Page 50 of Wild Scottish Beauty

“I’m going to change, put on a pot of tea, and then we’ll figure this out. Aye?”

“Aye,” I said softly, nerves simmering in my stomach.

He wasn’t talking about figuring out how to take care of a kitten. He was talking about the magick, and I realized I’d have to bare myself to everyone in this room when I still didn’t know or understand what was happening to me. It was wildly disconcerting, not just picking up and starting over in a new place, but also discovering I was part of a mystical Order. I would say, one of the benefits of having worked on fashion shows, was that you needed to address things at lightning speed. Hopefully, that trait would help me now.

By the time Ramsay returned, we’d all moved from the floor to the chairs, towels wrapped around us, and my breath caught when he walked through the door, a tea tray in hand.

He wore sweatpants.

Grey sweatpants to be exact.

Hung low at his hips, with a navy-blue chunky sweater on top, and thick fuzzy cottage socks at his feet. He looked comfy, cozy, and impossibly sexy. It took everything in my power not to ogle him as he bent to put the tray on the table in the middle of the chairs. There was just something about a man in grey sweatpants that made my insides go loose and liquid. It made gruff Ramsay seem more approachable, a man to curl up with by the fire, and I distracted myself by readjusting Calvin in my arms.

Sophie winked at me, and I shook my head.

Nope.

She was not going to be a matchmaker. We weren’tgoing to do this. Ramsay barely tolerated my presence as it was. A love match? Not happening.

“All right, lasses. Have at it then. Magick?” Ramsay said, startling me from stroking Calvin with increasing adoration.

“Do you want the long version or the short?” Sophie asked.

“Short. The lass has been through enough today.”

I blinked up at Ramsay, realizing he meant me, and gave him a soft smile. It wasn’t like I’d been the one to throw myself in a freezing cold loch and been threatened by the Kelpies. Yet Ramsay was worried about me.

“Well, you know about the Kelpies.” Sophie gave Lachlan a heavy look, and he nodded at her.

“He’s safe,” Lachlan murmured.

“So, the short version is that there is a magickal Order tasked with protecting the Stone of Truth buried on the island in Loch Mirren. Because the last of the old Order died, the Kelpies will now protect the stone until the Order is fully resurrected again.”

“Right,” Ramsay said. He steepled his fingers as he absorbed her words, the fire snapping in the background. “And the magick?”

“Each member of the Order will step into powers as they pass their challenges to become a fully standing member.”

“Challenges?” Ramsay, the man of many words, asked.

“You can’t just join the Order. You have to prove you’re worthy of the magick, as well as being strong enough to protect the Stone.”

“And Willow is a member?”

“Correct. She joined yesterday and, it appears, her magick has manifested already.”

“It may have been there all along,” I admitted, biting my lower lip as I thought about all the times that my gut had guided me in the right direction. That being said, I’d had a lot of times that I’d made poor decisions or things hadn’t gone well for me. So was I really psychic then? Or had I simply ignored my instincts to my own detriment? A thought to chew over another day, I supposed. I looked up at the group. “I … I don’t know. I’ve had moments in life where my gut instinct made me do something. Like not take a bike tour in Costa Rica where they ended up getting stuck in a mudslide or not walking on a crosswalk when a car ran a red light. That kind of thing.”

“That’s a really strong instinct then. But you said you had an actual vision?” Sophie gave me an encouraging smile.

“I did. Last night. I was sketching out ideas for the shop and, well, yeah. So I guess I just drifted off? Hold on.” I stood up, handing Calvin off to a delighted Agnes, and crossed the room to dig in my bag. A shiver went through me once I was away from the fire, and I realized I wanted to get home to change, curl up with Calvin, and just hit the pause button for a moment while my brain caught up with these changes. Hopefully, I could do that soon if we could just get through this conversation.

“Archie has kitten food. He feeds a few at the stables. He’ll bring it to your apartment, along with a litter box, litter, and some food dishes. He says to keep him contained in smaller rooms for now, so he doesn’t get too scared in a big place.” Sophie held up her phone, and relief washedthrough me as I returned to the group, iPad in hand, and dragged a towel around my shoulders again.

“That’s awesome, I hadn’t even thought that far ahead.”

“Calvin will be just fine. We’ll get you tucked up in your new home shortly, bud.” Sophie reached over to scratch Calvin’s ear, and while I itched to bring him back to my arms, I needed to show the others what I’d drawn the night before.

“Oh, random question, but how did you know to be there? To help us?” I asked Sophie, sitting back down. “It was incredible to watch.”

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