust me to decide on the final design myself.”

  “I think I could live with that.” Isla smiled at her sister. “Do you want to have a look at designs now?”

  “I can’t. Rory’s got marking to do so I need to go and take over putting Arran to bed. But we could do it tomorrow evening?”

  “Great.” Isla called for Jasper as she headed for the door. She still wasn’t completely sure it was a good idea for Elspeth to be in charge of the wedding cake. It was a lot of pressure, and if anything went wrong Elspeth would be way more upset with herself than Isla would ever be with her.

  As she walked back up the drive, she hoped that was all the drama the cake would create.

  “I ate too much,” Lexie groaned once she and Nick had cleaned up the kitchen. The curry that Nick cooked had tasted amazing and she’d struggled to stop eating it. “I need to collapse on the couch and not move again,” she said as they headed for the living room.

  “It’s a good job you’ve been training for that all day,” Nick said.

  “Leave me alone.” She gave him a quick poke in the ribs before flopping onto the couch.

  He lifted her feet as he sat down then rested them in his lap.

  “You look very cheerful this evening,” Lexie remarked, taking in the smile that kept flashing on and off his face.

  He made an obvious effort to look serious. “Do I?”

  “Yeah. What do you keep grinning about?”

  “I didn’t notice I was. Just my sunny disposition I suppose.” His fingers grazed over Lexie’s ankle, gently tracing circles on her skin. “It was nice to see Elspeth,” he said, the corners of his mouth twitching upwards again.

  Lexie searched his face, wondering what was going on in his head that he couldn’t stop smiling. “Yeah.”

  “She seemed a bit stressed. You don’t think she and Rory are having problems, do you?”

  “No.” Lexie frowned as her mind went back over the conversation. Elspeth had said she felt as though she might be missing out because she’d only ever been with Rory, but Lexie was fairly sure it was just idle chit-chat and nothing serious. “Oh!” she said. “Were you listening to our conversation?”

  “I think I caught a bit of it. You weren’t exactly whispering.”

  Lexie chuckled. “You heard what I said about you, didn’t you? That’s why you can’t stop grinning.”

  “What did you say about me?” he asked, feigning ignorance. “I didn’t catch everything you said.”

  “You heard!” She gave his leg a gentle kick. “I said I’d erase every guy before you if I could.”

  “Yeah, I heard that bit!” He moved to lie on top of her. “That was quite flattering.”

  “I took it back, though. Did you hear that?”

  “Yes.” He pushed her hair from her face and gazed into her eyes. “Something about how you wouldn’t change any of it because you know for sure I’m the one.”

  “Yes.” She ran her hands through his hair. “I hope you’re not going to get all arrogant and cocky now.”

  “I might,” he said lightly. “But I’ll be honest, I don’t think I can pull off arrogant and cocky.”

  “I don’t think you can either. It might be quite funny to see you try, though.”

  Softly, he kissed her lips, then touched his nose to hers. “So you really think I’m the one.”

  “Surely you already knew that?”

  “It was nice to hear you tell Elspeth. You might have been rubbing her face in it a bit, though, considering she was sharing her insecurities about Rory.”

  “I wasn’t rubbing her face in it!”

  He raised an eyebrow. “She was sharing her worries and you replied by telling her how great you’ve got it. You’ve got to admit, it was a bit smug.”

  “No, it wasn’t!” She gave him a playful slap on his arm, then nudged him to the side of her. Him lying on her wasn’t comfortable after the amount she’d eaten. “Stop teasing me. I said nice things about you, remember?”

  He propped himself up on an elbow beside her. “I was kidding. And I think you’re the one for me too, you know?”

  “I know,” she said, then kissed him tenderly. “Logan and Isla’s wedding’s causing a lot of drama, isn’t it?”

  “Is it?” he asked as he snaked an arm underneath her head and snuggled into her.

  “Yeah. Didn’t you hear about the wedding cake drama?”

  “No. I couldn’t be bothered to listen when you weren’t talking about me.”

  “Is that your attempt at being cocky and arrogant?”

  “Yeah.”

  “It was feeble.”

  “I told you I probably couldn’t manage it. Anyway, what’s the problem with the wedding cake?”

  “Long story. But Elspeth and Isla were arguing about it today. Yesterday, Isla was stressed about the wedding invitations. It seems like a lot of stress to me. Plus, I reckon our spare room is going to look like a jam jar factory soon. It was a lot that Christine brought around earlier.”

  “Yeah. They’re definitely going all out.” Nick dropped a kiss on her shoulder. “When we get married, let’s not stress about the wedding.”

  A huge smile broke over her face. “That’s a great idea.”

  Chapter Five

  Having the whole weekend off was a luxury for Lexie. She’d tried to cut back on work over the summer, but it had turned out to be an unrealistic goal. Whenever her parents
asked her to do extra hours at the pub or Tim wanted her to do more at the activity centre, she found it difficult to say no. Now that they were into September, things should naturally quieten down and she’d be able to take more time off.

  When she got up on Sunday she sat in the living room, checking her emails on her laptop. There was one from Gertie, one of the ladies in her regular Wednesday hiking group, reminding her that two members of the group would be away that week so it would just be five of them. As she heard Nick moving around upstairs, Lexie shifted the laptop to the table and went to make coffee. Nick had spent the previous day waiting on her and she was determined to do something nice for him in return. Coffee was a good start. She might make pancakes later.

  “Morning,” she said when she joined him in the living room and handed him the steaming mug.

  “Thanks,” he said, giving her an odd look.

  “Is everything okay?”

  He swallowed hard and put the mug to one side. His eyes darted to Lexie’s laptop, where her email inbox was still displayed.

  “You caught me,” she said as she sat beside him. “Technically that’s work but it’s only a quick email.”

  “I wasn’t snooping or anything,” Nick said. “The laptop was open like that.”

  Lexie peered at the screen, quickly re-reading Gertie’s email for a clue as to why Nick seemed so on edge. Sometimes Lexie talked about him with her hiking group, but she was sure there was nothing in the email. And even if Gertie did mention something personal, it wouldn’t be anything she’d worry about Nick reading.

  “What’s the problem?” she asked, confused.

  “Nothing,” he said quickly. “I’m just not sure if I missed some signal or something.”

  “You’ve lost me. What signal?”

  “Did you want me to propose?” His cheeks turned lobster red. “Because I know we keep talking about weddings recently, but I thought it was just because Isla and Logan are getting married. Now I’m not sure. I’m worried you’ve been expecting me to propose and I missed the clues or something.”

  “We haven’t even been together for a year,” Lexie said slowly. “And we only moved in together a few months ago. I wasn’t expecting you to propose any time soon.”