Her mouth gaped. “Please tell me you’re joking.”
“Nope.”
“God he’s an arse.” She huffed. “Now I’m feeling better about the present I got you.”
I paused. “My birthday was in April.”
“Then consider it my official contribution to a friend going through the sads. It’s coming in the post, should be there any day now.” She gave me what I’d quickly learned was herI did something badsmile.
“Please don’t tell me it’s another curse from an Etsy witch, the first was emotionally scarring enough.” A few weeks ago, Heather’s friend, Juniper Ross, told me she knew of a witch who sold curses online. For only twenty pounds and a lock of his hair, Cameron would become the unfortunate victim of premature greying.
Not a bad deal.
If I were vengeful enough, I might have gone for it. But silver temples would only make Cameron more attractive.
“No.” Heather laughed. “Trust me, you’ll know it when you see it. That reminds me, I saw Cameron and Annabelle the other day. They came into the tasting room at the distillery. I would have thrown them out, told him what a shrivel-dicked piece of shit I think he is, but I didn’t want to cause a scene.”
Heather worked at Kinleith Whisky Distillery, owned by her brother Mal and his wife, April. It was the biggest whisky supplier on the entire island. They even had a cute bar attached people called ‘the tasting room’, which I’d begged Cameron for weeks to take me to. He always said he was too slammed at work.
Guess his schedule freed up.
“You don’t need to do that.” I felt my cheeks burn. “I don’t care about Cameron and Annabelle.” A lie. “The only thing I care about now is Teddy. And pie.” I twisted the camera so she could see. “What’s your opinion on apple versus cherry?”
She gave it more thought than I’d expected. “Cherry is the flashier option, I guess, but apple pie triggers universal fondness responses. It’s basically peer-reviewed.” She shrugged. “Is that your gran’s recipe?”
I nodded. “I’m going to serve it at Brown’s today, taste-test it with the customers. If I don’t come first place in the Cairn & Crust contest with her recipe, she’ll haunt me for the rest of my life.”
Heather snorted. “I can confidently say you’re going to make the Cairn & Crust your bitch.”
“You think so?” Baking contests were held several times a year in Kinleith, but the Cairn & Crust was the big one. Held annually, in the middle of August, the best pie won a lofty two-thousand-pounds prize money.
“I know so. I’m already cringing on other contestants’ behalf.”
Last year I’d placed second. This time I was determined to win. Two thousand pounds was pocket change to some people. For me . . . it wouldn’t solve all my problems, but it would give me some breathing room. I could get Daisy’s engine issues fixed. Or pay off the stack of overdue bills mounting up on the kitchen table.
“Oh, I meant to ask,” she continued. “Is Teddy going on the school trip at the start of term?”
I paused, halfway through loading the dirty bowls into the sink. “What trip?”
“In September. Three nights in Inverness, a stop at Urquhart Castle and a boat trip on Loch Ness. Seems a little pricey, but the girls are excited.”
My blood pulsing slowly in my veins. Already mentally moving around the few pounds in my bank account. What did pricey mean exactly? “Teddy must have forgotten.”
On screen, Heather had her back to me, pouring hot water into a mug. I was thankful she couldn’t see my face.
A fistthump, thump, thumpedon the wall. Alistair. I’d never been so pleased for the rude interruption. Or for Teddy’s “Mummy, the grumpy neighbour is complaining again.”
“Shit! Heather, I gotta go.”
“Okay, well, let me know about the trip. If we sign them up quickly, we’ll be able to request the girls share a room.”
“Yep,” I wheezed, my windpipe feeling too narrow as I hit the end-call button. “Teddy, time to have breakfast!”
Her feet were slow down the hallway, but she appeared moments later, still in her pyjamas. “I think I was playing Disney too loudly.”
“He’ll survive.” The man complained like it was his full-time job.
I quickly set a bowl of cereal before her. She staredat it with a sigh, like someone had literally pissed in her
