Page 34 of 40 and Flashing (the Scotsman)
“Would ya consider comin’ to see Scotland? I can take ya to all the sites, show ya around.” His hand flattened on her belly, pressed down. “Most of all, I just want to see ya again.”
She couldn’t take it anymore. Rising up, she turned on her knees to face him. “I want that too. I wanted it so much, but I was afraid to say anything.”
“I don’ think I’ve ever been afraid of sayin’ somethin’ till now. What I might’ve said in the past wasn’t important, but this is.” He cupped her cheeks, staring deep into her eyes. “This is important, Scarlett. I want to see ya again. I don’ want this to be the end.”
“Yes.” A smile broke free, and it felt like the sun appearing from behind the clouds, pouring warmth onto the Earth. “Yes, I want that too.”
“So ya’ll come see Scotland?”
“You couldn’t keep me away.”
He kissed her, long and hard, and when they got out of the bath, he made love to her. Every touch was a promise, an acknowledgment that this wasn’t the last time they’d be together. They would see each other again, and when that time came, who knew?
Epilogue
FOUR MONTHS LATER
It took four months to get to Scotland. Four months to save up the money, to finish her next project and get it off to her editor, to get her passport in order—because of course there was a freaking backup—but she didn’t think those four months had been wasted. She’d spent them video chatting and talking on the phone with Gavin constantly. The man could talk for hours about nothing and she would still be entertained. And the more he talked about Scotland, the more she fell in love—with the man and the country. The only thing they disagreed about was him paying for her ticket to Edinburgh. Later, maybe, she would allow him to cover the cost, but for now she needed to pay her own way.
When she arrived at baggage claim at the airport in Edinburgh, Gavin was waiting. She stood out of the flow of traffic at the entryway and scanned the crowds for him, knowing he’d be there. His long strides ate up the distance before she even caught sight of him, and he swooped her off her feet, swinging her around in the air, his arms holding her so tight she could barely catch her breath. “I missed you, lass,” he said, face buried in her neck.
They’d become her favorite words. Every time he said he missed her, his voice deepened and his eyes softened, and she could read the emotion there with her heart, not just her gaze.
“I missed you too.”
Gavin kissed her neck, then her jaw, and then he was kissing her mouth until a woman passed by and mumbled something about getting a room. “What will the children think?”
“They’ll think they love each other,” the woman accompanying her said. Gavin eased back and laughed as he took Scarlett’s hand, dragging her to the carousel to get her luggage.
She barely saw Edinburgh as they drove through. The city passed in a blur outside her windows, but she had eyes only for Gavin. Those curls still fell over his forehead, and his grin was still the slightest bit crooked, and his eyes were still the color of whisky. Stubble graced his cheeks. He hadn’t changed a bit, and yet everything looked new; she soaked up the sight of him here, next to her, instead of on a screen a thousand miles away. He touched her constantly, his hand on her arm, fingers entwined with hers, hand on her thigh. She soaked it all in, unable to believe she was finally here, finally feeling his touch. It had been so long.
Guess it didn’t matter if you were twenty-five or forty-five; the hunger to be together felt the same.
Gavin drove them outside the city, through what looked like suburbs. He’d been in an apartment when they first met, but the stay in Black Wolf’s Bluff had inspired him, he said. He’d taken her along for the ride (virtually) as he explored the countryside to find a replacement. She hadn’t seen the house he settled on, though.
“I want it to be a surprise. Ye’re goin’ to love it.”
The homes grew more and more isolated until finally they pulled into a long, winding driveway. It disappeared between two hills up ahead, and when they passed between the hills and around a curve, the fields became woodland as far ahead of them as she could see. On a hilltop, barely poking above the trees, sat a house, and the minute they pulled up beside it, Scarlett knew he’d been right—she was in love with more than just Gavin.
“It’s beautiful,” she breathed, leaning forward in her seat to get a better view.
Pride beamed from Gavin’s face. “I’m glad ya like it.” The house was built from thick beams and stone, two stories, with massive windows staring down at them. She knew the windows on the opposite side were even bigger. Gavin had told her the back of the house looked out on a small loch, and she couldn’t wait to see it.
He deposited her suitcase in his room, where the walls were a soft white with masculine navy-blue fabric at the windows and on the furniture. The room felt like him, and even better, it smelled like him. Sleeping surrounded by his scent was her idea of a dream. Sleeping with him beside her again would be magic.
They made dinner, ate, did dishes. All the things that seemed so mundane back home, but here, with Gavin, every moment meant so much. If she hadn’t known before she came here that she was in love, she would’ve known the minute she saw him at the airport. But it was spending these moments of nothing special that convinced her. Only love could make washing the dishes delightful.
And yet, as long as they’d been talking, neither one of them had said it.
After dinner, Gavin took her out onto the back porch, which traveled the length of the house. At one end hung a swing much like the ones on the front porches in her town, though this one was piled with blankets and cushions. The air was chilly, the spring season cooler here than it was back in Tennessee. Gavin arranged the blankets, sat with a pillow behind his back, long-ways on the swing, then patted the seat between his thighs. “Come ’ere.”
Resting back against him, she felt her heart melt when he wrapped his arms around her just as he had so often when he was in Black Wolf’s Bluff. With blankets covering them for warmth, they sat in the silence and stared out at one of the most beautiful scenes she’d ever seen. The water of the loch was about thirty yards away, dark now that the sun had set, the reflection of the moon silver as it rippled across the water. The night was alive with the sounds of animals, though she couldn’t identify most of them. The trees were the same—pine she knew, and the birch trees whose leaves reflected the silver light of the moon were easily identified. One grand oak stood to the left side of the wide backyard. Other than that, she would need Gavin to teach her about the flora as well as the fauna.
“You were right,” she said as the swing gently rocked beneath them.
“About what?”
“About the air. It is different, just like you said. Soft. You can almost feel it, which seems weird to say, but it’s true.” She glanced up at him over her shoulder, taking in his handsome features from a new angle, admiring the hard lines and soft curves, everything that made Gavin, Gavin. “I love it.”
