Hayley yelled, “Katie!” when I walked out to the back deck of James’s house.

“Hi, everyone,” I said with as much enthusiasm as I could. Then I endured the hugs. But that was a lie — the hugs were nice.

Hayley said, “You came to the ‘End of October Not Halloween Party!’ We didn’t even have to come get you. I’m so freaking proud of you.”

I joked, “Quentin drove, it wasn’t all bravery.”

Quentin walked in a step behind. “I handcuffed her and forced her into the car.” I batted him on the arm.

Zach and Emma entered a moment later and soon there was a full blown party. Barbecue, beer, shots. James had broken up with his girlfriend and no one could remember which of them slept around first, or the most, but it had been dramatic and seemed permanent. It was very nice not having her around so he could be fun to talk to again. Our friendship had been nonexistent for months and months but he was trying to be a part of our gang again.

Our gang. I was trying to be a part of it again too.

It was hard, but it was also time. And yesterday was the one-year anniversary of Magnus leaving. It hadn’t been an easy day, but also, it hadn’t been the worst. It was just a day, time ticking by. He wasn’t here and the truth was, he wasn’t going to be here. Probably. Not anymore.

With each day I could get a little more used to thinking it.

There had been many a day that I wanted to move to Los Angeles or some other place that didn’t remind me constantly of Magnus, but I couldn’t leave my grandma. Or Zach and Emma and Quentin and Baby Ben. Hayley. They were all my family now. I had to take care of them. It was ironic because they had been taking care of me for so long.

I assumed a position on James’s deck, perched on the railing. I had been coming here since I was a kid. A long long time. The dunes had barely changed in all those years. Shifting a bit, but not noticeably from this direction.

Yet the beach side was eroded. Fall storms had washed away a good portion of the dunes.

It was weird how from one viewpoint the beach was unchanged, but if I walked out on the sand and looked back at the house the dunes looked drastically different. Different viewpoints, different experiences, in the same place, different times.

My time period was this, surrounded by friends, helped by my chosen family, full of food and drinks and kindness and support, and what was Magnus doing? What was his time full of? It should be time spent here with me. What else were our vows for?

And he made me a vow.

He promised to love me until death do us part.

This was where I kept coming to these days — he promised me.

And still he left.

Michael walked in with Tyler. I caught Hayley’s eye and mouthed, “Why the hell is he here?”

She rolled her eyes and hugged them hello. Now that Michael and Tyler had become close friends I was thrown together with him every couple of weeks. Hayley came to stand beside me.

I asked again, “Why is he here?”

“Because it’s a party, because he’s friends with Michael, because you’re nice enough to let his personality slide…”

“He mansplains to me all the time. I’ve never met anyone so infuriating in my life. It’s like he thinks I’m an idiot.”

She giggled and turned so he couldn’t tell we were talking about him. “He just thinks you’re a sad lost case he needs to help. Like a puppy. And he mansplains to me too, it’s just his way. Last week he told me how to use Google Docs. I’ve been using Google Docs for two years, in my business, my flourishing—”

“Shhhh, he’s coming over.”

Tyler said, “Hey Katie.”

“Hi Tyler, back visiting the Island again?”

“Yep, there’s a lot about this island that draws me back.”

“Me too. Careful, you’ll become a local and all you’ll talk about is real estate and football.”

“I’m from New York that’s all we talk about there too. And I don’t know, it doesn’t sound that bad.” He leaned against the railing. “How have you been this week? I heard it was a tough anniversary for you.”

“Yeah, it’s been a rough one. I burrowed under a pile of work to get through it. I changed my investment strategy and directed my portfolio toward—”

“I remember you talking about that idea a couple of weeks ago. I was thinking about it, you should really hire a money manager. An investment advisor could help you get a new strategy. You don’t want to lose money.”

“Yeah of course not — hey that’s a great idea, I should do that.” I took a swig from my beer using the bottle to hide my rolling eyes.

Hayley saw it. “Be nice.”

I whispered, “Be nice? Be nice? Why the hell should I be nice?”

He seemed oblivious to my irritation. “I was also thinking about your situation with all these employees, it might be useful for you to—”

“Wait, did you hear that — James? Did you call me? Hold on, James is calling me.” I slid down from the railing and crossed to the other side of the deck. I stood beside the grill making James block Tyler’s view of me.

I whispered, “Save me.”

James said, “From who, Tyler?”

“Yes, how’d you guess?”

“Tyler’s great. What’s wrong with Tyler?”

“He mansplains everything to me. It’s irritating.”

“God, you’re such a feminist. You know what you should do is—”

“You’re mansplaining! I know what I should do, I should hide behind you until he goes home.” I giggled.

James laughed. “Yeah, what the hell do I know? I can not figure out women.”

“Oh god, stop with that already. You can too figure out women. Women want a guy who loves them and doesn’t sleep around with other women. Period. Did you love Lee Ann?”

“Yes.”

“Did you sleep around with other women?”

“Just that one time but—”

“Then you don’t get her. You don’t get Lee Ann. She’s done. Now next time you meet someone and you really like her, maybe even love her, are you going to sleep with other women?”

“I don’t know…”

“See, until you can say, ‘No. I won’t sleep with other women,’ you don’t get to say, ‘I love her.’ That’s your bad. And you’re smart enough to know this.”

“I know, I don’t know why I do it.” He flipped the burgers on the grill.

“I know why you do it, because you get scared of the idea of loving just one person. It terrifies you so you sabotage yourself. You have an affair so when your relationship ends you won’t be hurt.”

He chuckled.

“What?”

“You’re woman-splaining. Maybe I just like women, lots of women. Maybe I hate the idea of one woman forever.”

I slowly shook my head. “Have I told you today how grateful I am that we broke up?”

James announced, “Burgers are ready!” and piled the burgers on a plate.

It cooled off considerably as the sun went down so we left the deck for the indoors. We sat around the dining room table and talked and laughed. It felt really good to be surrounded by friends. And Hayley was right, I needed to get out more often. Even if it meant spending time with Tyler.

I kept catching him looking at me. I would need to deal with that later. Send some clear messages of the ‘not interested’ variety.

Hayley said, “So Michael, you and Tyler are going out in the boat tomorrow?”

“Yeah, we were going to go fishing. I should check the weather though, there’s a front moving in.”

He pulled his phone from his pocket but Tyler interrupted. “I’ve got weather alerts set up, I’ll check.” He clicked and scrolled. “Let’s see, um…” Then he said, “Have you guys been watching this story about the insane storms in Scotland?”

I choked on a big swig of beer.

I coughed for a full minute before I said, “What did you say? What?”

Tyler said, “These insane storms in Scotland. They’re huge, building over this one village and then they stop. They start at the same time every day. It’s been like a week. You haven’t been following the news?”

I stood. “Like an electrical storm? What’s the name of the village?”

While everyone else looked from my face to his, Tyler said, “Totally electrical.” He read for a moment, then said, “The village is… let’s see… you’re not going to believe this name, near Spittal of Glenshee. There’s a ruin there, a Talsworth Castle.”

“Quentin can you take us home?” I grabbed my jacket off the back of my chair and pushed my arms into the sleeves.

Hayley said, “What is it — Magnus?”

“That’s the village where he’s from, it…”

Emma rushed down the hall to scoop Baby Ben from the guest room bed and carried him sleeping to the front door where Quentin was already waiting.

Tyler asked, “Wait, Katie, you have to leave?”

“Yeah um, that’s the village, it’s…”

Quentin opened the door and headed out to the car followed by Zach and Emma.

James shrugged. “Maybe that’s why Magnus was so freaked out by storms. The storms in Scotland get so freaky they get international coverage.”

Hayley said, “Call me tonight, let me know what’s going on.”

As I left, Tyler said to James. “But I thought he left her. Why is she worried about the storms over his village?”

I raced down the stairs to the car.

“That’s the village, Quentin, the village where the ruins of Talsworth are located. Why would storms be happening in 2018 there unless it’s Magnus? What if he’s trying to come through, and he’s just coming there instead of here and maybe something — why are you driving so slow?”

“I’m following the speed limit so I can get you home alive so we can figure this out.”

A text message happened, Hayley: Tell me everything.

Mine: That’s the village, right beside the castle ruins. Where Lady Mairead lived. Those storms.

I wasn’t making sense.

I was scrolling over Scotland’s weather, but the problem with weather.com was every time you looked at it new stories were at the top of the page. I finally found it.

“Look at the photo Quentin.” I held my phone up so Quentin could look while he was driving. I showed it to Emma and Zach in the back seat. “Just look, it looks exactly like the storms.”

I typed Scotland storms into news and came up with photo after photo of tall banking clouds and electrical arcs of lightning. I read out loud, “‘Every day at the same time.’ It’s like he’s trying to tell me something. To send me a message. I have to go.”

Quentin nodded. “We have to go.”

I texted Hayley: It’s got to be Magnus. I have to go to Scotland.

She texted back: When?

Maybe tomorrow.

Don’t go without talking to me first, I’ll come with you.

Really?

Really. Just text me the details.