“How much for what?” the farmer asked.
“How much for you to round up your flock and make your sheep cross back there?” Poshpants gestured with his thumb. “I have somewhere to be, and your animals are clogging up the road.”
The farmer bristled. “My sheep will bloody well cross where they want to cross!” He clearly did not like Poshpants’s attitude or the assumption he could be bought.
He marched down the hillside in his wellies, whistling sharply, and a brand-new wave of sheep cascaded down the embankment. The farmer deliberately led his flock close to the precious Bentley, and I almost doubled over laughing as the sheep kicked up dirt all over that brand-new car.
I pulled out my phone to message Lena.Got a little held up on my way to Glenby. Waiting on some sheep to finish crossing the road. But I’m going as quickly as I can.
Just drive safely. There’ll be plenty of time for pictures when you get back,Lena responded.
I appreciated her saying that, but I knew missing the ceremony would leave her and Weston gutted. I was gonna make it. One way or another.
Splat!
I glanced up just as Poshpants cried out. One of the sheep had managed to ricochet mud off the car and onto him. He stared down at his suit, arms out wide, gaping.
“And that’s what we call karma in real time,” I said as the farmer led his flock up the other embankment. Poshpants was huffing and puffing like an enraged beast. “Too bad they missed your face. That’s the part that really needs to be covered up.”
He glanced from me to his SUV as the last of the sheep cleared the road. The formerly pristine vehicle now looked like it had been dragged through a manure pile.
“Guess you don’t have to worry anymore about it getting muddy,” I said, smug. “So why don’t you go ahead and pull over so we can both be on our way?”
I turned before he could argue with me again, getting back behind the wheel. I honked twice, giggling to myself as Poshpants slammed the door of his SUV behind him.
He started the car and pulled into the ditch, leaving just enough room for Lottie to squeeze by.
I waved out the window as I passed, giving him my best shit-eating grin as I enjoyed the rage on his face. God, I’d never loved sheep more.
2
LOCKE
If I ever saw another sheep again, it would be too bloody soon.
And that woman—gah!If I ever saw her again, I’d drive myself off the nearest cliff. Now I was running behind schedule, and there wasnothingI hated more than being late. Not even women who blocked roads like it was their day job.
“Christ!” I swore, slamming on the brakes as a crowd of people surged across Braeburn’s high street, unloading platters from a catering van. I took a deep, settling breath, glancing up and down the road for a place to park as I waited for them to clear out. Town was rammed, unsurprisingly. After the summer festival, Lena and Weston’s vow renewal had to be the biggest event of the year for Braeburn.
As far as I knew, the whole town had been invited to attend. Massive white tents had been erected in the nearby green where the kilted dash was usually hosted during the summer festival. Each one was strung with strands of lights and enough flowers to cover the whole of Scotland.
I shook my head, lips twitching as I drove past. I’d known Weston since we were all of eight, attending Highland Camp for the first time, and before last year, I’d have thought he’d be the last man in the world to go in for grand ideas of romance. Marrying Lena had changed everything for him. It might have started out as a marriage of convenience, to fulfill the terms of a will, but it had blossomed into the realest, truest love I’d ever seen. It was most definitely worth celebrating, so since their initial wedding had been a rushed, courthouse affair, they’d gone all-out for this vow renewal on their first anniversary.
I didn’t know which of them was more excited, but if I had to hear about Weston’s six-foot-tall tier of millionaire’s shortbread biscuits one more time, I was going to toss him into the sea. Alistair, our other lifelong friend from camp, would surely help.
I turned down a side street and spotted a space big enough to fit my Bentley, racing for it before another impossible woman with a flock of sheep could steal it from me. I parked, then hurried down the street to the green. There’d been no time to swing by Weston’s estate to change—another reason to hate that woman and her Toyota. So me and my filthy trousers would just have to make do.
I reached the green, heading through the main tent, walking between rows of empty chairs to where Weston was standing with Alistair, both of them clad in sleek black suits. “All right?” I called. I took the engraved vows from my jacket pocket that Weston had asked me to grab from the jeweler on my way here and handed them over. At least I was in time forthat. Otherwise, I never would have forgiven myself. “Special delivery.”
“What the hell happened to you?” Alistair said, gaping at me.
I bristled, running a hand down my front as I silently cursed that woman again.
“You look like shite,” Weston agreed, tucking the vows into his own jacket pocket. He inhaled deeply. “You smell like it too.”
“Sheep,” I ground out between my teeth.
Alistair burst out laughing. “Why is it always sheep with you? Is this the return of?—”
