Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 109783 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 549(@200wpm)___ 439(@250wpm)___ 366(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109783 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 549(@200wpm)___ 439(@250wpm)___ 366(@300wpm)
“For the past few years, your light has dimmed, and I’ve worried every day that the longer I left you to try to figure things out that I would lose you. That you would lose you.” His voice was gruff with emotion. “So as hard as it was to watch you admit everything you were feeling, as hard as it was to hear how you saw yourself, I’m glad it happened. I’m glad it led to this moment so you can hear about who you really are and hopefully really hear it, Eilidh.”
I swiped at my tears and my now running nose. “Thank you, Daddy,” I whispered. “I love you.”
“I love you more than you’ll ever know, my sweet girl,” he replied hoarsely.
Everyone was at Mum and Dad’s the night before the wedding, so Dad waited patiently in the car for me to fix my makeup before we entered the house. I felt overwhelming love from my family as they all got up to welcome me home.
Uncle Lachlan’s and Uncle Brodan’s hugs were the tightest. “How’s my Eilidh?” Uncle Lachlan asked, not letting me go as I pulled back because he was searching my face, as if he could find the truth for himself. Uncle Brodan stood pressed to his brother’s side, his expression just as probing.
Uncle Lachlan was the first of us Adairs to hit Hollywood. He kind of fell into acting and became an action movie star. That life wasn’t for him, though, so he retired in his midthirties, took the money he’d earned and wisely invested, and created a proposal to turn our family’s ancestral castle and estate into the successful members-only club it was now. He and my uncle Brodan also owned Ardnoch Whisky, one of the most popular whisky distilleries in Scotland. Along the way, he’d married my aunt Robyn, a badass ex-cop from Boston. She was his best friend and the once estranged daughter of Lachlan’s bodyguard, Mac Galbraith. It was very complicated, but Lachlan and Robyn fell madly in love while Robyn was helping to catch the person who’d begun stalking Uncle Lachlan and terrorizing the estate.
Through Robyn, Regan arrived and, of course, Dad fell in love with her, despite the age gap. Thank goodness. Regan was the best mum anyone could ask for.
As for Uncle Brodan, he followed Uncle Lachlan into show business but had become a far more critically acclaimed actor. He’d stayed away from the family for years, and when I was little, I remembered him as the charming, funny uncle I only got to see on special occasions. While he did enjoy acting, he missed his siblings and Ardnoch. When the woman he’d loved and lost as a teen returned to Ardnoch to teach, Uncle Brodan could resist the pull of home no longer.
He and my aunt Monroe fell back in love so quickly, she was pregnant by the end of their first year together. Uncle Brodan, who was already burned out by this point, retired from acting and started managing the whisky distillery.
My dad had gone to them about my breakdown and my uncles reached out to talk to me. Along with Diana, they were extremely helpful in making me see it was okay to realize that acting wasn’t my ideal career. Uncle Lachlan said if he’d had to deal with social media back when he was acting, he wouldn’t have lasted in the movie industry as long as he did.
That was comforting to know.
Just because I’d always liked attention when I was little didn’t mean I could handle the level that had been thrown at me over the course of the past few years. Plus, when I was a kid, that attention had been positive. As my fame increased, the breadth of the negative attention became a monster in the dark of my mind that I’d kept convincing myself I could fight.
I couldn’t.
And there was no shame in knowing your limits. I understood that now.
My uncles had been in contact with me regularly, checking in, reminding me that I was doing the right thing, and I kicked myself for not going to them sooner.
“I’m all good,” I promised them, beaming.
Whatever they saw in my smile made them relax.
“Aye.” Uncle Lachlan cupped my face. “There’s my Eilidh.”
Embracing my family was easy.
Fyfe, not so much.
Seeing him there, looking handsome in the black suit pants and dark cashmere sweater that molded to his strong physique, my pulse fluttered. Though I’d responded to his texts lately, I hadn’t encouraged a return to our old friendship. Fyfe had no idea how I felt about him, and I couldn’t punish him for reacting the way he had to our kiss.
I’d decided to be kinder to him, but for the sake of my heart to keep him at a distance.
We hugged, but I released him quickly, not wanting to feel him against me.