A Waltz With Wolves (Book II in The Harrison Inc. Series) | ✓

Chapter Thirty-Three: Stuck In Scotland (Part I)

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As if my life couldn't get any more complicated.

Sebastian and Claude's rental car is unsalvageable. The boys walked outside and tried to see if there was any way they could save the car, but it was completely ruined - as was my hope of getting back to Glasgow.

Now, I'm at the dinner table, picking at my plate with Sebastian Harrison sitting across from me. The entire table is quiet, most likely because a tree just crashed on Sebastian's car outside. It's awkward, to say the least. I can't even manage to look Sebastian in the eye. I don't know if it's because my guilt is eating me apart or because I'm embarrassed that he's actually staying at my grandmother's house in Scotland.

Yes, he and Claude are staying here until we can garner safe passage to Glasgow. What else would come up from my grandmother, the Scottish Queen of Hospitality?

My cousins take the liberty of asking Sebastian a plethora of questions about Hollywood and his life there. His politeness is the crowned jewel of the table; I don't know if he's being nice because it's my family; he has no reason to be this polite. After everything I've done (from spitting on his name at Claire's party to being partly responsible for the destruction of his car), I would expect him to hike down to the village. But he's here, smiling and dismissing their apologies for his car. He can afford to replace it; it's like buying a child's bike, replacing the car for him. But for the Kings, it's the principle. And to make up for this tragedy, they insisted that he and Claude stay at the house.

Granny Fae insisted the most.

The both of them have a couple of day's worth of clothes in their trunk. That's the only good news. The bad news is that we're unsure if the rain is going to let up tomorrow morning. After dinner, Granny Fae hurries to set up Sebastian and Claude's rooms (not mine - I don't even know where I'm sleeping). Everyone is making sure to stay away from my 'woe is me' energy by pretending I'm not even here. I don't blame them. Since I've gotten here, all I've done is sulk in the complicatedness that is my life. Now that Sebastian's here, everything has become even more complicated.

"I've put you two in a room together," Granny Fae tells Sebastian and Claude. "I hope you don't mind."

"Sebastian and I are family," Claude insists, smiling sarcastically. "I don't know if he'll be able to share a bed with me, though."

"You're sleeping on the floor," Sebastian comments. Everyone laughs. Well, everyone except for me. I just use my fork to scrape around the rice on my plate. We all start getting up to retire for the night. I hurry to the kitchen and set my plate into the sink, sighing loudly and closing my eyes. Maybe if I close them tight enough, I'll awake from this nightmare.

"My God," I hear Aunt Judith exclaim. My cousins giggle along with her. "Those are about the most good looking men I've seen in a while, pardon to my husband!"

"I can't believe he's in our house!" Chloe peaks back into the dining room. "You think his cousin is single?"

"I don't know," Granny Fae cuts through their girlish chatter. "But I'm positive that you're not single, Chloe."

They start laughing again. I rinse off my plate and make a beeline to the living room, but Granny Fae stops me halfway.

"Muireall, you haven't looked up since the mess with the car," she tells me. "What's got you troubled?"

"I'm just tired," I say to her. "I expected to be on the road by now, but instead I'm stuck here."

It comes off rude, what I say. But it's true. And the kitchen slowly quiets down when they see my somber mood. All I want to do is hide under the covers and go to sleep for a long time. But I don't know how I'm going to do that, knowing that Sebastian is a couple of rooms away from me.