Page 45 of Gift-Wrapped in a Kilt

Jamie wandered outside to stand near the drive as Emery and Rory departed in the sports car. As the cherry-red vehicle disappeared from view, Jamie sighed and turned back to the house. The gray-stone castle loomed before her, suddenly seeming like an imposing blockade instead of a home. She'd always liked Dùndubhan. Facing three weeks alone here, though, she got a strange sick feeling in her stomach.

You are not a wuss-face. Time to show Trevor and Gavin they can't push you around.It was time to reassert control over her own destiny.

If Trevor pestered her, she'd tell him to go to hell.

And if Gavin wanted her back, he'd have to fight for it.

*****

Sweat dribbled down Gavin's face and neck. He swiped an arm across his forehead, sucked in a breath, and swung the sledgehammer up for another blow. The hammer crashed down on the stone wall, smashing rocks free and scattering them across the ground. Five days had gone by since the last time he'd touched Jamie. He'd glimpsed her coming and going at Aidan's office, but otherwise, she'd steered clear of him. Their intensely intimate encounter at Iain's house had left her shaken. Gavin understood that, but he refused to sit around waiting for her to summon him.

Every day, he called her. Several times a day. At first, she wouldn't speak to him. Gradually, she allowed a little conversation of the impersonal kind —" nice weather, huh" and the like — and then last night she'd engaged in some lighthearted discussion of her family's antics. Gavin didn't mind hearing about the MacTaggarts' shenanigans, but he would've rather talked about their relationship.

Yeah, it was really ironic. He, the guy, wanting to talk while she, the girl, clammed up whenever he tried to maneuver the conversation toward the relationship zone. Leanne would never have believed him capable of touchy-feely stuff. Maybe he'd changed since the divorce. Maybe Jamie brought something out in him no other woman ever had.

None of that mattered if she wouldn't open up to him.

Gavin swung the sledgehammer again, pummeling the stone wall.

"Feels good, eh?" Iain said, grinning.

The odd Scot held his own sledgehammer, and together, they'd demolished a short section of the old wall. Thirty years ago, a farmer had built this wall as a dry-stone construction, meaning it had no mortar. The guy had planned to pen his sheep with the fence, but he fell on hard times and sold the sheep and the land. A later owner had tried to slap on some mortar after the fact, which wound up creating a mess. The homemade mortar had turned hard as cement. Aidan had hired Gavin and Iain to tear down the wall for the new owner.

Gavin had no doubts Iain had talked Aidan into hiring him. When Iain informed Gavin that Aidan needed their "help," the older man had assured Gavin, "Aidan desperately needs us. It's rather embarrassing, in fact, how much he begged."

Yeah, right. Aidan begging for Gavin's help? Iain had to be kidding, Gavin realized, though he spotted only one sign the guy was pulling his leg. The slight upward tick of one side of Iain's mouth clued Gavin in to the guy's plan. Gavin had decided to call it Operation Get the Pathetic American a Job So He Won't Feel Like Such a Loser. A long name, for sure, but it summed up the situation.

"Don't see how this is helping me," Gavin said. "But it is kind of fun."

Iain set the head of his sledgehammer on the ground and leaned into the handle. "Imagining those rocks are Trevor Langley's head?"

"Maybe." Oh yeah, definitely, but Iain didn't need to know everything. "You sure Aidan's okay with me working for him?"

"As long as you can do the work, he doesn't mind." Iain gazed out across the fields that surrounded the old farmhouse and the remains of the wall. "Do you still feel useless?"

"No." Somehow, whacking rocks energized him with a new sense of purpose and a renewed determination to work out his problems.

Iain took up his sledgehammer and winked at Gavin. "Told ye."

"What you told me," Gavin said, "was that I should get up off my erse and start acting like a man again. Not exactly a pep talk, oh Zen master MacTaggart."

Iain shrugged, swinging the sledgehammer up to rest it on his shoulder. "Never said I was a competent Zen master."

Gavin realized right then and there he would never understand Iain. "You're a weirdo, but I'm cool with that."

Iain shot Gavin an inscrutable smile and rammed his sledgehammer down on a section of the wall.

They smashed rocks for several minutes, too absorbed in the task to have a conversation. Despite the chilly weather, with temperatures that must've been in the upper forties, their shirts were soaked with sweat. The sun peeked out from the clouds on occasion, but mostly, the sky stayed gray and overcast. It had rained a bit earlier, the light and misty kind, but Gavin had enjoyed the cooling effect of the shower. He supposed he'd get a chill if he stopped working hard, so he kept working. Shattering a pile of stones had become therapeutic.

Which was probably what Iain had intended. The guy was sneaky and determined to "help" Gavin "sort of the way Emery helped Rory, but without the naked bits." Gavin did not ask for details or point out he was not uptight like Rory.Let Iain have his fun, Gavin decided. The guy seemed to need a project. And maybe, somehow, becoming Iain's pet project would help Gavin figure out where the hell his life had gone wrong.

Rain began to mist down on them again.

Gavin let his sledgehammer's head drop onto the earth, leaning into its long handle the way Iain had earlier. He turned his face up to the mist, eyes closed.

"Enjoying the rain?" Iain asked.

"It's kinda nice." Gavin ran a hand over his closed eyes, then glanced at his coworker-slash-roommate-slash-counselor. "Sure rains a lot in Scotland."

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