by Hannah Ellis
“Should I round everyone up for a drink for when you get back tomorrow?” Leana asked. “I’m working but I can tell everyone to come up to the pub and you can tell everyone, and we can have a little celebration?”
“I don’t know,” Lexie said. “What kind of mood has my dad been in?”
There was a pause and it sounded as though Leana was moving around.
“Is he there?” Lexie asked.
“Aye. One minute.” There was a short silence again. “Sorry. I’m outside now.”
“So he’s not in a great mood?”
“He’s been really quiet. Which isn’t like him.”
“Has he said anything about me and Nick getting married?”
“No. I mentioned it when I arrived today but he only nodded and didn’t say anything.”
Lexie felt herself tense. “He’s so stubborn. I can’t believe he hasn’t called me.”
“He’ll come around. I’m sure he’ll be fine when he sees you.”
“It’s ridiculous. We’re already married so him giving me the cold shoulder isn’t exactly going to achieve anything.”
“Try not to let him ruin your mood,” Leana said. “Should I invite people to the pub tomorrow night?”
“No.” Lexie sighed. “If Dad refuses to be happy for us, I don’t want to celebrate there. And I don’t want him making a scene again. We’ll have a night in Portree sometime. We might go over to your parents’ place tomorrow and tell your family all together.”
“That’s a good idea. I better get back to work, but you really shouldn’t worry about Angus. Everyone else will be thrilled for you.”
“Aye,” Lexie said weakly. “I’ll see you soon.”
After ending the call, she sat on the edge of the bed, staring out of the window over the neat back garden. She didn’t notice Nick come in until he was standing over her.
“Did you speak to your mum?” he asked, sitting beside her.
“Yes. And Leana.”
“Your dad?” he asked quietly.
“He’s working,” she said, refusing to let it get to her.
“Sorry.”
“Don’t look at me like that,” Lexie said as she straightened his tie.
“Like what?”
“You look at me like I’m delicate and need looking after. It feels as though you constantly want to know what I’m thinking so you know I’m okay.”
“I definitely don’t think you’re delicate. But I think you spend a lot of time hiding how you feel and I’d rather you didn’t. It’s okay for you to be upset about your dad. You can talk to me about it.”
“He hasn’t even called me to say congratulations. I’m furious with him.” Lexie’s voice was choked with emotion. “I’m not trying to hide that from you, but I am trying not to think about it. The whole point of going away was so he couldn’t ruin things.”
Nick dropped his elbows to his knees and ran his hands through his hair. “I should have spoken to him before we left. Maybe I could have smoothed things over.”
“It wouldn’t have made any difference,” Lexie said, rubbing his back. Part of the reason she’d been avoiding letting Nick know how she really felt about it was because he had a tendency to worry about things. She didn’t want him to be stressed as well as her. “Come on,” she said brightly. “We should go and be sociable.”
“You’re welcome to hide away up here,” Nick said. “It must be a bit overwhelming with so many new people wanting to talk to you.”
“I feel like a celebrity,” she said with a flick of her hair. Her features turned serious. “I’ve really enjoyed it. And your dad’s speech was lovely.”
“He’s pretty charming when he wants to be. You can see where I get it from!”
Lexie laughed as she followed him out of the room. A couple of people were leaving when they got downstairs and the other guests gradually left over the next couple of hours. By the time everyone had gone, Lexie was exhausted and didn’t argue when Aileen shooed her away from helping to tidy up and told her to go to bed.
Nick was chatting with Phil while they helped collect up the glasses and dishes scattered throughout the downstairs. Back upstairs, Lexie realised she couldn’t actually get ready for bed until Nick came and helped her with her dress. It was half an hour before she heard the creak of the stairs, but when she peeked onto the landing it was Aileen going up to bed rather than Nick.
“Are you okay?” she asked when she caught sight of Lexie.
“I’m stuck in my dress!” she said. “I thought you were Nick.”
“He and Phil are having a whisky and putting the world to rights. Do you want me to shout him or can I help?”
“If you could just unzip me, that would be great.”
Aileen stepped into the bedroom to help her with it. “I hope it wasn’t too much today,” she said.
“No, it was really great.” Lexie held the dress against her chest to stop it falling as Aileen unzipped her. “Thanks for organising it,” she said, turning and giving Aileen an awkward one-armed hug while holding her dress in place with the other arm.
“You’re welcome,” she said, then gave Lexie a kiss on the cheek. “It’s good to see Nick so happy.”
Lexie changed into her pyjamas after Aileen left her alone, then lay in bed, listening for Nick coming up. It was about an hour later when she heard footsteps on the stairs. When Nick didn’t appear she decided it must have been Phil going to bed. She waited a little longer before extracting herself from the warmth of the bed covers.
Halfway down the stairs, she paused, listening intently. Nick’s voice drifted up to her – muffled but loud and clearly angry.
Chapter Thirty-One
As her heart rate sped up, Lexie strained to make out words, then tiptoed quickly down the stairs and along the hall. Hovering outside the kitchen, she watched Nick pace with his phone to his ear.
At the sound of her own name, Lexie felt a wave of sadness. She rested her head against the door jamb, hating how upset Nick sounded. It was clear he was talking to her dad. When Nick’s voice rose even louder, Lexie winced. He shouted down the phone, demanding to know why Angus couldn’t be happy for his daughter and accusing him of upsetting her.
Lexie waited silently while Nick told Angus he was pig-headed and bitter before ending the call. Unaware he was being watched, he sank heavily into a chair at the dining table and lowered his head to his hands.
His head jerked up when Lexie cleared her throat.
“I thought you were asleep,” he said, guilt flashing in his eyes.
“No. I presume that was my dad you were shouting at?”
He dragged his hands through his hair. “Sorry.”
“I gather the conversation didn’t go well?”
“He’s really stubborn,” Nick said, trying to smile. “And there’s a good chance I just made things worse.”
“I don’t think it’s possible that you could make things worse. And I love you for caring enough to call him.”
Nick reached out his hand to her and looked pained. “We’ve only been married for a day and I’ve already let you down.”
“No. You haven’t. It’s Dad who’s the problem, not you.”
Tugging on her arm, he pulled her onto his lap and looked at her seriously. “When we were talking about weddings, I promised I’d make sure you’d get exactly what you wanted.” His thumb gently grazed the back of her hand. “I knew you wanted to get married with all your friends and family around you. And instead of fighting to make sure you got what you wanted, I took the easy option, because I didn’t really care what we did. I just wanted to marry you.”
“I loved eloping,” she told him. “I have no regrets.”
“But it wasn’t really what you wanted.”
She screwed her nose up and shook her head. “We don’t always get exactly what we want in life.”
“When it comes to your wedding, I think you should.” Closing his eyes, he stretched his neck. “I thought I could
make it up to you by smoothing things over with Angus, but all I’ve done is cause more issues.”
“No, you haven’t.”
A mocking smile hit his lips. “I’m fairly sure I’ve got myself banned from the pub again. That’s definitely an issue.”
“We still have options,” she said, forcing lightness to her voice.
“It’s the only pub in the village,” Nick pointed out.
“Aye. But we can always drink at home or become teetotal.”
Nick rested his forehead against hers. “I only heard one option there.”
She moved her lips to his, caressing his cheek as she kissed him. “I love you,” she murmured. “And I’m so happy. I just hate that you worry so much.”
“I’ll always worry about you. I’m not sure there’s any way of stopping that.”
“Okay. But you tried to talk to Dad. There’s nothing else you can do, so stop worrying about it now.”
“I’ll try.”
“Are you coming to bed?” she asked as she stood.
“I’ll be up soon,” he said, smiling at her.
This time when Lexie lay in bed, she lost the battle with her eyelids and drifted off to sleep before Nick came to bed.
In the morning, she woke in a daze to find that Nick wasn’t beside her. Without bothering to get dressed, she padded downstairs and followed the gentle rise and fall of Nick’s voice. He sounded happier. Lexie stood in the doorway to the living room, watching as he chatted animatedly on the phone.
“Morning,” he said when he caught sight of her.
“Who is it?” she asked quietly.
“Arran,” he said, then laughed into the phone. “Give the phone back to your mum!” He looked back to Lexie and rolled his eyes as he tossed the phone aside. “He hung up on me.”
“What was Elspeth calling you for?” Lexie asked, perching on the arm of the couch.
“I called her. Just to say hi.”
“And to complain about my dad?”
“There might have been a bit of that.”
“Did you tell her we got married?”
He shook his head. “We’ll tell her together when we get back.”
“You know you could have talked to me about Dad?”
“I know. But I didn’t want to complain to you about your dad. And now I’ve had a good rant I feel much better.”
“That’s good.”
“Aye. And I’ve had a great idea.”
Lexie frowned. “That makes me nervous!”
“Let’s stay in Fort William for another night,” he said in a rush. “It feels like we’re on holiday. As soon as we get home it’s back to real life.”
“By real life, you mean the start of our married life, which you’re supposed to be excited about, not avoiding!” Her lips twitched to a smirk.
“Yeah, that! Let’s put it off for a day.”
“What exactly do you want to do in Fort William?” she asked, fairly sure she knew what he was about to suggest.
“I was thinking we could go for a wee hike.”
“A wee hike up a large mountain, by any chance?”
He beamed at her. “As far as mountains go, it’s not that big.”
“You really want to hike Ben Nevis again?”
“We don’t have to go all the way up. I thought we could take a picnic and go to the loch at the halfway point. The weather’s great for it. We can invite my parents, and Jonathan and Sandy. It’d be fun.”
“Okay,” she agreed, slipping onto the couch beside him and kissing him.
It turned out to be another great day. Nick’s aunt and uncle and his teenage cousins joined the excursion as well as his parents and Jonathan and Sandy. There was a jovial atmosphere as they hiked up the mountain. Lexie was pleased they only went halfway this time.
They decided it was probably almost exactly a year to the day since they were last there, and the symmetry of it felt special. On their first hike, Lexie had admitted to herself that she wanted Nick to be part of her life, and now they were married and planning on being together forever.
“Who are you messaging?” Lexie asked Nick as she broke away from a conversation with Sandy and Jonathan to catch up with him when they were approaching the visitor centre on the way back down.
“Elspeth,” he said as he slid his phone back into his pocket.
Lexie frowned. “Should I be jealous of the amount of time you spend on the phone with Elspeth Mackenzie?”
“No. Of course not.”
“I was joking,” she said. “What were you messaging about?”
“Just asking if she and Rory are free for a drink tomorrow afternoon. I thought it would be fun to meet up with them and break the news.”
“That’ll be nice.”
“Your mum will want to see you too. Do you think it’s safe to go over to the pub?”
“I think the worst-case scenario is that Dad will ignore you. But it might be better to invite them over to our place instead.”
“I’ll have to face Angus sometime. Probably better to get it over with. I should probably apologise for having a go at him last night.”
“I’m quite happy for us to go over to the pub, but you’re not allowed to apologise to him. You’ve got nothing to apologise for.”
“Even so, for the sake of clearing the air.”
She shook her head. “Please don’t apologise when you haven’t done anything wrong. Can we just talk about this later?”
“Yeah.” He glanced down. “How are your feet?”
“Good.” She smiled, remembering how many blisters she’d had last time they’d ventured up Ben Nevis. This time had been far better. Aileen had offered her a pair of hiking boots, but knowing they were only going halfway she had opted to wear her trainers. Her legs were aching a little but her feet were fine.
“Happy to hear that,” Nick said, slinging an arm around her shoulders. “I thought I might end up carrying you home.”
“My feet are a bit sore actually,” she said, affecting a limp and a pained expression.
She squealed when Nick dropped his arm to her waist and scooped her legs up with the other arm.
“Someone take a photo,” he called as he turned back to the rest of the group. “I need proof that I’ve had to rescue her from the mountain again.”
“You didn’t rescue me from the mountain last time,” Lexie said, laughing.
“You must have a bad memory,” he said. “I’m always saving you.”
She didn’t argue with that and kissed his cheek while Phil snapped a photo of them. As they walked back through the town, their group split up, Nick’s aunt and uncle and cousins heading back to the hotel they were staying in while Jonathan and Sandy went home.
The fresh air and exertion had worn Lexie out and she was asleep within moments when she got into bed that night.
In the morning she shuffled across the bed to snuggle up with Nick and found he wasn’t there. It was starting to feel a regular thing that he was up before she was even awake. The house was quiet when she walked softly down the stairs. The hushed voices only registered as she was walking into the kitchen. Nick and his parents stopped talking abruptly. The way they all said good morning at once felt unnatural. Like they were being overly cheerful.
“What would you like for breakfast, love?” Phil asked.
“I thought maybe we could take you out for brunch as a thank-you for everything,” Lexie suggested.
Aileen looked nervously at Phil.
“We already had breakfast,” he said.
“Lunch then?” Lexie looked for Nick’s approval. “We’re not in any rush, are we?”
“I don’t want to be too late,” he said, then took a sip of his coffee.
“I’ve actually got an appointment this morning,” Aileen said. “I’m not sure how long it will take but we might be a wee while. You’ll probably have left by the time we get back. We should get going soon.” She looked at her watch and then at Phil. He nodded in response.
“Sorry to dash off on you,” she said, wrapping Lexie in a hug. “We’ll see you again soon, though.”
“Aye.” Lexie thanked them both again for the party before they left. “That was weird,” she said to Nick when the front door closed behind them.
“What was?”
“That they left in such a rush. Is your mum okay?”
“As far as I know, why?”
Lexie frowned uncertainly. “She looked a little pale and seemed on edge.” After suffering a stroke a year previously, Aileen’s health was always a matter of concern.
“I think she’s fine.”
“Are you sure? Why were you whispering when I came down?”
He moved to put his mug in the dishwasher. “Just trying not to wake you. I thought you must be tired.” He moved to kiss her cheek. “I’m going in the shower. Help yourself to breakfast.”
She nodded, then tried to figure out why everyone was acting so strangely.
It was almost lunchtime when they’d packed their things and loaded up the car with the gifts they’d received. As they were about to set off, Lexie suggested they should hang around until his parents got home to check Aileen was okay.
Nick told her to stop worrying and insisted he’d call her when they got home. For the entire drive, Lexie had the niggling feeling that something wasn’t right. She kept her thoughts to herself until they were home and had unloaded the car.
“Can you call your mum and check she’s okay?” she said, as they stood in the kitchen. Between them the table was loaded with wedding gifts.
“I’m sure she’s fine,” Nick said, picking up a blender to read the side of the box.
Lexie stared at him. “Where was she going in such a rush this morning?”
“I dunno.” He kept his eyes on the box. “An appointment.”
“People only say they have an appointment if they don’t want you to know where they’re going. An appointment usually means you’re going to the doctor.”
“No, it doesn’t.”
“I think it does.” Reaching over, she took the blender from his hands so he had to look at her. Her voice got steadily louder as she spoke. “You always worry about everything, and the fact that you’re not worried now – or pretending not to be – makes me think there’s something going on and you know all about it.”
