Five Days in Skye: A Novel by Carla Laureano Read Free Book Online

hesitated. Delving into personal matters with a client was never a good idea, but James didn’t seem the type to let it go. Besides, if she was going to make this deal happen, they needed to venture beyond flirtation and insults.
    “I grew up in a little town near Dayton, Ohio,” she said finally. “It was small. No stoplights or fast food chains. We had this old art deco movie theater on Main Street that only showed one new movie a month. The rest of the time, they played classic films: Greta Garbo, Bing Crosby, Cary Grant. I loved them. I saved my allowance so I could just sit and watch for hours after school. I was usually the only person under the age of fifty in there, but I was hooked.”
    “Why?”
    She remembered hunkering down in the threadbare red seats, transfixed by the flickering black-and-white images on the screen. “I don’t know. They were clever and sophisticated and sometimes a little naughty without being vulgar. No one I knew talked like that. They seemed so glamorous. To a small-town girl …” She broke off, heat rising to her cheeks. “I know that probably sounds ridiculous.”
    “Not at all. Skye is not exactly the cultural center of the UK, you know.”
    He didn’t seem inclined to elaborate, so she let it go. Instead, she studied him as he drove. One hand rested easily on the steering wheel, the other moving from the seat beside him only when he needed to shift. In London, he had practically radiated energy. Now his intensity was muted to a soft glow.
    How much of the flirtatious wit was the real him, and how much was just the public persona? It wasn’t as if he were a movie star, drawing paparazzi to him every time he stepped outside—they’d made it through two airports without anyone doing more than a curious double take—yet his frequent appearances in the gossip pages suggested he purposely sought the spotlight.
    She dragged her eyes away from him and looked out her window. She was spending far too much time analyzing the man when she should be focused on the business owner. At least James seemed comfortable with silence. She’d figured he’d want to flirt and tease the entire drive to Skye.
    Andrea lost track of time, soaking in the rapid changes of scenery: open country, enormous lochs, and patches of forest that reminded her of home. The land finally gave way to a tangle of trees as the road climbed upward into the craggy hill. Storm clouds mounded overhead, spattering the windshield in a half-hearted attempt at rain, and mist hung over the higher peaks in the distance.
    “Look. We’re approaching Glen Shiel.”
    Andrea pulled her attention back to the road, which now wound downward into a valley, rounded mountains sloping sharply up on either side of them. Green had begun to overtake the brown, but snow still capped the top of the ridge. Wide swaths of evergreens stretched along the side of the road and jutted up the mountainside. There was something both desolate and breathtakingly beautiful about the scene.
    The road curved along the edge of a loch and climbed back into mountains. When they emerged again from between the hills, Andrea gaped at the water spread out before them, twisting between the mountains in craggy inlets and shorelines. Below, just off the shore, rose a stunning stone castle.
    “Eilean Donan,” James said. “The most photographed castle in Scotland. You’re sure you don’t want to stop? I don’t mind.”
    “No,” Andrea said, but she heard the reluctance in her voice. “We have work to do.”
    “I am going to wear you down, you realize.”
    It won’t take much. How long had it been since she’d laced up her hiking boots and strapped on a pack simply to spend a day surrounded by the quiet of nature like she had as a child? Three years? More? The promotion to senior account manager meant weekends in the office or on planes, not exploring her favorite spots in the Hudson River Valley or on Breakneck Ridge. Long summer days and mountain