Total pages in book: 20
Estimated words: 19091 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 95(@200wpm)___ 76(@250wpm)___ 64(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 19091 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 95(@200wpm)___ 76(@250wpm)___ 64(@300wpm)
“It wasn’t?”
I leaned against the kitchen counter as Haydyn cleaned up. “She tried at first … to forget. But about a month later, she told me she had to let me go. She was too embarrassed and I think afraid I’d tell her husband. She offered to give me a good reference in exchange for leaving quietly.”
Haydyn stopped loading the dishwasher and straightened. “Wow.”
“Between that and the fact that I was fresh in my grief, I came here for a change of scenery.”
“Has it helped?”
I lowered my gaze. “I’m feeling things here I didn’t think I would ever have space to feel again after losing my parents.” I looked away. “But it hasn’t been all roses. Una’s an awful roommate, and my friends back in Inverness seem to have forgotten I exist. I have some family back in Aberdeen. Una’s mum, an uncle… but they were pretty awful after my parents died because they expected an inheritance. Everything got left to me, and I’ve had a few texts and calls asking for money.”
“I’m sorry.”
I looked at him. “Money really brings out the worst in some folks.”
He nodded and settled against the counter beside me, our arms brushing as he crossed his over his chest. “Can I tell you something very few people know?”
“Of course. I’m a vault.” Pleasure filled me at the thought that Haydyn trusted me so much.
He stared out of the main picture window that captured the trees surrounding the drive up to the house, and I recognized the grief in his eyes. “My parents divorced when I was fourteen, and my parents agreed that I’d live with my dad most of the time. I spent the summers with my mum and they alternated the holidays … but it was mostly Dad and me. I adored him.” He gave me a pained smile. “About a year after Michael was born, with Deena gone, we were living with my dad so he could help out with his grandson. And … he won the Euromillions Lottery.”
Shock froze me.
That was not what I’d expected him to say.
Haydyn glanced at me. “We didn’t tell anyone except his financial advisors, bank, etc. We went on a fancy cruise together with Michael, and Dad bought the car of his dreams but kept it at a garage where no one knew him.”
“Because he knew everyone would come out of the woodwork looking for money?”
“Exactly. So …” Grief tightened his expression. “When he died suddenly the next year, and he’d left every penny to me … I decided not to tell anyone.”
I gaped at him, everything making sense. “Why are you telling me?”
“So you know you’re not alone. Keep your inheritance to yourself as much as possible, Kenna. Money does strange things to people, and you’ve already seen a glimmer of that. I mean, my mum doesn’t know Dad won the Euromillions, but she knows he left me money. She makes snide wee comments now and then about how she spent years with him and got nothing … even though I paid off her mortgage with my inheritance. Sometimes, for some people … it’s never enough.”
I couldn’t help myself. I reached out to curl my hand over his forearm. “I’m sorry, Haydyn. That you lost your dad too. He sounds like he was a good man.” Tears spilled down my cheeks as I thought of my parents. My parents who I’d run every life decision past, who I still went on holidays with … my parents had been my best friends and the two people in the world who made me a priority. Losing them was like losing a huge chunk of who I was. “I miss my mum and dad so much.”
“Kenna.” Haydyn turned and pulled me into his arms. His embrace was tight, comforting as I cried against his throat. “I’ve got you,” he whispered hoarsely. “You’re all right.”
Three
Haydyn
Present day
The snow was sticking.
It coated the roofs of the quaint buildings on Castle Street, dusted car hoods, and sprinkled over fences and walls. Powdery whiteness lightly covered the cobblestones and pavements. The old-fashioned Victorian-style streetlights had come on, and it felt very much like we were just an hour’s snowfall away from being in a Dickens novel.
Kenna drove away two minutes ago, and I was still staring after her. Yes, I’d been avoiding her, and yes, I should keep avoiding her …
I glanced up at the sky, at the snowfall that looked nowhere close to stopping.
“Did you see the news?”
The male voice brought my gaze down, and I locked eyes with an older male villager. I shook my head. “Not yet.”
He pointed upward. “This came out of nowhere, but they say it’s going to snow from now until tomorrow evening. We’ll be lucky if we can get out our front doors by the time it stops.”