Where Have All the Boys Gone?(32)

“What?” she asked again, as Iain continued to laugh uncontrollably.

“Sorry,” said Iain. “I started laughing, then realised that it was embarrassing rather than funny but still couldn’t stop somehow.”

“WHAT?”

“You do know about Fairlish, don’t you?”

“I know it gets very damp in the evenings,” said Katie, eyes narrowing and wondering just what the hell was going on here.

“We’re the town with the highest number of blokes in the UK. To women, I mean. The ratio’s about 16:1 I think.”

“You’re joking.”

“I’m not, I can assure you. We’re statistically unique.”

And then it all suddenly clicked into place. Katie thought about how few women she’d actually come across so far in Fairlish. Barely none, although Mrs. McClockerty had certainly made her presence felt. But practically everyone else, in every shop, pub, or office, had been a chap. No wonder Derek liked to be called an executive assistant.

“How come?” she asked.

“Well, between the farms, the fishery, the port, the Forestry Commission, the technology centre outside Muchlan, the research institute, the helicopter base, and those secret submarines in the loch nobody’s supposed to know about, it’s just mostly chaps working up here.”

“I met a young girl . . . Kelpie.”

“Ah, the head of the coven,” said Iain, tucking into his pudding. “Friendly, was she?”

“She and her gang shouted at me in the street, if that’s what you mean.”

He smiled. “Side effect from living in this town. I believe they may be suffering from, er, high self-esteem.”

“I’ve never seen that in a woman before,” said Katie wonderingly. “Well, they’ll be suffering from a good crotch kicking if me and Louise get our hands on them,” realising this was an idle threat even as she was saying it.

“Rather you than me, that’s for sure.”

“So why do you stay if there’s such a dearth of women on offer?” asked Katie, between delectable mouthfuls. She’d thought she was too full for pudding, but now realised she wasn’t, and actually whatever this crunchy raspberry stuff was, it was going down incredibly easily.

Iain shrugged. “Grew up here. Like it. Run my own ship, that kind of stuff.”

“Don’t you get lonely?”

He fixed her with an unambiguous look.

“Sometimes.”

IT’S SO NICE to be driven by a good driver, Katie was thinking muzzily, drifting off in the comfortable front seat of the car. She really shouldn’t have accepted that delicious whisky liqueur Margaret had pressed on her . . . but it was rude to refuse really. Now, she was sure there was something she had thought about bringing up with Iain . . . something about trees, something really important . . . she felt her eyes droop as she caught a flash of a tail in the hedgerow.

Iain cut his eyes sideways from the road. She looked different when she was asleep; her snarky look disappeared completely.

Later, outside Mrs. McClockerty’s, he had to shake her gently to wake her up. She came to with an undignified snort.

“Oh God, was I dribbling?”

“No,” replied Iain slowly.

“Oh, thank God.”

“You muttered something about having sex with a goat though.”

Katie stretched her legs and got out of the car. Iain left the lights on to show the pathway to the house, and got out too. They both moved around to the front of the car, and stood, illuminated.

“Uh, thanks,” said Katie, rubbing her mouth nervously. “Thank you for a lovely night.”

“Not at all,” said Iain. “It was . . . um . . . any time. Well, not any time because it’s always booked up, but thanks for not making me have dinner with Craig the Vet. He’s nice, but he spits.” Aware that he was talking too much, he bit his lip.

“OK then,” said Katie, and looked at him. Caught in the car headlights, his green eyes flashed at her, nervous, but full of excitement and mischief. She stepped towards him, and then he, gently and carefully, checking her face to make sure what he was about to do was all right, took her face in his hands. In the next moment they were kissing.

It felt so good to be held again. Katie literally could have swooned. His mouth—soft and hard at the same time; his long body and strong arms holding her tightly against him made her giddy.

“Oh God,” he groaned, when they came up for air. “Sorry, it’s just . . . it’s been a while. I mean . . .”

Katie smiled to herself and wondered what had happened to the self-contained character who had swept her off to dinner. Then she melted into him again.

“GAH!” came a voice from behind them. Instinctively, they leaped apart, though their hands found each other soon after.

“Sorry!” said Louise, lurching up the path. “I meant to creep silently by and leave you some privacy, but then I accidentally shouted out ‘gah.’”

“That’s all right,” muttered Katie, embarrassed.

“Bloody hell, but I had a great night. You’d almost think the men here hadn’t seen a woman in months.”

“Well . . .”

Iain looked at Katie and smiled. “I think I’d better go,” he said, opening the car door. “Mrs. McClockerty might come out, and she does have a rather dampening effect on ardour.”