“The Sinclair curse!” Isobel wailed. “I don’t know what’s real anymore. I can’t tell if he’s a good man or if I just want him to be. I can’t think straight. I need time to figure out what’s happening and if this whole thing is real. I can’t make another mistake just because I fall fast and hard. I can’t do that to my kids.”
“You’re scared,” Donna said. “We all are. But you have more reason to be than the rest of us. You saw Dad make Mum’s life a misery for years, then you got pregnant and Darren ran out on you, then your marriage failed. Of course you don’t trust that Callum is real. It’s okay, we understand.”
“Take all the time you need, honey,” Agnes said. “If he loves you, he’ll wait for you.”
“I can’t make another mistake,” Isobel said as she clung to her sisters.
“We understand,” Donna said.
“I don’t,” Mairi said. “The guy almost died protecting you. He saved Jack’s life. He took you in and strong-armed the pawnbroker for you. What makes you think he’s anything like the losers you’ve chosen before? This is the Sinclair curse. It isn’t that we choose badly, it’s that we can’t recognise a good man when one bites us on the backside.”
“Mairi!” Donna said. “Have some sympathy. Isobel has been through hell this past week.”
Isobel sat back and looked up at her sisters. Donna and Agnes were sympathetic and annoyed with Mairi
. Mairi was annoyed with Isobel.
Isobel faced her youngest sister. “Did I screw up?”
The sisters looked at each other.
“Maybe a little,” Donna said.
“What do I do now?” Isobel asked. “Do you want me to run after him?”
“No,” Mairi said firmly. “Take your time. Sort yourself out. And then go get him. Otherwise he won’t know you mean it when you do.”
“Where is this coming from?” Agnes said. “None of this sounds like you.”
Mairi waved a hand. “Cosmo.”
There was a pause before the sisters burst out laughing. Isobel smiled through her tears and her eyes strayed to Jack. He was awake and staring at her.
“Jack,” she whispered, and reached for him. “You okay, baby?”
“Yeah.” He licked his lips, and she reached for the glass of water beside his bed and put the straw against his lips. He sipped while Isobel and her sisters stared at him. All of them kept a hand on him somewhere, as though touch was the only way to assure themselves that he was still alive.
“You’re going to be fine,” Isobel told him.
“I know.” He motioned for her to take away the straw. “Where’s Callum?”
“He’s gone back to London, I think.” Isobel forced a smile.
Jack frowned. “That doesn’t sound like him. What did you do?”
“See?” Mairi said. “Even the kid knows Callum is a good guy.”
“Do you think that?” Isobel asked him.
“Mum, he took a bullet for you. He had a chance to run away and he didn’t. He didn’t run. He’s the only one who hasn’t run from us.” His eyes drifted closed.
“I’ll sort this out,” Isobel said, but Jack was already asleep. She looked up at her sisters. “I just need some time.”
There was nothing in Arness to go back to. Callum’s grandfather’s house was a crime scene, and the police had promised to call once he was allowed back in to see what was salvageable. Callum didn’t care. There wasn’t anything in the house that he was that attached to. Everything that meant anything to him was in the hospital behind him.
The strange thing was that he understood Isobel. She’d been damaged and didn’t trust what was staring her in the face. She said she needed time, and he’d give it to her. But he wasn’t going away. She’d learn that he wasn’t like the guys she’d known before. He didn’t run when things got tough. And he didn’t walk away from the woman he loved. Not ever. So he’d give her time, and then, if she didn’t come calling, he’d go looking for her.
In the meantime, he had some things he needed to settle. He pointed his car towards Glasgow’s East End and pressed the phone app on the dash while he did it.