DARREN'S SCOTTISH LIFE HAD ENDED the moment he'd decided to go abroad for the last year of high school and all of college. He'd started saying goodbye to his friends and the customs he was so used to. The last few days in his native country were spent with family, and with everything he did, he thought to himself, I'll never do this again.

The feeling had become definite when he arrived at the airport, getting ready for a fifteen-hour flight. The moment wasn't shocking or emotional, though; he had been preparing for it for weeks.

When his American life had ended, he didn't know. Maybe it was the moment Dakota had rejected him for the first time, or the moment she had confronted him in the cafeteria and he started to realize he had to accept there was no place for him in her life. Maybe it was when he read the email from Princeton, saying there was no place for him at their university.

And maybe, it had been a step-by-step process, just as how he'd left Scotland: an accumulation of short moments of his environment telling him to let go.

This is how Darren found himself in between two lives. Arriving at Glasgow International Airport, he was confronted with the life he'd so long ago said goodbye to, and the overwhelming feeling of being out of place got to him. The first thing that gave him that feeling was the announcement by the pilot on the plane, saying they had arrived and in what weather conditions: "Welcome to Glasgow. Currently, it is minus five degrees Celsius or twenty-three degrees Fahrenheit. Thank you for flying with..."

Just when he heard "twenty-three degrees Fahrenheit," a shiver had crawled along his spine. He'd gotten used to the luxurious Florida weather, always over sixty degrees Fahrenheit. When he'd left the state, he'd been wearing shorts, but on the other side of the ocean, long jeans and a thick winter coat were required if one did not want to faint from the cold.

Although it was a small detail, the second thing that had made Darren feel like he didn't belong in Scotland, was him yawning and feeling the urge to crawl into bed even though it was eleven in the morning when the plane landed. In just a few months, he had become an American, and this was just another bit of evidence supporting that.

But his family couldn't care less which nationality he had taken on, and when they saw him, they welcomed him into what had once felt like his native country with open arms. It had been the same club of people that would follow him around no matter where he would go: his mother Elle, her soon-to-be husband Larson, Darren's father Ryan, and his little twin sisters Keri and Brielle. His friend Colin was there too, and when Darren laid his eyes on him, he was overwhelmed by guilt of not having called his Scottish friend more often. If he had, he would've known his friend had gotten rid of his bouncy curls and instead was rocking a bald head. It was another example of how he'd said goodbye to Scotland, the place he'd once called home.

"Hey, mate," Colin had said in that characteristic Scottish accent of his. Darren had only heard this accent through the distorted computer speakers, but it was as warm as it had always been. Colin had then given him a hug, and the club of people went to the house Darren once called home.

For just a moment, Darren thought about the possibility of this becoming home again. What if he wouldn't go back to the States and finished his year here instead? There was nothing left for him on the other side of the pond anymore; he didn't get into Princeton, and he'd screwed up with Dakota. Maybe Nova would be disappointed, but she was the only one keeping him there. Everything else was telling him to leave.

But Darren had other things to think about. From the moment he arrived in Scotland, he had a mere two days to prepare for the wedding of Elle and Larson. Preparation mostly meant he had to support his mother when the florist called to say one type of flower couldn't be delivered in time for the bouquet and to tell Larson yet again his hair was styled perfectly, but still. He'd already bought himself a suit back in the States, and when he got it out of his suitcase on the day of, it was just as clean and crisp as he remembered it to be. It had a muted green color, and although his preference had gone out to navy blue, Larson had chosen his wedding suit in that color, and Darren put the groom's wishes over his own.

Just as he was trying to tie his tie, a sheet of paper with illustrated instructions on how to tie a tie taped to his mirror, Keri and Brielle burst into his room and twirled around in their identical tulle, blush pink dresses that came to their knees. A pink flower was attached to their right shoulder and their hair was curled. These curls jumped as Keri and Brielle skipped around Darren's room.

"Whoa, you two are gorgeous!" he said. He let the attempt to tie his tie for what it was and bent through his knees to grab Keri and Brielle. They let themselves fall into Darren's arms and giggled. "Who did your hair?"

Keri and Brielle exchanged secretive looks and giggled again.

"It wasn't dad, was it?" Darren asked.

The two girls now started laughing.

"Daddy can't do our hair!" Keri said. "He doesn't have any!"

"He used to," Darren said, his tone a serious one.

Brielle laughed quietly and looked at Darren to see if he was serious.

"Really! Before you were born, dad had long, brown hair."

Brielle pushed Darren's face away. "You're lying," she said, and she laughed with Keri.

Darren wouldn't budge. "It looked like Justin Bieber's." When his father had presented the wedding photos of him and Elle, that was the first thing Darren had wanted to say: the long, side swept locks and the light brown color had reminded Darren of the pop star just after his breakthrough.

"Who is that?" Keri asked, frowning.

Darren suppressed a chuckle. "Never mind," he said. "Just ask dad; he'll show you the pictures." He rose up and was faced with his reflection in the mirror and his half-assed attempt at tying his black tie. It shouldn't be too hard, he told himself, and he brought his hands once again to the tie, loosening the knot that had been the result of his previous attempt, and started over again. Now, he had the added difficulty of Keri and Brielle tugging at his pants.

"Have you seen mum's dress yet?" Keri asked, looking up at Darren.

Darren shook his head. He'd wanted to save that moment for this day, instead of seeing it through a computer screen.

"It's really pretty," Brielle said.

"All white," Keri added.

"And really long."

Darren smiled. "I can't wait to see it." He brought his hands up to his tie that was showing the first signs of becoming a grown-up tie.

Keri jumped up. "Let me help!" Her hands reached out and tugged at the end of the tie. The knot Darren had managed to make so far fell apart.

"Ker..." Darren sighed and looked down at his tie. Without reprimanding his sister, who couldn't know the struggle of ties as a young girl, he loosened the tie, took the knot out entirely, and wrapped it around his neck again, starting all over.

"What is it I hear?" a grown-up male said as he walked into Darren's room, lured in by the little girls' voices. When he saw them, he held his hands in front of his eyes. "Is that the bride? I'm not supposed to see you!"

Keri and Brielle ran up to Larson and each clamped to one of his legs. "We're not the bride," they laughed.

Having finally been liberated from the two energetic twins, Darren rushed to fix his tie. Third time's the charm: this attempt had a decent result.

Larson peeked through his hands at the girls clinging at his pants. "You're not?" he asked, mock-surprised. "But you're so beautiful! Darren, have you seen these dresses?"

Darren turned to the three. "I have," he said with a smile. "They're really elegant."

Larson confirmed that. "I'm not used to seeing you girls this elegant."

That earned him some small-girl slaps against his arm. He pretended the impact of those hits was much bigger than it was, and Darren laughed when he saw the bad acting of his stepfather-to-be.

"Ouch, ouch! Girls..." Larson groaned and fell to the floor in an exaggerated manner. "You're hurting me!" He sent glances Darren's way. "Darren, please... Help..." Then, he closed his eyes and stopped moving.

The girls burst out laughing when they saw Larson pretending to be dead, and knowing him to be ticklish, they started tickling him in his stomach. Larson couldn't keep his fake-death act up much longer: he let out girlish shrieks and rushed to get up and free himself of the tickling fingers of the girls. "Mercy, mercy!"

"Where's mum?" Darren asked Larson on a serious note.

"In the girls' room," Larson said, before turning his attention back to the twins. The twins had been sleeping at Ryan's this night and had been dropped off early this morning, all dressed up and ready to go, Darren assumed. His mother, as traditional as she was, must have spent the night in the room of the girls, so she wouldn't see Larson until the big moment. The only hint of her presence was her older sister and two friends walking around the house in a rushed pace with make-up brushes and Diet Pepsi. The only person in this house who drank Diet Pepsi was his mother.

"Girls, why don't you go downstairs? Aunt Becky is downstairs, and Darren needs some help with his tie."

Darren looked down at his tie, his hands instinctively raising themselves to pull it straight. "What is wrong with my –"

But the girls ran away, their cheerful chuckles becoming fainter as the distance between them and Darren grew.

"Have you worn a suit before?" Larson asked as he approached Darren.

Darren nodded. "At least once..." His voice was dejected, but his eyes followed Larson's movements as he saw them in the mirror. With a few quick tugs, Larson adjusted the tie to make it look similar to his.

"Are you nervous?" Darren asked.

Larson didn't take his eyes off the black tie. "A bit," he said. His concentrating look was one with his tongue between his lips, and Darren felt the need to laugh at how serious Larson was over fixing Darren's tie. The last worry that should be on Larson's mind was how the tie of his future son-in-law looked, but if this gave him peace of mind, Darren wasn't going to stop him.

"She's going to say yes, right?" Larson asked then. His eyes met Darren's for a second before he turned back.

Darren smiled. "Yes." And with more confidence, he added, "She definitely is." Just from how his mother looked at Larson and the smile that appeared on her face when Darren asked her about him, he knew. Ryan wasn't able to make her this happy, but Larson had changed something within her.

A small, almost inaudible breath escaped Larson's lips. "Great." He pulled at Darren's tie and folded the collar of his shirt. "You're all ready to go, my friend."

Darren smiled. "Thank you." He looked at himself in the mirror and had to admit – to his dismay – that the tie did look better now. "Are you ready?" he asked.

Larson laughed and started heading out the room. "I don't think the question is whether I'm ready," he said, pointing to the door behind which was his mother preparing for the big day, "but if your mum will manage to get ready in time."

As if on cue, Aunt Becky raced up the stairs and into the twins' room, the twins following her. "Don't look!" she yelled over her shoulder at Larson before opening the door Elle was behind. Larson had already turned his head away and shielded the view of his future wife with his hand. For a second, the murmurs on the other side of the door intensified in volume.

With a click, the door closed again.

"Is it safe?" Larson asked.

Darren chuckled at the sight, and was once again confirmed in his belief Larson was the right one for his mother. "Yes, it is."

Here's another little random fact about Darren: in the first edition of this book, he was colorblind! That was actually one of my inspirations for this story: I met someone who was colorblind and was fascinated when he talked about his experiences, how his life was different from others in ways we don't even think about. I wanted to highlight those differences in this story too, but then I had so many other things to write about that I couldn't do the topic justice. When editing the story, I made Darren normal-sighted, but believe me, there will be a book with a colorblind character written by me in the future!

So, how are you enjoying the story so far? We're nearing the end, only five more chapters after this 😬 And Darren and Dakota aren't even close to making up...