Almost as if it had come out of the blue.
Or brought on by the redhead living in his annex.
Her smile popped into his mind, and his gut twisted.
Sighing, Thane pushed up off the bed and set about changing into his pjs. No more of this maudlin rubbish. So he was wary of people after Lucy—that was only natural. But Regan was Robyn’s sister. And Robyn was one of the most trustworthy people he knew, so he had to trust in Robyn’s judgment. There was no need to be uneasy about Regan’s presence in their lives.
Eilidh and Lewis were thrilled. Especially Eilidh. She’d fallen in love with the American already.
But Regan was leaving in six months.
Aye, there was the rub.
He’d have to make sure Eilidh and Lewis knew Regan’s stay was temporary. And he’d have to do it in a much better way than how he’d communicated about Lucy’s betrayal.
His head nipping with too many concerns, Thane was glad to fall into bed so he could read for a bit. He should be in his office working on the extensive project his firm had just taken on—a commercial revamp of Aberdeen’s shopping district—but Thane had already decided not to work himself into an early grave for someone else’s company. He’d work the hours he was being paid to work. End of.
Opening the crime thriller he was halfway through, Thane tried to fall back into the story … but the words weren’t penetrating. His gaze drifted to his bedroom window, his thoughts returning to Regan in the annex.
He hoped she remembered how to set the alarm properly.
Not that there was a significant chance of anything happening to her on the edge of Caelmore, but Thane was more security conscious after their old family friend and Ardnoch Estate’s mechanic, Fergus, and Lucy terrorized Ardnoch.
“She’s fine,” he muttered to himself, turning back to his book.
Fifteen minutes later, he gave up with a muttered curse under his breath, threw the book on the floor, and switched off the light, hoping sleep would come. It didn’t. On nights his brain was overactive, he used to fuck Fran until they were both exhausted. That was early on in their marriage. After Lewis, their sex life changed.
A lot of things changed between them.
8
Regan
The sound of the lapping sea filtered through my consciousness, waking me before my alarm. As late as night had fallen, day broke early, sunlight filtering through the cracks between the automatic blinds. Blinking against the light, I smiled at the sound of seagulls crying.
I’d left a window open last night because it was a little stuffy in my small apartment, and I decided I’d do it again tonight. The sounds of nature as a wake-up call was pretty fantastic.
“Turn on lights,” I said loudly, and all the lights came on in the guest house. I could get used to this. “Turn on coffee.”
A whirring sound from my left drew my attention, and I saw the red light blinking on the coffee machine. I grinned. “Oh, yeah, I could really get used to this.”
Since I was up earlier than I needed to be by half an hour, I dallied while making coffee. I took my phone off charge with the adapter plug from Robyn. “Open blinds,” I commanded and then snuggled into the sofa to watch the large blinds on the sliding doors open. From here, I had a partial view of the sea beyond.
Sipping my coffee, I unlocked my phone and checked my emails.
Nothing. Just spam.
Without social media, there was no one to expect emails or texts from. The only meaningful friendships—or friendships I’d thought were meaningful—had been with my high school best friends, Xavier and Riko. Riko had gone on to art school on the West Coast, and we’d lost touch by the end of her freshman year. Xavier had gone to New York to intern with a CFDA designer, and we’d stayed close—until I went backpacking and started keeping secrets from him. I tried to call him when I returned to Boston, but his boyfriend answered and told me “to stop calling, bitch, Xave doesn’t want to hear from you.”
I cried a lot, but I stopped calling.
And the “friends” I’d made on my backpacking trip weren’t people I could count on for any real support.
I literally had no one.
Except Robyn. And my mom and dad.
Deciding quality over quantity was way better, anyway, I pushed away melancholy thoughts, finished my coffee, and got ready for the day.
An hour later, coffee consumed, shower experienced in my amazing luxury walk-in (that was just as good as the one in Lachlan’s guest suite), hair blown dry, and outfit chosen for my first day on the job, I was ready to go. Deciding comfort was a factor, a shopping spree was in my future to supplement my wardrobe. I wore one of only two pairs of skinny jeans I’d packed, along with a T-shirt tucked in the front but loose at the back, and too-big sneakers I’d borrowed from Robyn.
I let myself into the main house and deactivated the alarm, strolling quietly into the laundry room first where I separated colors from whites. Putting a bunch of colors in first, I finished up in there (for now) and wandered into the kitchen. It was only six o’clock, and no one else seemed to be up yet.
Deciding to get coffee ready for Thane, I fiddled around with his fancy coffee machine until I figured it out. After making myself a cup, I decided no other coffee would ever do again. His was amazing. Then the photos on the wall again caught my attention. After Thane got icy and nonresponsive to my question about his wife, I hadn’t wanted to look at the photos too closely in front of him. Alone now, I took my time studying the gallery wall of beautifully framed black-and-white shots.
There were tons of cute photos of the kids and a few of Thane and Fran, some from when they were very young until right up to near her death, I assumed. Again, I wondered how she’d died. Fran was a very pretty brunette, and although I couldn’t tell their color from the black-and-white photos, her light eyes were striking against her dark hair.
It was Thane who surprised me, though.
In the photos of him, younger and beardless, he was shockingly hot.
Not that I couldn’t already tell he was good-looking. But that massive beard hid a very sexy guy who looked a lot like his brother. Staring hard at him in the pics, I realized Thane’s eyes differed from Lachlan’s and were his most attractive feature. They were piercing and intense and soulful and … hot.
Disturbed by how sexy my new boss was, I stumbled away from the photos and told myself it was just the photographs. I didn’t think that about him in real life. The beard totally wasn’t my thing.
At the sound of floorboards creaking above, I set about unloading the dishwasher.
Knowing I’d be too busy later preparing the kids for school, I decided to do their lunches now. I searched the pantry and guessed at what they’d like. Sandwiches made, I then went in search of their lunch boxes. After scouring the kitchen, I finally found cute lunch bags discarded in the mudroom. Eilidh’s was pink with a unicorn riding a rainbow and an attached pocket for her juice bottle; Lewis’s had Pac-Man printed all over his.
I strolled through the hall and stopped at the sight of Thane standing in the kitchen, sipping his coffee. He wore a white shirt and dark gray suit pants, again so incongruous to his unkempt hair and beard. Without turning, his striking eyes slid to the side to look at me over his cup as he drank.