A Christmas Wish on Arran (Scottish Romances #4)

Chapter Five

Callum Thompson wasn’t having the greatest of mornings. He’d been up since the crack of dawn, having fed the chickens in the dark and then mended a leak in the bathroom ceiling. Ruby, his faithful Labrador, had been by his side throughout, and now she was curled up in her bed in the kitchen, eyeing him suspiciously as he paced the tiled floor and took yet another deep breath. She had become his shadow since his old Border Collie, Steve, had passed away a few years ago. Until then Steve hadn’t let Ruby get too close to Callum — he viewed himself as top dog. Ruby must have watched and learned as a puppy. She now did a very good job of keeping the hens in check, rounding them up in the way that Steve used to.

Callum had planned to drop Daisy off early at her friend’s house, then go and do the grocery shopping and some other errands in Brodick, the main village on the island. But Daisy, who was fourteen, had other ideas and insisted that, yes , she did need to straighten every single hair on her head, and that was his fault as he had bought a new shampoo that made her hair wavier than usual. He didn’t understand how that worked. In his view shampoo was shampoo, and he tended to buy whatever was on offer in the supermarket. But in Daisy’s opinion, this was a catastrophic problem, which he could never possibly understand, hence the meltdown. Suggesting that she put it in a ponytail, and telling her that it looked “fine”, didn’t land well with her either. She looked at him as though he’d told her to swim backwards to the mainland wearing a cowboy hat and nothing else. He really needed to remind himself that, when a thought floated through in his mind, he should say nothing at all. His attempts at trying to help usually made things worse.

‘Daisy,’ he called, in the most calming and soothing tone he could manage. ‘I’m now thinking that you may as well just get the bus. It’ll be here any minute.’ He was kind of being sarcastic, but Daisy took his suggestion quite literally.

‘Fine.’ She appeared from her bedroom, quickly pulling on her shoes and jacket, then slamming the door on her way out. Their stone cottage, which had withstood all sorts of storms over the decades, practically shook. As she marched up the lane, he watched her pulling a beanie over her head and wondered, bemusedly, why she had bothered to straighten it if she was covering up with a hat.

Ruby whimpered — he crouched down and reached out a reassuring hand to pat her.

‘Hey, it’s okay,’ he said gently. ‘Teenage girls, eh? I’m not sure that I’ll ever understand them. They are a mystery, Ruby. A complete and utter mystery.’ He tickled her chin. ‘I think I’ll come back as a dog in my next life and be like you. Living the dream, eh girl.’

Ruby promptly licked his hand.

As he stood up, Callum was hugely relieved when he saw the bus rumble up to the end of their road, on time, and spotted Daisy climb onboard. He shook his head and sighed. ‘I think I need another coffee before I do anything else.’

He flicked on the kettle. Ruby seemed to approve of his decision and soon she was lying on her back, legs in the air, snoring contently. He knew none of this was Daisy’s fault, she was a teenager after all, and weren’t these the toughest years? He let out a long breath. She didn’t choose this life. Callum knew she would much rather have her mum here to love and guide her, but instead she had to make do with him. He was doing his best, he really, really tried. But what did he know about anything? Especially when it came to raising girls. He was just eternally grateful to his friends and neighbours who’d rallied around him to help in his time of need. In those early days his mum had been wonderful too, and stepped in to help everyone make the adjustment to this new and unexpected life they’d found themselves in. But she didn’t live on the island and just came to visit, which, in Daisy’s eyes, gave her superstar status, and he just became a bigger irritant. Callum was the person who reminded her to brush her teeth, who turned off the lights at night when she would rather have stayed up reading. Callum was also the person who said “no”. He had always tried his hardest but he was beginning to wonder if that was enough.

Ruby sighed, deep in a doggy dream, and she gave a small bark. He shrugged. At least she was one female that he hadn’t managed to upset. She had been a loyal friend to him these past seven years, always wagging her tail when she saw him. Ruby also didn’t slam doors, stomp upstairs or scream at him. She certainly didn’t care what her hair looked like either. Every greeting she gave him was heartfelt and enthusiastic — even if he had only been outside for a moment to fetch something from the car.

As he sipped his coffee, he looked out the large kitchen window overlooking the scraggly garden. It was yet another thing that needed his attention. He turned away and flicked his gaze across the calendar hanging next to the fridge. Daisy had designed it for him with some of the photos she’d taken over the past year. There were pictures of Ruby in various poses (who was an extremely patient dog), including a Santa hat for December and a pumpkin costume in October, as well as some of Daisy’s arty beach shots, which included action shots of Ruby leaping around. Callum had always liked this time of year, and the lead up to Christmas, but he felt more tired than usual and not quite ready to embrace another cold winter on the island. He always seemed to be worrying about something — whether it was to do with securing more work for the joinery business he ran, balancing the books, making sure he was on top of the washing and remembering to make sure he had food in the fridge for Daisy. She had been off school the past few days with a heavy cold, and had gone a bit stir-crazy, hence her desperation to go and see her friend today. Perhaps that was all that was wrong and making them both feel out of sorts. Maybe they just needed to get back into some kind of routine. Surely things would soon settle down again. Dumping his mug in the sink, he felt marginally better and grabbed the shopping list from the kitchen table. He groaned when he scanned it and was reminded of Daisy’s latest project.

‘I’m going to become vegan,’ she’d announced during the half-term break last month, just as he had pulled a large steak pie from the oven.

His mum had given him a wry smile and shook her head. He knew that was code for don’t say a word .

‘Okay . . .’ He wondered what on earth he could rustle up that was entirely plant-based, or whatever the right language was these days. Everything in the world was so overly complicated and he usually got it wrong.

‘That smells delicious,’ said his mum. ‘Is it the usual one from the butcher?’

He nodded. ‘Yes, you always need to order them in the holidays, otherwise they sell out.’

‘Well, Daisy dear,’ his mum turned to Daisy, ‘if you’re not having yours then can I have it? I have been looking forward to that gravy and the buttery pastry all day. Would you just smell it? Delicious . You can have my potatoes though if you want Daisy? I’ll enjoy the extra pastry.’

Callum had watched his mum in awe as Daisy looked at her hesitantly, then over to the pie that he’d placed on the table. ‘Gran . . . I am going to go vegan but, maybe, not quite yet. I mean, Monday is a better day to start new things, don’t you think?’

His mum chuckled. ‘Yes, I agree. I think you should enjoy the steak pie while you can. Then you can embrace the vegan lifestyle as of next week.’

When his mum had left to return home to the mainland, Daisy had clearly decided that Plan Vegan was back on track. Her latest shopping list had left him in no doubt that she was keeping up with it. He shook his head again in despair, pulled on his thick coat and grabbed his car keys.

‘Come on girl,’ he said to Ruby and she dutifully followed him out to the car.