I don’t remember agreeing to them to begin with, but I’m flattered she thinks it’s a foregone conclusion.
“It grew dark quickly.” She slaps Gavin’s wrist, squeezing lightly. “You two better get home sharpish.”
“Cheers,” he says, taking my bag of candy bars.
I go for the bag full of chips, produce, and sandwich supplies. When we reach the door, Gavin picks up a bottle of obscenely orange soda and returns to the till to purchase it. He slides it into my bag and grins. “Just a little more Scottish education.”
Oh boy. I can’t wait.
CHAPTER FIVE
CALLIE
The storm hit hard.Snow is piled up so high already the entire earth is covered in a blanket of white and I can barely see beyond the kitchen window. I pace a tread in the rug as Gavin builds up the fire. No matter how many times I try to contact Luna, she won’t pick up the phone.
Peeling back the edges of plastic from my Curly Wurly bar, I bite into the chocolate-covered caramel. “Do you think they left earlier?”
“Hard to know,” Gavin says patiently, crouching near the hearth. He pokes a log with an iron tool to move it into position.
“Maybe they reached Mr. Darcy’s property and decided to get a hotel somewhere. They have hotels there, right?”
He swings a confused look in my direction.
“You said they were probably halfway through Derbyshire,” I explain. Though,honestly.I shouldn’t have to.
Gavin’s brow clears. “Aye. Derbyshire will have hotels, sure enough.”
I go for another bite, but the candy bar is gone somehow. Instead, I groan.
Gavin rises from his crouch and takes the wrapper from my hand, balling it in his fist. “Fancy some proper food?”
“I can’t eat anything,” I tell him, the stress pushing through my tone and making me sound far more appalled than I feel. “Not until I know they’re safe and warm.”
Gavin glances down at the wrapper in his hand, and I feel personally attacked. “I’ll get something sorted in case you change your mind.”
I say nothing as he slips into the kitchen. We listened to the news on the way back to his house, and the weather woman mentioned this storm is likely to be a doozy. It’s much larger than they had initially anticipated, and the entirety of the Highlands should be prepared for an onslaught of snow.
White Christmas: yay. More alone time with Gavin: boo. The man appears perfect—tall, blue eyes, teasy grin, sexy accent. All he needs is a kilt and a little Gaelic and he’d be the complete package.
And hecooks. Kind of. Those bacon sandwiches? Absolute heaven. He does and says exactly all the right things—except for when he told meto my facehe’s too selective to kiss me. So yeah, not an ideal person to be stuck with in a house for another day.
But I can’t bear the idea of my sister and her family traveling through dangerous conditions just because I’m throwing a fit about being here alone with the hot Scot.
Which is why I need to speak to her.
A metaphorical light bulb dings above my head, and I pull out my phone to find Rhys’s number.
It rings twice before he answers it. “Hey, Cal.”
“Oh, bless you for answering! Have you been listening to the weather people? There’s a massive storm coming.”
Rhys sucks in a breath through his teeth. “Yes. About that?—”
“We turned around,” Luna says. She must have taken the phone from her husband. “It got a little dicey on the roads, soHamish called his grandparents and got the details on the storm. I think we need to make sure the roads are open before we set out, Callie.”
Disquiet freezes all my limbs. “What do you mean?”
“Some of those roads become impassable when the snow gets bad. I don’t want to drive all the way up there just to get stuck in Inverness for a week.”
