Present Day

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I stumbled over to the front door as I called out to my sister to tell her to stay in her room until I found out who was at the door. She replied with a snore. She could sleep through just about anything—even a fire.

“Who’s there? Don’t you know what time it is?” I stood an arm’s length away from the door handle as I called out.

“It’s me. Open up.” The moment I heard Marcus’ voice on the other side, I went limp with relief. Hands shaking, I unlocked the door and threw it open as I stepped aside to let him enter.

“What the hell is wrong with you? You should’ve called first. You scared me to death banging on the door like that.

He looked around the room with undisguised disgust. He’d not been inside my apartment since Kate moved in. Since then, my aptitude for tidiness, much like my aptitude for just about everything, had slipped significantly.

“You wouldn’t have answered if I called. I’ve been trying to get ahold of you for months.”

He moved to shuffle through the pile of mail on my entry table. I quickly moved to block him as I threw my hands down over the stack and glared up at him.

“You can’t just go through my mail. What are you doing here?”

“Are you not paying your bills now? Have you turned on a vacuum cleaner in the last three weeks? It smells in here, Laurel.”

I was most certainly paying my bills. It was just any other business that I allowed to slip through the cracks.

“It’s the cat.” I wasn’t altogether sure that was true. Kate was a stickler for making certain that Mr. Crinkles’ litter box stayed immaculate, but at least the cat was an easy scapegoat. He couldn’t argue with me. “And not a single thing on that table is a bill. Of course, I’m paying my bills. I’ll ask you one more time, Marcus, what are you doing here?”

“This has gone on long enough, Laurel. I messed up. I know that. I’ve known it since the words slipped out of my mouth. You’re not crazy. I never should have said that you were. I’ve been trying to apologize to you for months now, but you wouldn’t hear it, which frankly, isn’t fair. We’ve been friends for twenty-five years. I should be allowed one mess up. I’ve certainly forgiven you your fair share of stupidity.”

I hardly knew what to say to him. I was still so angry with him, but as he stood before me now, I couldn’t recall exactly why. What he’d said had wounded my feelings to be sure, but was it really all that cruel? From his perspective, he believed he was helping me. Perhaps, he was. Was it really myself I was angry at?

“I…” I said the one thing I felt most strongly as I stared back at him. “I’ve missed you.”

I expected him to hug me or at least soften a little at my confession. He did no such thing.

“Have you? Well, I can’t really say the same. The longer this has gone on, the angrier I’ve become at you for pushing me away. But guess what, we are about to fix that. We’re going back to Scotland—back to the place where all this fell apart. And we aren’t leaving the country until two things happen.”

He paused and lifted one finger, followed quickly by a second as he continued.

“One, everything is fixed between us. And two, we know once and for all whether you’re mad for believing that old woman’s story and her letter to you.”

Marcus was the last person I wanted to go looking for Morna’s inn with. He didn’t for a moment believe that it was there.

“You don’t have to do that, Marcus. We don’t need to go to Scotland to heal things between us. I forgive you, and I’m sorry for acting like such a child. I think I was angry with myself for hoping, angry for believing that something impossible just might be possible. When you confronted me that day, you made me kill a dream, and it made me resent myself for being so foolish.”

He did hug me then—a big bear of a hug that draped me in more comfort than I’d felt in months. I collapsed into him and began to cry.

“Oh, Laurel.” He held me tightly and kissed the top of my head. “I’m a shit friend. Even if I did believe you were mad, I should’ve just supported you. I’ve done many things I know you thought were crazy, but you never let me know that. I’m so sorry.”

It shouldn’t have been the thing I noticed in his apology, but one thing stood out amongst all the rest.

“You just said that you did believe I was mad. As if you don’t anymore.”

He pulled away, but kept both hands on my arms as he held me away from him.

“About that…something very strange happened last week that may have changed my mind.”

I raised my brows and turned my head like a confused puppy dog.

“Oh, yeah? What’s that?”

“I received a letter last week. There was no address, but the country of origin was Scotland, and it was signed by someone named Morna.”

A chill swept over my entire body. I didn’t believe I’d ever been so surprised in my entire life.

“Morna was the name of the woman who wrote the book I found in Conall Castle.”

Marcus nodded.

“I know. The entire letter was just her giving me a thorough lashing for encouraging you to cancel your plans to return to Scotland. How could she possibly know that I’d done that? How could she even know who we are?”

I stared back at Marcus, saying nothing until he broke the silence.

“What are you thinking, Laurel?”

“I shut my mind to the possibility of any of this being real months ago. Now, I don’t know what to think. Why did she wait so long to reach out? If she has the ability to know so much about both of us, why not contact me when I was searching for her? And why would she send you a letter? Why not just reach out to me directly?”

Marcus shook his head. He looked as confused as I felt.

“I don’t know. But my own curiosity is now piqued enough that I know I won’t be able to get anything done until we both find out. I’ve booked us both on a flight that leaves tomorrow afternoon. If the inn really does exist, we’ll find it.”

Perhaps, my sister was right and signs really did come in threes.

I couldn’t see Marcus’ sudden arrival here any other way.