Page 21 of Summer Escapes on the Scottish Isle

No, it really doesn’t, she thought. ‘I’ll ring you when I get there, to let you know I’ve arrived safely.’

Hadrian yawned and stretched, the sheet slipping lower, exposing his toned stomach. Freya looked away.

He said, ‘Message me instead. I’ve got a meeting this afternoon.’

‘Who with?’

‘No one you’d know.’ This was Hadrian-speak for:you might know them, but I don’t want to talk about it.

She said, ‘It won’t be this afternoon. It’s a twelve-hour drive, and that’s without stops and if the traffic is good. It’ll be the evening before I get there.’

‘Message me anyway. I’m going out to dinner.’

That didn’t surprise her. Hadrian never ate in. If it wasn’t for his spangly coffee machine, she didn’t think he’d know where his kitchen was.

‘Surely you can take a quick phone call?’

‘Best if I don’t.’ He yawned again, and she wasn’t sure whether he was genuinely tired or just bored with the conversation.

Fully dressed now, she said, ‘I’ll be away, then.’

He sat up, laughing. ‘You sound so Scottish.’

‘That’s because I am.’

‘More than usual,’ he clarified. ‘You know I adore your accent. I adoreyou.’

‘Do you?’

‘Do you have to ask?’

Actually, she did. Never once had he told her that he loved her. It was alwaysyou’re gorgeous, orI adore you. Then again, she’d never said those three little words to him, either. Wasn’t being in love supposed to be an all-encompassing thing? If so, she felt very far from all-encompassed. She liked Hadrian a lot. They were good together and she had fun when she was with him, but she wasn’t entirely certain that what she felt for him was love. And if she wasn’t certain, then it probably wasn’t, was it? It didn’t bode well for their relationship that she would miss her pottery wheel more than she would miss him. If she had to make a decision about which one to take with her if she went to New York, it wouldn’t be Hadrian.

Perhaps this enforced break would do them both good. Anyway, she realised that if she did accept Jocasta Black’s offer and moved to the States, their relationship wouldn’t survive.

The thought saddened her, but she wasn’t heartbroken or even heartsore. And that spoke volumes.

Chapter 8

‘Are you sure you don’t mind giving me a hand?’ Mack was standing in Cal’s tiny hallway, waiting for him to slip his feet into a pair of trainers.

Tara, his fiancée, leant against the door frame, watching.

‘Mate, I’ll always be in your debt,’ Cal said.

Tara piped up, ‘Me, too.’

‘It was nothing—’ Mack began, but Tara put her arms around him.

‘I could have drowned out there,’ she reminded him, glancing at the loch through the window, its water glistening in the early evening sun. ‘I almost did.’

‘The coastguard would have rescued you,’ Mack said.

‘You don’t know that. Anyway, you risked your own life to save me, and I can’t thank you enough.’

‘What about me?’ Cal broke in. ‘Don’t I get a mention?’

Mack chuckled at their easy banter. Those two were made for each other, but it had taken Tara ‘borrowing’ Cal’s little boat and getting caught in a storm for the pair of them to realise it. Cal had enlisted Mack’s help, and Mack had taken theSea Serpentout to find her. Thankfully, she’d been unharmed, and Cal had sung Mack’s praises ever since.

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