Must Love Highlanders by Patience Griffin Grace Burrowes

even with Saxe, but I became good at being a lawyer, up to a point. The law is the law and the rules are the rules, but the rules can go only so far toward solving the problems we create with each other. That drove me crazy.”
    “Maybe it drove you un-crazy,” Liam said, passing her a piece of tablet. “You’ve found your art again, or you soon will.”
    Louise took a bite and gave Liam back the rest. Next would come the shared bottle of water, or perhaps they’d stop in the museum’s snack shop for soup, bread, and butter.
    A few days in a borrowed studio wasn’t finding her art again, though those days had been lovely.
    “Did you stop eating meat when Karen died?”
    “Aye.”
    “Because she was a good cook, and the kitchen smells reminded you of her?”
    “You’re very astute. I didn’t figure it out so quickly, but by then I was out of the carnivore habit. Shall I take a picture of you?”
    This place had put Liam’s mood off. He was present and he was dodging into shadows, much like the man who’d met her at the airport.
    “I want a picture of us, Liam.”
    “I’m not very photogenic, how about if I—” He got his phone out of his sporran. “I’ll take you and you take me?”
    He was the most photogenic man Louise had ever met, and this prevarication wasn’t like him.
    “Not good enough, Cromarty. I know Culloden is a sad place, but I’m happy to be here with you.” Louise flagged down a couple chattering in German and gestured and smiled them into taking a photo of her and Liam against the stone cairn at the center of the battle field.
    The image was well composed and well exposed, though Liam’s smile was pained, his eyes bleak.
    “Shall I send you a copy?” Louise asked.
    Liam peered at the screen of her phone, coming close enough to put a hint of woodland and heather on the morning breeze.
    “We’ll do better elsewhere, I think. Are you thirsty?”
    “Sure.” Louise swilled from the bottle of Highland Spring, then passed it to Liam when she wanted to throw her arms around him.
    Even to tell him she loved him, though this sad morning on a battlefield wasn’t the time or place.
    “C’mon,” she said, taking his hand. “Let’s blow this popsicle stand and head down to Cairngorms National Park. They have reindeer there, don’t they? We don’t have reindeer in Georgia, and if we did, we’d probably hunt them to extinction.”

    Liam had bought a damned ring yesterday, while Louise had been engrossed in her wheel. An emerald stone, more valuable than diamonds and appropriate for Louise’s fire and sense of purpose. The setting was Celtic gold, and the sentiments…
    Louise had put the heart back in him, and Liam didn’t want her to leave, ever.
    Though now, the sooner he put her on that plane, the better for them both.
    As Louise boiled up a batch of gnocchi, Liam opened the wine and prepared to lie his way through the rest of Louise’s visit.
    “Will you throw tonight?” he asked. Louise could work at her wheel for hours, and he had the sense she was only warming up. Five years’ penance for another’s crimes rode her hard, and she’d throw her way free of it.
    “Nah. No throwing tonight. Tromping around all day wore me out. If you’ll slice the bread, I’ll set the table.”
    At every meal Liam ate with his family, every single meal, somebody had to make a joke about his decision to stop eating meat. Louise hadn’t remarked on it once. When they planned meals, her suggestions were meatless, and she was the next thing to a cheese connoisseur.
    They’d toured a distillery in Inverness, and she’d made the most awful face at one of the world’s best-loved Highland single malts.
    Of course
, Liam had bought her a ring, and fool that he was, returning it would about kill him. He’d been about killed before and didn’t care to repeat the experience.
    “Shall I dress the salad?” Louise asked.
    “Please, and I’ll pour.”
    Louise chose the wines, because Louise