Page 70 of The Scottish Island Inn

‘Shall we… get a coffee?’ Sorrel asked, shyly.

‘Think I need something stronger. Wine?’ Tam asked.

‘Briony and I were just in the wine bar. But sure.’

‘Oh. Well, I could do with taking this bag home, I guess. I have a bottle of wine there.’ He looked at her, shyly. ‘If you want to do that.’

‘Okay.’ She nodded. They started walking, retracing Sorrel and Briony’s steps.

‘Can you understand that I was really hurt that morning? At the B&B?’ he said, as they walked along. The stars had come out, and the black, clear sky was suddenly full of a twinkling blanket of light.

‘Of course. I’m so sorry.’ Sorrel sighed. ‘I wanted to explain about Simon. About what was going on. But you insisted on staying there and making me take the truck. You so obviously didn’t want to talk to me. It just all got so messy so quickly and I couldn’t think straight. I panicked.’

‘I was hurt. I was protecting myself.’ He sighed. ‘I do that. I’ve been abandoned a lot. By you, and then Beth dying… I find it hard to trust now, I guess. I see a therapist. It’s helping.’

‘Oh, Tam. I’m so very sorry.’ Sorrel felt like the worst kind of heel. ‘It’s good you’re seeing a therapist, though?’

‘Yeah. Bri actually made me do it, after Beth. I don’t think I would have survived otherwise.’ He reached for her hand as they walked along. His touch thrilled her.

‘Tam… I was scared. When I ran away. I was scared of everything. I was stupid to run from you. But it was all I felt like I could do, at the time.’ She wanted to press his fingers to her lips and kiss them. She wanted to hug him, hold him close to her heart. To erase and love away all the pain he had experienced. ‘I know I abandoned you. But I was just a kid. I didn’t plan it. I wasn’t thinking straight.’

‘I know. It wasn’t your fault.’ He sighed. ‘We were only twenty-five years old. Hardly old enough to know ourselves. When I got married, I was only twenty-eight. Still so young. And I have to admit that part of that was I missed you so much. I needed someone, and Beth was lovely. She was there. She helped heal my heart, in some ways.’

‘Did she… know about me?’

‘Yes. I told her everything.’ He sighed again. ‘And in her final days, she told me that I should look for you. She told me I should rebuild it with you if I had the chance.’

They turned up to the end of the road Tam lived on.

‘Wow. She was some woman.’ Sorrel shook her head. ‘And then I came along and messed everything up so royally.’

‘You didn’t mess up. You could have communicated better, admittedly.’ He brought her hand to his mouth and kissed the back of it – as if he had sensed her earlier thought. ‘But you did in the end. I’m here now, and ready to listen.’

They reached Tam’s front door; he let them in.

They stood in the hallway, looking at each other.

‘So,’ he said, gazing at her with such a charged expression that she was nervous about what he was going to say.

‘So.’ She stood there, gazing back at him. ‘I’m soaked. I…’ Sorrel began taking off her jacket. Tam stepped forward and took it off for her. He hung it on a peg by the door.

‘So, this is your house? It’s nice,’ she began babbling nervously. I shouldn’t have come here, she thought. Everything was too emotional, too raw. They should have said goodbye and gone their separate ways, agreed to talk the next day, perhaps.

‘Sorrel. Look at me,’ he commanded, and she stopped talking.

He placed his fingertips under her chin and tilted her head up towards him like he’d done at the B&B. A flash of electricity went through her body.

‘I have wanted to be with you for every moment since that night we went out to look at the shooting stars. Yes, you left. Yes, it was hard. Yes, I missed you.’ He kissed her gently. ‘But I am not willing to let another day go past without us being together. This stops now.’ He tapped the tip of her nose playfully, and she smiled up at him. ‘Agreed?’

‘Agreed,’ she whispered. He lowered his mouth to hers again, and they kissed again. Softly, and then more deeply.

Tam pulled her up close to him and cupped the back of her head with his strong hands.

‘I missed you. The way you smell. The way our bodies fit together. Your heart. Your laugh. Everything about you,’ he whispered. ‘I’ve always known that we were meant to be together, Sorrel Balhennie. I won’t let us be apart. Not again.’

‘You know, I still carry the stone heart that you gave me at Sligachan,’ she murmured, reaching into her pocket and drawing it out. ‘I kept it with me, all those years.’

‘You kept it?’ He stepped back, staring at the stone she held out in her hand.