Always You (Adair Family 3)

“Just find her and call me as soon as you have.”

The door to my room burst open just as I stood, and the doctor stared at me wide-eyed. “Mr. Galbraith, I’ll need you to get back into that bed right now.”

I straightened to my full height and watched him swallow warily as I warned, “And I’ll need you to get out of my way.”

34

Arro

Thane kindly allowed me to take over the office at the front of his house while I stayed with them. The windows in my bungalow were standard size, so Lachlan had pulled in a favor with a company to get new ones fitted at the beginning of next week. He’d already sent in decorators to repaint my walls and his flooring guy to rip up the ruined planks and replace the hallway flooring. There would be no remnants of what happened to Mac, and as always, I was thankful for my eldest brother’s efficiency.

And as much as I loved my family and enjoyed being around the kids, I was looking forward to returning home. Mac would be home with me by then. We needed to pack up and move his stuff.

Was it too soon to ask him about building a house in Caelmore?

Since the shooting, I’d had to fight the urge to fill our lives with everything we wanted right away. The panic hadn’t receded. I didn’t know if it would until Kilmany and Bankman were sentenced. Or even then. It was like this agitation that kept kicking my heart rate up every time I didn’t have work or something else to distract me.

I needed Mackennon home. That would surely help.

My phone beeped by the computer I stared at dazedly. Flipping it over, I opened a text from Marcello.

Meet me at the new site. We need to talk. I’ll be in the Portakabin.

We hadn’t even started work at the new site. Confused, I texted back, Is everything all right?

Minor emergency. No need to panic. Just need your help.

I sighed. Well, I could use a distraction. On my way.

Grabbing my purse, I threw in everything I needed before striding into the kitchen to where I’d left my car keys.

Regan was already in there, emptying the dishwasher. “Hey, I was just about to come in and ask if you wanted another coffee?”

I shook my head as I grabbed my keys off the island. “Marcello texted, and he needs me at the new site at Fearnmore. It’s not far, so I won’t be long. Do you want me to pop by Morag’s, grab us a sandwich for lunch?”

“Oh, yeah, please. I like her chicken salad wraps.”

“No problem. See you in a bit.”

A few minutes later, I swung out of Thane’s driveway, looking back at the land along the coast and thinking of a future home there with Mac. Would he be as comfortable living next to his daughter as I was living next to my brothers? Hmm. Maybe we could build a little farther down the coast for more privacy if it was an issue.

Stop planning Mackennon’s future without him, I admonished as I drove down the country lane toward the main road.

Fearnmore Forest was about thirty minutes west of Caelmore, and I used that time to think about Mac coming home. When I called him this morning, he said the nurse mentioned the possibility of him being discharged today. Hopefully, my visit this evening would turn into a pickup. I knew he was restless in that hospital bed, and his wounds this time around were actually less severe than the stab wounds had been.

The thought of how much he’d suffered in the last year made me shudder.

Nothing else was going to happen to that man.

He was mine to protect now.

My hands tightened around the wheel at the mere thought of anyone trying to hurt him.

Ten of those thirty minutes to Fearnmore were taken up by the single-track road all the way to the site. It was a devil to deal with for our larger vehicles because it had some fierce bends. I’d been granted permission from the Highland Council to bring the vehicles in down a straight single-track road to the west of the woods and create a new road in from there. We were set to start work on that at week’s end, so for now, I was stuck with the old road to where we’d begun setting up the site.

Finally, I pulled into the clearing where we’d already built our modular cabin. We’d brought it in pieces on smaller vehicles before building it on site.

The car parked outside of it wasn’t Marcello’s.