Read A Brit on the Side (Castle Calder Book 1) for Free Online Page B

Pinot Grigio and three glasses, my borrowed flannel shirt is wet, I have a small cut on my thigh from where I dropped a knife, and my hair has fallen so far out of its ponytail it’s not even up anymore. I take an empty glass with a tired smile. Half a glass is only one hundred calories. I’ve earned at least three.
    “You made it,” Scarlett says, twisting the cap off the wine as she plonks down beside me. “Congratulations and well done.”
    “Thanks.” I hold my glass out for her to pour.
    “You did great, Bea,” Claire says. “Really, for your first day, you were ace.”
    For my first day. I have a feeling if Lou was still here, she’d disagree, but she didn’t demand I leave the kitchen and never come back, so I’m counting it as a win. She did tell me to make sure I got some sleep before the Fisher party arrives on Friday, but I don’t know if that was related to my performance tonight or not, and I was afraid to ask.
    “Thanks, you guys, for your help. I promise I’ll study the menu so I know what goes with what,” I say.
    “There’s plenty of time for that.” Scarlett finishes pouring Claire’s glass of wine and raises her glass. “For now, we need to toast to a great British summer.”
    “Hear, hear,” Claire says as we clink glasses.
    The wine tastes amazing, cool and crisp. I take a big gulp and say, “Wow, I needed that.”
    Scarlett laughs. “I know what a light weight you can be, so let me know now if we need someone on standby to get you back to your cabin because you’re not crashing with me. I’m taking up my entire bed and then some tonight.”
    I sink back into the soft leather couch. “I’ll happily sleep right here. Besides, I don’t want to crash with you because you snore.”
    Claire laughs. “She does. Oh my God, when we went to London last summer, she kept me up half the night. I seriously thought about going to camp out by the ice machine down the hall for some peace.”
    I laugh and Scarlett does too, even though she gives Claire the finger. “I’d love to go to London.” I change the subject because Scarlett really does snore and it’s something she can be super sensitive about. She says she has a deviated septum or something, which might be true, but the bigger truth is she’s tried every remedy under the sun to stop it. Unfortunately, the only thing that works are those little strips you stick on your nose. Not exactly sexy. The first time Scarlett broke them out in our dorm room – night three of us being roommates, I think – I laughed and she burst into tears. I felt terrible, but it also cemented our friendship. The “perfect” exterior packaging was not the girl, after all.
    “Well, obviously, you two should go together since you’re such delicate sleepers,” Scarlett says.
    “Oh, come on. We love you, even if you sound like a tractor stuck in the mud,” Claire says. “Seriously, we should do another London trip. Or even Edinburgh. Although London would probably be more exciting for Bea.”
    “And for you,” Scarlett says. “As I recall, you enjoyed London very much last time.”
    Claire reaches across the low coffee table to swat Scarlett, but misses. “Let’s not give Bea the wrong impression on her first day.” She turns to me and says, “We met a few blokes, but it was very tame.”
    “If you call making out with a stranger on Tower Bridge tame,” Scarlett says.
    “That’s as far as it went.” Claire sounds defensive. “Considering how it could have gone, I’m calling it tame.”
    “Fab point. Remember the guy who kept grinding up against you in that one club we went to?” Scarlett says. “There was a strong possibility of him ending up in our hotel room.”
    Claire laughs and turns to me again. “He was hot, but he knew it, which is never a good thing.”
    Scarlett glances at me and I know she’s thinking of Theo, so I say it before she can. “I was engaged to a guy like that.”
    “Scarlett said you were engaged.”