Lara's Lighthouse: Gorgeously uplifting Scottish romantic short story (Primrose Island Short Novellas) (Primrose Island Novellas) by Holly Wyld

Author:Holly Wyld [Wyld, Holly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-06-19T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

Lara was rummaging in the back of her Morris Minor for another tin of paint. The lighthouse was literally drinking the stuff.

“Morning,” said a low voice.

Lara whirled around.

Jasper. In t-shirt and cut-offs, still damp from a swim.

“Oh. Hi.”

Jasper looked past her. “Thought I’d stop by. See if you might like some help.”

Lara tried for a smile.

“Not with Jennifer today?”

Jasper didn’t answer, and Lara didn’t want things to get awkward, so she added a hasty, “I’d love some help, Jasper,” to her previous remark.

“Good,” he said, and then, “also…” as he reached for a lidded cardboard archive box sitting on the sandy gravel ground at his feet. “Here. A few things I pulled together for you a while back,” he said, by way of explanation. “About the lighthouse. Its history. Its keepers. That sort of thing.”

He passed the box into her hands, their fingers brushing as she took it from him.

“Thought you might like to have it.”

“Thanks. Thank you, Jasper.”

Lara set the box down and knelt beside it. She wanted to look through it. But she also needed an excuse not to look at Jasper at that moment. Not to look into his face, into his eyes. Because looking into his face – his eyes – was something she was finding hard not to do. Stealing glances at him was something she was finding hard not to do.

Noticing the way his hair had darkened. Noticing how his cheekbones had sharpened and his jaw had hardened.

Trying to catch up with all the ways in which the boy had ceded to the man.

“How’s it all been with Tilladrum?” she said instead, steering the moment to comfortable terrain while sifting through the contents of the box and making little appreciative noises at all the finds Jasper had gathered there.

“It’s a lot, I imagine?” She did look up at him then because he would start to notice if she didn’t. “You know, running it? Keeping it going?”

Jasper smiled and folded his arms. “We’re bootstrapping all the way. Freya’s working really hard on the wedding stuff. I’m working pretty hard on…”

“…Everything else?” Lara offered.

Jasper smiled and gave a small shrug.

“You’re both pretty amazing, you know, taking on Tilladrum. Working so hard. Are you both doing okay?”

Jasper smiled again. “I worry about her. She worries about me. We should probably get out more.”

Lara laughed and so did Jasper.

“FYI, though?” he said, glancing again at the lighthouse, and plucking a screwdriver from the back pocket of his cut-offs, “I’m quite the handyman these days…”

He grinned broadly, and Lara’s heart clutched.

There he was.

The boy with the easy smile.

Man with the easy smile, she corrected.

Jasper.

Her oldest friend.

Her best friend.

“So if you need me, let me know.”

Let him know? Let him know?

Oh, Jasper, she thought. I would barely know where to start.

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