Page 4 of Highland Hearts Holiday Bookshop
“Bland is boring.” Jessica put her hands on her hips and glowered down at me. “When are you going to give love a chance? Real, honest, earth-shaking love? Because you just broke up with a boyfriend and barely batted an eye as he left the building. I don’t even see a sheen of tears there.”
I squinched up my face and tried to pretend I was sad.
“Don’t even try.” Jessica pointed a finger at me. “You need to get over your hang-ups about love. The right man is going to make you revise your opinion.”
“Love is for my romance novels, Jess. Not for me.”
“You can’t keep letting your mother’s choices determine your path.”
“Hardly,” I scoffed, grabbing a throw pillow to hug at my chest. My mother was flighty, irresponsible, and fell in love with someone new every week. I’d had a revolving door of stepfathers before I could even crawl. “Maybe I’m just waiting for my knight in shining armor.”
“Well, you’re sure as hell not finding him at Davidson’s Discount Store. Now, do you think you can have a drink? This calls for a celebration, and I brought G&Ts.”
“I don’t have a concussion and I don’t have to work tomorrow, so I don’t see why not.”
“Even better. I’ll get glasses. I brought supplies with me just in case you needed it, unlike your dumbass ex-boyfriend. God, I love saying that. Ex-boyfriend. Finally! Oh, by the way, I brought your mail because there was an envelope too big to fit in your mailbox. What did you order from Scotland?”
“Scotland?” I sat up from where I’d reclined on the couch and gingerly took the ice pack off my eye. “Nothing that I know of.”
“There’s an important looking mailer from Scotland with your name on it.”
“No kidding?” I pursed my lips, thinking. “My mother’s side has some family in Scotland, if I remember correctly. But otherwise, not much that I can think of.”
“One way to find out.” Jessica plopped on the couch next to me, wincing as she looked at my face. “I’m going to suggest you don’t go out in public for a while.”
“That bad?” I sighed.
“I mean, it’s not great. We can try some makeup on it tomorrow.” She handed me an icy gin and tonic and then bent over to pick up the envelope off the coffee table. Depositing it on my lap, she clinked her glass against mine.
“What are we celebrating? Me losing my job or me getting a gigantic black eye?” I touched it gently, wincing at the pain that ran down my face.
“To new beginnings.”
“I’ll take it. To new beginnings.” I took a sip of the cocktail before handing it back to her and lifting the envelope. “Hmm. Hefty. I wonder what this is.”
“One way to find out.”
I ripped the top off the envelope and slid a thick stack of papers out that looked a lot like a contract. Squinting, I tried to make sense of the words.
“Here, you read it. It’s hard to focus with just one eye. I think this is from a solicitor.”
“Ohhh, the plot thickens.” Jessica grabbed the papers and began to read out loud.
“‘Dear Ms. Withers?—’”
“Oh jeez, that sounds so formal.”
“‘We are writing today to inform you of an inheritance.’”
Jessica and I both squealed.
“A what?” I gasped.
“Your great-aunt Moira MacDouglas has left you her bookshop in Kingsbarns, along with a yearly stipend to operate it. To claim your inheritancein full, and to have the property transferred to your name, you’ll need to run the bookshop for one full year of operations. Please contact me after you have reviewed the enclosed contracts and advise on your decision regarding this inheritance. Should you choose to not accept it, we’ll move on to next of kin.”
“Holy shit,” I breathed, dropping my head back on the couch, my heart pounding in my chest.
A year in Scotland.