Page 1 of Scotch on the Rocks

THEN

Callum

Falling in love with Juniper Ross felt like stepping into oncoming traffic.

Late July, running down the blistering platform of Edinburgh’s Waverley train station. The air held the scent of smoke and boiling sewage that only came from dirty city streets. Heat rippled off the tarmac in hellish waves – and there she’d been. Through the train carriage window, she appeared like a mirage in the desert.

Warning bells should have sounded the moment I discarded the first-class ticket disintegrating in my sweat-slicked hand and threw myself through the sliding carriage doors just in time to retain all my limbs. Her carriage.Who needs extra leg room anyway? Not me.

Red flags should have waved when I got my first look at her up close and thought –Too young –then took the seat opposite her anyway. Sweat dripped from me, like the condensation on her iced latte, and she glanced up from her paperback just long enough to watch a bead trail the length of my neck.

Blistering. That’s the word that would forever come to mind when I thought of her.

She reminded me of Snow White’s sarcastic twin. Pale skin and a permanent blush to her cheeks. Black clothes, black boots and a delicate little septum piercing. Her hair had been long back then, midnight black and curling at the base of her spine. A wicked smile on her lips like she knew the punchline to a joke I hadn’t even heard yet.

Or maybe I had.

Warning bells were ringing after all, and I ignored every one of them, throwing myself into the seat opposite hers. Not a guy who played his hand too soon, I granted her a full five minutes to feign interest in the paperback in her hands, then asked, “Do you live in Glasgow or Edinburgh?”

She barely glanced up from the page. “As if I’d hand over that information to some creep on a train.”

Her voice was low, her accent smooth and melodic in a way that scratched a part of my brain perfectly. Even if she lived here, she wasn’t a Lowlander.

“Usually, I would advise a woman against it, but this situation is entirely different.”

She flipped a page. “And why’s that?”

I bent closer, getting high on her perfume, and whispered, “Because I’m trustworthy.”

She laughed and I felt like I’d won a medal. “A trustworthy creep? You’re the fourth I’ve met this morning.”

I’d never been so fucking thoroughly charmed by a person. I was only headed to Glasgow because my wee brother, Alistair, wanted me to meet his new girlfriend. It made me the worst sibling in the world, yet I was ready to drop all my plans for the next three days and beg her to fill every second of my time. Then, the train had pulled into Glasgow and she landed the first gut punch.

She had a boyfriend.Of course she had a boyfriend.

Shit, but it didn’t seem fair for a girl like that to be in a serious relationship.

Hours later, standing in my little brother’s too clean kitchen, the second punch landed.

My stomach was in my arse as I stared down at this weirdly wonderful woman for the second time that day. Her slim hand in mine as we shook in greeting.

Wee Juniper Ross.

I couldn’t believe the cruel odds of meeting her there. Two escapees from our tiny Isle of Skye village. My baby sister’s best friend. I hadn’t made the connection on the train, too caught up in the vision of those mile-long legs wrapped around my waist. Alistair’s new girlfriend. And I’d encountered her for the first time on the eight-forty-five train from Edinburgh to Glasgow. Seven months and twelve days too late to make her mine.

Falling in love with Juniper Ross felt like stepping into oncoming traffic.

I sensed my feet leave the kerb. Saw the flash of headlights. Heard the screech of tyres. Sensed that split second when I could have pulled back and saved myself. But then she laughed. Laughed like her entire body was set to take flight and it set fire to a place inside me that had frozen over the day my bullish father shipped his sixteen-year-old kid off to the army.

Juniper laughed and I opened my arms, welcoming the collision.

From that moment on, I locked my feelings deep inside my chest. I flirted and taunted and threatened to steal her away from my brother in the night. I ruffled her hair and flicked her nose like a big brother would.

But mostly … I avoided her, because every time I saw Juniper Ross, she owned me a little bit more.

Three Years Later, Glasgow

Juniper

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