Glen was just looking for the right words to confess his feelings to Becky . . .
BY AMANDA PARKER
GLEN bumped his Land-Rover down the rough track towards the sea, a faraway look on his face.
He waved at Arthur waiting by the boat and parked up next to the sheds.
“Hey, laddie! What’s wrong with you?” Arthur shouted over to him as he got out of the car.
Glen looked surprised.
“W-what do you mean?” he asked.
“You’re not your usual self – you’re all distracted. Is it a lady you’re thinking of?”
“N-no, Arthur. What makes you think that?”
“Yesterday you forgot to put two of the oyster baskets back in the water. What would your grandad say?”
Glen laughed. His grandad would think he was mad.
You’d never know it, but old Arthur worked for Glen, not the other way round.
Glen inherited the oyster farm from his grandad, who’d died 11 years ago.
“Aye, I’ve got a few things on my mind, but I’ll try to concentrate a bit better.”
“Well, you know you can always talk to me. Since your father passed away, I feel a bit like a dad to you.”
“Thanks, Arthur.” Glen felt the pricking of tears as he thought of his dad. “Dad never liked the oyster business, did he?
“He liked his job, though. I still miss him.”
“Aye.” Arthur nodded. “He was a good detective, your dad, but he used to get seasick just sitting in the boat, never mind going out on the water.”
“That’s true.” Glen smiled at the memory.
Then his thoughts went back to Becky, who owned the café in town.
Glen’s problem with asking Becky out was the stutter that had plagued him since childhood.
He was fine with people he knew and felt comfortable with.
Speaking to strangers was always a problem.
That’s why he enjoyed working out on the loch with Arthur.
He didn’t have to worry about what people thought of him out there.
The idea of stuttering painfully through a date request made him cringe inside.
Yet if he never asked her out, she’d never get to know the real him and be able to see past the stuttering.
It kept going round in his head without any solutions.
What if she said no? Worse, what if she got that look of pity and impatience lots of people gave him? He hated that look. That evening he went round to his friend Melissa’s house.
“I’m worried about you,” were the words that Melissa greeted him with.
Glen was surprised.
“Not another person worried about me!”
