Secrets at the Loch (Loch Lannick #5) - Hannah Ellis Page 0,14

“I have to be up for work in the morning.”

“Come on,” Elspeth coaxed. “We hardly ever all go out together.”

“I don’t want to be hungover at work tomorrow.”

“I’m not going either,” Nick said. “Nights out are a bit out of my budget at the moment.”

“You’ve got to come,” Meghan said. “I’ll buy you a drink.”

He smiled lightly. “Thanks, but I want to be up early so I can get some work done on the house.”

“Rory will be ten minutes,” Elspeth said excitedly as she read a message on her phone.

“One more drink here then?” Logan held up his empty bottle.

Nick headed for the kitchen and came back with beers for anyone who wasn’t driving. When Meghan hovered beside the couch, Lexie shuffled over to make room for her.

“Sorry about your gran,” she said as Meghan sat down. The rest of them had split off into their own conversations.

“Thanks.” There was a flash of sadness in Meghan’s eyes and Lexie felt sorry for her. “I think clearing out her house is going to be a bigger job than I thought.”

“It’s good that you’ve got your parents to help you with it.”

“They went back to London,” she said, the sadness in her eyes giving way to anger. “They wanted to hire a clearance company. I couldn’t stand the thought of someone else going through her things.”

Lexie nodded and took a long swig of her beer. “That must be hard.”

“Sorry,” she said, shaking her head lightly. “I’m a barrel of laughs, aren’t I?”

They switched their attention to Alasdair, who was telling them about writing another song for Ghost Moon. Apparently the band had asked him and Leana to fly down to London next time they were there. After their tour of America they were now popular over there too and were currently residing in California.

“Why don’t you fly out to California?” Lexie asked. “That’s way better than London.”

“It’s a long flight,” Leana said.

Alasdair wrapped an arm around her shoulders and gave her a squeeze. “This one’s a big scaredy cat.”

“I’m sure California’s overrated anyway,” Leana said. “But we also recently spent a load of money on a house that’s far too big for us! We can’t afford holidays.”

“The house is the perfect size,” Alasdair said, amused.

“Have you got snacks?” Elspeth asked, looking to Nick.

“I try to avoid keeping food in that kitchen,” he replied. “But I might have some crisps or something.” When he walked out of the room, Elspeth followed him.

Conversation flowed around Lexie. She wasn’t feeling sociable and was looking forward to crawling into bed. After a few minutes, she got up and wandered to the kitchen.

“What happened to Elspeth?” she asked Nick, who was shaking a packet of crisps into a bowl.

“She went outside to snog Rory on the front path.” He held out the bowl and she took a crisp.

“Nice of her to spare us from that sight.”

He put a crisp in his mouth and crunched loudly. “I thought so.”

The door burst open and Elspeth walked in with Rory, who greeted them cheerfully.

“Are you really not coming to Portree?” Elspeth asked, looking from Lexie to Nick.

“I’m going home,” Lexie said, taking another crisp.

Elspeth stuck her head into the hallway, shouting that they were ready to go.

“Are you sure you won’t come with us?” Leana asked Lexie amid a rush of goodbyes and everyone filing out of the door.

“No. I’m not in the mood for it. We should go out just the two of us sometime.” They didn’t often do that any more. Mostly they saw each other in the pub when they were working together or when they passed each other at shift change.

“That sounds good,” Leana said, then gave her a quick squeeze before following the rest of them outside.

Nick offered her the crisps when they were left alone in the quiet kitchen. “Want the full tour?” he asked, tipping his head towards the hallway.

She nodded and followed him out of the kitchen, taking her half-full bottle of beer with her. The stairs creaked, but the ornate wooden bannister would probably make a charming feature once the rest of the place had been fixed up.

“This will be a guest room,” Nick said as they stood in the doorway to a large bedroom at the front of the house. Beside it was a smaller room, piled high with moving boxes. “That one will probably end up a junk room forever,” he said as Lexie glanced into it. Moving back along the hall, he indicated a closed door. “Bathroom’s in