Chapter 15 Miles
MILES
“Aseal.” My shoulders sag, and while I’m disappointed, my heart refuses to sink.
We kissed. Skye kissed me. Her lips are incredible. It was like the whole world fell away. Nessie could’ve been staring right at us from the water, and I wouldn’t have cared. And that noise she made. I wanted to lay her down right there on the bed of fallen leaves, but then she pulled away.
I want to reach for her again, but I’ve made promises that I won’t date Skye. Although, I never said anything about kissing.
The little seal swims around the loch. Drops start to appear on the water, and I can feel a few on my face—small at first and then larger and faster until we are in a full-on downpour.
Skye squeals and runs under the tree, putting her sweater above her head.
I join her, my clothes absorbing the drops. Why hadn’t I brought a jacket?
“We should go. We’ll be soaked,” she yells over the lashing rain.
Her face looks so beautiful. A small water droplet runs down her cheek to her lips. I reach out and trace its path with my finger, then pull her toward me. She places her hands on my chest.
“Miles, we were just caught up in the moment.”
I inhale deeply, smelling the lavender scent of her hair. “I don’t want the moment to end.”
All my promises forgotten, I lean down. Stars explode in my veins as our lips meet. I’m lost in her touch until a flash brings me back to the bank of the loch, followed by a crack of thunder so loud, my chest rattles with the vibrations.
Skye’s eyes are wide. “Now we really have to go.”
She runs to the trail, wheeling her bike with her, and I follow. We make it back to the road completely soaked, rain pounding the asphalt.
“Let’s ride to the pub. It’s closer,” she yells over the downpour.
“I’ll follow you,” I call back, and it’s the truth. At this moment, I will follow her straight into the loch if that’s where she rides.
We ride to the Thistle House as the light begins to wane, silent the whole way.
She pulls her bike over and leans it against the side of the building around the corner from the front door.
I do the same. The rain drips off the awning, but we are relatively sheltered.
Before she opens the door to go inside, she turns to me.
Now that I know just how soft her skin is, I want to touch her all the time.
Could I reach for her hand? She points at the Thistle House.
“There will be no kissing in there, got it?”
I frown. It’s not like I was going to take her on one of the tables while we wait for dinner or anything. But now that the image is in my head, I lose my train of thought.
She waves a hand in front of my face. “Hello. You with me?”
I nod. “What about a little hand holding?” I don’t know why I’m pushing this. I shouldn’t be doing any PDA either. I just crave contact with her.
She shakes her head. “I’ve known these people forever. If we go in there all lovey-dovey, they will ask me about you for centuries after you’re long gone. They don’t know the meaning of the word fling. Well, to them it’s a dance. But casual dating is not in their vocabulary.”
“Is that what we’re doing? Is this a fling?” I don’t know why the word stings so much. Of course, we’ve only known each other for a couple of weeks. I live in another country. How could this be anything more than a casual affair? But her kiss didn’t feel casual. Her touch didn’t feel breezy.
Skye’s cheeks turn bright pink, and she covers her face with her hand. “Ah, I’m... Of course, you were just caught up. You thought you saw a sea monster. Forget I said anything.”
“No, no. I do want to kiss you again. A lot. All over.”
She takes her hand away, and a tiny smile tickles her perfect lips. “Oh. Good. But we can’t in there, okay?”
I nod. She’s about to open the door when I put a hand on her arm. “There’s something you should know.”
Her face falls into the puddle beneath her feet with an almost audible plop. “You have a girlfriend.” She takes a deep breath and talks so fast it’s hard to keep up. “I can’t believe it. I’m no cheater—”
I cut her off mid-tirade. “No, it’s not that.” I explain about the director’s concerns and my promise not to date her.
“Aye. I overheard a bit of that. This is perfect. In there,”—she points to the building again—“we are just friends. But when we’re alone, we can—”
I lean in and kiss her, running my hand through her hair. She pulls away, looking as dazed as I feel.
“Exactly,” she says.
“Okay,” I say.
I go to open the door, but this time she stops me. “One more thing. We are not going to fall in love with each other, right? No meant to be, no soulmate talk. It’s just two mature adults expressing their attraction to each other.”
Her blue eyes bore into me, and it’s like she can see my soul, which is not supposed to be getting involved in this. I take a deep breath, gearing up for one of my best performances. “I will not fall in love with you.”
I follow Skye inside. Thistle House is bustling.
Nearly every table is full, each with a small candle flickering on it.
Scottish folk music plays over the speakers, and the hardwood floors creak under my feet.
We find a spot in the corner, but not before just about every person says hello to Skye and asks about “her fella.”
She introduces me to each person with the assurance I’m not her fella, explaining about the movie. By the time we finally sit, I’m dizzy. Five people have auditioned for me, I’ve had three slaps on the back, one offer of a date, and half a beer spilled on my sleeve.
I let out a quick breath.
“See what I mean? Everybody is in everybody's business.”
I nod. “I’m starting to see that.”
Margie comes to our table with two pints of Guinness, not bothering to ask if it’s what we wanted. The candlelight doesn’t even penetrate the thick liquid as she sets them down and runs a hand over Skye’s wet hair. “Yer soaked. How’d you get here? Swim?”
“We rode bikes. It was a lovely afternoon when we left.”
Margie makes a farting sound and waves her arm. “Well, it’s a right downpour now.” She lowers her voice. “The room is available if you need it. You know where the key is.”
I raise my eyebrows. Room? Margie turns her attention to me. “Ahh, my bonnie American. How is Scotland treating you?”
I can’t contain my smile. “Better than I thought possible. It’s reignited my soul, sparked my passion, and exceeded all my expectations.”
Skye blushes an adorable pink, but it’s all true.
Margie laughs. “Oh my. That is grand.”
She takes our order—two fish dinners—and leaves, still shaking her head.
“Room?”
Skye’s blush deepens. She takes a long drink from her beer.
“Aye, Margie has a couple of rooms upstairs, like an inn. One of them, she never rents out on a case it’s haunted. But she says she keeps it open for me. When I was a teen, I needed a place to crash sometimes.”
I run through all the scenarios of Skye and me heading up to that room after this, me helping her pull her black shirt up and over her head.
“No,” Skye says abruptly.
My face must’ve given me away. “Why not?”
She’s shaking her head and about to speak when a petite woman with straight black hair and green eyes weaves between the crowd of people in line at the bar, past the women waving to her by the fire, and sneaks up behind Skye, putting a finger to her lips when she catches my eye.
She puts her hands over Skye’s eyes as Skye lets out a yelp. “Surprise.” The woman drops her hands and grabs a wooden chair from a nearby table. The older couple sitting at it waves to her as she does.
Skye has her hand clutched to her heart. “You devil.”
The woman reaches her hand toward me. “I’m Kate, Skye’s oldest and dearest friend.”
I take her hand and shake it. “I’m Miles.”
She smirks like she can read my mind. “Oh, I know who you are. Did Skye tell you we were obsessed with that football movie when we were kids?”
I smile, thrilled by this confession. “Undercover Quarterback? Really?”
Skye is pinker than shrimp and fiddling with her beer. “We weren’t kids, exactly. We were teens.”
“Ah, well, that makes me feel a little less old.”
Kate laughs and says, “We even had a dance.”
Skye looks like she is going to murder Kate and hits her arm. “Haud yer wheesht.”
This makes Kate laugh louder. Margie comes over with our food. “Stop being a bully. Let them eat.”
Kate stands. “Okay, okay. I’ll talk to you later.” She gives Skye a kiss on the cheek and goes back to sit in a tufted chair by the fire with a group of women who are knitting.
After a few heavenly bites of my fish, I say, “So, this dance…”
She rolls her eyes and finishes chewing her bite. “We were fourteen. Give me a break.”
“Fourteen…” I nod, doing some mental math. “I was nineteen when we shot the film, twenty when it came out.”
Skye looks at me in surprise. “Oh, that’s younger than I thought you were.”
“Did I look older?”
She shrugged. “All the muscles.”
I smile and hold up a bicep. Her eyes follow the line of my arm, the bulge when I flex. I smile and drop my arm. “About this room.”
She shakes her head. “How would we explain when we pedal home in the morning?”
She has a point. I can’t lose this job. “You’re right.”
After a massive dinner, the rain lightens up, and we head on our bikes back to the castle.
It’s dark, but the bikes have little lights on the handlebars that help.
There is a true break in the clouds, and the moon shines down, helping to light the way.
The sky is absolutely filled with stars.
I’ve been in remote locations before and seen my fair share of starry nights, but this is on another level.
It’s like Scotland has more stars than the rest of the world.
The ride is quiet. I’m hoping to sneak Skye into my room, or sneak into hers, but before we even wheel the bikes into the shed, Minnie runs up to us, her red hair tucked into a neat bun.
Minnie is one of the PAs. She’s young but amazing at her job.
This is the third film I’ve worked on with her.
Once she gets closer, I can see the urgency in her face.
“Miles,” she yells.
“Uh-oh,” Skye says as she opens the door to the shed and wheels her bike in.
“Minnie! What’s up? I didn’t know you were working on this project. I want you to meet Skye.”
She’s out of breath and pauses for a moment with her hands on her knees, then takes my bike from me.
“They’re in the middle of a design presentation.” Minnie catches her breath and adds, “Nice to meet you, Skye.” She turns back to me. “You need to go now. They’ve been looking all over for you. Didn’t you get any of their texts?”
I shake my head. “No service.” I may have had service at the pub. But the truth was, I hadn’t checked my phone since we left. “Why didn’t anyone mention it?”
We all start walking to the castle. I wish I could grab Skye’s hand. I’m a naturally affectionate person. This keeping things secret and not having any public displays of affection thing goes against every fiber in my being.
Minnie grabs my arm and pulls me inside. I catch Skye’s eye as she heads upstairs and give her a little air kiss behind Minnie’s back. The smile Skye gives me in return lights up my chest.
“Can’t I change first?” My sweater is still damp from getting caught in the rain.
“No. It’s almost over,” Minnie says. She leads me to the dining room where we had the table read, and it feels like déjà vu.
Again, the only open spot is next to Ty.
Thora is speaking, and a fair amount of the cast have glasses of wine in front of them.
Everyone looks beat. The designer is nodding, listening attentively to Thora’s question.
I silently sit down.
“That’s an excellent point, Thora. I’m going to have to give it some thought, bring it to the team, and get back to you.”
Natalie says, “I think that’s all for now. We’ll start filming in the morning. You should all have the schedule in your inbox, but if you don’t,”—she looks pointedly at me when she says this—“please let me know now. Thank you, everyone.”
Minnie comes to my side, and we’re just about to leave together when Natalie says in a bone-chilling tone, “Miles, a word.”
Minnie whispers, “I’ll see you later.”
I nod.
Once everyone has filed out, Natalie looks at me with her fiery, deep-brown eyes.
I start by apologizing. “I didn’t realize the design presentation was so soon.”
“Everyone was emailed.”
I hadn’t checked my phone. “I must have missed it. It won’t happen again.”
Natalie cuts right to the point. “Miles, are you sleeping with our host?”
“Callum? No. He’s a nice guy. I just don’t think of him that way.” I smile, but it is not returned.
“Skye. Are you sleeping with Skye? You are a grown man, and under any other circumstances, I would say do your thing. But we can’t lose this location.
My mom was close with Callum’s late wife.
She pulled some strings to get us here. I will say it again to be super clear…
You would be more easily replaced than this castle. Got it?”
I nod. “Understood.”