The Calum by Xio Axelrod Read Free Book Online Page A

those around ye. Cost
ye dear.”
    “ Wow.” He saw her turn to
him out of the corner of his eye. “That was...deep.”
    “ Aye, well we Scots are
deep thinkers, ye ken.” He added a comic level of gravitas to his
voice and was rewarded by her throaty laugh.
    Christ, that
sound.
    She settled back into her
seat. “Duly noted.”
    Lovie ran a hand through
her hair, an auburn cloud of windswept curls. Out of the corner of
his eye, he watched her struggle to tame it with some kind
of elastic band.
    A real shame.
    Duff didn’t want it tamed.
He liked it wild. Free. Her hair had a personality unto itself. It
suited her.
    They passed the twenty
minute drive in comfortable silence while Duff stole glimpses of
her. He couldn’t help it. Lovie was incredibly beautiful.
Stunningly so, and yet somehow completely unaware of the effect she
had on him.
    It made her even more
appealing.
    He pulled up to the fort
and parked, grabbing his camera bag from the back. “Shall
we?”
     

Crumbling Walls
    Okay, Scotland was
officially fucking gorgeous. Lovie couldn’t quite believe it was
real. The ground was covered in a vibrant green carpet, frosted
with snow in patches.
    The fort sat at the mouth
of Moray Firth. The brochure explained that the site had been
constructed after the last Jacobite uprising, when the Highland
clans fought their final battles against the English. It had been
used as a garrison ever since, overseeing sea access to Inverness
eleven miles away.
    Jo would have loved this
place. Maybe Hamish had taken her there, who knew? She hadn’t heard
a peep from her all day.
    Lovie snapped as many
photos as she could, kicking herself for not bringing her big
camera. Her little point-and-shoot had decent quality, but she
suffered from serious lens envy when Duff unpacked his Canon
5D.
    Despite not living in the
area anymore, Duff seemed to know everyone. He had no trouble
convincing the desk guard to let them wander the premises
unescorted. They walked around, stopping occasionally to shoot,
speaking only in the hushed tones that the place
demanded.
    The more time Lovie spent
with Duff, the more intrigued she was. He could go from jerk to
gentleman in less than a second. And talk about hard to
read.
    She’d always considered
herself a master at figuring people out. If she had to guess, she’d
have said that whatever he was hiding had something to do with his
family. He clearly loved Ginny - who wouldn’t? And he mentioned his
mother often enough but completely clammed up when she asked about
his father.
    Sometimes the best way to
solve a mystery was to ask the right questions.
    “ So, has the B&B
always been in your family?”
    He paused, mid-focus, and
turned to look at her, frowning. Okay, so her question was a little
out of the blue, but the B&B was a good intro.
    Duff resumed shooting
along the fort’s stone wall. “Me gran and granda opened it after
the war. It was the only one in Inverness, for a time .”
    “ She invited me and Jo to
move over there for the rest of our stay.”
    He chuckled. “Aye, well,
she loves havin’ the place full up, ye ken.” He followed the
flight of a bird with his lens before taking a few shots. “Business
hasna been so good of late.”
    “ Oh no!” Lovie turned to
face him. “It’s such a lovely little place. If it had been closer
to town, we would have booked our stay there.”
    He nodded, smiling
conspiratorially. “To tell the truth, I’m kinda glad things have
been slow. Gran’s not as spry as she used to be, though dinna tell
‘er I said so. She’ll box my ears.”
    Lovie laughed. “Was your
mom anything like Ginny?”
    “ Me ma? She was a wee
fragile thing.” His thumb stroked his full bottom lip. “Beautiful
and kind,” he added. “But fragile. Her strength was different than
Gran’s, ye ken. She was witty. Resourceful.” She could see his love
for his mother in his eyes.
    Duff had impossibly
beautiful eyes. The color wasn’t unusual, not for a shallow