Can't Tie Me Down! (Sinclair Sisters 1)

get over here.”

There was silence, and then a booming “Now!”

“Who’s that?” Keir shot Mairi a look.

“Donna’s boss.”

“Duncan Stewart is here? I thought he was a hermit.”

“Recluse. Bad-tempered recluse. But he’ll sort them out. Bossy is his middle name.”

Mairi tuned out the noise above them and focused on the man sitting under her. “Quite an adventure, eh?”

His lips twitched, and his eyes darkened. “Not the kind we’d planned to have, but not a bad effort.”

Mairi felt a pang at the memory of all the plans they’d made together. Dreams woven late at night as though they’d been telling each other secrets.

“Mairi, you okay?” His voice was gentle and made her feel vulnerable. Something she just couldn’t bear.

She squared her shoulders and pretended that those plans had meant nothing to her. “Definitely not as good as the plan to walk the Inca Trail.”

“Or as exotic as the plan to ride the Orient Express.”

“Or as dangerous as swimming with sharks off the coast of Australia.”

“Or as fun as joining a nudist retreat in Alaska.”

They grinned at each other, but it felt sad. These were the plans they’d made together, the dreams they’d had as a couple. They were going to travel the world and blog about it, hopefully making enough money from the blog to carry on travelling indefinitely.

“It can still happen,” Keir whispered. “We can still do it.”

For a moment, a burst of hope seared through her, and then reality hit. How could she rely on him when it was just the two of them in some far-off country? She hadn’t been able to rely on him in Scotland, when she was surrounded by family and had people she could fall back on. No, there would be no travelling with Keir.

Gingerly, she climbed off his lap. “I’m not into that anymore,” she lied.

“I saw the guidebooks on your nightstand,” Keir said.

Mairi focused on the water beneath them. “Thanks for reminding me. They’ve been sitting there for months, waiting for me to drop them off at the secondhand shop. I really should get that done.”

Whatever he was about to say was lost when a red nylon rope with a harness attached, snaked down the cliff and landed beside them. They looked up in time to see one of the twins—Darius, by the looks of his Coldplay t-shirt and faded jeans—come rappelling down to meet them. He walked down the cliff, releasing his rope a bit at a time, as though he’d done the same thing a thousand times. Once beside them, he stopped, his feet still on the cliff, and grinned.

“Pity I’m not in the running for this marriage thing,” he said. “Because I’ve got a feeling a rescue would take me to the top of the list.”

“Tell her it was my idea,” his twin, Damien, shouted from the top of the bluff.

“You abseil?” Mairi gawked at him.

“Yup, and canoe, ski, play soccer—normal guy stuff. Which I drag my brother along to, because if I didn’t, he’d end up a sad geek cliché by the time he turns thirty.”

“Tell her I can abseil too,” Damien shouted.

Darius cocked an eyebrow and flashed a dazzling grin. “The genius half of this duo can abseil too.”

“No kidding. I would never have known.” Mairi grinned back, and there was a growling sound behind her.

“Are we getting out of here or what?” Keir said.

Darius looked between them as his eyes twinkled. “Oh, it’s like that, is it? Does the Big Bang cast up there know about you two?”