Page 6 of Wild Scottish Love

“Och, that’s not good. How’d the talk come about this time?” I asked, easing my bag from my shoulder when we reached my ball. I fished around for the club I wanted, and drew it out, pausing when I caught the odd look exchanged between Graham and Lachlan again. “What’s that look about?”

“Right, so, what if the Kelpies were real?” Graham asked, rocking back on his heels as he studied me. I barked out a laugh and shook my head, knowing how Graham liked to have a joke at my expense.

“Santa Claus, too, right?” I shook my head and took my shot, amusement drifting through me. I wished I had more time to see Lachlan and Graham, as I had very few close friends who were willing to banter with me. Mainly due to my debilitating shyness, which I’d worked for years to overcome. While it still surfaced occasionally these days, if I stuck to talking about subjects I was knowledgeable in, like gin, I often could break through that barrier. With Graham and Lachlan, I could be myself, and that was just one of the reasons I was interested in building in Loren Brae. “Or has Santa himself brought the Kelpies? Rode them in on a rough winter’s day and now the beasts are raging that he’s gone back to the North Pole without them?”

“I wish that were the case,” Graham said, an odd look on his face. “As I’d dearly love to meet the old lad. And as much as we like to take the piss out of you, Lachlan speaks the truth of it. The Kelpies are back. It’s not a myth, laddie. They’re real.”

“Wait.” I grabbed Lachlan’s arm and turned my friend to meet his eyes. “You’renottaking the piss? What do you mean the Kelpies are real? I thought…it’s been…” A shiver drifted across my skin, like the kiss of winter’s dawn, and my heart picked up speed.

“Trust me, mate, I had a harder time than any accepting that the beasts were real. Then they tried to kill me. Just like they killed my mum. Can’t really argue with it when you’re staring them in the face, now can you?” Lachlan’s mouth twisted wryly at his words, and I saw the flash of pain behind his eyes. In all the years I’d known Lachlan, he’d rarely spoken of his mother’s death, so for him to bring it up now meant that he was serious.

“Och, and you’re just dropping this on me now? After all this time?” Hurt mixed with confusion. I had to admit, I didn’t like being kept out of the loop. It made me feel left out, just like all the years when my parents had made decisions about my life without any input from me.

“Trust me when I say Ididn’twant to believe it myself, mate,” Lachlan said. “I couldn’t come to terms with it. The Kelpies? Being real? Nope. I absolutely refused to accept it. Because if they were real, well, I’d have to change what I knew about how my mother died and try to avenge her death against, well, magickal beasts. It’s been a process to get here. I wasn’t keeping you out, Munroe. I was hiding from it myself.”

“He’s not lying, either. It took Loren Brae basically closing its doors and the Kelpies screaming in his face for the man to believe. I’ve been after him for a while now to handle it, but…it’s complicated, I guess.” Graham shrugged. “And with his mum? It just didn’t feel like my place to talk about it.”

“I think I need a moment to process.” My thoughts whirled. How could this possibly be true? Yet, the little boy inside of me who’d buried himself in books and found comfort in fantasy worlds full of heroes and dragons stood up and cheered.

“You can have it. It will take more than a moment for Graham to find his ball anyway.”

“Bloody hell,” Graham said as he stomped over to the edge of the woods where we had seen his ball land.

I looked at Lachlan,reallylooked at him, and instantly understood just how uncomfortable this conversation was for him. I’d long known my friend to be an upstanding and honest man. He'd all but declared himself the unofficial mayor of Loren Brae, and I had never once, in all our years of being friends, been given reason to distrust the man. If Lachlan was telling me that the Kelpies were real, then I needed to suspend my disbelief and listen. And, if I was being honest? There was a very tiny, giddy, part of me that dearly hoped this news was real.Kelpies. My day had suddenly taken a very fascinating turn.

“So it wasn’t just a straightforward drowning?” I asked, referring to Lachlan’s mum. His mum had drowned when we were all on the cusp of being teenagers, though I had only ever summered in Loren Brae when my parents had sent me to stay with family. That particular summer had been tough for all of us. Now that my friends had brought it up, the rumor about the Kelpies tickled my mind, and I remembered more than a few fearful nights walking the shores of Loch Mirren, my eyes straining in the strange light of Scottish summer nights that refused to go full dark.

“It appears not.”

There was a wealth of emotions behind Lachlan’s words, and I didn’t know what to say. Instead, I reached over and clapped my friend on the shoulder, and Lachlan nodded his understanding. Sometimes, words weren’t needed.

“Bloody hell,” Graham shouted. The crack of his golf ball ricocheting off a tree reached us.

“He’s really off his game today,” I observed as we walked over to annoy Graham.

“Have you tried not hitting it into a tree?” Lachlan called.

“Or perhaps staying on the fairway?” I offered.

Graham muttered a few choice words and dropped a new ball on the ground.

“You might as well tell us what your news is, Munroe, otherwise this entire morning will be utter shite,” Graham said.

“It might help with your troubles. Might not.” I shifted the golf bag at my shoulder as the first drops of rain that had been threatening all morning splattered at our feet. “I wanted to get your insights on opening a distillery in Loren Brae.”

“No kidding? That’s great news, man.” A smile split Lachlan’s face. “The town could use the boost, and I know more than one person out of a job.”

“Is it the wrong time to build? What with the, um…”

“I mean, it’s not ideal. But distilleries aren’t built in a day. Plus we have a plan to sort the Kelpies out. It turns out there’s an Order that keeps them contained. It’s long been a responsibility of the castle owners to see to it. So, well, we’re seeing to it,” Lachlan said.

My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I pulled it out, only answering it when I saw it was my mother. She rarely called, and worry spiked in my gut.

“Mother? Is something wrong?”

“Certainly not, Munroe. I’m just calling to let you know that I’ve spoken with Cassidy about blocking off the last weekend in September for the Gordons to have their daughter’s wedding at your distillery in Edinburgh. I can’t possibly understand what they see in the place, but they’ve informed me her heart is set on it. Cassidy insisted that she wouldn’t reserve the time until I’d spoken with you.”Impertinent girl. The last bit was left unsaid, but I could hear it in her tone.

I thought you said my little gin business was a disgrace.