Page 23 of Kiss Me, Macrae

When her warm whisky eyes flicked up to meet his, a forceful hitch caught in his chest. And when she offered a smile, Baird was fairly certain his heart stopped.

It was a feeling he’d had so often since their first encounter. The sense that all the pieces he’d known to be right and good had fallen perfectly into place in a design that was beautifully meant to be.

But then her smile slipped and a frown tugged at her brow. “What’s the matter?”

Baird shook his head. “There’s naught the matter.”

“Then why did we stop?”

Had they?

Baird hadn’t realized. He huffed a breath in an attempt to calm his racing heart. “Just a wee bit farther.”

Around the next curve, the rocky path opened up to a small valley. Nestled between dramatic, sloping hills, the valley had always been Aileen’s favorite place. This was where she’d run about with her favorite hound, frolicked in the fall of water that cascaded from the mountain side into a quiet little pool in summer, staged elaborate picnics, and sat amongst the snow drifts in quiet contemplation. As a child, she’d named the place Fairy Glen, and as she’d grown into a young woman, the magic of the hidden valley never left her.

He stopped atop a rocky outcropping overlooking the valley. As Miss Smithson came to stand beside him, a weight of near-breathless anticipation expanded in his chest. He’d expected this moment to be poignant, but he couldn’t have known how deeply he’d be affected when he turned to look at her and saw the rapt expression on her face.

Pale pink highlighted her cheeks as her dark eyes widened to take in the scene. Parting her lips on a gentle sigh, she slid her hand into his.

Baird was fairly certain she didn’t even realize she’d done it, but he curled his fingers around hers with an ache of contented longing. It was sweetly painful in all the right ways.

“It’s lovely,” she whispered after a long moment. “She loved this place, didn’t she? Your sister?”

“Aye.”

She offered him a quiet smile as she squeezed his hand. It seemed she was aware of it cradled in his after all.

“Where will you build it?”

Baird pointed to a spot near the mountain pool where the view of the valley would be different when seen through each of the six archways she’d designed. In the spring and summer, the sound of water rollicking down the mountainside would provide nature’s song and the pool it formed would reflect the structure like a mirror.

“Perfect,” she breathed.

“Ye dinnae mind if I use yer design?”

She glanced at him with a touch of surprise. “Of course not. It’s yours.”

“I’ll pay—”

“No. You will not,” she interrupted sharply.

“I’ve not the proper words to thank ye for such a gift.” Baird cleared his throat. “I only wish she could be here tae see it.”

“She is.” The confidence in her tone soothed the raw surface of his emotions.

He managed a smile. “Aye.”

“And others will be able to enjoy the beauty and magic of this place as she did.”

“That’s my hope,” he admitted roughly. “For a long time after…I avoided this place. It didnae make sense it could still exist without her. She was everything bright and beautiful and then she was gone.”

Emotion rose in him sudden and heavy and overwhelming. He lowered his chin and sucked in a swift breath, but it didn’t dispel the lump in his throat any more than tightly closing his eyes stopped the burn of tears.

Within a quiet heartbeat, she was there, pressing her body to his. He tilted his head and buried his face in her hair as she slipped her arms around him. With a ragged inhale, he pulled her close.

She said nothing—did not try to placate or talk away his swell of grief. She simply held him.

And after a bit, the grief softened and the pain receded until he could lift his head and look down at her upturned face. “It feels good tae share this place. Tae ken it’ll bring peace and happiness tae others as it did tae Aileen.”

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