Chapter 6
CHAPTER SIX
Liora
Despite being certain that I wouldn’t be able to sleep a wink the night before, I’d fallen into a deep sleep filled with aching dreams where Torin carried me away over his shoulder like a caveman and had his way with me against a tree deep in the shadowy privacy of a thick forest.
I’d woken, aroused and certain I could still feel the press of rough bark at my back as he’d taken me with abandon, his strong arms keeping my legs braced around him.
Seriously, just what had I gotten myself into?
When I’d peeked out into the kitchen this morning, nerves humming, I’d been happy to find a note from Torin with his phone number, telling me he had appointments most of the day and wouldn’t be home until late.
It was sweet, and somewhat cozy, and so what if I’d folded the note and tucked it into my handbag to save for later?
I’d always been one to fall hard and fast for my boyfriends.
It was another thing that Zara took issue with about my choices.
I just didn’t know any other way. Maybe it was my impulsive nature, or maybe it was my natural optimism, but I typically blew past red flags like a race car at the starting line and didn’t look back until everything had imploded in my face.
So, maybe I really need to take stock of what had happened yesterday and figure out how to calmly maneuver this new wrinkle in my life with Torin.
And work out how to tell Zara. There was no need to proceed too fast, since we technically weren’t really dating, even though he was telling himself we were.
It just helped him with telling the truth, was all. This wasn’t real.
Even though the kiss had felt very, very real. Why had he kissed me like that? I hadn’t seen Torin for years and yet within moments of seeing him again, he kissed me. Kissed. Me. Even though he’d been so angry with me. This was strange, right? Because I’d wanted to for years.
I hoped he’d be okay today, out in the world with no filter. Luckily, he worked largely on his own, at least that I knew of, but I realized I needed to ask more about what he did for his job. If we were to be dating, publicly, then we needed to know what the other did for a living.
Which meant … it was also time for me to try and seek employment.
But first, coffee.
Torin had left the coffee pot on, a serviceable no frills style coffee maker, and I poured myself a cup and wandered to the back door to stare out into the forest. Was he working in the woods today?
Or did appointments mean he met with clients?
I remembered how in demand his services would be after an intense storm, so I was guessing that appointments meant private clients.
Instead of commercial? I truly had no idea the scope of his job, which I would need to remedy soon enough.
Maybe I needed to create a dating quiz of sorts for him, like fifty first date questions, so we could answer any questions about the other if it came up in public.
A squirrel ran out into the yard and stopped, looking directly at me.
Was that Bracken? I unlocked and opened the back door, stepping quietly outside so as not to scare the squirrel away. The morning air was crisp, the promise of winter ever closer, and I shivered.
“Bracken?” I asked, cupping both my hands around my coffee mug for warmth.
“Aye. It’s me.” Bracken tilted his head inquisitively, like I’d been the one to stop him mid-task with a question I needed answering.
“So, um, how’s it going?” I winced, slightly embarrassed. I really wasn’t sure how I was meant to be communicating with a squirrel.
“I am well, Liora.” Bracken made a soft chittering sound, and I couldn’t be sure, but it sounded like he might be laughing at me.
“Listen, I have no idea what to ask a squirrel. Like, how’s the foraging going?” I asked, amused.
“It’s well, thank you. I’ve got quite a good store for winter.”
I immediately felt chagrined. I’d been teasing a bit, but the reality was the squirrel was needing to put food away to feed himself for months at a time. I couldn’t even plan out my next week.
Even Bracken had his life together.
“What did you mean when you said that I was yours?” I decided to cut to the chase, as the wind had picked up slightly, and my pajamas were threadbare.
“I’ve been waiting for you, Liora. I’m here to help.”
“Help how? With what?”
“You.” Bracken made that soft chittering sound again and his fluffy tail bounced behind him.
“Is it a tiny oracle you are then?” I tilted my head, amusement filling me. “You’ve got the answers to all my problems?”
“I might. I might not. Answers are like acorns.”
“Is that right?” I laughed, delighted with the way my morning was going already. How could I be glum? Here I was having a cup of coffee that I didn’t have to make and talking to a squirrel on a crisp autumn morning. “And just how are answers like acorns?”
“You see … every winter I have a problem. How will I eat through the long, cold, dark days? And so, as I learn and grow through the year, I hide acorns. Every year, I find better spots to hide them. And they’re only known to me.
When the time comes, when I dearly need my acorn, only I know where to find it. ”
I blinked at him, slowly unpacking his words, and then smiled with delight.
“You are a wee oracle!”
Bracken bowed.
“At your service, madam.”
“So I gotta find my acorns. And then I’ll have the answers I need.” I raised my cup to him as Bracken scampered to the edge of the yard. “Hey, Bracken?”
“Aye?”
“What if you forget where you hid your acorns?”
“Then you find new ones.” Bracken ran up the side of the tree and I laughed as he bounced from branch to branch, chittering at me, before turning and going back inside.
“Schooled by a squirrel first thing in the morning.” I sighed and finished off my coffee. “And he’s not wrong. I do need to find new acorns.” Because whatever answers I’d buried deep inside myself currently weren’t surfacing, and I needed solutions to problems.
The first being, gainful employment.
I wasn’t going to touch astrology, no matter how much I longed to pull out my charts and have a look at the current state of affairs surrounding my life.
What I did know was that it was a new moon today, so a perfect time for new beginnings, and even if waitressing wasn’t my passion in life, at least it would give me stable income and a chance to immerse myself back in the community.
And to set some past rumors straight. But now you’re “dating” Torin. How do we explain that we reconnected as soon as I arrived back in Loren Brae, and despite “the past,” we felt like a good fit? But never cheated? Goddess, what a mess.
After a quick shower, I plaited my hair neatly back, put on my siren-red jumper again, topped it with a deep purple woolen trench coat, and shoved my feet into slouchy suede boots.
With a tumble of my favorite crystal necklaces around my neck, and a malachite bracelet at my wrist, I locked up and decided to walk into Loren Brae.
Torin’s house wasn’t all that far out of the village, and I’d tucked my brolly in my handbag in case of rain.
I needed some time to center myself, to recalibrate, I supposed, as I adjusted to these new developments in my life.
I was back. In Loren Brae.
And living with my boyfriend, it seemed.
Fake boyfriend, I quickly amended, though my heart did a funny little dance at the word boyfriend. It sounded odd, like I was a teenager excited after her first kiss. At what age did we stop calling them our boyfriends? Was he my fella? My man?
Amused at myself, and trying to ignore that delicious wiggle of desire in my core as I thought about his kiss again, I turned down the lane and onto the main road that hugged the rocky shores of Loch Mirren.
MacAlpine Castle held court in the hills above the village, a dowager countess watching over her people, and the sun struggled to shine through the grey clouds that clung to the horizon.
Wind shifted across the loch, bringing it into a light chop, the surface looking cracked and wrinkled like a balled up piece of paper smoothed out again.
Did the Kelpies really live there?
I eyed the island, a perfect circle of land with a fortress of trees, imposing as ever.
Was that why it had always made me unsettled?
Because magick lived there? There was nothing untoward to be seeing at the moment.
For all intents and purposes, it looked just like any other wee island in any other loch in the country.
But I could feel that it wasn’t. I had always felt that way.
And now that Zara had confirmed my suspicions, I took a small moment to feel validated in trusting my intuition.
I hadn’t had a lot of wins lately, so having the affirmation that my gut had been correct about the wee island helped boost my confidence as I made my way toward the local pub.
The Tipsy Thistle was the heartbeat of the community, a place to go to watch a match, laugh with friends, and catch up on the local gossip.
If I could get a job here, it would be the fastest way to integrate myself back into Loren Brae, dispel any rumors about mine and Torin’s past, and put down roots.
Even though this is meant to be temporary, I reminded myself as I opened the door to the pub. You aren’t staying.
Technically, it was early enough that the pub wouldn’t be open yet, which I realized as soon as I stepped inside to find the room empty, and a handsome man wiping down bottles and making notes in a notebook at the curved wooden bar that dominated the room.
A beautiful stone fireplace was stocked with wood and ready to be lit on the other side of the room, and vintage pub signs mixed with photos of Loren Brae on the walls.
Long wood beams crossed the ceiling and worn wood planks covered the floor.
Music thumped softly in the background and the man grinned at me as I walked towards him, nerves tightening my throat.