Page 71 of Priceless
Warm tears poured down my face and under my chin. I wiped them away and tried to harden my heart enough to get through the call. “I’m going to avoid funerals for a while. I know that sounds cold, but it’s what I have to do.”
“Ye won’t wait for me? Surely Scotland can keep ye happy for a wee while?—”
“Banner took me to Culloden today. I hardly remember any of it. He talked for hours and I heard nothing. Looks like the only thing I care about in Scotland…is in Germany.”
In the silence that followed, I could hear him accepting defeat.“I love ye.”
“And I love you.” I swallowed hard so he wouldn’t know I was drowning in my own tears, then swallowed again. It took effort and force to get complete sentences out. “I’ll let you go. Take your time in Paris. Call me when you get home…and we’ll see where we go from there.”
“Laira,”he whispered.
“Jacob.”
“Ye’re takin’ my very soul with ye, ye ken that?”
“Don’t worry. I’ll leave you mine. On the dresser. In the blue room.” I took a deep breath and forced a smile. “Goodbye.”
“I’ll not say goodbye. Only farewell for the now.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
The following morning, we woke to a hard rain. I called for a taxi and proved that I was a monster who didn’t deserve Jacob in the first place.
Jess got weepy, but I figured her tears were for Jacob, not me. She and Banner pretended they understood, but I didn’t expect them to blow me kisses as the taxi pulled away. They knew what I was. They were just too nice to admit it.
The good thing about crying on a train was that people left you alone. Well, most of them. An older woman will stick her nose in and ask if you’re all right, but everyone else gets it.
Despite the torture of leaving Inverness, the ride to Edinburgh flew by. I didn’t notice the scenery. I was too busy punishing myself by reliving every minute I’d spent with my favorite Highlander. I knew he was wondering why I couldn’t just stay and be happy. Of course it was tempting, but I just couldn’t. I had to go home and take a good look at my life. I had to know if Castle Rock was where I belonged. If my life had meant something.
Seven months of grief couldn’t have been for nothing, could it?
I needed to figure out if I’d been mourning Paul and the half of his life that had been stolen, or if maybe I’d been mourning the fact that my entire life with him had stolen much better possibilities from me.
Knowing Jacob had shown me what I had been missing all those years I’d promised to be faithful…to a roommate.
I decided not to look too closely at that and turned my head to the window. A little nap would hopefully clear some anguish from my brain. When I woke up, before I ever opened my eyes, I heard a tune playing in my head. After a minute, I remembered it was the song Jess had sung at Jocko’s Pub.
Simon, oh Simon, come walkin’ with me…
There had been a Simon at the party. A young tall blond who had danced all night with his wife, intentionally keeping her from the others.
With the seats around me currently empty, I sang quietly, “Simon, oh Simon, come dancin’ with me, from the bon of the fire to the table of treats…”
Bon of the fire. So clever I snorted.
“Go ahead and snort lass,” I said, with my finest Scots impression. “Just dinnae pick yer nose.”
I reached for my phone and found the download of The Blossom and the Bee story. I skimmed through it to find the name I was looking for.A wee witch named Soncerae brought him back to life…
Simon’s wife had a shorter name. Like Soncerae, I’d never heard it before. What was it? Started with an S too.
Sawney.That was it.
Sawney…
Soni? Short for Soncerae?
I stared at my phone, and though the words never moved, it all came together. Soni and Simon were the characters from the song. Friends of Jess and Banner, who were the characters inthe story, though the names had been changed. It made sense. A story from Inverness. A song from Inverness. The battlefield was that one Banner had taken me to, wasn’t it?
