"What can I get you, luv?" The kindly looking woman behind the counter asked with a smile. Juno looked up at the offerings on the chalkboard behind the woman and tried to convert pounds to dollars in her head, giving up a few seconds later when she couldn't remember the current exchange rate.

"May I have a cup of tea and a scone, please?" Juno asked politely.

"Be three pounds, seventy, please." The woman said, turning to get Juno's order ready. Juno fumbled in her wallet for her credit card and handed it to the woman shyly. "You just visitin' Cullen, are you?" The woman asked with a smile.

Juno nodded. "Mm-hm. For a bit longer than I planned, actually."

"Well, I hope you enjoy us, luv. It's a lovely little town." The woman said warmly.

"Thank you." Juno replied automatically, nervously biting her lip and looking around and giving the assembled men a small smile, which they returned twenty fold.

The woman scowled slightly as she tried again and again to swipe Juno's credit card. "It says it can't read the stripe on the card, and it's not taking the number. You have another card, luv?"

Juno fought panic as she dug into her wallet again, hoping against hope that she could pay for her meager meal. She came up with four pound coins and handed them to the woman. "Sorry about that."

"Not to worry." The woman smiled. "Probably got wiped out when you didn't know it. It says the card has been locked down to prevent theft, and to get a new one as soon as you can. Those silly cards are more trouble than their worth, aren't they?"

Juno nodded mutely and sat down at a small table by herself. She looked forlornly inside her wallet again - no other credit cards, no other actual money. A picture of her family, her driver's license and a half filled Subway discount card weren't going to get her very far in Scotland. She set the wallet down on the table and took a sip of tea with a shaking hand.

She could feel all the men in the café looking at her, and she slowly swiveled her head to look at them. "Hello." She said tentatively, and all the men beamed back at her.

Within moments, three of the men had swarmed her table and were talking animatedly with Juno about goodness only knew what. She found herself a bit overwhelmed with all the attention and conversation. She had been hoping for a quiet cup of tea to figure out her next move, but instead, she seemed to be plunged into being the social highlight of the day for these men.

The minutes ticked by as the men asked her all about America, explained to her the complete rules of cricket, debated the Euro versus the pound, and asked her what a pretty young lass such as herself was doing alone in Cullen, of all places. Juno tried valiantly to answer all their questions politely, but found herself zoning out of the conversation every few seconds. They really were all very sweet and harmless, ranging in age from sixty-seven to eighty-nine, but Juno just couldn't seem to focus on these gentlemen while her world was rapidly spinning further and further out of orbit.

Dimly, Juno tried to process what the woman at the counter had said. Those four pound coins she'd handed over were all she had in her wallet and now her main source of cash, her credit card, wasn't working. She'd already discovered that her ATM card was 'out of area' or some such, and she couldn't even withdraw cash to get by.

No money, no idea where to go, no way to get there even if she had a clue, and in a foreign country. Alone.

Juno tried to smile and participate in the conversation, but instead found herself fighting tears of panic and frustration as the minutes ticked by and the day slipped away from her. What the hell was she going to do as soon as she finished her scone and sipped the last of her tea? She couldn't even afford another cup to try and soothe her frazzled…

"Darling! There you are! I've been looking everywhere for you." A husky male voice called out from the doorway near her. Their entire assembled group turned towards the commanding voice, where Juno saw a tall, handsome man staring right at her.

Right at her?

Juno looked at him curiously, and then took in a sharp breath when he marched right over to her, putting one hand on the back of her chair and the other under her chin, tilting her face up to look at him. "I've been so worried." He murmured, and then bent to kiss her squarely on the mouth.

Juno blinked rapidly as he pulled away, her breath completely gone and her stomach doing a mambo as she looked up at this stranger. She was about to correct him - to point out that, in fact, they'd never met before - when he grabbed her hand and tugged her to her feet.

"Must get a move on. Thanks for watching her for me, gentleman." The man tipped his head once in acknowledgement, and then propelled Juno out the door with a gentle hand on her upper arm.

It took Juno thirteen steps away from the café before she finally recovered her fight or flight response. She jerked to a halt and wrenched her arm from his warm grasp. She took a deep breath and looked the handsome man right in the face.

"Just who the hell are you, and what the hell was that?!"

1011 / 3673 / 50000

before . after