Page 84 of Kilt Trip

His chest swelled. Another time. That’s all he wanted. More time. More days like this.

Addie sighed, a content little hum. “God, I love it here.”

His spirits soared, gliding across the open sky. She could stay here, in this place that reminded her of her mum, this place she loved exploring as much as he did.

They could build the most beautiful life together.

Swinging clasped hands between them, they walked along the rocky beach.

“Tell me what you picture for the future. You’ve been working at The Heart your entire life. You must have had ideas, things you wanted to change.” This time, when Addie talked about the company, it felt like asking to understand his heart, not a deflection. “What would it look like if you weren’t trying to make your brothers or your dad happy? Or me.”

Logan kicked at a clump of blackened seaweed.

Planning a trip for her had been eye-opening. He loved the way she looked when she saw the empty moors and the mist settling over the mountains.

Of course, watching Addie was more impactful than it would be with tourists, but if he felt even a fraction of this exhilaration at work, he could happily do it the rest of his life. There was still so much to explore, so much of his country he could share.

This weekend only added fuel to the torch he carried for the idea of custom tours.

Before taking Addie on this trip, he might have been content to leave the idea tucked away indefinitely, but now he couldn’t put it out of his mind.

If she said no, he’d have to give up on the little glimmer of a dream, the one that felt so perfectly right.

At the same time, if anyone could find a solution, it would be her.

“I have an idea I’ve been kicking around for a while now.”

“Hit me.”

“It might be terrible.”

“Worse than golf trips? Because we’re getting close to using my original plans.”

The skin on the back of Logan’s neck tingled. “Custom tours. Clients come to us with either a list of places they’d like to go or the type of trip they always imagined for their family, and we research where to take them, how to show them the pieces of Scotland that are unique and memorable and personal.”

Addie’s lips pulled to the side as she thought. Her lack of enthusiasm was a rip cord, killing all his excitement.

He knew it was a bad idea.

“I can see why you’d be interested.” She tipped her head back and tapped a drumbeat on her collarbone with her thumb and middle finger. “Custom tours break down in the planning stage, though. You can never tell how serious a potential client is, but you spend countless hours planning a trip. They might take your research and go alone, or end up going with another company, or were never serious in the first place.”

An anchor settled in the pit of his stomach. He knew it wouldn’t work. He’d researched extensively on how to get around that very problem, with no luck. Maybe he would never hack it being a business owner, making the right calls—he’d thought secret whisky tours were a clever idea at one point.

He should never have let himself dream.

Addie steepled her fingers under her chin. “But I think there’s something here. What about heritage tours? It would be semicustom. You could design tours based on the clans. Every Fraser from Australia to Arizona would be over the moon for a clan tour,” she said to the inside of her bag. When she resurfaced, she had a notebook and pen.

“How would it work?” He curled his hand around a skipping stone, trying to keep the desperation from his voice. He couldn’t very well inject her ideas into his bloodstream to get them any faster. But if there was a chance for something big, something authentic...

“We could design, let’s say, eight new tours for the biggest clans. Let’s use Clan Sutherland as an example.” She drew out a grid in her notebook. “Here, you add high-profile attractions that are important to any clan. Loch Ness, Stirling Castle...” She looked up with an arched eyebrow. “You didn’t think you were getting out of tourist traps, did you?”

He huffed out a laugh.

“Here, you add stops in those areas with businesses you already know, but you’d have the space to negotiate new rates. So you’d include the glassblower or places like the fairy well which are impactful, but also free, which is great for your margins.”

Excitement pounded in his veins in time with the lapping waves as a new sense of hope settled around him.

She drew another line separating the sections. “Then you’d add new attractions specific to each clan’s history, like Carbisdale Castle.”

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