Chapter 1
One
LEWIS
PRESENT DAY
London, UK
There were people here I didn’t even know.
The hotel’s roof terrace was packed with familiar and not-so-familiar faces.
I’d put the latter down to my wee sister Eilidh, who’d gained a number of so-called friends since she’d had success acting in a popular British dramedy.
We’d both ended up in London, and in an effort to prove she wasn’t being sucked into the world of celebrity—that family was still the most important thing to her—Eilidh had insisted on throwing me a graduation party.
After seven long years, I was finally a qualified architect. Just like my dad.
I turned my head and locked eyes with the man I’d probably always hero-worship. I didn’t think that was a bad thing. To respect and admire my father. If my future kids felt the same way about me as I felt about Thane Adair, I’d die a happy man.
Dad stood drinking a glass of champagne with my stepmum, Regan. They’d been married for so long and had given me and Eilidh our wee sister, Morwenna, that Regan would always be Mum to me.
A hard hand clapped my shoulder, and my fellow graduates Gary and Sean suddenly appeared in front of me.
“Mate, your sister knows how to throw a party,” Gary said, stuffing a canapé into his mouth.
“She said after the free food and champagne, we’re all hitting the nightclub in the basement of the hotel. Is she single, your sister?”
I gave him a flat smile before replying blandly, “Touch my sister, and I’ll fucking end you before you’ve ever truly gotten a chance to begin.”
Gary raised an eyebrow. “What is it with you Scotsmen and your bloodlust?”
“I think it’s more he doesn’t want a lecherous bastard like you near Eilidh,” Sean offered dryly.
In answer, Gary’s searching gaze moved through the crowd toward my parents. “So, I take it that means I’m also not allowed to say that Lewis’s mother is a smoke show? Seriously, Lew … if the phrase MILF had a spokesperson, your mum would be it.”
An old irritation sizzled in my gut. For years back home, kids had teased me about my mum.
She was younger than Dad. So they teased me about that, about how attractive she was.
In high school, they’d said some repulsive things, and Callie had often talked me down from retaliating.
I soon learned she was right. The more I reacted, the more they did it. Gary, unfortunately, was one of those.
I took a sip of my beer. “I dare you to say that in front of my dad.”
“Protective is he?” Gary’s attention flickered to Dad.
“Understatement.”
“Yes, well, I’d be protective of that prime piece—”
Sean smacked our mutual acquaintance across the back of the head. “Where are your fucking manners, man?”
Gary winced. “Bloody hell, I was joking.”
I sighed wearily. For most of my life, I’d been impatient with guys like Gary.
I think I came out of my mother’s womb as a forty-year-old.
My birth mum, Francine, died not long after Eilidh was born, so I wasn’t even three yet.
I couldn’t remember a thing about her. All I knew of her were photographs that revealed a woman who had given me and Eilidh dark hair in a sea of blond Adairs.
And the stories Dad had told us whenever we asked.
Even from those, I couldn’t discern what else I’d gotten from Francine.
I knew for a fact I’d gotten my seriousness from my dad.
It wasn’t that I didn’t know how to have fun or laugh.
But the things most lads my age found funny, I found stupid and immature. It had made me feel like an outsider most of the time. The only people I’d never felt that way with were my best friend Fyfe … and Callie. And my family, of course.
Yet I was truly considering staying in London and joining the same architectural firm as Gary?
We’d both done our last two years of practical experience at Wyatt, Johnson, and Baird, a prestigious firm that had won two RIBA (Royal Institute for British Architects) awards last year.
They’d offered us both a position, which we hadn’t expected.
We’d been in low-key competition for what we thought was one spot.
The thought of seeing Gary day in and day out irritated me.
But it was more than that.
Unbelievably … I was homesick.
And I had been for a long time.
As if he sensed I needed a rescue, my dad led Mum over to us.
Sean tapped Gary on the arm. “Let’s grab another drink.”
I thanked my friend with a nod. Sean I would miss because he was taking a position at a firm in Manchester.
My dad was only a few inches shorter than me, and he wrapped his arm around my shoulders. “So proud of you, Lew.”
“Thanks.” I patted him on the back and then leaned down to kiss my mum’s proffered cheek. “Where’s Morwenna?”
My youngest sister was thirteen years old this year and the complete opposite of Eilidh.
While Eils had always been outgoing, outspoken, and social, Morwenna was quieter and preferred her own company most of the time.
According to Dad, she’d found a group of friends at high school that she spent a lot of time with, but on the few occasions I’d ventured home or when my family had visited me, Mor usually had her nose in a book.
The age gap between us meant we weren’t as close as Eilidh and I were, but I hoped she knew she always had me.
“She opted to stay in the hotel and read,” Mum said in her only slightly diluted Boston accent before she nibbled her bottom lip.
She and her sister, my aunt Robyn (married to my dad’s brother Lachlan), were transplants from the US, and neither of them had entirely lost their accents the way Callie had.
“Your father assured me she was safe to do so.”
“The door is locked, she has her phone, and she will call us if she needs us.” Dad slid an arm around her waist.
I frowned. “I’m not sure I’m keen on Mor being left alone. You should go be with her.”
“But it’s your graduation party.”
Snorting, I gestured around. “I barely know half the people here. It’s an Eilidh party.”
“Your sister means well,” Dad reminded me.
“I know that. But honestly, if you need to get back to Mor, go. I’m good.”
Mum reached out to take my hand. “Are you sure?”
“Of course. Thank you for coming all this way.”
She gave me a quizzical smile, the dimples in her cheeks flashing. “Sweetheart, my son just graduated. Where else would I be?”
Longing for my family scored through me. It seemed foolish and childish to still need them like this. I pulled Mum into a hug, her familiar perfume cascading over me and filling me with nostalgia.
“Your dad wants to talk to you. Please hear him out,” Mum whispered in my ear before pulling back to press a kiss to my cheek. “We’ll see you tomorrow for breakfast.”
I nodded, bemused, and waited for her to kiss Dad good night before she strode through the crowd toward Eilidh.
Dad’s attention lingered on her, and I recognized the love in his expression. He was lucky. He’d found the love of his life and managed to keep her.
Some of us could not say the same.
Finally, Dad turned to me and gestured to a quiet corner of the terrace that overlooked the city. “Let’s talk.”
I followed him out of the crowd and into that small space of privacy. London stretched before us like a dark blanket sewn with a thousand golden lights. A cascade of neon stood out across the Thames as the London Eye lights reflected in its waters.
“What’s up?”
Dad leaned against the balcony. “I want you to consider coming to work for my firm in Inverness.”
There was that pang of longing again, this time fiercer, more painful. “Dad …”
“I’m a partner now. My name is on the building. I get to hire who I want. And this isn’t nepotism, Lewis. The work you’ve done is incredible, and it fits our firm to a tee. You could create some special sustainable buildings in the Highlands. And we could use a fresh eye.”
“I’ve already said yes to Adam Wyatt.” I referred to one of the partners of the firm who’d offered me and Gary positions.
“So?” Dad shrugged. “You’re allowed to change your mind, Lew.”
I stared out at London and as much as it had been the place I’d lain my head every night for the past seven years … it had never felt like home.
“If this is about Callie …”
“Don’t.”
Dad exhaled slowly. “After all this time?”
I couldn’t talk about her. And I knew my family probably thought I was crazy and obsessive, and as far from the mature man I professed to be, but seven years later … no, I was not over Callie Ironside.
I probably never would be.
Which was why I couldn’t go home. Too many memories. It hurt too much. I had to hope that someday, I would move on. I just didn’t think I could do that in Ardnoch where every street was laced with the memory of her.
“The offer stands, son.” Dad squeezed my shoulder. “There’s a place for you no matter what, no matter when.”
Emotion thickened my throat. “Thanks, Dad.”
“At least if you’re here, you can look out for Eilidh.” Dad glanced over his shoulder, back toward the party. “There’s not a day that goes by I don’t worry about her. That she chose this life, following in her uncles’ footsteps …”
“For now.” I followed his gaze to where Eilidh was holding a small group of men’s attention, gesturing wildly as she told them one of her many stories.
They laughed at all the right parts, their eyes devouring her in a way that made my skin crawl.
Sometimes I wished she were more like Morwenna.
Easier to protect her that way. But Eilidh was Eilidh, and honestly, I wouldn’t change her for the world.
“She misses Ardnoch. I know she does. I reckon one day she’ll follow her uncles’ footsteps all the way home,” Dad said gruffly.