Page 126 of Scotch on the Rocks

Sighing heavily, I pulled out my phone, already craving Juniper’s voice. She’d ease all my worries with a single sarcastic comment.

It buzzed in my hand, “voice note from Juniper” flashing across the screen. Pressing play, I put it to my ear, already grinning with anticipation.

“You left early this morning.” Her sultry voice made me shiver.

I hit her number.

It didn’t even take two rings for the line to connect. “Macabe.” She spoke my name breathily andfuck… I was instantly hard.

“Some of us can’t laze around all morning,” I said without preamble. “Besides, you and Shakespeare looked so cute snuggled up, I didn’t want to disturb you.”

“The little arsehole is actually starting to grow on me.”

I laughed, imagining the adorable as fuck frown she wore whenever Shakespeare offered affection. “I think she wants the full Juniper Ross experience.”

She laughed too and it lit up my insides. “Callum?”

“Aye, sweetheart?”

“You forgot to ask which colour today.”

My hand curled around the phone, barely stifling my groan. I swear this woman would be the death of me. “What colour?”

“None.”

I was already reaching for my keys, swinging the surgery door open with a crash that made Kelly jump. “I’m taking a long lunch.” I didn’t pause for her acknowledgement, ducking out onto the high street and turning my attention back to Juniper. “Don’t hang up the phone and get back into bed.”

“Already there,” she hummed and I picked up my pace. “I’ve just been waiting for you.”

Epilogue

Five Months Later

Juniper

“I think they kind of hate each other.” Legs crossed at the ankle, I watched Shakespeare stalk the perimeter of Simon’s enclosure like a panther. Wrapped in only a towel and still slick from the shower, Callum crouched beside me, flashing an exquisitely muscled thigh through the slit.

Ah, thank the mother for shinty season.

“Tease,” I muttered, fully ogling him.

He winked, dragging me into his lap. And like an absolute love-sick arsehole, I went willingly, releasing something that sounded suspiciously like a sigh.

His arms tucked around my middle, holding me to his damp chest. “Everyone’s still alive, aren’t they? The transition is following the plan perfectly.”The plan. How could I forget?

Callum had spent weeks researching and then forming the perfect twelve steps to introduce the two animals, including a daily behaviour chart he’d taped to the fridge. These two needed to get along if I was to move into Callum’s place permanently – which he wanted sooner ratherthan later. He was slowly relocating all my skull-shaped mugs. They sat like little hostages in his kitchen cupboards.

What’s yours is mine, harpy, we are married after all, he just loved to remind me whenever I tried to steal them back. Not that we’d shared that information with anyone outside this room.

It had been a whim on a random Tuesday last month when we’d taken an overnight trip to Inverness, like all island folk did every now and again to pick up supplies not readily available in our wee stores. As our first technical “couple trip” – even if it was only Inverness – Callum had gone all out. A romantic dinner followed by an outrageous hotel room overlooking the river. I’d taken one look at the claw-foot tub and rose-petal-scattered bed and said, “We should get married today.”

Callum had brought me swiftly back down to earth. Lounging across the bed like a king, he’d reminded me that no council would offer a same day or even next day wedding licence. Yet, he hadn’t attempted to disguise the hope in his eyes, or the quiver to his lower lip, when he’d asked in his next breath if I’d consider handfasting with him.

“… it’s an archaic practice and in no way legally binding … but I won’t lie, I love the idea of tying myself to you in every possible sense.”

Who the hell could say no to that?

He’d practically leapt from the bed, dragging us both to our knees on the soft rug before the fireplace. Extracting the long tie from the fluffy hotel robe, Callum had looped our crossed hands together with the infinity knot.

---