Page 21 of Suddenly Single
“Eel!” she all but shrieked.“Did you know you caneateel? Like, who would want to? Who was the first person to see an eel and think, yeah, I’ll have some ofthat?” She shivered.
She continued to chatter through the meal, filling him in on all the strange things she’d ever eaten or seen.Edan didn’t have to say much. He’d never been good at small talk, and thankfully, Jenny seemed perfectly content to do all the talking.
But he was smiling.
Jenny moved from strange bites to tales of the camping she’d done before she was, as she had said, suddenly single. Camping on the beach sounded bloody awful.The Catskills sounded lovely. The truth was that Edan hadn’t seen much of the States—he’d been so caught up in the inn since arriving a few years ago that there had never seemed time.
Jenny was clearly enchanted with East Beach and Lake Haven. “Such abeautifulplace,” she said for the second time that day. “I’ve never seen so many trees. So many different shades of green.
“Aye.”
Jenny put down her fork.“That’s all?Aye?But it’s so pretty.”
Edan shrugged.“I’m from Scotland.”
“Oh, so once you’ve seen Scotland, nothing else compares?” she teased him.
“Something like that, aye.Have you ever been?”
“Nope.”
“Then I’ll show you.” He picked up their plates and took them to the kitchen island, then returned to the table with his laptop.He sat on the same side of the table with Jenny.“My brother is an amateur photographer,” he said as he clicked on to his brother’s Facebook page.He hadn’t visited that page in a couple of weeks—Bran didn’t post consistently.But Bran had posted a new crop of photos in the last few days.Photos of the gold and green hills around Balhaire, the small village where Edan had been raised, and the old castle fortress on the hill. Sunsets that glistened red and gold and yellow on the water. The blue and purple mists of the morning.
Jenny studied each photo, exclaiming at the beauty, peppering him with questions.But as Edan scrolled down his brother’s page, he noticed a picture someone else had posted and tagged to Bran.The picture was of several people outside the Black Thistle Pub, probably fifteen of them, Edan’s father and brother included.They were lifting their mugs of ale in a cheer of some sort. But what caught Edan’s eye was Audra.She was in the back of the group with Sean McCaul, a friend of his. And while everyone else toasting whoever had taken the picture, Audra was kissing Sean.
Jenny was talking exuberantly, but Edan was too stunned to hear her.Since when?Was it really so surprising? The logical side of him knew that she’d made a clean break from him. But the emotional side of him somehow remained convinced that she didn’t mean it.That she’d wanted to go home, and when he followed her, she’d have a change of heart.
The emotional side of him was a bloody idiot.
“It’s gorgeous,” Jenny said, and closed the lid of his laptop. “All right, Scotland and America. Where else have you been?” she asked.
He looked blankly into her very blue sparkling eyes.“Ah...” He and Audra had gone to the Canary Islands for a week before coming to the States.Good God, had it really been that long since he’d taken time for himself?
“Oh my God, you reallyarea hermit,” she said gaily when he didn’t answer.
“I’m no’ a hermit—”
“You say tomato, I say recluse.Where would you go if you could pack a bag and leave tomorrow?”
“Scotland, aye? I’m going there at the end of the month.”
“Yes, but where would you go onvacation?”
“Scotland,” he said again, hardly thinking.
“Ai yi yi,” she said with an exaggerated roll of her eyes. “Okay, so what are you going to do there?”
“Fish,” he said absently.
“Fish!” she repeated. “Don’t say more, because the excitement could stop my heart. You’re going all the way to Scotland to fish?”
“What else would you have me do?” he asked a little curtly. He had a sudden image of Audra sitting precisely where Jenny was now. “You’re so tiresome, Edan. You’re stuck on this bloody loch, living the life of an old man.”
“I don’t know.You could do one of those Highland games.Be a Highlander like Outlander!” she said with delight.
“I’m no’ a Highlander,” he said a little curtly.
“We’re all something,” she said. She had twisted about in her chair to face him, clearly enjoying the conversation.
