There had been many surreal moments in my life in the past eighteen months, especially the past year, and this moment was another to add to the list.
It had taken me thirty-two years, but I had a friendship circle.
Our group had taken up the largest booth in the Gloaming. I was tucked into the corner with Theo next to me, one arm slung over my shoulders while he clasped his pint glass with his free hand. Across from me sat Aria, North at her side. On North’sother side was Aria’s twenty-year-old sister Allegra, visiting from the States.
Across from her, next to Theo, was Jared. And beside him was Walker and Sloane and across from them sat Brodan and Monroe. Their children were being watched by family members so we could all catch up while we were in Ardnoch visiting.
Theo and I would be traveling on to my little cottage in Gairloch to write.
It was wonderful seeing everyone and feeling part of a community, even when I wasn’t physically here. And while I was enjoying catching up, my attention kept straying to Allegra as she talked with Jared. She was asking him all kinds of questions about the farm and my cousin indulged her, but I was a wee bit worried by the gleam in her pretty eyes. Allegra was a stunning young woman and maybe in a few years, Jared might take notice. But I knew my cousin. He preferred his women older, worldlier, and not the daughter of a Hollywood legend.
Aria leaned across the table toward me. “Does your cousin have to be so attractively rugged? Farmers are supposed to be jolly old men.”
I chuckled at that and waved off her concern. “Jared would never.” He was a player, but he had lines he wouldn’t cross.
Theo ducked his head into our conversation. “Are we talking about the flirty Lolita?” He gestured comically with his hand.
I squeezed his thigh under the table. “Try not to be so obvious.”
“And don’t bring up Lolita in any sense of the word.” Aria threw a peanut at him. “It’s creepy.”
Theo laughed, raising his hands in surrender. “Apologies.”
“You could be helpful and rescue Jared from the conversation,” I whispered.
My boyfriend smirked at me as if I were adorably naive. “My love, I do not think the good farmer wants to be rescued from this situation.”
I frowned and cut a look at Jared. He was staring a wee bit too intensely at Allegra as she smiled and chatted to him about wanting to see the farm, if he might let her set up her easel on the land so she could paint. Jared shrugged noncommittally as he scrubbed a hand over his perfectly trimmed beard.
Allegra stopped talking as if waiting for a proper answer. The rest of our table chatted on, Theo joking with Aria and North about the article that had just come out in which Angeline Potter denigrated Ardnoch. Aria took his teasing easily, considering it hadn’t harmed Ardnoch. Everyone in the know knew Angeline’s membership had been cancelled after I’d told Agnes Hutchinson what had occurred during my time there. To my surprise, a new housekeeper had come forward with similar complaints. Theo had been right. Angeline had found someone new to bully.
My thoughts drifted, however, and drowned out the conversations at the end of the table as I watched Jared and Allegra stare at each other. Goose bumps rose on my arms as I witnessed something silent pass between them.
And then Jared shook his head slightly, as if coming out of a daze, and he suddenly turned to Walker. “Mate, can you let me out?”
Walker and Sloane slid out of the booth to grant Jared’s exit, and I saw Allegra follow his movements as my cousin cut across the bar toward the restroom.
For a while, I fell into discussion with my friends, Allegra engaging with us too. But then I noted after some time that she noticed Jared hadn’t returned. I watched her look for him and find him at the bar, flirting with a local named Sadie. She was a hairdresser at Ardnoch’s only salon, a single mum, and aboutten years older than Jared. I knew from rumors that they’d slept together a few years back.
Apparently, Sadie wasn’t sore that it hadn’t turned into anything because she and Jared left the pub together.
He never looked at Allegra again.
Aria’s pretty sister frowned at the table, lost in her thoughts.
I opened my mouth to speak, but I didn’t know what to say.
Theo covered my hand with his and smiled tenderly down at me. “Leave it, my love.”
Aye, he was right. There was no point making something big out of nothing.
“Sarah, you have to tell me what happens in the next Juno book!” Monroe suddenly yelled down the table. “We were just updating Brodan and Walker on the cliff-hanger you’ve left us all on.”
I laughed at her disgruntled expression. “I’ll tell you soon onceIknow. I start writing it next week.”
“Oh, you must have an idea, though.”
“I do.”
