Page 14 of Knots About You
‘What can we do other than the usual tastings?’
‘I don’t know, but it’s not my job to figure that out. I’m on logistics. You need to figure out some marketing. Something new and fun that will make our whisky seem less ancient.’
‘Itisancient. That’s the whole selling point.’
‘Listen, I know you’ll bristle, but I heard that this Claire woman is some PR city slicker. Maybe she knows more about marketing?’ Isla leant back and studied me.
‘I’m not asking her to work. She’s on holiday.’ Not to mention clearly going through some shit.
‘I could ask.’
‘Isla. No. Just leave her be. It’s bad enough half of the village is gossiping about her.’
It wasn’t my place to wrap her in cotton wool, but the temptation itched at me. Albeit, after I’d got to bed, I imagined wrapping her in rope, not cotton wool.
‘For what it’s worth,’ Isla said, slipping off the counter, ‘she seemed open. A bit startled by how fast we say hello here. But open. That’s a good start.’
‘I’m not?—’
‘—going to do anything about it, I know. Just saying.’ Isla left me with a shrug.
I found Dad attempting to sneak into the barrel store’s forklift soon after.
‘You’re meant to be retired,’ I said, leaning in and grabbing the keys.
‘Retired means doing what I like without your permission,’ he muttered.
‘It’s not like you haven’t always done what you liked.’
‘True, so why stop now?’ He snorted and sat back against the truck’s seat. ‘Saw your stray in the coffee shop.’
‘Mmm.’ Why was shemystray? And why did I kind of love the sound of that?
‘Morag had her cornered. She seemed all right. Even answered one of the crossword clues.Correctly.’
All right was practically a seal of approval from my father. May as well have rubber-stamped Claire right on the forehead.
Dad looked like he wanted to say more, but sighed instead. ‘Your mother says if I so much as look at a barrel, she won’t make me pudding for a whole month.’
‘She’s right,’ I said. ‘I’ve got this. I learned from the best.’
‘You learned from an old man. You don’t need to keep everything the same forever here, you know? You could get on the tick clocks and whatever it is the young folk are on these days.’ My dad patted me on the back until Meowrse jumped up and took root in his lap.
‘I’ll figure it out, Dad.’
My phone buzzed. An unknown number.
Thank you for the map. And…everything. Maybe it’s not so bad here when the sun’s out. —Claire.
I looked at Meowrse, who pretended he wasn’t interested.
My finger hovered over the reply button for a couple of heartbeats before I hit the off button and pushed it back into my sporran.
seven
CLAIRE
The bus barfedme out onto the square like I was an unwanted furball, the door snapping shut when I was barely clear of it. The ancient four-wheeled tin wheezed away, leaving me humphing my shopping bags toward the cottage.
