After seven years apart, Lewis and Callie had reconnected in London with a drunken one-night stand. It was the push Lewis needed to get his finger out of his arse and go after the woman he loved. While I might not understand his obsession with only one woman, I believed my best mate was incapable of loving any but her. So I was rooting for them. Lewis had graduated and was now a fully fledged architect, and he’d accepted a job at his father’s firm in Inverness so he could come back to Ardnoch to pursue Callie.
They’d split up as teens because Lewis hadn’t wanted to stay in Ardnoch and Callie did. Lewis had realized over the years that all he’d wanted was to see the world. He’d been pining for his ex and his childhood home ever since.
I was damned happy my best mate had returned.
Lewis Adair was as tall as me. Back in Edinburgh, I usually felt like the biggest bloke in the room, but maybe there was something in the water in the Highlands. Lewis got his height from two of his uncles. His uncle by marriage was tall too, as was Callie’s father. There were quite a few big guys you wouldn’t want to mess with walking the streets of Ardnoch.
Unlike me, Lewis didn’t stroll around in suits and Derby shoes. He kept his long hair in a man bun, his beard wasn’t nearly as neat and trim as mine, and while I had no tattoos, Lewis had many. One of his arms was covered in a sleeve of meaningful tattoos I was pretty sure only I knew were mostly about Callie. He strolled into my house in jeans, biker boots, and a long-sleeve tee, looking very much like the biker who’d parked his Harley outside my front door.
It was great that he could drop by anytime we wanted now.
And I had to remind myself of that when Lewis stalked inside, preoccupied over Callie. I’d been about to share with my friend my plans to open the house up even more by removing the wall between the entrance and the rest of the living space, but he looked like he had something on his mind. That’s when he explained Carianne’s moronic plan to get him and Callie back together.
Carianne and I hadn’t seen much of each other since my return, but now that Callie was home, I was sure we’d bump into each other. She was already doling out her usual nonsense because she’d suggested Lewis fake date her to make Callie jealous. And she suggested this after admitting she had feelings for Lewis and wanted to date him for real.
He’d barely finished relaying this to me when I told him it was the worst idea I’d ever heard. It would only push Callie further away, and I could tell by his expression, deep down, he knew that too.
Before he could respond, his phone rang and he answered a video call.
It was his wee sister.
Eilidh.
A pang of emotion I couldn’t quite identify echoed inside, and I sat down next to Lewis to speak to her.
For the last few years, I’d watched from afar as Eilidh Adair became a famous actor. A bloody great one at that. I was a fan of her TV showYoung Adult. Though I found it difficult to watch her portray such a harrowing character and I fast-forwarded through the sexier scenes she acted out. The last time I’d seen her was in London at a wrap party for the first season of the show. I was visiting Lewis and I tagged along. She’d been flirty as ever, but there was a disconnect. Like there was a wall between us and she was no longer the wee girl I once knew. Seeing her in national ad campaigns and movies, hearing the internet gossip about her love life, and her being so beautiful she didn’t seem real … it only heightened the distance.
Once we’d been close, but now we were worlds apart.
Right then, however, with no makeup on, Eilidh was more like the teenager I remembered.
“Fyfe Moray, I always knew you were a smoke show,” she said upon seeing me.
It was a knee-jerk reaction to roll my eyes and get up off the couch. “And you haven’t changed a bit.” I sat on the opposite couch again, giving Lewis space with his sister. But I felt something like relief. Because the Eilidh I’d just seen was nothing like the unattainable goddess who’d broken away from her family. From Ardnoch. From us all.
Christ, it was possible that pang I felt was … maybe I’d missed her a little.
“So, what’s perfect timing?” I heard her ask her big brother.
Lewis frowned at his phone screen. “Are you okay?”
Why wouldn’t she be?I sat up straight, waiting for her answer.
“I’m fantastic. For the first time in ages, I have a few weeks off before the next project.”
“Is that the film you’re shooting in Romania?”
“The very one. I’ve been lounging around my flat, doing bugger all for a few days. It’s nice, but I’ll get bored soon enough, I suppose.”
I scowled as Lewis’s concern ratcheted up. I knew Lewis and their whole family worried about Eilidh. She didn’t check in with them nearly enough. And I realized I resented her a little for it. While Lewis fucked off to London, he never lost contact with any of us. I spoke to him nearly every day, and I knew he checked in with his family all the time. There was no doubt in my mind that distance wouldn’t keep him from us. However, Eilidh had made her own family with show biz people. It was like she didn’t need the Adairs anymore. As someone who’d found solace in them because my own family was shit, it pissed me off that Eilidh took hers for granted.
I was pulled from my musings as I realized Lewis was filling Eilidh in on Carianne’s plans.
“After asking him out!” I called, getting up to sit back down beside Lewis. Needing someone else to agree that her plan was terrible, I continued, “He forgot to mention Carianne asked him out for real first.”
“Not surprising.” Eilidh shrugged. I noted the dark circles under her eyes and wondered if she was working or partying too hard. Or both. “I always knew she fancied Lewis.”
It would have been nice if I’d known that back then. “Aye, apparently even when she was dating me.”
