Daddy’s Kilted Friend Read online

  Copyright © 2020 by Kelli Callahan

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

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  Daddy’s Kilted Friend

  Kelli Callahan

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Epilogue

  Forbidden Kiss

  Join My Mailing List

  Kelli’s Voracious Vixens

  About the Author

  Also by Kelli Callahan

  Chapter One

  Amelia

  “Ame, why do you look so sad?” Kira, the head of Pi Beta Phi, leaned against the edge of the bar. “It’s a party; you’re supposed to be having fun!”

  “I have a drink.” I lifted my cup of beer, forced a smile, and put some excitement in my voice. “See, I’m having lots of fun!”

  “That’s what I’m talking about!” Kira pointed at me with both of her index fingers, threw her head back, and made a sound that resembled a woo hoo.

  Good, now she’s off to harass someone else.

  It was apparent to anyone who took the time to stare that I wasn’t happy. I had been nursing the same beer since the party started at the Pi Beta Phi sorority house. I was pledging, so my attendance was required. Technically, they weren’t allowed to use the word Pledge anymore due to the negative connotations associated with hazing, so my official title was Recruit.

  Most people ignored the new rules and still called us pledges out of habit. The hazing rituals hadn’t gone away completely, but they were supposedly less severe than they were in the past. I didn’t have anything to compare it to, but the experience didn’t seem that bad. I expected it to be way worse. Rush week was filled with activities designed to weed out the ones that weren’t serious about joining, and only ten of us were invited to move into the house. I assumed the rest of it was just a formality since we had already made it that far.

  “Do you want to do shots?” Rachel, one of the other pledges, walked up with a bottle of Effen Black Cherry Vodka.

  “I started with shots, so I’m sticking with beer for now.” It was a lie, but she was too drunk to notice.

  “Okay!” She shrugged and walked off to find another victim.

  I wouldn’t drink black cherry vodka if I wanted to do shots anyway, I’m a Patron girl.

  Everyone around me was having fun, and I did my best to blend in, which was a lot easier when people congregated near the bar. I could use them as a shield and pretend that I was paying attention to one of their random drunken conversations about things that wouldn’t matter when the sun came up the next morning.

  The problem wasn’t the party. It wasn’t the atmosphere. It wasn’t even Kira, who had decided to start calling me Ame for some reason instead of Amelia. She pronounced it Ah-me, which didn’t really make sense, but once she started—everyone else did too. She was the queen of Pi Beta Phi, and whatever she said became the gospel truth—that’s what some of the girls who had been there since the previous school year told me.

  The problem was that I did want to cut loose and have fun, but I swore I wasn’t going to do that once I got to college. Maybe I should have taken that into consideration before I decided to join a sorority.

  “Come on pledge, drink up!” One of the guys from the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity walked by and tapped the bottom of my cup while I was trying to take a sip.

  “Hey!” I got more than I wanted in my mouth and some on my shirt when his tap practically turned my cup upside down.

  “You needed another one anyway.” He laughed and walked away.

  Great, now I’m going to smell like beer all night, even if I don’t get drunk.

  The reality was, I would have been happy to down several cups of beer. I would have been even happier if I chased them with shots of tequila. Once I was drunk enough, I would end up outside trying to bum a cigarette from someone who still preferred to light up instead of puff on a Juul. It wouldn’t have taken me long to figure out where the faint scent of marijuana was coming from either, because a few hits of that could definitely get the party started.

  Getting wasted was easy. It was fun. It certainly wasn’t as depressing as being the Pi Beta Phi version of Debbie Downer.

  Maybe I should just get some air. I doubt anyone will miss me…

  My cup was empty, and that was sure to be mentioned if someone saw me walking around without a drink, so I refilled it before I made my way to the door. The last thing I wanted was for some frat guy to offer me a drink and have to worry if he slipped something in it before he put it in my hand. It would be different if I was hanging out with my friends in California, but I didn’t know anyone at the University of Georgia.

  Nobody here has earned my trust yet.

  I thought going to school on the other side of the country would be fun since I would be far away from my overbearing parents, but my perspective changed before I graduated high school. It really started to sink in that what I did with the next four years of my life would determine what I did with the rest of it. I had a scholarship to go to college, but if I didn’t keep my GPA up, then it would disappear—along with my future. I wasn’t the best student in high school, and I couldn’t afford to waste the one opportunity in front of me.

  “Hey…” A voice startled me as soon as I walked outside, and I turned to see one of the other pledges sitting on the porch swing—but I couldn’t remember her name. “Looking for a place to hide?”

  “I’m just getting some air.” I smiled and motioned to the empty seat beside her. “Can I join you?”

  “Sure.” She nodded and scooted over to give me more room.

  “I hope I don’t offend you by asking your name…” I winced as I placed my beer on the windowsill and sat down.

  “I’m Chrissy.” She looked down and smiled. “Don’t worry; I’m not offended—the fewer people that know my name, the better.”

  “I don’t think either of us will get to be invisible for long—not if we’re pledging Pi Beta Phi.” I looked over at her and shrugged.

  “Yeah…” she sighed. “My parents are forcing me to do this. My mom was a Pi Beta Phi, so I’m a legacy. My dad thinks it will look great on my resume after I graduate.”

  “That’s why I’m doing it too.” I nodded. “The resume part—I’m not a legacy.

  It’s also a lot cheaper to live here than the dorms—I definitely can’t afford to get an apartment right now.

  “At least things seem to be different than I expected. I thought they would have us in the middle of the living room, chugging liquor in our underwear while the frat guys tried to feel us up.” Chrissy laughed under her breath.

  “Is that what happened in your mom’s day?” I raised an eyebrow in surprise.

  “I don’t know.” Chrissy shrugged. “She never really told me much about it—she just said that I would make a lot of friends and meet people that could help me find a job once I graduated.”

  “The only thing I know about sororities is what I’ve seen in the movies, and what you described sounds like a scene from one of them.” I couldn’t help but
laugh.

  “It is…” She chuckled, but her smile quickly shifted into a look of concern. “Of course—in that movie, all of the girls ended up dying—it was a horror movie.”

  “Maybe we should go back inside.” I glanced over my shoulder nervously.

  “No, that’s where the killer always is.” Her smile returned as quickly as it had faded. “If we want to live, we should get as far away from here as possible!”

  “Too bad we’re not allowed the leave until the party is over, and we’ve cleaned up the house.” I sighed and shook my head. “Which means we probably won’t be getting any sleep tonight.”

  “Do you really think they’re going to miss us?” Chrissy raised an eyebrow. “This party isn’t going to be over until the middle of the night. I’m sure we could slip away for a little bit.”

  “I’m up for it if you are.” I nodded quickly.

  “Come on, let’s go.” Chrissy grabbed my hand and started to stand up from the swing.

  I couldn’t help but watch the front door with concern as we walked down the steps. I half expected Kira to come storming outside and tell us to get back in the house like my mother did a couple of times when she caught me trying to sneak off during one of our family gatherings.

  I had no idea if we would actually get in trouble for leaving or if there would be any repercussions if Kira found out. There were so many people at the party that it would have been impossible to keep track of everyone, and I hoped our disappearance wouldn’t be noticed if we were back in time to help the other new recruits clean everything up.

  “You said you were from California when we were doing our introductions—right?” Chrissy looked over at me while we walked.

  “Yeah…” I nodded.

  “How in the world did you end up in Georgia of all places?” She raised both eyebrows inquisitively.

  “Truthfully?” I sighed. “This is where the dart landed…”

  “What do you mean?” She tilted her head to the side.

  “My parents have this big map of the United States hanging in the garage. We used to put pins in it after all of our family vacations and then try to figure out where we were going next…” I laughed as I remembered all of the places my mother vetoed, like Las Vegas and New York City—the former because it was too crazy and the latter because it was too far away.

  “So, you just literally threw a dart at the map when you were trying to decide where you wanted to go to college?” Chrissy blinked in surprise.

  “My best friend Holly and I used to do it a lot when we were younger. We would throw darts and talk about how cool it would be to actually go where it landed.” I shrugged. “When it was time for us to decide our futures, we let the dart guide us—of course, we planned to go to the same college, but that didn’t work out…”

  “Where did she end up?” Chrissy seemed intrigued by the idea, even if it did sound rather foolish once I said it out loud.

  “Arizona—not far from home.” I sighed and shook my head. “We threw ten darts and applied to every school that was near where they landed. The University of Georgia was the only one that offered me a scholarship…”

  “It’s adventurous; I’ll give you that.” Chrissy smiled and laughed.

  “Yeah, but deep down, I knew Holly wouldn’t stray too far from home. I figured we would both end up somewhere close to California…” I paused for a moment because I wasn’t sure if I should share the rest, but decided it wasn’t really going to hurt. “I got a little distracted in the middle of my junior year. Early-onset senioritis, I suppose. My GPA dropped, and that limited my options…”

  “Too much partying?” Ashely narrowed her eyes at me.

  “That was part of it…” I confirmed she had landed right on the source of my problems with a quick nod.

  “Well, you picked the right sorority for it if that’s how you want to spend the next four years of your life.” She pushed her hands into her pocket and kept walking.

  “No, I really don’t.” I looked over at her. “What about you? Did you party a lot in high school?”

  “Not much…” She shook her head quickly. “I was the girl that showed up at the party, had a couple of beers, and bummed a cigarette or two off my friends—that was about the extent of it.”

  “I’ve been there…” A light chuckled passed across my lips. “Although, I was also the bad influence at times, especially with Holly.”

  “I don’t mind having fun, but I prefer to do it with people I trust—not a bunch of strangers.” She shrugged.

  “Yeah, that does make it a little easier.” I nodded.

  We kept walking, sharing details about our lives, and it wasn’t long until we had left sorority row behind us. Parties were going on at some of the other houses, but they didn’t seem to be quite as big as the one at Pi Beta Phi. I had heard that some of the sororities preferred to attend parties at the frat houses rather than throw one themselves—I was sure that things were a lot crazier a few streets over where most of the major fraternities were located.

  Thankfully, we didn’t walk in that direction, but I started to get worried that we were going to get lost if we kept going because I didn’t know the area that well. It was easy to get distracted, especially since neither one of us wanted to be at the Pi Beta Phi house, but we both had to be back in time to clean up after the party.

  “Hey, do you have any idea where we are? We’ve walked a long way…” I stopped and looked around.

  “Uh…” Chrissy stopped beside me and looked over her shoulder. “I’m sure it won’t be that hard to find our way home. I still have the map they sent us in my email.”

  “Okay, good.” I nodded, but my attention was immediately drawn to a lit area ahead of us, and I could hear music playing. “What’s going on over there?”

  “I have no idea.” Chrissy’s curiosity seemed to be piqued as well. “Do you want to check it out?”

  “It doesn’t sound like a college party.” I tilted my head to the side. “Do I hear—bagpipes?”

  “I think so…” Chrissy nodded and started walking in that direction.

  The sound of bagpipes got louder as we approached, and when we turned the corner, we saw a sign for the event—Athens Annual Scottish Festival & Highland Games. I was mildly curious, and Chrissy seemed to be as well, so we kept going.

  We passed an area that appeared to be a parking lot, but there weren’t that many cars. The empty spaces suggested that the festival was winding down, which was confirmed by a sign at the front gate. It had been over for nearly an hour.

  “Damn.” I pointed at the sign. “There’s nobody here for us to buy a ticket from even if we wanted to go inside.”

  “If the event is over, then they won’t mind if we look around a little bit.” Chrissy motioned to me and walked through the gate.

  “Okay, maybe for a few minutes.” I nodded. “Then, we really should get back to the party we’re supposed to be at.”

  “I’m in no hurry.” Chrissy laughed and kept walking.

  Me either, but I don’t want to get in trouble…

  We walked by several booths that resembled the ones I had seen at the State Fair when I was younger, where you could win prizes if you were lucky enough to get a rubber ring around a bottle or pop the right balloon. A few had already been disassembled and packed into boxes—the others were unattended. The prizes appeared to be arts and crafts instead of stuffed animals and trinkets.

  Once we walked past the booths, we saw an ample open space with signs pointing to different events, but all of those were clearly over. The people that were still at the festival were gathered around a large bonfire—drinking, talking, laughing, and listening to the bagpipe music that was being played by a small group of guys dressed in traditional Scottish attire.

  “If ye lasses came for the festival, it’s o’er now.” A man with a thick gray beard, and attire that looked like it was straight out of medieval Scotland, walked up beside us.

  “We were ju
st looking around.” Chrissy turned towards him and smiled. “Is that a problem? Is this is a private party?”

  “Nay lass, all are welcome.” He pointed to a booth on the other side of the bonfire. “Grab yerself a drink and join us.”

  The bearded gentleman walked over to the others and motioned to us once he was seated. Chrissy and I debated it for a moment and decided that we would stay for a few minutes—or at least long enough to have one drink. We walked over to the only booth that appeared to be still in operation and was given the option of liquor or ale.

  I don’t feel so bad about having a drink or two here. We’ll walk it off before we get back.

  Ale sounded safer, and it was cheaper, so we both ordered a pint. It was the first time either of us had ever tried Scottish Ale, and one sip confirmed it was a lot stronger than what they were serving in the keg at Pi Beta Phi. The ale was dark brown and tasted sort of like caramel when it hit my tongue, but it had an aftertaste that was a little earthy with a hint of smokiness—like someone had roasted the ingredients before they brewed them. It wasn’t a drink I could have tolerated enough of to actually get drunk, but it did taste pretty good after our walk.

  “This is kind of nice.” I looked around the bonfire and pointed at a couple of seats on the other side of it.

  “Yeah, it’s very relaxing.” Chrissy nodded and followed me.

  “The scenery isn’t bad, either.” I gave her a nudge and grinned when a hot guy walked by. “I’ve always had a thing for guys in kilts…”

  “I don’t care about the kilt, but a Scottish accent—yes, please!” Chrissy’s face lit up with a devious smile.

  We sipped our drinks, listened to the bagpipe music, and a few people came over to strike up a conversation. They didn’t seem to mind a couple of strangers in their midst and were very friendly. We got to hear all about the festival and were encouraged to come back the following year to see it in all its grandeur.