Page 21 of Scotch on the Rocks

“I do. But June probably won’t appreciate a health code violation at her inn.”

“Right.” He nodded. “We’ll stick around and clean up.”

“Have you found another plumber?” April asked, wringing water from her mop before repeating the motion.

“No. Everyone on the island is booked right through autumn. That’s the only reason I hired Murray at all. I might be forced to call an emergency plumber from the mainland.”

They both winced.

It would cost me a small fortune in travel expenses alone. But I didn’t see what other option I had.

“I never should have started this.” I said. Hating to admit what an absolute fuck I was, even to my friends, but today had sucked away all remaining pride.

“Of course you should,” April shot back. “You’ve put everything into this place since your dad passed, you deserve to see it thrive.”

I wasn’t sure that was true. How on earth could I be capable when I hadn’t even lasted a week without Fiona? The past six years I’d thoughtsheneeded me, but what if the opposite was true? And I was clinging on too tightly to people who would be better off without me? “There’s no way I can get the repairs done before she gets home.”

“So what if you can’t? She’s your mum. She’ll be pissed off, but she won’t stop loving you.” I scrubbed at the floor, refusing to point out that April herself knew that statement wasn’t always true. “We can help,” she offered.

“And the rest?”

April quieted, biting her lip. It was Mal who surprised me by saying, “You could ask my brother.”

He sensed my astonishment because his features slackened under the eerie silence before I stupidly blurted, “Which brother?”

Unless Alistair had taken on a new vocation since we’d last spoken – very unlikely – he didn’t mean him. And the other? No way. Perhaps he had another brother I wasn’t aware of.

“Callum—”

Even his name irritated me. “No.”

At my brisk shut-down his eyes flicked to April who supplied, “That’s in direct violation of Juniper’s rules.”

Rules I’d violated only this morning.

All attempts at silencing her with my death stare failed because she was already ticking off her fingers, “Don’t think about the Macabe men. Don’t talk to the Macabe men. Don’t look at the Macabe men.”

“You don’t qualify,” I cut in pointedly.

“I’m not sure if that’s a compliment or not.”

“Oh, it’s definitely a compliment.” April tucked herself into his side and his arms automatically curled around her. “A high one coming from Juney.”

“Don’t call meJuney.”

“But it suits you perfectly. Like a fluffy little kitten.”

Sweet hell.Refusing to dignify that statement with a response, I rounded on Mal. “He plumbs?”Of course he does. He saved furry little animals for a living and helpedout around the village. Didn’t anyone else see what a smug bastard he was? “Of course ‘Community Ken’ plumbs.”

From the corner of my eye I caught Mal mouth to April, “Community Ken?”

“He reminds her of a Ken doll.” I threw another glare that she ignored. “He fitted a new toilet and sink into the tasting room for us last month, he did a fantastic job.”

How did I not know that about him?

I don’t know whythatwas the detail my mind kept circling back to.

Callum was the epitome of every arsehole guy I’d gone to university with. Charming, athletic and all too capable on the surface. The kind of guy who wanted to bed the alt girl just to see what she was like in the sack and then brag about it to his friends.

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