Page 46 of Under A Sicilian Sky
‘Is your room as cute as mine?’ Shelby asked giddily. ‘Mine is decorated in pale blue and white and there’s a gorgeous painting of a building called the Lifeboat House Museum by some guy called Reid Mac… something. I wonder if that’s here in Glentorrin. If it is, I’ll definitely need to go visit. I adore museums.’ Shelby’s level of excitement was almost at fever pitch and Ruby giggled.
‘My room is lovely too. Come in and have a look.’ She stepped aside to let Shelby in.
‘Oh, you have fresh flowers too. I have fresh flowers. He’s so thoughtful. And a little bit dreamy too, don’t you think? His accent…’ She rolled her eyes and clutched her shirt over her heart. ‘Just… wow!’
Ruby shrugged. ‘If you like that kind of accent.’
Shelby gasped. ‘Oh, I do. Isodo. I suppose with you being British, you’re used to hearing Scottish, huh? For me, it turns my knees to jell-o.’ She shivered. ‘Anyways, come see my room.’
Ruby found her hand being grasped and her body being tugged along.
‘Tadaaaa!’ Shelby’s room was smaller but still very pretty and once again Ruby was impressed with the tasteful décor.
‘I think we’ll be comfortable here, Shelby. But let’s hope it’s not for long, eh?’
Shelby frowned, but then widened her eyes. ‘Oh yeah, for sure. Not long. In fact, I spoke to Valerie earlier. They have a new team on the case. Apparently, the hacker used a super-strong firewall and a foreign IP address. It’s taking more time than she hoped to get to the bottom of it.’
Feeling a little deflated at the news, Ruby sighed. ‘Well, I think I’ll go down and see if Mitch has made that tea.’
19
Mitch was leaning against the work surface in the kitchen when Ruby arrived. It was a bright room with white, shaker-style units and butcher’s block countertops; again, very traditional but with a fresh modern twist, and very homely.
He gestured to the teapot. ‘Can I get you a cup?’
‘That’d be great, thanks. I suppose the one thing about being holed up in a Scotsman’s house is decent tea.’
He laughed as he handed her a mug. ‘Aye, and you’ll be even happier that it’s from Yorkshire.’ He pursed his lips. ‘I’ve often wondered how they grow tea in Yorkshire. But then again, there are vineyards in England so…’ He shrugged.
Ruby took a seat at the large, farmhouse-style table. ‘You have such a lovely home. I don’t know why, but I half expected your mum and dad to be living here,’ she told him as she sipped on the nectar-like drink.
He smiled. ‘Nah, this is all me. They used to live here, but they’re getting on a bit so it’s better for them to be in a more built-up area, so they stay up the road in Portree. One-storey house, more shops, doctors, you know? Stuff they need, especially in the bad winters we have up here.’
‘Did you and your wife live here in Glentorrin?’
He shook his head. ‘No. Gen is a city girl through and through. We had a place in Edinburgh. An apartment. She hated being so isolated, so this place would’ve been no good for her, but it’s home to me. My folks lived here until a year ago and I’ve just freshened the place up to my taste, you know? Hey, I’ll be going up to visit them in the next couple of days. If you can escape, you could come with me. Portree is really nice. It’s kind of the island’s capital.’
She was taken off guard by his invitation. ‘That sounds lovely. I’ll just need to wait and see what Valerie says about me being out in public.’ She sighed and lowered her head.
He sat opposite her. ‘You must be tired of all this. But then again, I’m guessing it’s not that different when you’renota social pariah.’ As soon as the words left his mouth, he slapped a hand over it and widened his eyes. ‘Shit, that sounded really bloody awful out loud. I’m sorry, I didn’t—’
She held up a hand. ‘It’s fine. It’s what I am at the moment.’ She shrugged. ‘Although I think I prefer the termfalling star. It’s less harsh and a bit more romantic, I suppose.’
‘Do you want the Wi-Fi code? I can imagine you still need to keep abreast of the goings-on in movie land.’
She shivered involuntarily. ‘Thanks, it will be handy for video-calling Kitty and my parents, but I won’t be checking social media. I deactivated my accounts when people started saying I should jump off a cliff.’
‘Shit! Really? My god, don’t people realise that saying things like that can send people into a downward spiral. I’ve heard people actually take their own lives because of online bullying.’ He shook his head in disbelief.
She nodded. ‘I know. It’s quite scary how intimidating a place the internet can be sometimes.’ Deciding on a change of subject, she asked, ‘So what made you get into property?’
He raised his eyebrows. ‘Well, therein lies a tale.’ He huffed the air from his lungs and his brow crumpled.
She cringed, worrying she had overstepped the mark again with her questions. ‘I’m sorry, I wasn’t intending to be anosey bintagain.’ She felt the warmth of embarrassment rise in her cheeks.
He laughed and shook his head. ‘Nah, you’re fine. I… erm… was supposed to be an Olympic swimmer. Trained pretty much all of my childhood and teen years for it. Swimming was my life but… I had a nasty accident and ripped my shoulder quite bad.’
She winced at the thought of his injury. ‘Ouch! How did you do that?’
