“I bet.” Cam smirked as she approached with a laden plate in hand. She set it down in front of Harper with a knife and fork. “Enjoy!”
Harper wanted to, but one look at it suggested she might not. Something that resembled grey mince sat next to her scrambled eggs.
“Erm, what’s that there?” She sniffed it curiously. It smelled like seasoned meat, but not any she was used to.
“Haggis!” Cam said cheerfully. “It’s not a traditional Scottish brekkie without it!”
“Oh…” Harper swallowed the bile rising in her throat. She might have liked the sound of it if she didn’t know what, exactly, haggis was. She’d always thought the dish was a cliché that most Scots didn’t truly enjoy. Clearly here, she would get the full Highland experience. “Thank you,” she forced out, taking her cutlery.
“Not a problem. Let me know if I can help with anything else.”
As soon as Cam disappeared into the back room behind the counter, Harper nudged the rest of the food away from the haggis, wishing Bernard was here to eat it for her. She didn’t want to seem rude or… anti-Scottish. If somebody came to Manchester and didn’t eat gravy or curry on their cheesy chips,she would find it very offensive, but there was a difference between chip shop sauces and sheep’s organs.
Thankfully, the rest of the meal was delicious, from the creamy scrambled eggs sprinkled with ground pepper to toast with lashings of butter. She continued scrolling through Pinterest as she chewed her crispy bacon.
How was she going to do this?
She must have been staring at the document for a while, because Cam eventually returned to hover over her. “Struggling?”
Harper grimaced. “I’ve come to realise that I don’t actually know what to write about.”
“Maybe you just need some inspiration. You’ll find plenty round these parts. Here.” She plucked a pamphlet from the otherwise bare cork board by the door and stuck it in front of her. It was titledThings to Do in Belbarrow and Beyondand displayed the forest in all of its autumnal glory. After her nightmarish trek through it, Harper was no longer fooled by the aesthetic. “Angus offers boat trips around the loch, so you could start there. There’s some gorgeous scenery, and I know there are a few hiking groups around the village. Also, some castle ruins are not far from here, but you’d have to go by car.”
Boats. Hiking. Castle ruins. All things that were decidedly outdoors.
But she wasn’t getting any inspiration from sitting inside, eating foods she’d tasted before and avoiding anything unknown.
“Write what you know” was advice she’d heard often. Harper knew nothing at the moment, not about the big wide world. She knew how to design a website for a client. How to hook customers in with a social media campaign.
She didnotknow how to be an author. Not yet.
Harper stabbed her fork into her haggis and decided that it was time for change.
9
Fraser frowned as he stepped into the café, just a fraction later than most would consider lunchtime. Harper was not there…
But his sister was.
“Cam?” He marched over to the counter, baffled. “I thought you weren’t coming back ’till next week.”
Cam looked perfectly comfortable, albeit exhausted, behind the display of cakes and sandwiches. The café was completely empty, but worry gnawed at him all the same. It only felt like a few days ago when she’d been in the hospital, recovering from her emergency C-section with a newborn latched onto her. Why hadn’t she told him she was coming back to work?
“Oh, no. You’ve got that look,” Cam said, chewing on the end of her pen.
“What look?”
“The ‘I’m about to be insufferably overprotective’ look.” She leaned over the counter and poked his chest. “Alice came down with the flu, and I was getting cabin fever anyway, so Sorcha and I agreed it was time.”
He ignored her first comment. It wouldn’t be the first or last time his sisters had accused him of being too protective, but someone had to be. After their dad abandoned them, he’d shouldered the responsibility as best a thirteen-year-old boy could. Sought to protect them from any more hurt. And the scare Cam had experienced, with a heavy bleed during the surgery, had only made him worse. Things could go wrong so quickly. If Cam wasn’t ready to come back to work—
“Ow!” Fraser exclaimed when Cam flicked his forehead roughly.
“You’re still doing it! Stop!” Cam ordered. “I’m fine!”
He huffed, glaring as he rubbed away the sting of her long nails. “Well, I’m glad you are. Who’s watching Isla and Archie?” Sorcha was already back working long hours as a home care nurse. Fraser didn’t know how they did it between them.
“Nobody,” Cam deadpanned. “Left them at home all alone.”
