“Yeah, Aria said you quit the estate,” Sloane remarked. “Everything okay there?”
It’s time, I thought. Soon enough people would know. And … I was proud of my achievements. Feeling my cheeks grow hot as my heart raced, I pushed through my nervousness and confessed, “I … I started self-publishing a crime series, and … well … it kind of took off, so I’m writing full-time now.”
Both of their eyes widened and then comically, as one, they got up from their table and sat down at mine. It made me chuckle through my nervousness as they leaned closer.
“That is amazing.” Monroe beamed in genuine happiness for me.
“So amazing. Tell us more. Do you write under your own name?” Sloane asked excitedly.
Unused to such focused attention, my hands curled around my mug a wee bit too tightly, but I shook my head. “I write under the pen name S. M. Brodie.”
“No way!” Monroe slapped a hand on the table, eyes round as saucers. “You write the Juno McLeod series?”
Pride and joy filled me that she’d heard of it. “I do.”
Monroe turned to Sloane. “It’s one of my favorite crime series. It’s set in Dundee. Mostly.”
“Is that the series you wanted us to read for book club?”
“Aye, that one.” Monroe turned back to me. “Sarah … congratulations. I mean, I’ve seen the accolades on the blurb. A multimillion-copy bestseller. I’ve seen the book in stores … It’s just amazing. I’m so thrilled for you.”
“Oh my goodness, I have to google you.” Sloane pulled out her phone and did just that while I laughed, blushing wildly. “Oh, wow. Sarah, this is awesome.” She looked up from her phone. “Would you come to our book club? It’s us and all the Adair women. We meet at Arro’s once a month. Would you come to our January meeting?”
“No pressure,” Monroe added, shooting Sloane an amused but quelling look.
“Oh, yeah, no pressure,” Sloane added.
For the last few years, I’d watched the Adair family women from afar. How other women in the village envied them for their handsome husbands, some of whom were famous. I didn’t envy them for that. Well, not really. I envied what looked to be a tight-knit friendship circle. If I didn’t see Arro Adair out and about with Eredine Adair or Regan and Robyn Adair together, I saw Monroe and Sloane, or a mix of the pairings. Sometimes theywere all together. And they looked so close. I wondered what it would be like to have close female relationships. But I’d been too scared to try. Too scared to trust.
Because of my mum.
I was done being afraid.
I wanted to be brave.
Smiling, I nodded. “I would love that.”
Monroe and Sloane thanked me excitedly and then Monroe got up to grab their drinks and bring them to my table. I asked after their kids. Callie was in school, and Brodan had Lennox for the morning. Monroe had been a teacher at Ardnoch Primary but had decided to become a stay-at-home mum until it was time for Nox to attend school. “We’ll see if I last that long, though,” she grumbled. “I do miss class.”
“Can you imagine teaching all those young kids and coming home to be a mom?” Sloane mused. “It must be so exhausting.”
“Which is what Brodan reminds me every time I get broody for my class.”
“And how is Callie coping with the Scottish school system?” I asked. I couldn’t imagine moving to an entirely different country, even if they did technically speak the same language.
“She loves it. She’s best friends with Lewis.”
“Adair?”
“Yeah.”
Lewis was Thane Adair’s son with his first wife, who died not long after giving birth to their daughter Eilidh. Thane was now married to Regan, Lachlan’s wife Robyn’s younger sister. She’d been his nanny, and it had been quite a scandal at the time.
“You know Regan had her baby,” Monroe offered as if she’d read my mind.
I gaped. “No, Jared didn’t say.”
Monroe grinned. “A wee girl. Morwenna Adair. Our clan is growing rapidly.”
