It was even worse for the fact that Cormac was a perfectly sociable chap, if a little shy. Not the life and soul, maybe, but he was funny and easygoing and the girls usually liked him, and of course Jake would lead the way. Cormac did think how much Jake would be enjoying himself, telling outrageous stories about people who’d gotten things stuck up their bums, giving cheeky backhanded compliments to Kalitha, and generally being at home everywhere, and he felt completely out of his depth and more and more tongue-tied and awkward than ever. His beer, when it came, was a horrible sweet lager that felt sticky on his teeth, but he drank it determinedly and glanced at his watch so he could work out how soon he could politely leave.

Chapter 34

Jake caught up with Lissa as she left Joan’s surgery, exchanging one bundle of notes for another.

“Hi!” he said, and she stared at him as if she couldn’t remember who he was (this was not at all the case; she was just still getting used to people recognizing her in the street, which never, ever happened in London).

“Oh, hello,” she said, flustered. She held her shopping bag closer to herself in case he wanted to see what kind of groceries she had. She’d never realized how exposing it was, living in a very small village. Mrs. Murray had already remarked more than once on how many Kit Kats she seemed to buy at any one period and she was definitely contemplating getting her Kit Kats online, if she could resist the temptation to buy a box of eighty at a time, which she wasn’t sure she could, and that couldn’t end anywhere good.

“Jake,” said Jake.

“Yeah . . . I know. Ambulance, right?”

He nodded. “Yup.”

“Busy shift?”

“In fact, no,” he said. “Young boy fell out of a boat on Loch Ness, but he was fine by the time they picked him up.”

“Does that happen a lot?”

“More than you’d think. We nearly lost a couple o’ bairns last year.” He shivered to think about it.

“Do they get eaten by the monster?”

“Yes,” he said, totally deadpan. “Monster-related injuries make up about thirty, forty percent of my job most days. It’s okay, we have a venom antidote.”

She smiled for the first time he’d seen, and he saw her lovely teeth.

“So, you know it’s the shows?” he said nervously. He wasn’t asking her out, obviously. He wasn’t asking her out at all. He was just letting her know it was on, which wasn’t the same thing at all, nothing like.

He flashed back to the conversation he’d had the previous night with Cormac.

“You should go see her,” Cormac had said.

Jake was still a little sore about being cold-shouldered the last time. “Mebbe,” he’d said.

“I think she’s a bit lonely,” said Cormac.