Page 36 of Scotch on the Rocks

I blinked. Not sure I understood. “I live here.”

“And you barely even venture into the village,” he said, straightening and coming closer. “I heard the way you floundered with that guest the other night. Let me showyou Skye, if you onlywork here,you should at least know what you’re talking about.”

“No—”Wait. “That’s it?”

“That’s it.” He shrugged. “It seems like a harmless trade.”

It was harmless. It made no sense. “Why?”

“Christ, Juniper.” He dropped his face into his palm. “I’m not a storybook villain twirling my moustache and plotting ways to ruin you. I do actually have my own stuff going on. I’ve been busy over the summer and everything with my dad—” He broke off, running a hand down his face. “Mum has been nagging me about dating.” He looked embarrassed yet I couldn’t find it within myself to take it easy on him.

“That’s the saddest thing I’ve ever heard, Macabe.” His eyes narrowed and he flipped his middle finger. Feeling like I’d scored a point in this little game, I pretended to study him. “You’re not hideous to look at, once you look past the tech-bro, skintight T-shirt thing you have going on. Have you considered actually dating?”

I expected him to laugh and flip me off again or mess up my hair. Instead, he glanced away, jaw pulsing. “I’ll date whenIwant to. Not because my mother tells me to.”

“So, you won’t date but you’ll do … whatever the hell you’re proposing with me.”

“I just need her to think I’m taking time for myself, so she has one less thing to worry about. And hell, maybe she’s right. I love this island, somewhere over the past year … I’ve forgotten that. I could use the distraction, that’s it. I’m not going to tie your laces together and push you in the harbour.”

How quickly he humbled me. Perhaps being an only child who’d spent her formative years in and out of foster care was the root cause, because I’d never quite grown out of the habit of making every situation about myself.

“Fine. But we need to set a limit, I can’t just disappear with you every weekend.”

He snorted. “I’m bowled over by your enthusiasm. Six dates.”

“Two. Don’t push it. These will be excursions, not dates. You could go with anyone; it doesn’t need to be me.”

He crept close enough to smell him. Pine mixed with the kind of sweat that came from a day of hard work. “Perhaps it’s because you’re the only woman in Kinleith, other than my sister and April, that doesn’t show a blind bit of interest in me.”

“Do you hear yourself?”

“Being humble won’t make it any less true. I can’t even have a drink with a woman without tongues wagging. And we got on … once.”

“Once being the operative word.”

“Five dates.”

“You’re bloody relentless.”

“Pretty much.” His shrug was accompanied by a boyish smile.

“Three.”

He scoffed. “Don’t waste my time, harpy.”

“Fuck. Four.” For Fiona I would do this.

“Four it is,” he said. “And I get to choose the activity.”

“Fine.” What the hell was I agreeing to? I wouldn’t put it past him to enjoy cliff jumping.

“Perfect.”

My chin rose, prepared to see this battle of wills through to the bitter end. “Great.”

“Sublime.” Before I could blink his fingers stole out and snatched the notebook. Tucking it away in his pocket. “I’ll look over your sketches too.”

I scrambled for a way to get it back when his phone rang.I knew this because he had his phone on loud with an actualringtone.The blaring alarm ringtone that should have been outlawed in the Stone Age.

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