The store was bustling with locals and tourists alike, carts bumping into each other, as everyone stocked up on essentials.
“Daisy, look.” Callan pointed to a box of cereal. He’d pulled on a heather grey tee and wouldn’t give up wearing jeans, no matter how hot it was.
“Rice Krispies. I didn’t know you liked cereal.” She’d dressed in a pair of navy shorts and a white tee emblazoned withBasgiath War College, and had a picture of a dragon flying through a night sky on the front.
“When I was at Blackford Castle during Samhain, Lucy made something she called Ghost Treats. She made them by toasting rice she purchased for an ungodly amount of gold from a traveling merchant, and then she made marshmallow from the roots of the mallow plants. William dinna care for them, but I thought they were verra tasty.”
“Did they have rice then?” She grabbed a box, then headed for the baking aisle to grab a jar of Marshmallow Creme, and a disposable aluminum pan to make them for him.
Callan shook his head. “Nay, no one had ever seen rice before. When Lucy and I were traveling together after our escape from Agnes, we met a traveling merchant named Aaron. He told a tale of a sailor from Italy who spoke of distant lands. Said he won the rice from the man in a game of dice.”
They’d moved on to the condiment aisle, where she was trying to reach the mustard he liked, but it was on the top shelf.
Warm breath caressed her bare neck as he stood behind her and instead of reaching up and over her to get it, simply lifted her in the air as if she weighed no more than a bag of rice.
“Sara, look at that.” A woman who looked to be in her early sixties stood there, dressed in a pair of red capri pants, a red and white striped shirt, and a pair of red skyscraper heels.
The friend, Sara, fanned herself. “Now that’s the kind of hard man I need.” She cackled, running a hand through short silver hair. “Where can I find a man like that?”
He set her down, cheeks flaming, as Daisy turned to the women. “He’s very handy.”
A rumbling laugh came from Callan. “Aye, I am here to serve, ladies.”
The woman in red pulled her top out and blew down the front of it. “Land sakes, I think you gave me a hot flash.”
She looked him up and down.
“Handsome as hell and a Scottish accent to die for.”
The woman pulled her attention away from Callan, who was smirking.
“You better chain that man to your side, sugar.”
Deciding to join in the fun, Daisy widened her eyes. “I’ll put an AirTag in his pocket, so I always know where he is.”
Sara and her friend cackled as they pushed their cart down the aisle, talking and laughing about the hot Scottish hunk.
“What is an AirTag? And what is a hunk? A hunk of what?”
Callan looked equally pleased and confused, filling Daisy with laughter. Before the look vanished, she quickly snapped a picture of him and texted it to Zara, telling her friend that the older cougars were on the loose here in Holden Beach. A moment later, her phone dinged. It was a photo of a tiger chasing a man along with the laughing face emoji.
Without thinking about it, she went up on her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek with a loud smack.
“An AirTag is a device to track your belongings, but some people use it to track other people, which is wrong.”
She playfully smacked him on the butt, making him yelp.
“A hunk is a … what do you say? Right. A pleasing visage. You are a hunk. They were simply stating a fact.”
When he leaned down, his mouth next to her ear, Daisy shivered. “’Tis you I want, lass. You and no other. I will be your hunk.”
Oh. My. Gosh.Daisy was floating as they finished buying groceries. The fact that Callan didn’t know how good-looking he was only made him that much more attractive.
They were in a long line to checkout, Callan talking about the fight with the mercenaries and how he’d been wounded, when a man interrupted them.
“Couldn’t help but overhear. Did you say Blackford Castle? In England?” he asked.
Callan and Daisy exchanged a glance before Callan turned around. “Aye, that’s right. I was just telling Daisy here about my brother’s home in England.”
