Page 94 of Kilt Trip

She fought the instinct to chitchat, to ask which toiletry he ran out of on this trip just to stall for the length of a tirade about spray deodorant. Suck it up, Macrae.

“Okay, keep an open mind.”

“Uh-oh. Did you learn this trick from my husband?”

“I did, actually. Damien could write a book on you.”

Marc chuckled. “Alright, tell me this thing I won’t like.”

“But that you could like,” Addie reminded him, curling her fingers around the poky branch of a potted pine tree.

“Let’s hear it.”

“So, The Heart of the Highlands—”

“I’m familiar.”

“Right.” She sucked in a deep breath and powered on. “When it came down to it, they weren’t excited to push some of the bigger attractions. We’ve spent a lot of time—” Addie winced at her choice of words “—brainstorming amenable solutions and came up with heritage tours.”

“Which is different from the tours you already sent?”

Her hands and arms prickled and not from the icy air. She never should have sent those itineraries to Marc. She’d wanted to make sure The Heart had options in case a new project started, but he was sure to latch onto the work that was nearly complete. “Right. Logan and Neil haven’t seen those yet. I just need a little more time to finish designing these heritage tours. We’ll build out eight for the biggest clans—”

Marc’s harsh exhale crackled ominously through the phone. She pictured him rubbing his hand over his face. “We can’t use clan tours in our portfolio. We’ve got to keep these projects moving quickly to turn a profit this year. You need to steer them back to the original vision. Implement the tours you showed me.”

Addie’s racing heart battered her chest. She’d failed Marc, jeopardized their future, but she couldn’t just abandon Logan’s idea. His passion. He’d be destroyed. “I know this isn’t ideal. But at this point, it seems like we should complete what the client wants.”

They weren’t going about this in the right way. Addie wanted to make a shift to custom work, bucket-list trips, to work with clients creating once-in-a-lifetime experiences for the people who passed through their countries.

“Neil wants the company to be profitable so he can retire in good faith and leave this business to his kids. He’ll sign off on what you’ve proposed.”

“I just need a little more time.”

“There is no more time. Amsterdam City Tours signed on for round two. I need you there by Wednesday.”

Wednesday.

The word was a game-ending buzzer rattling her skull. Time’s up.

A wave of nausea rolled through her. She knew there was going to be a next project and that it would be soon. All their forward progress had brought them closer to this point.

But she wasn’t ready to leave.

This was the moment she’d been fighting against, shoving to the back of her mind, and here it was, somehow still catching her completely unprepared. Staring her down at the end of an alley, while she stood there helpless, with ringing ears and wobbly heels.

Wednesday.

She pushed her fingers into her eyes, swallowing back the bile in her throat.

“I need to know you’re on my team, that you’ve got my back. That we’re all working toward the same goal.”

“I am. Of course I am.” Addie’s head swam with the spiraling fear that everything she cared about could be ripped away in an instant. “This is going to be a surprise. Give me some time to talk to them about it, alright?”

“Will do. I’ve got your back, too, you know.”

Did he? It didn’t feel like it right now.

“Anything else while we’re on the phone?”

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