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friends finally were beginning to understand. “Rory’s town is really close to an important city. Look,” she said, rotating the map. “Here’s Inverness, super close to Loch Ness. I’ll bet there’s a ton of interesting places to visit there.”
    Rebecca touched her friend’s arm. “You don’t need to say anything else. I don’t think this trip is going to be about tourism. As far as I’m concerned, we can go wherever you want. Anything for love, isn’t that your motto?”
    “So, you don’t care if we spend three weeks in Beauly?”
    “Three weeks?” Rebecca and Berta exclaimed together.
    “Yeah! I haven’t told you the best part! Rory said we could rent a little cottage. He knows some people who rent them out during the summer, and we can get a really good deal—three weeks for the price of two.”
    Berta adjusted her glasses, rested her elbows on the table, and buried her face in her hands. “Three weeks under the cloudy skies of Podunk, Scotland.”
    Lola bit her lip. “You can be happy even under cloudy skies, can’t you?
    “Anything for love,” Rebecca said, and raised her glass of iced tea in a toast. The other two raised their glasses to join her.

THE BEGINNING
    Inverness
    July 19, 2006
    Their cheeks still radiating the warmth of Barcelona, the three friends were greeted by a light rain in the Highlands’ capital city of Inverness.
    Rebecca had pretended to nap during most of the flight. She wanted to give free rein to her thoughts. The last fifteen days had been a whirlwind of dress fittings, menu tastings, guest lists . . . She felt more relaxed now, knowing everything was taken care of despite her mother’s frequent reminders to the contrary.
    The wedding had been set for Saturday, the seventh of October—the only date still available at the most lavish restaurant in Barcelona. The guest list had occupied Rebecca for nearly a week. No matter how hard she worked to cut the numbers down to what she considered a reasonable family affair, she simply couldn’t get it under three hundred. She didn’t even know the majority of the guests. “Obligations,” her mother responded when Rebecca asked.
    Then there was the job offer. The executive Rebecca had seen at her father’s law office turned out to be the headmaster of a prestigious private school in Barcelona. Apparently he had two teaching positions open for the upcoming year for the first-year primary students. Rebecca had passed the first interview and practically had the job promised to her upon her return. She knew her father’s relationship with the headmaster was a major factor in her success, but she told herself she’d soon be able to prove herself a worthy teacher by her own merit.
    She had so many reasons to be happy: her wedding, her job . . . and to top it all off, the three weeks she was getting to spend with her friends. Everything was perfect in her world. The only thing that cast a shadow on her joy was watching her brother struggle.
    Following her father’s advice, she’d given Enric the chance to be completely open with her. But it wasn’t until the day before she left that he chose to do so. They were sitting in the comfortable new wicker chairs on the balcony of his small apartment, enjoying a cold drink as they chatted about trivial things. Then Enric sobered and looked at his sister anxiously.
    “I always knew I was different.”
    Rebecca looked into his green eyes. She didn’t say anything, but she was ready to listen to whatever Enric was ready to share with her.
    “Ever since I was a kid,” he continued. “But you think it’ll go away. Then when you get older you realize not only is the feeling still there, but it’s grabbed hold of your heart and grown with you, not leaving room for anything else. You try everything you can to not think about it, to drive it away . . . and soon you discover its roots have grown so deep there’s no way to get rid of it without pulling yourself apart, because