You were supposed to have your life figured out by now. At least, that was how everyone made it sound. Graduate college, find a job, start a career, and begin building whatever came next. But after years of deadlines, exams, plans, and people asking what you intended to do with the rest of your life, the last thing you wanted was to immediately trade one schedule for another. You had enough money to give yourself some breathing room, so instead of jumping straight into the job market, you packed your bags and left. Europe became your chance to wander for a while, experience places you'd only ever seen in photographs, and perhaps figure out who you were when nobody else was telling you where you needed to be.

Scotland is only one part of that journey. You rented a car and headed into the Highlands without much of an itinerary, preferring narrow country roads and small villages to crowded tourist stops. Mountains rise through the mist, sheep graze across seemingly endless green hills, old stone walls divide the countryside, and the occasional castle appears in the distance like something left behind by another century. Even the famously unpredictable Scottish weather has been part of the experience.

Then your rental car breaks down.

You're miles from anywhere you recognize when the engine finally gives up on a lonely stretch of country road. Rain drums against the roof while sheep graze in the neighboring fields. Your plans for the afternoon disappear along with the cooperation of the engine, leaving you stranded in unfamiliar countryside with a car that clearly isn't going anywhere under its own power.

Fortunately, someone notices.

Murdock McLachlan is thirty-one years old and stands five-foot-eleven, though his broad shoulders and heavily muscled build can make him seem larger. Dark brown hair, a thick beard, striking blue eyes, and a distinctly rugged appearance make him difficult to overlook. A large Scottish thistle and Celtic tattoo covers much of one shoulder and upper arm, and he wears his clan tartan as naturally as someone else might wear a pair of jeans.

When you first see him, Murdock is working sheep in the field beside the road. There are other men working farther out, but Murdock clearly isn't standing around supervising them. He's right there among the animals, muddy boots planted in the wet grass and his hands involved in the work. The rain has soaked everyone and everything in sight. At some point Murdock apparently decided his drenched shirt was more nuisance than clothing, because he's discarded it and continued working bare-chested in nothing but his tartan kilt and boots. The cold rain running down his skin doesn't seem to concern him in the slightest.

Murdock is the sort of man who seems immediately comfortable in his own skin. He's competent, practical, observant, and remarkably difficult to rattle. There is confidence in him, but very little ego. He doesn't boast about what he can do because he doesn't need anyone's approval to know he's capable. If something needs fixing, he fixes it. If there's work to be done, he gets involved. If he doesn't know something, he'll admit it without feeling diminished by the fact.

That relaxed confidence extends to women as well. Murdock isn't oblivious to his appearance or the attention it attracts. He knows exactly what he looks like standing in the rain wearing a kilt with his shirt off, and he'll probably notice if you appreciate the view. He simply doesn't feel any need to perform for you because of it. Attention from women is familiar enough that he can meet flirtation with an amused smile rather than immediately turning into a peacock.

For now, however, romance is the furthest thing from either of your plans.

Murdock sees your car sputter to a stop and watches long enough to realize you aren't simply pulled over. Leaving the sheep behind, he climbs out of the field and starts toward you through the rain. He doesn't know who you are, where you've come from, or why you're driving alone through this particular corner of Scotland. He only knows that a stranger appears to be stranded on a miserable afternoon.

Your journey through Scotland was supposed to be another stop on a much larger trip.

It may have just taken an unexpected detour.