“I will be fine.” She ignored my teasing. “You better go if Thane is expecting you.”
THANE
Regan Penhaligon stood in the dusky light of the evening sunset. On his doorstep. With luggage at her side.
Fifteen minutes ago, he’d only just gotten Eilidh and Lewis to sleep, so the sound of his doorbell ringing at nine o’clock did not amuse him. As he tried to work out why she was on his doorstep, he listened for the sounds of waking children.
“Regan?” Thane was pretty sure he was scowling at her.
Her eyebrows shot up, confirming it. “Bad time?”
“Well, nine o’clock at night is generally a bad time to ring anyone’s doorbell.”
“Oh.” She winced. “We’re used to fairly long days in the summer in Boston, but nothing like this. I keep forgetting how late it is since it’s still daylight out. I mean, it only just gets dark at eleven o’clock. That’s wild.”
He waited for her to stop rambling and explain her presence.
Regan’s smile wobbled at his stony nonresponse, making him feel like an utter arse.
“Sorry.” He shrugged apologetically. “What brings you next door?”
Her brows pulled together. “I start tomorrow.”
“Yes …”
“Well … don’t you want me to move into the guest house tonight?”
Now it was Thane’s eyebrows that almost hit his hairline. He’d assumed because Regan was living next door that she wouldn’t want to move into the annex. “There’s really no need.”
Disappointment flooded her expression. Another surprise. “Oh.”
“You want to live in the annex? While it’s fairly comfortable in there, it’s not a luxury guest suite with incredible views of the Ardnoch Firth.”
“I just thought it would make things easier for the job and …” She glanced over her shoulder at his brother’s home. “I don’t want to cramp their style.” Regan looked back with a little shrug. “They don’t need me sharing their space for six months. They just got engaged. I thought if I lived in the guest house, we’d all have our space.”
Her consideration toward Robyn and Lachlan was nice to see. He stepped back to allow her inside. “Come on in, but be quiet. The kids just went down.”
She nodded and walked past him, suitcase rolling at her side. Thane reached for it, brushing her hand away from the handle. Regan seemed perturbed by the gesture, but realizing he was taking the luggage from her, she gave him a grateful, dimpled smile.
Thane nodded and followed her as they moved through the house. When they reached the main living area, she waited for him as he pulled open a drawer in the kitchen and grabbed the spare key to the annex with a key and fob to the main house. “Yours,” he murmured, presenting it to her. “This way.”
He led her down the narrow corridor behind the main staircase, the one that led to a tiny sitting room with an enormous picture window they called “the snug,” a downstairs restroom, and the utility room. A side exit door led out from the utility room. Smirking, Thane said quietly, “You’ll soon be well acquainted with this room.”
Regan threw him a grin as she took in the piles of laundry waiting to be done. “Good thing you pay so well.”
Chuckling, Thane opened the side entrance and hauled the suitcase down a paved path toward the annex. He and Fran built the guest suite with her parents in mind. She wanted them to have a separate place they could live when they made the long drive from the Borders to the Highlands to visit. Tragically, Fran’s dad, Heath, died of cancer only months after Fran’s death, and her mum, Liz, of a heart attack three weeks after her husband passed. Thane knew Liz’s heart just couldn’t take the stress of losing her husband and only daughter within months of each other.
Thane had talked about redecorating the annex, hoping it would suppress some of those sad memories. But he’d never had time. Not with working from home while also caring for Eilidh and Lewis.
One day he’d returned from dropping the kids at school to find a team of decorators in the guest building. Lachlan had sent them and paid for the whole thing.
Always looking after him.
“I’m kinda excited.” Regan pulled him out of his musings. She grinned as she put the key in the door.
He followed her in. “Keypad.” He stopped her in her tracks and tapped the small box on the entrance wall. “Code to set the alarm when you leave is 2324.”
“2324,” she repeated.
“To alarm it on exit, put in the code and then press the A button.” He pointed at it and she nodded. “To alarm the annex when you’re sleeping, punch in the code and hit the B button.”
She frowned. “What if I need to get up to pee?”
His lips twitched. “The night alarm is only triggered by force on the doors and windows. But there’s also a smart device in the annex that will do it for you. I’ll show you.”
“Nice.” Regan nodded, wide-eyed. “But can I check out the rest of the place first?”
Laughing softly at her impatient giddiness, he nodded and gestured for her to go ahead. The small hallway/mudroom led into the primary space. There was a farmhouse-style kitchenette along the wall to the right, and next to that a two-seat sofa facing a wall-mounted TV. It was hooked up to a DVD player and to the TV service the main house used. Beyond that was the king-size bed overlooking sliding glass doors that led out into the yard. She had a partial view of the water at this angle. A dividing wall next to the bed hid a small walk-in and a stylishly refurbished bathroom.
He waited in her tiny sitting room, placing her luggage by the sofa as she wandered through the annex.
“Holy …” He heard her say as she stepped into the bathroom.
When Regan reappeared, she grinned at him. That damn gorgeous smile of hers made it difficult not to smile in return. “You were holding out on me, mister.”
Thane raised an eyebrow. “How so?”
“This place”—she gestured—“is amazing.”
“You think so? It’s half the size of Lachlan’s guest room.”
“So what?” Her big, shining brown eyes danced around the space. “Look how gorgeous and cozy it is. And that bathroom! I think I might never come out of that walk-in shower.”
An image of her naked, water sluicing down her no doubt beautiful body, entered his mind out of nowhere, and he guiltily threw it off. Where the fuck had that come from? He scowled at himself.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
He nodded, unable to meet her eyes. “Fine, fine. Eh … okay … so”—he gestured to the TV—“you’ve got access to all the channels plus the streaming apps on here. We set up the Wi-Fi. Password is RescueRiders. Both r’s in capital letters, the rest lowercase. Eilidh chose it.”
Regan chuckled. “Maybe you should make your password more difficult.”
“So Lachlan doesn’t steal it?” he teased.
He saw understanding dawn, and she grinned. “Right.”
They didn’t have any neighbors around to tap into their broadband services.
“This”—he pointed to a tablet mounted to the wall beside the kitchen—“is the smart home device. You can voice activate it and it’ll turn the lights on and off, put the window blinds up and down, even set the alarm. It will switch on the underfloor heating,” he continued, pointing at the floors. “It’s on a schedule, but you can change the settings on here. Or just voice activate it. If you have any issues, let me know. The voice activation will switch on any technology in the annex.”