Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 116759 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 584(@200wpm)___ 467(@250wpm)___ 389(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116759 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 584(@200wpm)___ 467(@250wpm)___ 389(@300wpm)
See you there.
Not a minute later, Sebastian replied:
Can’t wait.
CHAPTER NINE
LILY
While the flat in Leven Street did feel like our place, stepping into the house I grew up in, in Kirkliston, was truly like coming home. I wondered if it always would or if one day I’d find some place new that made me feel like I was stepping into a warm hug and not merely a building. The village was on the outskirts of Edinburgh, not far from the airport.
Most of our extended family of friends lived in the city, but my parents had opted to move to Kirkliston because they could afford a bigger property farther out. Grandpa Mick, my mum’s dad, moved to a bungalow a street over a few years after we moved. He lived there with Granny Dee, my mum’s stepmother. My dad’s parents, my nana and papa, still lived in Dad’s childhood home in Longniddry. When we were kids, we’d go stay with Nana and Papa for a week during the summer holidays and Jan and I used to love it, not just because they spoiled us, but because they lived near the beach.
To January’s delight, our parents’ best friends, Aunty Jo and Uncle Cam, moved to Kirkliston before their youngest Louis turned five. They wanted more space for their kids Louis and Belle, and since there was only a year between Jan and Belle, the cousins were delighted to be attending the same school. Despite Belle graduating a year before Jan, the two of them were best buddies.
Everyone else, however, lived in or around the city center. Beth and her brother Luke and sister Elle grew up in this amazing Georgian townhouse in New Town with my Aunt Joss and Uncle Braden. Once a month or so, they still invited us all round for Sunday lunch, and I never missed the opportunity if I could. Not just because I loved our big extended family but because I adored that house. That house was Edinburgh goals!
Our house, though, was home.
“It’s me!” I called as I stepped inside. The smell of Mum’s soup hit my nose, and my belly rumbled. No one made veggie soup like Mum.
“In here, Lily-Billy!”
I let out a beleaguered sigh. At least she refrained from calling me that at the university.
Following my nostrils, I walked down the hall and into the new extension Mum and Dad added a few years back. It made for a spectacular kitchen, dining, and living area.
“Aunty Jo!” Happiness lit through me to see Mum’s best friend sitting on a stool at the island.
Jo hopped off said stool to envelop me in a hug. “Lily, it’s been ages, sweetheart.”
Squeezing her tight, I replied, “Too long. You haven’t been to the Sunday dinners at Aunt Joss’s for a while.”
“Work has been crazy,” she told me as I rounded the island to hug Mum. “Things are finally calming down a little.”
Aunt Jo was a highly sought-after painter and decorator. She used to take on any job, but over the last decade she’d started working exclusively with the top interior designers in the country. Sometimes it meant traveling around Scotland.
I nodded as Mum and I hugged. “Where’s everyone?”
“Dad and Uncle Cam are out in Dad’s man cave with Louis watching the game.”
Along with the extension, Dad had a garden pod put in that served as a gym/office/TV room.
“Jan and Belle?”
“Jan’s on her way.”
“Belle is out with her boyfriend,” Jo said with a twist of her lips.
Slipping onto the stool next to her, I carefully asked, “How’s that going?”
“I hate him. He’s every creep I ever dated before I met your Uncle Cam.” Jo shrugged unhappily. “But I know if I keep coming down on him, I’ll only push her away.”
“Jan hates him too,” I told her, sure I wasn’t telling her something Jan wouldn’t happily share herself. Jan had told me he set off her arsehole radar and couldn’t understand why Belle couldn’t see past his pretty-boy face. “She’s not afraid to let Belle know that. Hopefully it’ll sink in soon.”
“I wish Belle was at Edinburgh with Jan. Maybe Jan could knock some sense into her.”
Belle attended Napier University because she wanted to study journalism and it was the top university in Scotland for it. She was in her second year there and had switched from journalism to advertising and public relations.
“Knock some sense into who?” January asked, sauntering into the kitchen. She snapped a huge chunk of the large carrot in her hand and waved it at us. She said something around a mouthful of orange vegetable.
Today she was dressed like Wednesday Addams, if Enid had gotten into her wardrobe. Her bright pink polka-dot dress had a big white Peter Pan collar with the pointed ends, large white cuffs, and straight lines. Black tights, pink patent boots, pink nails with white tips, and pigtails completed the look. January dressed however the hell she liked and always had, and I admired the heck out of her for it. She gave zero effs what anyone thought of her.