There with You (Adair Family 2)

Two minutes later, the bell rang and I put my cell away. For once, Lewis reached me first.

“Hey, buddy, good day?”

He shrugged. “It was okay.”

I rested a hand on his shoulder, pulling him to my side and inwardly cursing Mrs. Welsh to hell. While Connor’s mom filed a complaint and Mrs. Welsh had issued an apology, she was still “impatient and mean.” I felt powerless, hating that Lewis disliked school so much because of her. In fifth grade, I had an awful teacher who made me feel stupid all the time, and she’d seriously made me hate school. Until that year, I’d loved school. I didn’t want that to happen to Lewis.

“Since it’s Friday, I thought we’d grab an ice cream from Morag’s. What do you think?”

He gave me a small smile and a nod. As we waited for Eilidh to detach herself from an excited huddle in the middle of the playground, Lewis moved closer into my side.

It was subtle, but it happened.

My hand tightened on his shoulder.

Finally, Eilidh broke away from her friends and skipped to us, her fishtail braids with the pink ribbons tied at the ends flying up around her. “We started a girl band!”

Taking her hand, I chuckled. “Yeah? What are you guys called?”

“Don’t know yet. I like the Unicornies, but Maisie likes the Mermaids.”

Walking the kids toward the car, I tried hard to keep a straight face. “Well, that’s a big decision to make.”

“Not really.” She shook her head adamantly. “Unicornies are better than the silly mermaids.”

“Are you the lead singer?”

Eilidh gave me a look as if to say “well, duh,” and this time I couldn’t help but laugh. As I opened my eyes, I caught sight of Michelle watching me as she loaded her kids. Deciding not to let the scrutiny bother me, I led my charges to the Range Rover and filled Eilidh in on the ice cream plan.

Just as she did with chicken nuggets, she announced ice cream to the world in her monster voice. Even Lewis giggled.

11

Regan

The drive to the beach was a mere twenty minutes from the house. It was on the opposite end of the coastal line, so we drove through the village to get to it. I’d been to the beach with Robyn on weekends; as much as I could, I tried to give Thane space with Eilidh and Lewis on my days off. If I wasn’t with Robyn (because I was trying to give her space with her fiancé), I was hanging out with Arrochar or Eredine or both. We’d taken day trips to Inverness, and they’d gotten me back into hiking by showing me trails through the Cairngorms. Of course, I’d needed to outfit myself with new gear from the outdoor clothing store, and that hadn’t been cheap. But it was worth it.

As the weeks flew by, I found myself more and more familiar with the villagers, and between my friendships with Arro, Eredine, and Will, my restored closeness with Robyn, and a job I loved, Ardnoch was starting to feel like home.

The only downside to the whole thing was my feelings for Thane. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d crushed this hard on a guy. And never one who was so off-limits. One way I tried to avoid said feelings was to avoid said man, and the best time to do this was on the weekends.

However, it was the middle of October, and the entire country was experiencing this crazy heat wave. Not that anyone other than Scottish people considered temperatures in the low seventies a real heat wave, but the Scots around me marveled at it, determined to take advantage, including Eilidh and Lewis. They’d decided they wanted to spend Saturday, the first official day of their October school vacation, at the beach, but they’d guilted Thane into allowing me to accompany them. I wanted to say no, but when they were looking up at me with those puppy eyes … argh. It was Lewis who did it for me, and I think for Thane too. Over the past six weeks, he’d grown increasingly demonstrative in his affection for me. Last night, when I was cleaning up dinner and preparing to take off to the annex, Lewis suggested I come to the beach with them the next day. And gosh, one look at Thane and I knew neither of us could deny him.

So there I was, playing happy family with Thane Adair.

I just had to pray none of the thirsty moms were at the beach, or this would give them something to chew on.

“I knew it would be busy,” Thane muttered under his breath as he parked in the last free space in the lot above the sand dunes. “October break. Everyone and their mother are staying at Gordon’s caravan park.”

Glancing to my left, I saw the entrance to a trailer park up ahead. “Is that where Robyn stayed for a while?”