Free Bad Boys In Kilts by Donna Kauffman

flirtation.”
    Despite herself, Kat snorted a little laugh. They’d talked about her father’s recent fancy before, both of them enjoying the rather sweet, blossoming romance. “He turns six shades of red when I mention his attraction and wants nothing to do with anything I have to say about it, but he’s the first one to jump in with his opinions on how I should handle my lo—” She immediately stopped the instant she realized what she’d been about to say. And who she’d been about to say it to. That was the problem with lusting after your best friend. He was too damn easy to talk to and she was too damn used to telling him everything. Except, of course, that one thing. But he knew damn well she didn’t have a love life at the moment, so that would have been a might awkward... “He’s in Sudley, actually, picking up a shipment.” Better to stick with safe topics.
    Brodie’s smile didn’t shift so much as a millimeter, but it seemed, to her anyway, that his gaze lingered on hers a moment longer than absolutely necessary. But instead of quizzing her on the obvious, he just took her arm and said, “I want to show you something. It will only take a few minutes.”
    She closed the bay doors and followed him out of the shop, grateful he’d let the subject drop, determining then and there to keep her mouth shut and speak only in response to whatever it was he had to show her. It quickly became clear they were heading over to Hagg’s. “What do you need to show me at the pub?”
    “Shh. Just be patient. I wanted your opinion before I got it, but I was at auction with Dylan, picking out a few things for Glenshire, and he was being his usual impatient, pain in the arse self, so I had to make a split-second decision.” He glanced at her and his eyes were all twinkly, like they got when he was really excited about something.
    They entered the cooler, darker environs of the pub, which wouldn’t open to the public for an hour or two, at lunchtime. He pulled her through the tables in the front of the pub, around to the back and the door leading to the stairs up to the rooms above. His rooms.
    Kat swallowed a groan. Of all the days ... She did not need to see that big, huge bed dominating the open loft bedroom that comprised the entire second floor of Hagg’s. A conversion Brodie had made shortly after taking over the place. He’d torn out the walls separating the second floor into three smaller rooms and created one huge room for himself. One part was set off as a living room of sorts, with an ancient, overstuffed brocade couch and huge ottoman, around which were stacked piles of books and magazines on every subject imaginable. There was a small counter with a toaster oven, a coffeepot, and a sink, with a shelf nailed over it holding the few dishes and utensils he needed. He had a full kitchen right downstairs in the pub, so saw no need to recreate one upstairs.
    The only private area upstairs was the loo, which she happened to know he’d converted into an almost sybaritic paradise, complete with a six-foot-long, deep-sided, claw foot tub that he’d found during a rummage sale of the contents of a manor house, put on by a remaining family member too deeply indebted to keep the place an ongoing concern. Something the Chisholms knew more than a little about, as they all struggled to keep Glenshire afloat, which had been in the family for more than four centuries.
    “So, how is Dylan coming along with the conversion of Glenshire to a bed and breakfast? Do you think you’ll be able to open for business soon?” she asked, trying desperately to look at anything other than the huge bed she’d so recently imagined him sprawled across. Naked, of course. The more she tried to block the image, the more detailed it perversely became.
    “Slowly. He’s still grappling with everything that happened, you know. But it’s all coming around.”
    Dylan, the oldest of the four Chisholm brothers, was the only one who had left