The Debt Read online

  So while her part-time gig is going well, her sights are set higher. She’s going to school in the evenings so she can open her own studio, as she had originally planned, but specifically for those with special needs and limits. She’s got a massive heart and with that heart she’s helping to better the world, one yoga pose at a time, whether she realizes it or not.

  As for me, well, this garage is it. I took a leap of faith and sank my savings into it and it’s doing us just fine. I’m back to using my hands to put puzzle pieces together and I’m loving it. Call me a grease monkey, call me what you will, but there’s nothing more rewarding than to sit back at the end of the day, exhausted inside and out, knowing you’ve used your hands to fix something.

  Then of course there’s the reason why Brigs is here at all. It’s the first time he and his wife Natasha have come up to visit. She’s bloody pregnant to the extreme but it’s a special occasion.

  Lachlan and Kayla are getting married next week. That wedding of the century that I’ve mentioned is well under way. I haven’t really seen Lachlan for the last month, so I assume he’s been busy and I know there’s some family drama with his birth mother showing up out of the blue, but all the family is in town.

  This means my brother Mal and my sister Maisie, both of whom I haven’t seen for years. It means my mother and my stepfather. It means my cousin Bram and his girlfriend and his brother Linden and his wife and new baby. It means a lot of people in one spot for the first time in a very long time.

  It means that Brigs picked a great time to drive his Aston Martin up here from London and get some cheap labor out of me. I’ll let it slide this time.

  Plus, Jessica is doing a lot of female bonding, which she needs since her closest friend, Paula, lives in London and her friend Anne has moved to Fife.

  Jessica and Natasha have hit it off pretty well. If the two of them aren’t together, it’s because Natasha is with Christina. See, Jessica’s sister is pregnant too. It’s just way too much estrogen for me.

  And Brigs, apparently, which is why he’s hanging in my garage with me.

  “So,” I say to Brigs. “How come I wasn’t invited to your wedding?”

  “No one was invited,” he says, his glacier eyes flashing. He always has the most unnerving way of looking at you. “We didn’t tell a soul. Let me guess, we’re not invited to yours?”

  “Haven’t even started planning,” I tell him.

  That’s not exactly true. We’re actually aiming for a winter wedding in the Highlands but we’ve both been so busy that the details haven’t really been formed yet. I can tell you that we’re looking at the castle in Wick as the ideal spot. Even after the shocking moments there, the memories overall are good and we hang onto those. I think Jessica is choosing it out of symbolism, like the castle beat her then and now she’s coming back to claim it. I’m choosing it more out of the fact that getting married in a castle would be fucking awesome.

  A horn brings me out of my daydream. The shop doors are rolled open so we can see Jessica pull up in the Jaguar, grinning at me from behind the wheel. She gets out with ease as Brigs goes over to the passenger door to help Natasha.

  Jessica walks with a limp – that will always be there – but she’s otherwise in fantastic shape, thanks to all the yoga and physio and just having a positive attitude. I like to think the sex helps too.

  Natasha, on the other hand, looks like an elephant. A really pretty elephant but she’s fucking huge and ready to blow. We make fun of her all the time.

  “Are you sure your water won’t break during their ceremony?” I ask Natasha, while Jessica puts beers in the fridge. “Planning on stealing their thunder?”

  “Ha ha, fucker,” she says, glaring at me while Brigs takes her hand. “If my water breaks, then that’s their present. Call it their first test as a married couple. Believe me, there’s going to be a lot of fucking tests for them.”

  Brigs rolls his eyes. “So dramatic.”

  “It’s the hormones!” she yells, rubbing her belly. “Get this damn baby out of me this instant!”

  Jessica gives a beer to Brigs, and bottle of water to Natasha, who snatches it out of her hands with a grumble of thanks. Then she brings me a beer, smiling in that way of hers that erases everything around us, so it’s only the two of us.

  I pull her to me, kissing the top of her head, breathing in her smell. God I love this woman so much. The thought hits me hard, as it always does. It’s the reason why I proposed to her out of the blue one day. She asked me over breakfast if I would pass her the almond milk and I said, “I fucking love you, will you marry me?” and that was that.

  Romantic? No.

  But one hundred percent honest, one hundred percent us?

  Yes.

  “So now what?” Natasha asks. “As all three of you get blitzed on beer and I drink a bunch of water.”

  I nod out the doors. The garage is in Leith and the ocean is just a few blocks away.

  “Go down to the shore, get some fish and chips.”

  Natasha’s eyes light up. “Now you’re fucking talking.”

  We slowly gather our things and leave the building, stepping out into the bright May sunshine. I pull down the garage door and lock it and, with Jessica’s hand in mine, we make our way through the streets, spring in the air, spring in our steps, walking toward the future.

  THE END

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