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“Don’t need to, the answer’s no.” He straightened like we were done.
We weren’t done, not by a mile.“Answer to what? I didn’t even ask a question.”
He gave me his best glower.“You want to open that room up and parade tourists through my home, just like you want to post us all over your silly wee websites. I won’t let you make a mockery of us.”
I was stunned silent. All I could get out was a breathy,“Make a mockery of you?”Silly wee websites?What year was he living in?
“You think I don’t know what you do for your day job.” The way he air quoted the word job made me want to snap his damn fingers off.“We’re not selling false eyelashes, or throwing booze-filled orgies—this is a serious business.”
I laughed but the sound was angry and twisted. It was all I could do, I needed something to alleviate the pressure in my head or I’d explode and take the entire island out.“You’re kidding me, right? Kier built that tasting room himself, he held events all the time when I was a girl.”
He slammed the tumbler down on the table and the entire thing shook.“Yeah, until he realised they made barely any profit.”
“It’s vital we get the brand name out there, we won’t succeed without that.”
“Wehave a loyal customer base right on our doorstep. People here know Kier… knew Kier,” he corrected himself quickly.“They respected him.”
I swallowed hard, hating the words I was about to say.“A loyal customer base who are buying less and less of your product every month because tourists only want to drink name-brand liquor they’ve actually heard of.”
His mouth flattened and his stance widened. If I’d expected him to shout, I was wrong. Instead, he looked me dead in the eye and clipped,“I’m doing the best I can.”
“I know that.” I pressed my hands to my chest.“Let mehelp you, that’s all I’m trying to do.”
“We are not some little hobby for you to amuse yourself with for a few weeks before you find something better to move onto,” he said.“I don’t needyourbrand of help.”
Men often had that way of dismissing me, like I was too stupid, too vapid to bring anything of worth to the table. Reducing me to nothing more than a pretty arm piece. Having Malcolm pull the same tired shit left me seething. I pushed it down and raised my chin, holding my nerve.“I disagree.”
“What makes you such an expert all of a sudden? I thought you were an actress? I don’t need you to come in here and tell me how to run mybusiness.”
This is going nowhere. If we continued, all we’d do was talk in circles and insult one another. Choosing to be the adult here, I stared him down and said as plainly as I could,“I wanted to talk to you as acourtesy, to keep you involved. Don’t forget that I don’t need your permission.”
He almost smiled and it was the most cutting expression I’d seen from him yet.“Does it give you a little thrill every time you get to remind me of that?” His eyes were storm clouds, boring straight into mine. It was as unnerving as it was electrifying, probably because it didn’t happen often. When he looked at you, helooked.I felt like he could see right beneath my skin, to every insecurity I tried so hard to hide from the world.
I didn’t reply, incapable of forming one. I was so angry I wanted to smash things. So before I let myself go for his damn Lego puzzle, I snatched the bottle of whisky from the table—he could swivel if he thought I’d leave it for him to drink—and marched right out the door, almost crashing into a man on the threshold.
I hurried past, barely registering Callum’s amused chuckle. Perhaps he was laughing at the irony too, because the corner I’d stupidly thought Malcolm and I had turned ended up being a cliff edge.
12
MAL
Mardy Bum – Arctic Monkeys
“Well… that went well.” Callum smirked from his slackened spot on my threshold, attention on April traversing the path back up to the manor with furious, jerking strides. His chin began to dip down her body, expression fading from humoured to something closer to admiring.
I gave him a hard shove.“Shut up. What are you doing here?”
We both watched her disappear through the gap in the hedge growth, and it was only then that he ducked inside, shaking his head.“Oh, I don’t think so… you are not asking the questions here.” Set on ignoring him, I began clearing away the half-empty whisky glasses.“Silence, is it? You have nothing to say to me?” His tone bordered on accusing.
“What the hell are you on about?” When Callum was in a mood like this, it was better to let him get it out of his system. I emptied my glass down the drain even though it was a shame to waste perfectly good whisky, but I was in no mood to drink it now. When I had April’s in my hand, I noted the small outline of her lips on the rim and pressed my thumb to it. A perfect replica. For a moment back there, I thought she might have let me kiss her. Would they have been hot and pillow-soft? Or sweetly painful, like the sting of a viper?
“I just interrupted an argument between you and April Sinclair. She’s obviously staying at the manor.” Callum ticked off his fingers.“How is this the first I’m hearing about it?”
Murphy.“Why would I tell you?” I let the still full glass thud to the counter.
His finger pointed at my chest.“Traitor.”
“Even I know the entire village is gossiping about her return, Mr Pillar of the Community.”
