I ran here.
To Kingsbarns. To the one place I hadn’t set foot in for years. The only place that I had ever really felt likeme.
And straight into Skye Kerrigan’s line of fire.
“Now, what’s all this then?”
Esther was a tiny woman with shock-white hair, a questionable taste in jumpers, and eyes that missed nothing. The years fell away, and I warmed inside, remembering how she used to scold me for one thing or another and then feed me extra biscuits. Esther and her cronies were a central part of my childhood, having kept a watchful eye over me and the group of kids that roamed the streets looking for trouble in a town that delivered none.
“Would you look at that?” Esther asked, voice high with delight. “Noah Byrne, skulking back into Kingsbarns after all these years. Into Skye’s inn, no less? Och, I’ll be damned.”
“Esther,” Skye warned, tone clipped.
Her voice still sent a shiver across the back of my neck. It always had. Her long ginger hair—a few silver threadsnow mingling with her curls—was clipped back with a bright pink hair clip. A colorful beaded necklace twined with a gold chain at her neck, and a few lines edged her bonnie blue eyes.
She’d never looked prettier.
Esther ignored her. “What are you doing back? Come to make amends? Or stir up trouble? Because I’ll tell you plain, boyo, if you break her heart again, you’ll answer to me. And the book club.”
Skye’s cheeks pinkened and she pressed a hand to her mouth.
Had I broken her heart? Or had she broken mine? The truth probably fell somewhere in the middle, but this was neither the time nor the place to peel those layers back.
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Good to see you too, Esther. Can I say, you look as fresh as a meadow after a morning spring rain?” I gave her one of my renowned Noah Byrne grins and raised an eyebrow for good measure.
Esther’s eyes narrowed and then she cackled. “Och, cheeky as ever. But thinner. Too thin. And not in a healthy way.” She squinted. “Rumor says your manager’s in deep muck. Gambling, fraud, the works. That true, then?”
Skye started, rounding on me, her eyes wide. I winced.
Heat crawled up my neck. So the gossip blogs had started already. “Don’t believe everything you read.”
“Meaning it’s true.”
“Meaning it’s none of your business.”
Skye glanced to the front hallway, looking nervous. “That’s enough, Esther. The other guests will be coming down soon.”
Esther planted herself like a wartime bunker. “Don’thush me, lass. Someone’s got to keep this boy honest. You think the whole village won’t know by morning? My phone’s already buzzing.”
“Esther.” Skye’s voice had a brittle edge. “Out.”
Esther sniffed, satisfied she’d planted her flag. “Fine, fine. But mark me, Noah Byrne, mess with our girl here, and you’ll have hell to pay. This is no encore tour. This is real life.”
And with that, she swept out, muttering something about emergency book club meetings and extra wine.
Silence collapsed over the room.
I sank onto the sofa, staring at the flames. “Friendly as ever.”
“You deserved worse,” Skye said, shutting the door firmly.
She wasn’t wrong.
Skye had always seen what I couldn’t.
“Glen’s a shark, Noah,” she said, pacing our tiny kitchen, hair wild around her face. “Och, he doesn’t care about the music. He doesn’t care about our music. He wants control. He’ll bleed us dry.”
“He believes in us.”
