I chuckled. “I don’t blame you.” I wanted to say it was also a big red flag about Lucy. Hanging out on Lachlan’s bed in her lingerie when she knew Robyn was sleeping with him? Yeah, no true friend did that to another friend. I, of course, didn’t say that to my sister because that would be incredibly insensitive considering how badly she’d been blindsided by Lucy.
We sat in silence for a moment, eating dinner, sipping wine, and then I said softly, “This date with whoever this woman is … You can’t say now he isn’t deliberately trying to hurt me, Robbie. Maybe it’s time to walk away. I don’t want to work for someone I don’t like.”
“Is that honestly what you want to do?”
Despite my sympathy for what he’d been through, at the moment, dislike for Thane clouded everything. “Maybe. It’s like what you said about how you felt about Lachlan at first. Just because you were physically attracted to him didn’t mean you liked him.”
“You used to like Thane. More than, I think.”
Hurt was an angry burn in my chest. “That’s when I used to think he was one of the good ones.”
Robyn sighed. “Is he going about everything the wrong way? Absolutely. But I don’t think he’s deliberately trying to hurt you. He is one of the good ones.”
I scowled at her.
She gave me a sympathetic look, and I knew I was about to get a brutal dish of honesty from her. “I don’t think he has a spiteful bone in him. He probably just thinks this is the best way to move forward. I mean, was he a dick about the date? Not really. Did he apologize for last weekend? Yes. Maybe this is just his way of clarifying that he wants you both to move forward in a professional capacity and that nothing romantic is going to happen between you. If he’s in denial about that, there’s not a lot you can do. I told you to act naturally. And do that. Who knows how things will turn out? So consider where Thane really might be coming from on this before you decide how you’re feeling.”
I slumped, knowing I needed to listen to her.
Needed to move on.
But I didn’t care if Thane’s behavior seemed rational to everyone else. I’d considered it. I got it. But I also knew what was between us. He knew! And I was hurt. And mad as hell.
“You’re right.” I nodded. “And I promise once I have a handle on them, I won’t hide my emotions.”
17
Thane
Dimming the headlights before he swung into the driveway, Thane took a sobering breath. He parked and switched off the engine but made no move to get out.
If he’d thought Regan was giving him the cold shoulder before he announced he was going on a date, he’d been wrong. Her attitude had been downright temperate compared to the subzero chill directed at him these past two days.
She hadn’t eaten with them last night again, and it visibly upset Eilidh and Lewis. He could tell Regan felt awful but that she also needed to create boundaries, and he understood that too. Thane didn’t like it, but he got it.
However, the children were noticing the way she ignored him or clipped her answers anytime she couldn’t ignore him, and it was bugging the shit out of him.
When he’d departed for his date with Keelie tonight, he’d left the three of them watching a movie. The kids just thought he was spending time with Mac. Thane never told them when he dated. There had never been anyone he was serious enough about to justify bringing them into his children’s lives.
Eilidh and Lewis had said goodbye, and Regan didn’t even look at him. He’d stared at her for a second, the muscle in his jaw ticking with irritation at her petulant behavior. Obviously not wanting to create even worse friction in front of the children, he’d left her to it.
And then endured a terrible date.
Thane was distracted. Regan’s attitude was maddening, and he couldn’t stop stewing over it. He barely listened to a word Keelie said over dinner, but thankfully, the woman was so self-involved, she didn’t even notice he’d barely spoken. In fact, when he walked her to her car, she said almost dreamily, “Wow, you’re such a good listener, Thane. I hope we do this again.”
He’d given her a polite smile and a nod, opened her car door for her, and watched to make sure she was safely on her way home before he walked to his car. And he had the entire drive from Inverness to mull over the situation. So the date hadn’t gone well. It had still served its purpose.
But now he dreaded going into the house to relieve Regan of babysitting duties. He dreaded her coldness.
He missed her smile.
Squeezing his eyes closed, Thane pinched the bridge of his nose, rid himself of feelings he couldn’t afford to feel, and shoved out of the car. Inside the house, he found the entire space dimly illuminated by the kitchen under-cabinet lighting. It was past midnight, so Eils and Lewis would be abed.
The TV was a murmur in the large room, flickering light over Regan. She was asleep on the sectional with a throw over her. Thane approached quietly, his hands in his pockets. It didn’t seem that long ago he’d found her like this on his couch when she’d just arrived in Scotland.
But it had been weeks.
Weeks for her to crawl under his skin.
He’d give anything for the freedom to reach out and stroke her cheek, brush his thumb over that lush lower lip of hers.
A hot, dark need built within him.
And then, as if she sensed him watching her, Regan stirred, and he retreated.
She blinked rapidly until those beautiful brown eyes focused on him. The adorable sleepiness iced over and regret replaced his desire.
“Oh, you’re back.” She sat up, pushing the throw off to stretch.
His gaze dropped to her breasts as her top tightened over them, and he glanced away. “Yeah. Eils and Lew okay?”
“Fine. Asleep. Night.” She stood and brushed past him without another word.
Irritated, Thane turned to watch as she grabbed her keys and phone off the kitchen counter and disappeared down the corridor toward the side exit.
That was it?
Fuck that.
Thane hurried to catch up with her. “Wait,” he whispered loudly, just as she was about to disappear out the door.
Regan halted but didn’t look back at him. “What?”
His hands clenched and unclenched at his sides. Still speaking low so he didn’t wake the children, he bit out, “Is this how it’s going to be from now on?”
Finally, she looked at him. “What do you mean?”
“This”—he gestured between them—“our friendship. It’s just over, then?”
She raised an annoyingly perfect eyebrow and gave him an even more irritating, pitying smile. “I’m just following orders, boss. You asked me to treat you how I treat the other fathers I’ve worked for. And despite your insinuation that I’m an immoral tramp who tries to fuck unavailable older men—”
He flinched.
“I have always been professional. And this”—she gestured between them—“is how I treated the other fathers I worked for. Believe it or not, a couple of them tried to fuck me, and I politely declined before politely handing in my resignation.”
His anger toward himself shifted to the bastards who’d done that to her.