Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 102731 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 514(@200wpm)___ 411(@250wpm)___ 342(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102731 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 514(@200wpm)___ 411(@250wpm)___ 342(@300wpm)
Mine forever.
I couldn’t wait for forever to start.
One
LEWIS
PRESENT DAY
London, UK
There were people here I didn’t even know.
The hotel’s roof terrace was packed with familiar and not-so-familiar faces. I’d put the latter down to my wee sister Eilidh, who’d gained a number of so-called friends since she’d had success acting in a popular British dramedy. We’d both ended up in London, and in an effort to prove she wasn’t being sucked into the world of celebrity—that family was still the most important thing to her—Eilidh had insisted on throwing me a graduation party.
After seven long years, I was finally a qualified architect. Just like my dad.
I turned my head and locked eyes with the man I’d probably always hero-worship. I didn’t think that was a bad thing. To respect and admire my father. If my future kids felt the same way about me as I felt about Thane Adair, I’d die a happy man.
Dad stood drinking a glass of champagne with my stepmum, Regan. They’d been married for so long and had given me and Eilidh our wee sister, Morwenna, that Regan would always be Mum to me.
A hard hand clapped my shoulder, and my fellow graduates Gary and Sean suddenly appeared in front of me. “Mate, your sister knows how to throw a party,” Gary said, stuffing a canapé into his mouth. “She said after the free food and champagne, we’re all hitting the nightclub in the basement of the hotel. Is she single, your sister?”
I gave him a flat smile before replying blandly, “Touch my sister, and I’ll fucking end you before you’ve ever truly gotten a chance to begin.”
Gary raised an eyebrow. “What is it with you Scotsmen and your bloodlust?”
“I think it’s more he doesn’t want a lecherous bastard like you near Eilidh,” Sean offered dryly.
In answer, Gary’s searching gaze moved through the crowd toward my parents. “So, I take it that means I’m also not allowed to say that Lewis’s mother is a smoke show? Seriously, Lew … if the phrase MILF had a spokesperson, your mum would be it.”
An old irritation sizzled in my gut. For years back home, kids had teased me about my mum. She was younger than Dad. So they teased me about that, about how attractive she was. In high school, they’d said some repulsive things, and Callie had often talked me down from retaliating. I soon learned she was right. The more I reacted, the more they did it. Gary, unfortunately, was one of those.
I took a sip of my beer. “I dare you to say that in front of my dad.”
“Protective is he?” Gary’s attention flickered to Dad.
“Understatement.”
“Yes, well, I’d be protective of that prime piece—”
Sean smacked our mutual acquaintance across the back of the head. “Where are your fucking manners, man?”
Gary winced. “Bloody hell, I was joking.”
I sighed wearily. For most of my life, I’d been impatient with guys like Gary. I think I came out of my mother’s womb as a forty-year-old. My birth mum, Francine, died not long after Eilidh was born, so I wasn’t even three yet. I couldn’t remember a thing about her. All I knew of her were photographs that revealed a woman who had given me and Eilidh dark hair in a sea of blond Adairs. And the stories Dad had told us whenever we asked. Even from those, I couldn’t discern what else I’d gotten from Francine.
I knew for a fact I’d gotten my seriousness from my dad.
It wasn’t that I didn’t know how to have fun or laugh.
But the things most lads my age found funny, I found stupid and immature. It had made me feel like an outsider most of the time. The only people I’d never felt that way with were my best friend Fyfe … and Callie. And my family, of course.
Yet I was truly considering staying in London and joining the same architectural firm as Gary? We’d both done our last two years of practical experience at Wyatt, Johnson, and Baird, a prestigious firm that had won two RIBA (Royal Institute for British Architects) awards last year. They’d offered us both a position, which we hadn’t expected. We’d been in low-key competition for what we thought was one spot.
The thought of seeing Gary day in and day out irritated me.
But it was more than that.
Unbelievably … I was homesick.
And I had been for a long time.
As if he sensed I needed a rescue, my dad led Mum over to us.
Sean tapped Gary on the arm. “Let’s grab another drink.”
I thanked my friend with a nod. Sean I would miss because he was taking a position at a firm in Manchester.
My dad was only a few inches shorter than me, and he wrapped his arm around my shoulders. “So proud of you, Lew.”
“Thanks.” I patted him on the back and then leaned down to kiss my mum’s proffered cheek. “Where’s Morwenna?”