Lost Highlander Page 23

  She needed to see him, sometimes her chest ached with it, thinking that maybe if they saw each other again he’d remember the spark, the very real spark she knew they’d both experienced. Despite that, she refused to take more vacation time until she was done with school once and for all. She started this nonsense and she would finish it. Evelyn put her nose to the grindstone, working double shifts at Hoochie’s and researching and writing furiously to get her thesis done so she could start her real life, whatever or wherever it would be. If she got back to Scotland next year and it didn’t work out with them because of distance or the outlandish circumstances then she’d just have to deal with it.

  ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  It was the last week of January, just a few days before her birthday and the weather in Dilbert barely called for long sleeves. She couldn’t believe it, but she thought she might miss the arctic blasts of Scotland. She thought of her last friendly chat with Sam and how even he’d been complaining about the weather there and decided to snap a picture of herself wearing a light, airy blouse with the Texas sun blazing down on her, just to rub it in a little, and maybe keep her in the forefront of his mind at the same time. After she finished sending the picture she noticed a text from Piper.

  ‘Extravagant present. Check your email. If you don’t use it you’ll be sorry.’

  Evelyn didn’t know if it was a threat or if she’d just regret it, and couldn’t wait to see what it was. She set her book bag down on the nearest bench and clicked through to her email, waving absent-mindedly at a professor who was strolling past, then squealed with delight when she saw Piper’s present, all resolve to stay put until she was done with school out the window.

  It was a ten day trip to Hawaii, staying at a posh resort, with an itinerary that included massages, yoga classes, surf lessons, more massages, and lots of food and drinks. It was her ultimate dream vacation she’d talked about ever since she and Piper were kids. Evelyn kept squealing when she found the resort on the internet and it was even fancier than she could have imagined, all private beaches and giant pools with waterfalls.

  “God, Piper, what have you got against planning?” Evelyn asked out loud when she saw she was supposed to be leaving the day after tomorrow. Well, better than five o’clock the next day. She looked down at her pale winter skin and groaned, knowing she wouldn’t even have time to do a spray tan. Her only comfort was that Piper would be far paler, spending the winter so close to Siberia.

  After another frantic rush to get everything sorted and packed, her boss and professors poorly placated, she was finally sinking into the first class seat with a properly tropical drink in her hand. She was too excited to take a Benadryl and stayed awake the whole flight, not even the least bit tired when she disembarked. The plumeria lei she was given was even prettier and smelled better than she ever could have thought possible and she didn’t even want to blink for fear of missing something.

  She looked all around for Piper at the baggage claim area, then thought she might have just sent a car, and began to worry that maybe she hadn’t arrived yet. Leave it to Piper to gloss over details and leave her to fret.

  Turning in a slow circle to make sure she hadn’t missed her, she saw a tall, super sexy Scot holding a hand lettered sign with her name and smiling sheepishly. He was wearing jeans and a faded green tee shirt. She realized this was the first time she’d ever seen him in a short sleeved shirt and she was definitely impressed with his muscular biceps. Shrieking with delight, she dropped her bag and ran over to him, flinging her arms around him. He laughed and lifted her off her feet.

  “What a surprise,” she gasped when he put her down. He looked confused and went to retrieve her bag. People were swerving around it, looking annoyed.

  “Is it a surprise?” he asked, taking her hand and leading her out of the airport. She all but jumped up and down with happiness that he was there. After all the time apart she thought it would be awkward to see him, but it felt like no time at all had passed.

  “Yes,” she said. “A good one, though.” She hurried to assure him since he was frowning down at her. “Is Piper already at the hotel?”

  “Piper?” he asked. They looked at each other and it finally dawned on Evelyn what was going on.

  “Wait a second,” she said, stopping in her tracks as people continued to stream around them. She looked up at Sam who was looking worried. “Piper’s not coming is she? Is this - is this a romantic getaway?”

  He closed his eyes, thoroughly perplexed, then burst out laughing. “Is that all right?” he asked, now looking like he might want to wring Piper’s neck. Evelyn grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled him down for a kiss. He let go of her bag and slid his hands around her waist, pulling her close to him. They kissed until an old lady told them to get a room.

  They both laughed and he scooped up her bag, pulling her along to the car that was waiting for them.

  In the back seat of the car, he pulled her close and she wrapped her arms around him, breathing in his manly scent. She couldn’t believe she forgot how delicious he smelled.

  “I’m glad you’re glad to see me,” he said as the car wound its way along an oceanside drive. The beach was on one side of them, beautiful flora on the other, and even though this was her ultimate dream destination, she couldn’t tear her eyes off of Sam. His hair had grown back to its regular shaggy waves and his tee shirt made his eyes especially green. She was so happy she was almost shaking with it.

  “Why would you think I wouldn’t be?” she asked, pressing even closer to him.

  He shrugged and looked out the window, then back down at her. “I guess we never talked about where things were going in the last few months. I kind of assumed at first, but then … .” He trailed off, looking back out the window. She reached up to turn his face back to her and shook her head.

  “I never stopped,” she said. “I thought you didn’t want me to come back. You never said you wanted me to visit, or ask if you could come to Texas.”

  “I knew you wanted to finish school. I didn’t want to put pressure on you.” He wrinkled his forehead. “I‘m counting the days until you finish that damn thesis. That’s why I tried to hustle you off the phone sometimes. I almost told Piper she couldn’t get you this trip, but then I wanted to see you too badly.”

  Evelyn laughed, filled with relief. “What about you? The store? I didn’t want to ask you to visit if you couldn’t get away.”

  He shrugged. “Oh, well, you know Padma. I’m practically redundant in my own shop. She’s got the textile museum running like clockwork as well.”

  “Yeah, Padma.” Evelyn struggled not to make a sour face, thinking that maybe Padma needed to just go work at the museum full time, or maybe grace London with her presence. “I thought maybe you and she were -” She stopped short and pulled out her cell phone, scrolling through all the pictures until she came to the one of the museum opening.

  She held it up to show him but even as she did, she saw what she would have seen before if she’d been of a saner mind. Piper, Mellie, some old lady she didn’t know, Sam and Padma were all looking happy, standing in a row. The all had their arms around one another, it wasn’t just Padma clinging to Sam. Or maybe she was a little, but Sam was standing with his body turned away from her, hoisting the champagne bottle in a salute to Piper. In fact, his arm wasn’t even around Padma, just hanging at his side. She had gone crazy from missing him and now she was about to expire from embarrassment for even taking the picture out to show him. She tried to put the phone away but he grabbed it and looked at the picture, then down at her, a look of delight on his face.

  “Are you jealous of Padma?” he asked, eyes wide. She wanted to jump out of the moving car, but there was a steep drop to the ocean on her side. Instead, she hid her face in her hands and Sam laughed, pulling her hands away. He leaned over and kissed her and turned off her phone. “I’ve known Padma since we were in nappies. She might as well be my sister.”

  “Okay,” Evelyn s
aid meekly, deciding not to inform him that she was pretty sure Padma didn’t feel the same way about him. She was too happy to care.

  Her mind raced as she thought about how quickly she could get things wrapped up at home once and for all so she could get back to where she now knew she truly belonged.

  The car turned into a driveway lined with lush palm trees and huge hibiscus bushes. The hotel sparkled in the sunlight at the end of the drive, its fountains and terraces welcoming.

  “Everything’ll work itself out,” Evelyn said, almost to herself. Sam took her chin in his hand and tipped her head back, leaning down to kiss her. She felt her limbs turn to honey and all her past worries melted away. The car stopped at the front entrance of the hotel and the driver hurried to open their door. Sam smiled down at her and glanced over the top of her head at the tropical paradise they’d be enjoying together for ten days.

  “First things first,” he said, running his finger down the side of her neck. She shivered and hurried out of the car, eager to get settled in their room. Even though she knew Piper would have booked them separate rooms, she also knew Piper wouldn’t think they’d use both.

  She paused at the front doors, under a palm tree archway, flowers everywhere. A doorman opened it for them, smiling welcomingly. Sam took Evelyn’s hand and they walked in together.

  The End.

  Epilogue

  Piper sighed and put down her journal, relaxing in her favorite chair in the newly renovated library. All of the boxes were gone, the walls repapered in a nice, light damask, the massive dark desk replaced with a dainty scroll leg escritoire. A glance at the clock told her she’d once again lost track of time, reading her great-grandmother’s papers and writing in her journal for hours. The tourists would all be long gone from the grounds this late in the evening and she wondered why Mellie hadn’t brought her any tea or nagged her to eat dinner, before she remembered it was one of her nights off.

  Deciding she wasn’t very hungry, she paused for just a moment in front of a painting of a rosy cheeked cherub aiming his arrow at a grizzled lion, who just looked annoyed, while the pyramids of Egypt loomed in the background under a brilliant sunset. The painting came from a vast stack of forlorn and forgotten canvases discovered on the fifth floor, and was deemed by anyone who knew anything about art to be both worthless and utter crap, but she liked it and used it to cover the wall safe. She slid it to the side and barely glancing at the keypad, punched in the code to unlock the safe. She did the same thing every night. In the safe was Daria’s grimoire and the gold pendant. The book was safely wrapped in several layers of thick paper and tied up with twine.

  With a shuddering breath she placed her hand on the wrapped book, then brushed her fingers over the pendant. She stood staring into the safe, not really seeing its contents, warring with herself. She had a wonderful life here, it was going to get even better when Evie returned to Scotland in a few months, why was she still fighting the urge to try to go back, to try to find … She shook her head and swiped at her eyes, slamming the door of the safe shut. It was impossible, foolish. She had to stop. She should destroy the book and pendant like she’d promised Evie she would. Sometimes she even wanted to, waking up in the dead of night and rushing downstairs with the best intentions to toss them in the fire, but never being able to do it.

  The only thing she could do was force herself not to open the terrible book, not wear the pendant around her neck, not miss the only man she’d ever loved, though the misery of his loss seemed to grow stronger every day.

  She paused in the hallway on her way to her bedroom, and looked into a gilded oval mirror, to make sure for the hundredth time every day that she didn’t look as dismal as she felt. It was important that no one worry about her or suspect the depths of her sorrow. She was relieved to see that she looked just fine.

  A crash from upstairs tore her from her revery and she snapped to attention. A family of squirrels had moved in on the fifth floor at the end of the winter and were wreaking havoc up there. They were the bane of her existence, chewing through priceless tapestries and pooping on everything. The war she was waging against the vile creatures was the only thing keeping her from slipping into a true despair.

  “I’m coming for you, you little bastards,” she yelled and tore up the stairs. When she got to the fifth floor landing she grabbed a broom, one of the many weapons she kept handy up there, and looked around wildly for the head of the clan, a fat, cocky little monster. Like an obsessed woman, she started hitting the walls with the broom, running up and down the hall and throwing open doors, hoping to scare them out of their hiding places so she could take a crack at them. If she ever caught one, she had no clue what she would actually do with it, but she’d cross that bridge when she came to it. So far, they had eluded all capture, the wily sons of bitches.

  At the stone wall where the hall dead ended, she turned around and decided a stealthy retreat might lull them into showing their heathen faces. Tiptoeing as silently as she could, she kept her senses alert for the most subtle scuffling. When the floor started quaking and the wall behind her groaned, she whirled around with a shriek, brandishing her broom, half fearing a giant malevolent squirrel would be looming over her.

  She stood shaking as the wall slowly, laboriously moved, then dropped the broom with a clatter, scraping her tangled hair out of her eyes, barely able to believe what she was seeing. With a gasp, she stepped forward.

  “Lachlan?”

  Thank you for reading Lost Highlander!

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  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Epilogue