Lyle laughed. ‘Same here.’ He sipped at his drink and things fell silent for a moment.
Caitlin knew she tended to waffle about rubbish when she was nervous, so she chose to remain quiet. But then panic began to set in as she feared that the conversation was already done.
Luckily, Lyle spoke again. ‘So, when was your last date then?’
Caitlin racked her brains trying to remember the last date she had been on. ‘Oof… It was a few years ago now. A guy I met at the supermarket on the mainland of all places.’
‘Really? What happened?’
She scoffed. ‘He didn’t want kids and my ready-made family put him off.’
Lyle gasped. ‘Bloody hell. How can someone be put off by Grace? She’s a lovely wee girl.’
‘Hmm. She was around eight at the time and hadn’t quite learned how to apply her filter before speaking.’
Lyle laughed. ‘Oh dear, what did she say to him?’
‘Basically, that she didn’t want a daddy and even if she did, she would rather have Mouldy Warts fromHarry Potterthan him.’
‘Harsh!’
‘Funnily enough he thought so too. I didn’t see him again. In fact, I think he even changed supermarkets.’ She laughed. ‘How about you?’
He fixed his gaze on her. ‘You’re my first actual date since the divorce.’
‘Wow, I’m honoured.’
He grinned. ‘I’m very selective.’
She fanned herself. ‘Well, now I’m flattered too.’
‘To be honest, I’ve wanted to ask you out for ages, but I was wee bit fragile after the divorce. She really did a number on me. I had no confidence.’
Caitlin was delighted to hear he had wanted to ask her out for a while but was shocked to hear how awful his ex-wife sounded. ‘You always seem so sure of yourself.’
‘It was all bravado; I can assure you. I suppose there’s something about having a failed marriage behind you that just makes you feel a wee bit… I don’t know… crap.’ He laughed lightly.
‘Well, you have no reason to feel bad. It takes two to make a relationship work, so it stands to reason that it takes two to make that relationship stop working.’
‘Ah, the wise words of Caitlin Fraser,’ he said with a wry smile. ‘So… what’s your story? Do you see much of Grace’s dad?’
Oh heck, thought Caitlin,I was hoping we could avoid this for a while longer. Here we go.
Caitlin recoiled involuntarily and Lyle widened his eyes. ‘Shit, I didn’t mean to pry. I just blurted that out without thinking, didn’t I?’
She laughed lightly. ‘It’s okay. And no, I don’t see him.’
He nodded. ‘Right… right… This divorce lark can be tricky, eh?’
Caitlin closed her eyes briefly. ‘Actually, I’m not divorced.’
Lyle had lifted his glass halfway to his lips, but at her words he stopped dead. ‘Oh.’
Realising how bad that had sounded, she clarified. ‘That is… I was never married to him.’
‘Ah! Right, I see. I thought you were going to tell me you were still married. I mean… it wouldn’t be a deal-breaker as such, if you know what I mean.’
The usual nerves that accompanied this conversation began to plague her. ‘Never married and… never actually met.’ She took a large gulp of her wine. ‘I had Grace by artificial insemination using sperm from a donor, so I only know the man who fathered her as a set of statistics, with a reference number, in a file,’ she waffled, the words falling rapidly from her mouth like a runaway train on a downhill track.
