Page 55 of Devotion: Isn't What It Seems (Love Isn't What It Seems 1)

“The McLaren’s are having some gathering or party that goes on for a few days,” I tried to sound nonchalant so she wouldn’t read anything into it. “So I’m staying at their place, about an hour outside the city, in the countryside. Well, it is more like a castle in the countryside.”

“What?” her voice sounded shocked. “How did they convince you to go?”

I shrugged my shoulder as if she could see me.

“Eve, I’m waiting.”

“I don’t know,” I uttered over the phone. “Elise, I’m telling you, this place is something. Magical. Made me think back to that class I had in college. I don’t know why I never looked more into the legends of Scotland.”

She chuckled over the phone. “Maybe because it was waiting to hit you right at this moment. What do you like most about it?”

Lachlan,I thought but answered, “The scenery is breathtaking. Makes me want to go back to the middle ages and conquer it for myself.”

Elise started chuckling. “It’s that great?”

“Yes,” I told her. “Remember that story you used to read me when we were kids? Darn, I can’t remember the name of it.”

“Which one?” she asked laughing. “There were so many.”

I smiled at that. She was right. I always asked her for one more story. “The one with the sad princess that wanted to save herself from her evil stepmother but didn’t know how. So she cried, causing everything in the village to flood.”

“Yes,” she exclaimed. “Ugh, I can’t remember the title either but I know which one you are talking about!”

“That illustrator could have drawn his inspiration from this place.”

“I’m so happy,” Elise pretty much beamed over the phone. “You made me so happy by calling.”

“I’m happy I called too,” I mumbled into the phone. “I love you. You know that, right?”

“I love you more.” She told me that all my life. “Eve, will you come home for Christmas?”

A pang of pain hit me. Elise always tried to be a good daughter and have our family seem somewhat normal. I always stubbornly refused to play along. It was one quality nobody was able to wrap their head around when it came to me. I was shy and reserved but when the stubborn streak hit me, I was rarely persuaded to change my mind

“Mother misses you,” she added.

“No, I don’t think so,” I replied, although Elise didn’t know my negative response was to my mother missing me and going home for holidays. “I wouldn’t have enough leave to take to fly home for holidays.”

“She wants to see you, Eve.” Always the peacemaker.

“I can’t,” I muttered into the phone, and my voice sounded desperate to my ears. “Please don’t ask me.”

“I don’t understand.”

She would never understand because I would never tell her what my mother had done. If I never saw her again, it would be too soon. There were certain things you could never forgive nor forget.

“How about if you and Brandon came for Thanksgiving?” I asked, trying to change the subject. “You could come a week early and maybe we could actually sightsee together instead of you having your eye on me?”

I heard a deep sigh on the line and I knew Elise was sad.

“Maybe Mother and John could come too?” she asked hopefully.

“I’m sorry, Elise.” It always made me sad to see her upset. She had always been there for me, regardless how much it cost her personally. I wanted to repay her and be there for her. I just couldn’t allow my mother back into my life, for my sanity’s sake.

“Maybe one day,” I lied. “Just not now. Besides, airfare would be too much for her and John to join in, and I couldn’t fit you all into my little place.” The words were bitter lies on my tongue.

John was her husband and had been my stepdad for the past twelve years. I could never understand why he put up with her. He was way too good for her.

Thankfully, Elise left it at that.

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