Page 69 of Wild Scottish Fortune

Are you?

“You’re almost as annoying as Fin, you know? Answering questions with a question.” I glared at the Green Lady, frustrated because she wasn’t giving me the answers that I needed.

Because it’s not me that has the answers you seek.

“Great, just great. Talk in riddles.” I stopped in frontof Goldie, watching as she bopped the ship with her head and went after the flakes that sifted out onto the surface of the water. “Do you know about the little girl in Fin’s house?”

She needs your help.

“What happened to her?”

She was left behind.

My heart twisted at those words. I would forever have a soft spot for the forgotten ones, which is why I spent as much time helping at the shelter as I could.

“I need to do something about it, but I have to go when Fin isn’t there.”

Tell him.

“I can’t tell him what I am. He’ll never believe me.”

You don’t trust him.

“It’s not that I don’t trust him.” I bit my lower lip as I thought about it. It was true. I did trust Finlay, as much as I trusted anyone, I supposed. He’d shown me kindness, repeatedly, and he was helping me with my business—something which I hadn’t ever allowed other people to do. All things considered, these were big steps for me. It was just the whole hurting my heart thing that I wasn’t so sure I was ready to sign on for. The grief of losing Jacob never really went away, and I could only imagine that same grief would arise if Finlay decided he tired of me. Losing someone I loved, again? Yeah, I wasn’t sure I was ready to sign up for that particular ride.

You love him.

“Damn it. Can you read my thoughts?” I whirled on the Green Lady, annoyed that she had managed to pluck the word love right from my brain. “Isn’t anything private?”

Love should be celebrated. It’s the one thing in this world that universally links others. Why hide from it?

“Because it hurts?”

It only hurts because you aren’t giving it a chance.

“No, not true. I loved Jacob. He was my best friend and I never held back from showing him my love. Same with Grandpa Lou. And they both left me. Everyone leaves.”

The love doesn’t. You’ll always have that.

Her words slammed into me so hard that I gasped for breath, and I rubbed the spot where I’d tapped my chest so hard it was now sore. She wasn’t wrong. Even though I no longer had Jacob or Grandpa Lou, my love for them never diminished. It just was. Maybe that was what she was trying to tell me—that once love was created it didn’t just wink out of sight.

Unlike her. When I looked back up, she was gone, likely smug in the wee bomb she’d dropped on my head. Sighing, I tapped at Goldie’s bowl.

“I need to go back out, sweetie. I’ve got a ghost to see about.”

It was late, almost nine in the evening, but I figured my chance for sneaking in the house while Fin wasn’t there was better at night. He’d given me the code for the lockbox, telling me to pop through whenever, as I’d told him I’d wanted to check a few things. Which wasn’t entirely untrue, there were a few areas of concern in his new place I’d like to take a more careful eye to, but largely it had been an excuse to come back and see to the ghost girl haunting his upstairs bedroom.

I also still needed to go check that outbuilding at the distillery site. I’d banned my workers from going inside—due to structural issues—and hadn’t yet had a chance to have a look at what was really going on inside the derelict building. I’d make a go of it soon.

Happy to see no cars parked outside when I arrived, I made quick work of hauling my toolbox inside after I unlocked the door. Putting it down just inside the front door, I flicked on the light and dug in the box for my special hammer before striding upstairs. I needed to move quickly, just in case Fin was driving by and saw the light, and I didn’t really know what I needed to do to help this little ghost girl.

Intent is everything,Miss Elva had told me, and I hung on to those words as I stepped inside the bedroom that I had seen the ghost girl in. Light spilled into the room from the hallway, illuminating the floor, and I immediately saw her cowering in the corner, her lip trembling.

Scared, I realized.She’s scared. I couldn’t blame her. Being left alone in an empty house had to be particularly sad for a child.

A glimmer of movement alerted me and I turned, surprise filling me as Clyde sauntered down the hallway. The ghost coo approached slowly, coming to a stop by my side.

“Hey, Clyde,” I said, reaching out to scratch his ears as I watched the ghost girl. Her eyes widened at the sight of Clyde.

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