Blue Bells of Scotland: Book One of the Blue Bells Trilogy by Laura Vosika

someone I loved dearly."
    Rob stared straight ahead. A tinge of color touched his cheeks. "Yeah, well. Haven't you noticed people have a tendency to do stupid things under Shawn's influence?"
    "More than you'll ever know," Amy said. "Myself included."
    She stared down at her clothes. She had become accustomed to dressing to please him. Today, she'd put on her favorite jeans, and a pink t-shirt he hated. "But my ring is still gone. And you still helped him. You want to start making amends by telling me what the money was for?"
    The color on his cheeks erupted and spread, up to his blond hair and down his neck. He gripped the steering wheel, white-knuckled. "Not really."
    "Women, drinking, gambling?"
    Rob blinked hard at the castle.
    "It's not like Shawn has any new tricks up his sleeve," she said. "It was one of the three."
    They sat in silence for another minute before Amy muttered, "I can't believe I stayed with him this long. I'm such an idiot!" She threw open her door and climbed out.
    Rob climbed out on his own side, and leaned over the car. The sun, just reaching over the castle walls, made him blink and shield his eyes. "Why did you stay with him?"
    "I guess everyone wonders." Amy turned away from him. She shivered in the cool morning. "Why is Amy such an idiot? Because he was fun and exciting and colorful. All the things I'm not. I thought no one else would ever be interested in me." She slammed the car door, hard. "I am an idiot," she said, marching toward the castle. Damp fog twisted like a chilly cat around her jeans.
    Behind her, Rob's car door slammed. "Yeah," he yelled after her. "You are an idiot."
    Amy turned, glaring. The cool morning chilled her bare arms.
    He leaned on the roof of the car. "You're an idiot to think no one else would be interested in you."
    The anger drained from her face. Her heart skipped a beat. But she spoke cautiously. "There haven't exactly been any other offers."
    "Of course not," Rob said. "Who's stupid enough to hit on Shawn Kleiner's girlfriend?"
    Amy became still. She walked slowly back toward the car. "Is that how it is?" Her left hand moved to twist the ring, but found only a bare finger.
    "Sure." Rob took his arms off the roof and rounded the car. He boosted himself onto the hood, and patted it, inviting her to join him. She hoisted herself up. "When you decide you've had enough of him, there are a few guys who would ask you out." She gazed at the castle walls, mulling his words. Rob spoke again, more softly. "And I don't believe you stayed with him only because he's fun and exciting. I don't think you're that shallow."
    Amy turned to him, studying him a few moments before saying, "No. I stayed because I saw so much more in him."
    "I don't know what you fought about last night," Rob said. "I'm not asking. But you got mad enough to leave him. Even he keeps telling you there's nothing more to him. Do you finally believe it?"
    Amy hung her head. Her mouth stiffened. "Yeah, he finally convinced me."
    "So is that it?"
    "Is it over between us?" she asked. "Yeah, it's over."
    "He's going to try to change your mind."
    "This was pretty big." Amy paused. "But if he showed me...really proved to me.…" She shivered in the cool morning.
    "Not gonna happen." Rob shook his head. "He's exactly what he says he is." He put his hand on her back. "Let's go find him. I hope he's not too mad."
    "But if he was," Amy persisted. "If he finally showed me he's the man I think he is, I'd go back to him in a heartbeat."

    Glenmirril, Scotland

    Early morning sun pierced Shawn's eyelids. He groaned, feeling the first poundings of the timpani. The aftereffects of too much beer and whiskey swirled in his stomach. His head sank into something soft; the sweet smell of bluebells nauseated him. He pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes, turning away from the sun. His world shifted, his head once again sinking. He groped beneath his head. His jacket? Somewhere in his beer-logged brain, he thought he hadn't