Page 69

“We didn’t,” I say, chewing at the inside of my lip. “Not untilrecently. I mean, he’s not as big of a dick as I thought he was when I first met him.”

Don’t think about his dick, for Christ’s sake.

“Be careful with that one,” Brodie says.

“You don’t like him, I’ve gathered.”

He shrugs. “Don’t care much about him either way. He was always the popular one when we were lads. We didn’t mesh. His da and mine were friends, though. Made for a lot of awkward forced playdates that were mostly just him and his friends ignoring me while I read somewhere quiet.”

“He didn’t…bully you or anything, did he?”

Brodie shakes his head. “Nothing so much as that. He wasn’t really anything to me. I think my da only wanted me to get on with him in the hopes I might turn out a bit tougher.” His mouth turns down, a wrinkle forming in his brow. “I think my da would have loved to swap sons if he’d been able to.”

“That’s horrible.”

He shrugs again. “It is what it is. S’pose that’s why it’s hard for me not to bristle around the man. Doesn’t help that he’s so…standoffish.”

I snort. “You mean an asshole.”

“You said it,” he chuckles.

“He really can be,” I say. “But…I don’t know. He’s not all bad, I guess.”

Brodie’s grin turns sly. “Does Key have a wee bit of a crush on the farmhand?”

“What? No!”

Even as I say it, I can feel my cheeks heating, remembering the feeling of his lips on mine, the press of his body against my own. Ihave to quickly bring my cup to my mouth to hide what must surely be a guilty expression.

I huff after I’ve set it back on the table, scowling at my cousin. “Don’t say anything to Rhona. The last thing I need is for her to think I’m only here to chase after a guy.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” he says, still grinning.

I toy with my cup as my thoughts drift exactly where I keep trying to pull them back from, remembering what Lachlan said.

It’s not for you to decide. It’s not a risk I’m willing to let you take.

The memory of the defeat in his tone and on his face threatens to gut me, and I desperately wish that I could do more. To help alleviate some of his burden. Which seems fairly ridiculous, given that I barely know him and it was little more than a week ago that I thought I couldn’t stand him.

I flick up my gaze to watch as Brodie takes another sip from his cup, letting words roll around on my tongue as I try to decide the best way to let them out.

“So, your job,” I try, keeping my voice casual. “You never did tell me if you had insider info on the Loch Ness Monster.”

His brow arches. “You’re still on about that?”

“Well, I mean…you know the stories about my dad. I can’t help but be curious.”

“I think if the beast existed,” Brodie says, “we would have more than some grainy pictures by now.”

“So you’ve never seen anything about it in, like…I don’t know. Old family documents?”

He cocks his head. “Family documents?”

I consider how to continue carefully, not wanting to give too much away.

“You know…I mean. If the monsterdidexist, there would have to be recordings of the sightings, right? What about the Greer history? Didn’t they own this whole area once upon a time?”

“Aye, they did,” he says with a confused expression. “But most of their family records burnt up in a fire that caught on the main building back in the eighteen hundreds.”