500 Miles from You (Scottish Bookshop #3)(93)
HE DIDN’T LOOK at all as she’d expected.
But the hair was the same as he’d drawn in the pictures: curly, overgrown, a little unruly. And it would take quite a burglar to fall asleep in a garden not his own.
Apart from that, he was much larger than she’d imagined: not fat, but solid; broad shouldered, heavy legged, more like a soldier or a rugby player than came across when he wrote. She couldn’t see his eyes, but dark lashes left shadows on ruddy cheeks, and there was bristle on his strong chin. He wasn’t at all like she’d conjured in her head. But . . . but there was something in the large bulk of his shoulders, the careless tangle of hair, the wide mouth that looked as if it would laugh easily.
She couldn’t stop staring. He was breathing evenly. The little hedgehog snuffled in his lap, entirely comfortable in his presence. What on earth was he doing here?
HE NEVER KNEW what woke him. One minute he’d been to see Neddie, the next—the sun was beaming straight into his eyes, and Lissa was standing over him, her face hidden by the sun. All he could see was a full head of bouncing curls. He squinted upward, confused: Was he asleep? Dreaming? Where was he? What was happening?
Suddenly:
“YOW!”
He jumped up. He had somehow woken Neddie, who had responded in the only way he knew how, and now he had a big jab in his hand.
Lissa couldn’t help it. She dissolved completely in giggles. Neddie was still hanging on to Cormac’s hand for dear life, his tiny paws scrabbling in the air.
Cormac would have sorted it, but he was transfixed by the laughing sun-touched face, the exact face he’d seen in the photo, in his dreams. Lissa jumped forward with her coat, scooped up the tiny creature, crooning, “It’s okay, you’re all right, you’re all right, little one,” in a softer voice than the one he’d heard yesterday, through the door.
He was about to say something, but suddenly it struck him that the words “you’re all right, little one” were, somehow, so much what he’d wanted to hear for so long, and for a moment, he couldn’t quite say anything at all.
LISSA, HEART POUNDING, took a step forward and gently put the hedgehog down, whereupon it instantly scurried away.
“Are you okay?” she said, as Cormac clutched his hand, a very confused look on his face.
Not taking his eyes off her, he raised his hand to his face. It was bleeding, very slightly. They carried on, just staring at each other, Lissa feeling her heart beating in the agony, in the dancing, buzzing, swishing noise of the garden.
Slowly, infinitely slowly, a smile began to spread across his face. It transformed his face completely. Lissa still hadn’t taken her eyes off him.
“Well,” he said, in the soft Highlands accent she had dreamed of. “Well noo, I don’t suppose you ken anybody in the medical line?”
Chapter 83
Work was still out there, but, after calling in to London, Cormac made a plan to divvy up the calls, so they could finish by lunchtime and spend the day together.
Lissa flew through her rounds, bestowing huge smiles on everyone. Cormac, of course, took far longer, as he was corralled by every single person he met and forced to repeat more or less everything he’d done down south, while also listening to them tell him how they didn’t trust that London and how nothing good ever came out of it, until he found himself getting more and more defensive of his adopted city. Plus, he had to pop in and see his mum, and was touched by how delighted she was to see him. Breaking her wrist, he realized suddenly, had made her more vulnerable than he’d known, and he gave her a huge hug, as she told him how the strange new nurse hadn’t been as bad as she’d expected for an English, and he wondered how on earth they were going to break the news to her.
They met up back at the surgery. Cormac watched her crossing the market square. Without even thinking about it, he put his hand out, and she took it. It was the strangest thing; he had barely had to apologize, had barely had to explain himself at all. Which was a relief, as he’d decided to keep the bathroom incident to himself. Just for now. There’d be time for all that.
The dogs set off a melee of barking as they arrived, and Joan let them out, so Cormac and Lissa were both pawed half to death.
“Oh, good, good,” she said, noticing immediately. “Always good to mate outside the pack.”
Lissa and Cormac were both so startled, they laughed in surprise.
“Anyway, also good, I have a puppy available soon. You two can have it.”
“Um, we’ve literally just met,” said Lissa.
Joan waved her away. “Are you telling me I don’t know anything about the natural world? Oh! Speaking of which.” She peered at Lissa. “You know I said there were no nursing jobs?”
Lissa stared at her.
“Wait, you asked?” said Cormac, beside himself.
“No!” said Lissa. “Well, maybe. Just an inquiry. Um, I wanted a puppy.”
“How much midwifery experience have you had? Ever since you English started invading, there’s babies all over the place. They’re hiring a community midwife.”
“Oh,” said Lissa, her face falling, “that’s not what I am.”
“You could manage, couldn’t you? Also there’s occasional lambing. It doesn’t say that on the ad, I’m just telling you that there is, round here.”