I regretted the flowing emails I’d sent Bonnie over the last few months, detailing exactly what I was looking for and fangirling over how the extreme isolation of most of Doughnut fit the bill.
‘The cottages are cute, but for miles around them the land is trampled to fuck,’ Bonnie continued her stay-with-Callum campaign. ‘I guarantee all those people on the boat with you are ramblers and they’ll be up with the suntomorrow morning, stomping over every inch of the island they can reach.’
I winced. The thought of the innocent flora walkers trampled on a daily basis was something I had to push right to the recesses of my mind and throw down a deep well. ‘But up with Callum, there’s none of the stomping?’
‘No stomping at all. Just miles of wilderness and hundreds of pygmy goats.’
‘Goats are infinitely more respectful of the land than people.’
‘I agree.’
‘Who’s Callum?’ I finally zoned in on what perhaps should have been my first focus when Bonnie announced I would be staying in the remotest part of a remote island with a stranger for three months.
The seventy per cent smile, thirty per cent smirk on her face dropped. ‘He’s my brother.’
Please let him be at least twenty years older and more akin to a goat than his ridiculously gorgeous sister, I begged whichever deity might have their ear turned to Earth at this moment in time.
‘Do you not get along?’ I asked.
She swung the car around a particularly large rock formation, then shrugged. ‘To be honest, I don’t know. He doesn’t come down from the mountains much, isn’t a people person. If you could convince him the occasional coffee with his loved ones won’t kill him, that would be great.’
I rubbed my warming hands on my thighs. Apparently their ability to produce nervous sweat was unimpeded by their recent freezing. ‘He’s okay that I’m staying with him, right?’
‘It’s fine,’ Bonnie said quickly. If I had a liedetector attached to her pulse point, I wouldn’t have been surprised when the needle jumped.
I was about to start an interrogation around exactly how she’d ascertained her brother’s fine-ness over my crashing in his home when she swore under her breath and brought the car to an abrupt halt. She jumped out, slamming the door behind her.
It wasn’t too hard to figure out the problem. The road ahead cut into a section of mountain, and the mountain had decided to fight back. The bumpy track was blocked with huge chunks of glistening rock.
I climbed out of the car. Bonnie had taken the keys with her when she left and without the heaters blasting, the interior couldn’t be much warmer than outside.
‘Wrong.’ I shoved my hands into my pockets as I skipped over smaller rocks to where Bonnie stood examining the biggest. ‘So very wrong.’
If the wind down in the harbour had been cutting, then this was next level,Kill Billsword shit. I could practically hear the air particles scratching across my skin, stealing any warmth I’d regained in the car.
‘I can’t get past this,’ Bonnie announced. She looked up the road beyond the road-blocking boulders. ‘Callum’s cabin isn’t too far. You just have to follow the road and it’s the only house you’ll see.’
‘You’re not coming with me?’ I didn’t care about the whining edge to my voice. Wandering alone in the mountains to find someone I was fairly sure did not want to be found was not my cup of tea. Actually, nothing was my cup of tea. Tea sucked.
Apparently, so did Bonnie. ‘I need to go down to the village to get help to clear this.You’ll be fine.’
There was no brokering with her. Bonnie strode over to the car and hauled my bags out of the boot like they were weightless. Waving cheerily, she executed a perfect three-point turn and sped off.
I stood huddled into myself until the car disappeared behind swaying trees.
‘Fuck.’
CHAPTER TWO
CALLUM
Iclosed my eyes and let the scents of the island wash over me.
At first, they were a jumbled barrage. Harsh notes clashed with gentle tones, vying for attention.
Another deep breath. Another. Let them shout and shove, let them settle.
Order emerged.
