With a plan in place, Matt headed back to the kitchen. It would be good if he got the room finished before he had to leave. Kill two birds with one stone. Yeah, the plan was perfect. He liked the plan.
Now all he had to do was keep his hands off Jena while he executed it.
15
The Donaldson women were known for their propensity to fall in love at first sight. It was a genetic failure passed down from generation to generation.
Claire?
??s mother swore she knew within an hour of meeting Claire’s father that he was the man for her. She’d only been seventeen at the time, and her father a more mature twenty-one. Against their parents’ wishes, they’d ran off to Gretna Green three weeks after their first kiss and got married by a blacksmith. Thirty-five years later, her mother’s face still lit up at the mention of her father’s name. Great-Aunty Fiona met her husband while waiting in a line for bread during the Second World War. Three days later she was Mrs Johnson. And Granny Bell won the prize for spontaneous decisions. Her husband proposed to her twenty minutes into their first date—albeit a chaperoned one—and she said yes. That marriage lasted sixty-one years and produced eight children.
Now that Claire thought about it, maybe the genetic trait leaned more towards finding men with no patience rather than falling in love at first sight. Whatever it was, it was still the family curse. Or blessing. Depending how you looked at it. Right at that minute, Claire wasn’t sure which it was.
She was also terrified it was happening to her.
Twenty-four hours after Grunt grabbed her outside The Scottie Dog pub and proclaimed her his, she was beginning to think he might be right.
Megan’s hand landed on Claire’s forehead, snapping her out of her daze. She shoved the hand away.
“What are you doing?” Claire frowned at Megan.
“Seeing if you’ve got a fever. I think you’re ill. Maybe a brain tumour. It’s the only explanation I have for the fact King Kong is sitting on our couch.”
“Stop calling him that.” She pulled an oversized glass bowl out of the kitchen cupboard and proceeded to fill it with Haggis-flavoured crisps. She wanted to give Samuel a wee taste of Scotland, and this was as close as she got, since she wasn’t the sister who could cook.
“I can’t believe you’re eating this stuff. It’s disgusting.” Megan popped one in her mouth anyway.
“Well, I’d have given him a nice Scottish dinner, but you wouldn’t cook and we had to make do with pizza.”
“So sue me. You should have taken him out for your date instead of hanging out here.”
Claire folded her arms over her fluffy white cowl-neck sweater. “Take him out where? The choice is the pub or a drive to Fort William, and Samuel says he has to stay in town.”
“Did he say why?”
Claire shrugged. “Something about being close in case his friend needs him.”
“You don’t think that’s suspicious? Why would Joe need him? This just proves my point. You don’t know anything about this guy, other than he has caveman tendencies and a pierced penis.”
Claire felt her cheeks heat. “Stop talking about his penis. You shouldn’t know anything about it. It’s private. It’s my penis.”
Megan threw up her hands in disgust. “Listen to yourself. His penis doesn’t belong to you. He doesn’t belong to you. You’re not behaving normally.” She let out a heavy sigh, running her hand through her long hair. They were dressed identically today: cream sweaters, blue jeans and brown leather boots. They never planned to look alike—half the time they didn’t even go clothes shopping together, but it just seemed to happen.
“I think,” Megan said, “you’re clinging to Samuel in an attempt to deal with Dad’s illness.”
Claire set the glasses she’d retrieved on the countertop. “How can you say that? Dad has been ill for eight years and Samuel isn’t the first boyfriend I’ve had.”
“Listen to yourself—he isn’t a boyfriend. He’s a middle-aged guy with stalker tendencies. What else would make you put up with him other than the stress of Dad getting worse?”
“Look, I know this situation is a little odd, but it’s not like he’s bullying me into spending time with him. I want to get to know him. There’s something about him.” A shiver went down her spine. “When he looks at me, I feel like I’m his whole world. I’ve never felt like that before.”
“See.” Megan pointed a finger at her. “Stalker. Stalkers are obsessed with their prey. They’re the whole world to the stalker. You’ve just proved my point.”
Claire rolled her eyes. “You sound like Matt.”
Megan shuddered and made the sign of the cross. “We make a pinkie swear never to say that. Matt does overprotective to the nth degree. I am nothing like Matt. I want you to have a boyfriend. I know you’re old enough for sex. Matt still thinks we’re ten. I’m not being unreasonable. You don’t know this guy, and he’s freaking terrifying.”
“Fine.” Claire lifted her chin. “Let’s go get to know him.”