Page 97 of A First Sight

“Where exactly are we going?” she asked.

“The Adirondacks.” I reached for her hand, lacing my fingers between hers. “I bought a large piece of land about ten years ago and had a cabin built in the middle of it. It’s off the beaten path and fairly isolated. There’s a Bed & Breakfast about two miles away, and the owners take care of my place when I’m not there.”

“It sounds perfect.”

“It is,” I said proudly. “I don’t come up as much as I should, but Uncle Ben and Stellan use it often.”

“Do you consider yourself the city type?” she asked. “I grew up in San Ramon, but I didn’t think of myself as a city person until I moved to New York.”

“Inverness is probably around the same size as San Ramon,” I said, doing the math based on what I knew of my home compared to Edinburgh. “But I didn’t have a real city experience until I moved to Glasgow for university.”

“Did I ever tell you that was where my brother Alec went to college?”

“No, but I already knew,” I said. “The university is quite proud of its successful alumni, and Alec McCrae is one of them.”

She shook her head and laughed. “It still makes me smile when I hear things like that. To me, he’s the overprotective big brother who learned to curse in Gaelic so he could tell people off without anyone knowing what he said.”

I laughed. “That’s brilliant.”

“Did you know him at school?”

I raised an eyebrow. “I’m a decade older than your brother.”

Color pinked her cheeks. “Right. I forgot.”

“Does it bother you?” I asked, my stomach knotting at the question. We went through so much that something like age felt inconsequential to me, but she had time to think about it. “The age difference?”

She shook her head with no hesitation. “No, age doesn’t matter.” She gave me a sly look. “Besides, I’ve been enjoying the fact that you’re…experienced.”

“Is that just a polite way of saying I’m old?” I teased and laughed, loving that we could have some fun.

We had spent so much of our time together dealing with drama that we missed the ‘honeymoon’ phase of dating. We had done everything out of order, and I sometimes worried we wouldn’t know how to be together without the chaos.

I gesture toward the back of my car. “I'm impressed with how you packed. Most women would include at least half a dozen pairs of shoes for a trip.”

“How do you know I didn’t?” she shot back.

“You only have one bag,” I pointed out. “And we agreed to pack for a week.”

“Maybe all I packed were shoes and lingerie.” My head snapped around as laughter burst out of her. “You should see the look on your face.”

“Damn, Maggie,” I said hoarsely as I turned my attention back to the road. “You can’t say things like that to a man while he’s driving.”

She was still laughing, and I decided that was my new favorite sound, even more than the soft sighs she made when we kissed or how she called out my name when we made love.

* * *

It wasn’t quitelunchtime when we turned onto the small access road that led to my property. With it being the first of April, only about half the trees had new leaves.

“Wow,” Maggie breathed as we came around a curve.

I kept only a small area cleared in the center of the heavily wooded land. This was her first clear look at my place, and pride swelled in my chest at her reaction. I explained I had designed the cabin with a contractor. Two stories and a wraparound porch that could accommodate a family. There were three bedrooms, two baths upstairs, an open living area, a kitchen, a bathroom, and a small mudroom downstairs. To the right was a single car attached garage. We made it of pine, from the walls to the floor, and the furniture inside.

“This is fantastic,” Maggie said as we put our bags in the master bedroom. “You designed all of it?”

“More or less.” I gestured toward the dresser. “Make yourself at home.”

While she put away her things, I went to the closet and the gun safe at the back of it. I wasn’t a hunter or a gun enthusiast, but I knew how to handle one. I checked and cleaned the rifle, before loading it.

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