Before she fell asleep, Hope knew her eleven-year-old sister—dead eleven-year-old sister—would come to her in her dreams that night. Her sister Izzie had visited her on and off for the last seventeen years. But since Hope’s daughter had started drinking, her sister Izzie had visited nearly every night. Her sister was always sparkling, almost glowing. Hope didn’t shy away from her sister’s pop-ins, as they comforted her in ways the town’s platitudes never had. Her sister would be wearing the same red moose flannel pajamas she’d worn on the night Hope had picked her up from the sleepover. But instead of covered in blood, the pajamas would be clean and new. Hope never told anyone about the dreams that seemed so real.
For dreams they must be.
The first time her sister, Izzie, had visited Hope in a dream, was two days after she’d died. Her sister hadn’t been chatty then, but sat cross-legged on the floor beside Hope’s bed, something she’d done a million times in real life. But this time, she stared off into the distance, looking lost. When Hope called out to her, Izzie had shaken her head, as if she didn’t want to talk. But these days, Hope couldn’t get her to shut up. Eleven-year-old Izzie, still in her little girl body and her moose pajamas, spoke as a woman who’d lived a lifetime and had plenty of advice to give. Hope welcomed seeing her sister. It was hard to imagine that Izzie would’ve been twenty-eight a few months ago. If only Hope hadn’t killed her.
Hope closed her eyes, and before she’d really drifted off to sleep, her sister Izzie appeared, sitting at the foot of Hope’s bed.
“Piney certainly threw you for a loop.” Izzie had a twinkle in her eye, as if she was having fun, stirring up trouble. “Didn’t you ever suspect Donovan might come back after his grandfather died?”
“I suppose.” Since Charles Stone had moved away seventeen years ago, the news of his death took nearly a month to reach Sweet Home.
Izzie reached out as if to pat the quilt covering Hope’s legs, but she drew her hand back before touching it. “Do you think he’s coming back to reopen the hardware store and the lodge?”
A Stone’s Throw Hardware and Haberdashery had been everything to this town when Hope was growing up. And she loved going to Stone’s Sweet Home Lodge with her mom and Izzie, when the Sisterhood of the Quilt gathered for their monthly get-togethers. But that was then.
Hope shook her head. “No. He wouldn’t reopen his grandparents’ businesses. He’s probably just coming to Sweet Home to sign papers at the bank…if I had to guess.”
Izzie slipped off the bed and put her hands on her hips. “Are you going to tell my namesake—my niece—that Donovan is her father?”
Hope shivered. She couldn’t imagine telling anyone the truth. Though, she suspected all of Sweet Home had a clue.
“No. I’m not going to tell Ella about Donovan. I told you before. Ella thinks her father was an oil-worker who lived in the Yukon, that he died in a work-related accident when she was a baby.”
“Are you at least going to tell Donovan that my niece belongs to him?”
“No!” Hope couldn’t. Donovan had been crystal clear at his grandmother’s funeral. I never want to see you again. There had been such vehemence in his voice.
Her last act of love was to respect his wishes. Besides, she didn’t want him to hate her more than he already did.
“Donovan might be coming to Sweet Home, but the fact is, my know-it-all-little-sister, I don’t plan to see him at all.”
__________________
If you enjoyed reading Kilt in Scotland, please recommend it to your friends or your book club. And please write a review. Readers love them and authors depend on them. If you write a review, please let me know. I would like to thank you personally.
* * *
Email: [email protected]
For Signed copies, visit:
www.PatienceGriffin.com
JOIN Patience’s Newsletter!
…to find out about events, contests, and more!
www.PatienceGriffin.com
Books by Patience Griffin
Kilts and Quilts® series:
Romantic Women’s Fiction
#1 To Scotland with Love
#2 Meet Me in Scotland
#3 Some Like It Scottish
#4 The Accidental Scot
#5 The Trouble with Scotland
#6 It Happened in Scotland
#6.5 The Laird and I
#7 Blame It on Scotland
#8 Kilt in Scotland
To Scotland with Love
Book 1, Kilts and Quilts
* * *
Amazon #1 Best Seller
Publishers Weekly starred review*
New England Readers' Choice Best First Book
Golden Quill Best First Book
Welcome to the charming Scottish seaside town of Gandiegow—where two people have returned home for different reasons, but to find the same thing.…
Caitriona Macleod gave up her career as an investigative reporter for the role of perfect wife. But after her husband is found dead in his mistress’s bed, a devastated Cait leaves Chicago for the birthplace she hasn’t seen since she was a child. She’s hoping to heal and to reconnect with her gran. The last thing she expects to find in Gandiegow is the Sexiest Man Alive! She just may have stumbled on the ticket to reigniting her career—if her heart doesn’t get in the way.
* * *
Graham Buchanan is a movie star with many secrets. A Gandiegow native, he frequently hides out in his hometown between films. He also has a son he’ll do anything to protect. But Cait Macleod is too damn appealing—even if she is a journalist.
Quilting with her gran and the other women of the village brings Cait a peace she hasn’t known in years. But if she turns in the story about Graham, Gandiegow will never forgive her for betraying one of its own. Should she suffer the consequences to resurrect her career? Or listen to her battered and bruised heart and give love another chance?
About Patience Griffin
“Griffin’s lyrical and moving debut marks her as a most talented new-comer to the romance genre.”
-Publishers Weekly starred review
Patience Griffin grew up in a small town along the Mississippi River. She has a master’s degree in nuclear engineering but spends her days writing stories about hearth and home in the fictional small towns of Gandiegow and Whussendale, Scotland.
Connect online at www.PatienceGriffin.com
_________________
All materials herewith are protected under U.S. copyright laws.
Copyright © 2019 by Patience Griffin
Kilt in Scotland Page 31