Page 22 (1/2)

Kirsty sank to the floor she was laughing so hard

There was no water for coffee There was no water for a shower There was no water to brush his teeth If Lake had beenof coffee, he ht have smelled a rat a lot sooner than the hour and fortysoft In all his years in the ar

He pulled on his faded blue jeans and his paint-splattered grey work T-shirt and went in search of the led beyond repair He didn’t need to look in his ear to fix it Back in the shop, he dug out the dust-covered phonebook and called the first pluave his naht There were now no available plu, almost word for word, was that he should try Fort Willia up the phone and stared at the wall He smiled with aainst Lake Benson He’d spent years living in hostile territory As he kept telling the gorgeous Miss Campbell, he knear

“I’ out,” he shouted to Betty

There was silence He hoped that o through the four hundred years of paperwork she’d accuh with herself and only keep the i to a running commentary about each treasure she’d unearthed The silence was a blessing

He pulled on his denim jacket and wandered out into a perfect Scottish autuful of clean air and headed up the street to the hardware store The street was coated with the fallen leaves, a carpet in orange and red The blue sky was crystal clear and the rows of little white houses were picturesque against the rolling green hills behind theh a photo of Scottish perfection

“Hi, Lake,” a group of girls called to him

He nodded and they giggled Lake al hi him Now half the women in toanted him to charm them out of their underwear, and the other half were scared he would try! He had to do soo insane Which, coht in here

After he’d given a huge chunk of what uy in the hardware store, Lake had an idea The shop was painted The lingerie and fittings were en route through Glasgow All he needed was a plan to get the woive the He’d run a self-defence class

Lake felt quite cheery as he set about undoing the shoddy sabotage job in the alley beside his store He was fixing the trashed valve when he spotted someone out of the corner of his eye Lake took off his protective goggles to find Kirsty staring at hi dress, which had her signature high neck And, be still his heart, it looked like she wore thigh-high black boots under the dress His an to water

“Thought you ht need this,” she said

Frohland Spring water

Lake almost smiled

“I didn’t think you’d own up,” he said as he took the water

It was sparkling, not his favourite He unscrewed the lid and had a long, slow drink, keeping one eye on Kirsty as he did so Kirsty cleared her throat Suddenly the old brick as fascinating to her