Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 109783 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 549(@200wpm)___ 439(@250wpm)___ 366(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109783 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 549(@200wpm)___ 439(@250wpm)___ 366(@300wpm)
Two
FYFE
Two years ago
Idrove down Castle Street, the main street through Ardnoch, an avenue of identical nineteenth-century terraced houses with dormer windows. Most of the homes had been converted into boutiques, cafés, and inns. In among them was Morag’s, a small grocery store and deli, Flora’s, the most popular café in the village, and Callie’s Wee Cakery, Callie’s mum’s bakery.
The cobbled streets and old-fashioned lampposts, the creeping ivy and hanging flower baskets in bright bloom for the summer, made the village picture-perfect. Once upon a time, I’d never imagined returning here, no matter how quaint and idyllic it was.
Yet, two years ago, I found my way back. Maybe fate had a hand.
Or maybe Deirdra.
When my old neighbor passed away, I’d gone home to Ardnoch for her funeral. I was pissed off at myself for not being better at staying in touch when she’d done so much for me. While I was drowning my sorrows in the Gloaming (a hotel, pub, and restaurant owned by Lewis’s uncles), my best mate’s dad, Thane, approached me, along with his brother Lachlan. Lachlan Adair owned and ran Ardnoch Castle and Estate, a private members-only club that catered to film and TV industry people.
Somehow, our conversation turned into a job proposition, and I found myself bringing my cybersecurity company home to Ardnoch. My team all worked from home, so it was easy enough for me to make the move. We now protected all of Lachlan’s (and the rest of the Adairs’) businesses from digital threats, as well as some of the club members, so being able to use the estate as a base to meet those clients made the most sense. Since I was proficient in all types of security, I also advised on the security system for the estate. Lachlan used a drone perimeter, but I’d boosted its digital defenses so it was nigh impossible to hack.
I’d gone from wondering how I’d feed myself as a teen to having more money than I knew what to do with. At uni, I’d created an online game in my spare time that grew so popular, I sold it for millions to a large gaming company. They also offered me a job. Fans of the game wanted more from me, but creating games was just something I was good at. Not something I particularly enjoyed.
When one of my favorite uni professors realized what a great fucking hacker I was, he decided to employ my talents for good. After I’d freelanced for him, he recruited me to join his cybersecurity company. After graduation, I decided to set up my own company because I liked being my own boss. Money. I had it now. Financial independence. Pride, I had that too. In my achievements and in my company. My job meant protecting people from digital threats, people I chose to work for. I refused to work for individuals or companies whose morals didn’t align with mine. I could feel good about that.
I’d been home for two years, had bought a fancy architect-designed house, and traveled any chance I got. Once I was a forgotten kid from the Highlands and now I was a man who had seen a bit of the world, only to discover, he craved home after all.
But Ardnoch wasn’t the same without Lewis and Callie.
Not once in those first years in Edinburgh did I contemplate returning to my hometown. Yet as the years passed, the bitter memories faded and were overtaken by the good ones. While I’d met friends at uni, none of them had Lewis and Callie’s staying power. Those others were surface friends who you had a good time with. It made me realize Lewis and Callie were my home.
Yet they were broken apart. Callie was off in Paris at a pastry school and Lewis was in London.
Until now.
Driving straight through the village, I continued until I hit the small development of architect homes on the McCulloch farm. Locals Jared and Allegra McCulloch had developed the small neighborhood on their land and sold off the lots for a small fortune. My house had plenty of land around it and floor-to-ceiling windows that captured the views of rolling hills and surrounding woodlands.
I’d barely been in the house five minutes when I heard Lewis’s Harley growl to a stop on my driveway.
After seven years apart, Lewis and Callie had reconnected in London with a drunken one-night stand. It was the push Lewis needed to get his finger out of his arse and go after the woman he loved. While I might not understand his obsession with only one woman, I believed my best mate was incapable of loving any but her. So I was rooting for them. Lewis had graduated and was now a fully fledged architect, and he’d accepted a job at his father’s firm in Inverness so he could come back to Ardnoch to pursue Callie.