Page 23 of The Grump I Got Stuck With

“What brought you to Braeburn in the first place?” Locke asked, and I realized the conversation had turned in my direction.

I finished my mouthful. “You mean besides the desire to crawl through the dog door of a castle?” He laughed. “It actually wasn’t part of my plan. I was trying to reach Aberdeen coming down from Glenby, but I was using that Voyages app, and it gave me horrible directions. It didn’t tell me I’d need a military-grade tank to navigate these roads.”

Locke burst out laughing. It was so loud I almost dropped my fork.

“It’s not the app’s fault you didn’t check the weather report before getting on the road,” Alistair muttered.

“I was tracking the weather,” I said. “At least, as best I could. There’s terrible signal out here.”

Alistair crossed his arms. “The heavy snowfall should have been a clue to turn around.”

“The app should have warned me not to use these roads when the weather is poor!”

“It probably did warn you,” Alistair quipped.

“And how would I know without a signal?” I shot back. With my signal going in and out, I had mostly been following the offline map I’d downloaded before getting on the road.

Locke was trembling with laughter, wiping at his eyes. I had no idea what was so funny or why Alistair was taking everything so personally. I stared between them, confusion building.

“He’s the founder,” Locke finally wheezed, catching his breath. He pointed at Alistair. “Voyages is his.”

For a moment, the words didn’t register.

I stared at Alistair, the thoughts in my head itching like they were trying to connect. There was something hovering just out of reach. Something big.

A lightbulb went off in my head suddenly, and I realized exactly who Alistair was—founder and former CEO of one of the most-used travel apps in the world…and the man who’d been sued by his own board after his girlfriend embezzled millions from the company and disappeared. The story had made it all the way to the US, though it hadn’t gotten as much coverage as I assumed it had out here.

So much suddenly made sense. Him living in the middle of nowhere, assuming I was a journalist looking to dig up more dirt on him, the hesitation to let me stay, his initial desire to keep me away from Kenna. He was likely working overtime to keep the world out in the wake of the media circus following the trial, and I’d busted right in, uninvited. I actually felt a little bad about the amount of times I’d called him an asshole in my head.

Don’t get me wrong, he was still a jerk.

But he was a jerk for reasons. I thought briefly of the way he’d brought an extra blanket to my room that first night and about the fire he’d lit for me earlier.

Then my thoughts careened in the other direction. It was disorienting. Because of all the places that app could have taken me, it had led me here. To a house in the middle of nowhere that hid a man who didn’t want to be found. The one man who knew the most about Voyages because he’d created the damn thing! What kind of strange cosmic irony was that? Every mile, every reroute…it had all led me closer to him.

An incredulous laugh bubbled up my throat. “This is honestly ridiculous.”

Every day, I’d put my faith into a company he’d built, trusting Voyages to lead me across Scotland, trusting it with my journey—and I’d had no idea he was the one responsible for the app’s very existence!

Alistair watched me like he was bracing for an outburst, but as the disbelief faded, I remembered the articles that had torn him apart in the media. The last thing he needed was me picking at him because Voyages had landed me in a ditch. Sure, the route had been all Voyages, but the driving…that was all me.

“Perhaps you should have made the app include ‘don’t take this road if the weather’s bad’ warnings at all times then,” I said, which I thought was rather reasonable. “Not just when the weather’s actually an issue.”

Alistair made a noise. I wasn’t sure if it was an agreement or a warning growl.

“Anyway,” I said to Locke. “I haven’t had a chance to see Braeburn proper at all yet—though I’m hoping to head that way as soon as I can. The mechanic in town is going to tow my car eventually, and it makes sense to be closer during repairs. Besides, fixing up my van will take a few days, and there’ll be more for me to do in town. I hear the Deerhound Inn is lovely.”

“Hey, that’s my fiancée’s place,” he said. “She runs the inn.”

I lit up at the information. “Does that mean you can take me back with you?”

Locke’s face fell slightly. “I would, but we’re pretty full up. Between the holidays and people getting stranded because of the storm, we’ve got guests in every nook and cranny.”

I tried not to look too disappointed, but it was hard to ignore the fact I was definitely stuck here.

“Oh no!” Kenna cried. We all turned to her. She’d leaned on the edge of her plate by accident, flipping cranberry-soaked dinner onto her shirt. Princess lapped at bits of fallen ham on the floor beneath her stool.

“It’s okay,” Alistair said as her lip started trembling. “Let’s go get changed.”