Secrets at the Loch (Loch Lannick #5) - Hannah Ellis Page 0,13
the state of the rest of the place it will be somewhere towards the bottom of my list of improvements.” He stood at a knock at the door and went to answer it.
Lexie glanced around the room, trying to figure out who was missing. “Who else is coming?”
“Meghan,” Elspeth said.
“She’s still here?” Lexie asked in surprise.
Elspeth nodded. “She’s sorting through her gran’s house.”
“Oh my goodness.” Meghan clapped her hands to her cheeks as she walked into the living room. “It’s gorgeous.”
Everyone stared at her as her eyes darted around the room and she smiled in delight. “You must be so pleased with it,” she said to Nick.
He stood beside her and did a quick sweep of the room as though trying to see what she was seeing. “It needs some work,” he said.
She puffed out a breath and waved a hand in front of her face. “That’s just cosmetic. It’s got so much potential.”
“I think so too,” Logan said. “Some of us clearly have a better eye for these things than others.”
“Sorry,” Meghan said quickly before wishing Logan a happy birthday. She let out a little laugh and said hello to the room at large as though she’d only just noticed they were there.
“Do you want a drink?” Nick asked her.
“Yes! But first I want the tour.” She clamped her hands on Nick’s shoulders and marched him out of the room. “Show me around.”
“Is it me or is she a bit more manic than usual?” Logan said quietly as Meghan’s voice receded up the stairs.
“She’s upset about her gran,” Elspeth said. “I think a night out will do her good.”
“Talking of nights out,” Logan said, dipping his eyebrows as he looked at Lexie, “I heard you were dancing on tables in the Merchant Bar recently.”
“What?” she asked, feigning ignorance and wondering how he could possibly have heard about her night with Ruth. Surely Nick hadn’t been gossiping about her.
“I took Jasper to the vet for his check-up and your friend mentioned you’d had a wild night out.”
Elspeth laughed and turned to Logan. “Are you still not allowed to say Ruth’s name? You only went on one date with her, didn’t you? And that was ages ago.”
“He didn’t go on any dates with her,” Isla said flatly. “Did you?”
“No,” Logan said, glaring at Elspeth. “Why did you change the subject? I really wanted to hear about Lexie dancing on the bar.”
“Were you?” Elspeth asked Lexie.
“No.” At least she didn’t think she had been. She winced as the memory came back to her.
“Aww.” Leana tilted her head. “Drunk Lexie came out to play? You never get drunk any more.”
“I wasn’t …” Denying it was a bit ridiculous, and it wasn’t as though anyone knew how her wild night ended. Not that she cared what anyone thought. At the creak of floorboards overhead, she raised her eyes to the ceiling. “How big is the upstairs?” she asked. “Surely it can’t take that long to show Meghan around.”
Logan quirked an eyebrow. “They’re probably having sex.”
Elspeth and Leana laughed while Isla gave Logan a playful slap on his thigh. “Shut up!”
“What?” he said, chuckling. “She clearly fancies him.”
“I don’t think she does,” Elspeth said.
Lexie’s eyes ping-ponged between them, trying to gauge what everyone thought on the matter.
“They’d make a great couple.” Logan paused and took a swig of his beer. “They’re both a bit weird and geeky.”
“Meghan’s not weird,” Elspeth said defensively. Lexie opened her mouth to mention that Nick wasn’t either but decided to keep quiet. Surely Meghan was only on Skye temporarily anyway.
“I can’t imagine them together,” Alasdair said.
Leana looked up at him, intrigued. “Why not?”
“Their personalities are too similar. They’d clash.”
As the stairs groaned and Meghan’s voice got louder again, the room fell silent.
“I’m very jealous,” Meghan announced, not noticing the hush in the room. “It’s a gorgeous house.”
“Anyone want another drink?” Nick asked.
Logan shuffled to pull his phone out of his pocket. “Can we go into Portree soon? The smell’s getting to me. And I arranged to meet up with some of the rugby crowd. They want to know what time we’ll be out.”
“We can’t go until Rory gets here,” Elspeth said.
“Is he in Lannick?” Lexie asked. Rory was currently living in Edinburgh but was a teacher so came up during school holidays as well as the occasional weekend visit.
“He’s on his way up for the weekend. It’s Arran’s birthday tomorrow, remember?”