“That’s cool. You like it?”
“Yeah. I mean, I—”
“Katie?”
I startle as Adam appears around the side of the building, shining a torch in our direction.
“I was about to send out a search party,” he says.
“Sorry. I lost the keys. We think they’re down the well.”
“You lost the— we?” Adam stops before us, and Callum winces as he swings the light right at him.
“If I wake up with all my sight tomorrow morning, it’ll be a miracle,” he mutters.
“Callum works for Glenmill,” I explain. “He’s going to see about stopping the traffic, so I can get some sleep and not want to yell at everyone all the time.”
“How nice of him.” The words are as flat as Adam’s expression because, apparently, being polite is just not something we do anymore.
“Adam owns the pub,” I tell Callum. “Speaking of which, who’s looking after it?”
“Gemma,” Adam says. “Who I don’t trust, so we better get back.” He says the last bit looking right at Callum, a dismissal that’s impossible to ignore lacing his words.
But if Callum’s surprised by his rudeness, he doesn’t show it, just grabs the box and hands it to me. “Better get going myself.”
“Thanks for your help,” I say. “And for looking into the noise.”
“I aim to please,” he says. “Or at least to reroute. Can you…” He glances around, looking lost. “I parked by some recycling bins?”
A very basicnoechoes through me at the thought of him leaving, making me want to welcome him inside and pour him a drink. But Adam is still radiating displeasure beside me, and it doesn’t take a genius to know he wouldn’t approve.
“That way,” I say, gesturing up to the main road. “Near the east entrance to the forest. Take a left.”
“Thanks.” His eyes flick to Adam and, with a final nod of farewell, he disappears back around the pub. Adam waits for his footsteps to fade before taking the box in one hand and passing me the torch with the other, his face stony. But I’ve known the man too long to put up with it.
“What crawled up your hole?”
“What?”
I wave a hand in the direction Callum went. “You were rude to him. We’re still open. You should have invited him in for a drink.”
“Legally, we’re not open at all and you really want to bring him inside when Nush is ready to scratch the eyes out of anyone associated with that hotel?”
“That is such an exaggeration.” I hope. And it still doesn’t excuse his sudden change in mood. Adam isn’t the friendliest of people when you first meet him, but he’s usually a little more civil than that.
“Seriously,” I press. “What’s up?”
“It’s nothing,” he says, nudging me back toward the pub. “Just help me get the place lit up and then go home to Maeve. You need to get some sleep. And to stop talking to strangers. And what do you mean, the keys are down the well?”
I wince as his tone sharpens at the last bit and follow him back inside, trying to explain.
CHAPTER FOUR
Callum keeps his word.
Within three days, all heavy traffic by my house stops. No more beeping, no more thundering, no more rumbling engines or yelling voices. It just stops. And I know it because one morning I wake up and it isn’t even morning. It’s sometime after twelve and I slept the deepest sleep I’ve had in months. By the end of the next week, I’m practically back to normal. Better than normal. Because I’ve never felt so alive. So energized. It’s like a whole new, eight-hours’-rest-a-night world and I take full advantage of it, putting a bunch of tasks and chores into motion that I immediately regret a few hours later when I have to see them through.
“Do you want the bad news?”
