There with You (Adair Family 2)

Peeking into the den, I found Lewis sitting cross-legged in front of the TV, engrossed in a Marvel movie while Eilidh slept on the sofa. Not wanting to disturb them, I closed the door softly and pondered my next move. I couldn’t go into the kitchen to help Arro and Mac because it definitely seemed like I’d be interrupting. And I didn’t want to return to the sitting room because Thane’s insistence on making me feel like I didn’t exist was …

Well, it was horrible.

Looking down the hallway, I noted the side entrance that probably led to the backyard. It was cold out, but it was dry.

And I could do with some fresh air.

* * *

THANE

Regan disappeared fifteen minutes ago and hadn’t come back. At first, he’d thought she’d gone to the kitchen to help Mac and Arro, but they’d returned with drinks for everyone and she wasn’t with them.

He noted Robyn frowning at her empty spot on the couch, more specifically at the floor. Thane peered around Mac’s legs and noted the gift bag.

When he looked up, Robyn stared intensely at him.

He squirmed with guilt.

“Where’s Regan?” Eredine asked, cutting through Lachlan and Mac’s conversation about security plans for the Hogmanay ceilidh at Ardnoch Castle.

“I don’t know.” Robyn moved to push up off the large armchair she shared with Lachlan. “I’d better check.”

“Let me.” Thane stood. “I need to look in on the kids, anyway.”

Regan was probably with them.

A muscle ticked in Robyn’s jaw, but she nodded and lowered beside Lachlan.

Robyn’s strange intensity worried him. Had Regan told her sister about … the incident? Damn it. It was nothing. Something that shouldn’t have happened.

Or maybe she’s just picking up on the fact that you’re being an absolute bastard to her sister.

Guilt rode Thane’s every step. Once he’d put up his guard with Regan, he hadn’t known how to stop for fear he might cross the line with her again. And it was more than that. That man’s appearance last week had put Thane in the foulest of moods. Had he taken it out on Regan?

Remorse sharpened in his chest.

He’d been so lost in his concerns about that man and Eilidh that he hadn’t been paying attention to what he was doing to Regan.

Forced to socialize with her now, it was glaringly obvious that beyond the teasing between her and her sister, Regan had lost her sparkle. She didn’t want to sit around and laugh with them, and that was out of character. Regan was an optimistic, happy person who lit up any room she was in.

Had he dimmed her light with his behavior?

He’d acted like a typical fuck boy, flirting with her for weeks, touching her … and then icing her out. He hadn’t been a dick like that to women even in the arrogance of youth. It was appalling he’d do it now.

Was that why Lewis had clung to Regan so much this past week? He sensed Regan’s unhappiness?

Was his boy worried she didn’t want to be with them anymore?

What if she doesn’t?

Who would want to stick around for a boss who treated her like a mere servant?

If any other man did that to a woman he cared about, he’d have more than a few strong words for him.

The idea of Regan returning to the States made his pulse race with panic. Eilidh and Lewis needed her. Their lives were running so much smoother with her here, and she made them happy. Robyn had mentioned something about an ancestry visa a few weeks back, and it had given him hope perhaps Regan might stay on as their nanny for longer than six months. They were already in month three of her stay, almost halfway through.

A quick look in the TV room told him Regan wasn’t in there with the kids. The downstairs bathroom door was open, and she wasn’t in there either. As he stepped into the kitchen, he bumped into Robyn.

She held up the gift bag that had been lying on the floor.

Bemused, Thane took it and looked inside to see a book-shaped gift inside.

Robyn gave him that stony stare of hers. “Regan’s gift to you.”

He frowned. Why hadn’t she given it to him during the present opening?

“She’s sitting out in the backyard in the cold because she’d rather do that than sit in a room with you,” Robyn said bluntly. “Fix that, please.”

It was a command.

Ashamed of his behavior, he nodded like a scolded schoolboy and made his way to the French doors that led out into the back garden.

And there she was.

Her red hair gleamed gold in the autumn sunlight as she sat on one of Arrochar’s garden chairs, staring out into the woodland behind his sister’s house. Thane noted the protective way Regan sat with her knees drawn to her chest.

Sensing movement behind her, she glanced over her shoulder and tensed.