Page 78 of The Grump I Slept With
“Should have gotten it to pick you upMission-Impossiblestyle,” she quipped, spreading mayo across the bread.
“Any longer in that traffic, and I might have been tempted. I’ve never seen a more dysfunctional operation in my life.”
“We can’t all be Locke-Fraser levels of organized,” she said, layering meat and cheese.
“All I know is one second I’m flying down the motorway, the next it’s a gridlock. People are out of their cars, tossing potatoes off the side of the road. Then the police are there, asking peoplenotto get out of their vehicles.”
“Sounds like chaos,” Isla agreed.
“It was bloody annoying!”
“Right. I get that.”
“And you know Scots,” I said, waving my hand dismissively. “Everyone’s having a good laugh about it. Calling their mates down at the pub. Meanwhile, I’m stuck there?—”
The plate landed in front of me with a hardclank. The top of the sandwich fell off as I glanced up at Isla’s raised eyebrow.
“Look,” she said, hands to her hips. “I understand that being stuck in traffic was frustrating, but are you ever going to ask what you missed? How about if Jo was able to fill your judging duties at the last minute?”
I blinked at her, confusion setting in. She had to be taking the piss. “Surely that wasn’t a problem?” I huffed a laugh. “How hard can it be to find someone in Braeburn willing to eat good food and judge people about it? Eating and bickering over who’s right are basically national pastimes.”
“That’s not the point,” Isla said. “You made a commitment to be there.”
“It was just a little contest,” I reminded her. “It’s not like the success of the entire day was contingent on me being here. I don’t think it’s that big of a deal.”
Isla scoffed, arms crossed as she leaned back against the counter. “If it’s just some silly little contest, then why have you been bitching and moaning about being stuck in traffic? What does it matter that you missed it?”
“I’m upset about beinglate,” I clarified. I hated being late. She knew that. Our first meeting should have shown her as much. “I said I’d be there, Itriedto be there, but it didn’t work out—thanks to the idiot driver—and that’s aggravating.”
“The driver wasn’t the reason you were late. You were late because you waited until the last possible second to get on the road. That wasyourdecision.”
Fuck.“You’re right. That was my mistake.”
But Isla was on a roll now. “If you’d come last night, as we planned, the accident wouldn’t have affected you at all. Or you could have just come first thing in the morning instead of waiting to wrap up ‘a few more things.’”
I pushed the plate away. “You’re talking like I was faffing about wasting time, Isla. I was bloodyworking.”
“So that makes it okay to break your word? You were supposed to be here, fulfilling your commitments. And as far as I can tell, you haven’t bothered to apologize for that. Not once. Certainly not to me.”
“Apologize for what exactly?” I exclaimed. For not being around to eat some haggis? “I didn’t cause the flaming accident!”
“You made a promise that you would be here!” she said. “Does that not mean anything to you? Or, let me guess, because it’s not some client waiting with a property deal, it doesn’t actually count. It just gets slotted way down on your priority list, right?”
So this wasn’t about the festival at all. This was about Dougal. The tension headache brewing behind my eyes pounded like thunder. “You know that’s not true.”
“I heard what you said to your father when I was there the other week,” she said, eyes narrowed. “About your priorities not changing. So I just want to know when I can actually expect you to show up. Or am I always going to come last?”
“I’ve been showing up this entire time!” I snapped. “Anything you needed, I made it happen. You said the word, and it was on your doorstep the next day.”
Isla groaned, rubbing her face with her hands. “I don’t understand what you’re not getting about this. Do you really think I need you to do online shopping for me? I can also click the delivery button, Locke. I needyou. Present and attentive.”
“What the hell do you think I’m doing?” I was on the verge of exploding. “I spent weeks with you in town!”
Isla shook her head. “You were in town because it was convenient for the deal. Let’s not pretend that I’m what kept you here. The moment the deal was done, you were gone again.”
“To bloody work! But the second there was something to do with the baby, I dropped everything to be there.”
“Oh, yes,” she said, voice laced with sarcasm. “You showed up to the midwife appointment with your nose in your phone. That was extremely helpful.”
