Page 56 of Chasing a Highland Dream

She turned back to find his gaze fixed on her again, and her face warmed, no doubt she was bright pink now, she guessed. ‘Thank you, Harris.’

He didn’t speak for a few moments, as if lost in a daydream. ‘Well, I should get going, the criminals of Inverness aren’t going to catch themselves,’ he said as he stood rapidly and grabbed his jacket. ‘Nice to see you again, Bella.’

‘And you too,’ she replied.

He turned to Mrs Pettifer. ‘Put these on my tab, Mrs P, and I’ll pop back tomorrow to settle up.’

‘Aye, no bother, sergeant,’ she replied.

He turned back to Bella one last time. ‘Have a lovely evening with your friends.’

‘Thanks. Say hi to Neil for me.’

He nodded, raised his hand in a half wave and left the café.

26

At 6.55 p.m., Bella picked up the flowers she had bought for Olivia, left the stable block courtyard and turned to the castle. She glanced over to see Aiden at the main entrance door, clutching a bottle of red wine. He looked ridiculously handsome in beige jeans and a blue checked shirt, his hair tousled and his face clean-shaven.

‘Oh, hi. I didn’t know you were coming,’ she said, realising she sounded a little disappointed.

‘Hi. Yeah, I saw Brodie this morning when I was out jogging. He was coming back from a swim in the loch. We got chatting about writing and he told me about his book. I thought it sounded like it should be published generally, not only for the castle gift shop, and I told him so. Anyway, he invited me for dinner. Apparently, another couple are coming? Skye and… someone.’ He shook his head.

‘Ben,’ she said with a nod. ‘Skye and Ben. They’re good friends of ours.’

He smiled warmly. ‘That’s it. By the way, you look lovely.’

She glanced down at her outfit: the cornflower-blue maxi dress and a white cardigan she had bought in the city earlier. ‘Thanks. You look nice too.’

He stepped closer. ‘Look, before we go in, I wanted to apologise again. I think we had the start of something good and I don’t want to ruin that. Are we… are we okay?’ He took another step and ran a thumb softly down her cheek, causing a shiver to travel down her back. Or maybe it was the chilly evening air, she couldn’t be sure.

She was still a little confused about what the ‘we’ entailed, considering his temporary stay in Scotland, but nodded. ‘We’re good.’

His eyes brightened and he leaned forward and kissed her tenderly and she allowed herself to get a little lost in the kiss. When he pulled away, he glanced down at their clothes and said, ‘We’re quite coordinated, aren’t we?’ He chuckled. ‘Looks like we planned our outfits together.’

Before she had a chance to respond, the door opened and Brodie stood there with a bright, warm smile. ‘Hi, guys, come on in. Ben and Skye are already here.’

Aiden stepped inside first. ‘I brought some wine. I have no idea if it’s any good, but I was assured by the man in the shop it will be,’ he said as he passed the bottle to Brodie.

‘Ah, cheers, mate. That’s very kind of you. Come on through. Liv’s in the kitchen. We thought we’d eat in there, a little less formal and intimidating.’

The kitchen was where Bella had enjoyed eating when she visited Drumblair Castle after school with Olivia. Mirren had been the one to cook back in those days, and it had always been a fun experience. Mirren was still a fantastic cook but back then there had been something magical about eating her meals in a real castle.

As Bella walked into the kitchen, the aroma of Italian herbs and tomatoes drifted into her nose and her mouth watered. She hadn’t eaten since the sponge cake at the café. ‘Wow, something smells lush,’ she said.

‘It’s nothing fancy,’ Olivia said, as modest as ever. ‘It’s parmigiana di melanzane.’

‘Bella’s right, it smells amazing,’ Aiden said as he casually rested his arm around Bella’s shoulders. She glanced at his arm and then up at him. He smiled and kissed her cheek. She wasn’t sure how to feel. In fairness, she had said they were fine, but this still felt rather sudden and verging on possessive, which made her hair stand on end a little. He definitely seemed like an all or nothing kind of man.

‘Hey, honey! You look gorgeous,’ Skye said as she walked into the room with Ben, glass of wine in hand, and hugged her. ‘I was showing Ben the drawing room where we girls used to watch movies when we came here after school.’

‘Aye, I had no idea while I was kicking a half-deflated football around on the village green you girls were living it up in a castle,’ Ben said with a grin.

Bella hugged Skye and then Ben. ‘You both look great. Engagement clearly suits you. And I love that top.’

Ben tugged at his patterned shirt. ‘What, this old thing?’ He laughed.

‘She was talking to me, you numpty,’ Skye said with a good-humoured nudge of her fiancé. ‘Thanks, Bells, it’s new. I got it from that gorgeous boutique on Post Office Avenue in Inverness.’