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I mentally scoff at the chiding tone of my own brain. As if someonewouldn’tstick around if they found theactualLoch Ness Monster.

But that’s a problem for future me.

I don’t knock when I enter the front door, figuring that it would be even more awkward for the pair of us to dance around each other in the entryway. Instead, I quietly shut the door behind me as I step inside, lingering on the mat as I listen for signs of my grandmother. I can hear a clinking coming from the kitchen, the telltale sound of her spoon scraping against her teacup, which I’ve learned is a bit of a ritual for her. Rhona loves her afternoon tea.

“You might as well come in,” she calls, her voice sounding weary. “Stop lurking out there.”

I frown as I trudge forward, entering the kitchen and finding Rhona sitting at the head of the table, blowing gently on her steaming cup of tea. She doesn’t look at me when I enter the room, doesn’t even glance my way as I slowly walk around the table and take a seat near her. She just takes a slow sip, exhaling noisily through her nostrils after she swallows.

“This was Finlay’s great-great-granny’s china,” she tells me absently, her finger tracing the delicate pink filigree painted on the side. “Been in the family for over a century.”

“It’s pretty,” I comment.

She still doesn’t look at me. “It’s been passed down to the womenin this family with every generation. It’s a tradition of sorts. Every MacKay matriarch passes along the set when they reach a certain age.”

“I…see.”

“I thought I would have to leave it to your cousin if he ever wrassled up a woman to wed him,” she mutters. She eyes me from the side, her expression cautious. “But I suppose I won’t now, will I.”

Anger and hurt bubble up inside me. “According to you,” I remind her, “I’m not really a MacKay. So I don’t see why the plan would change now.”

“Aye,” she answers quietly after a beat, her shoulders slumping and her eyes taking on a haggard look, one that almost seems like regret, but I might be imagining it. “I did say that.”

She stares into her cup for several long moments, the silence stretching between us as I wait for her to say more. I’m not going to spoon-feed her an apology, and I’m not going to sit here where I’m not wanted. So she’s on her own as far as I’m concerned.

“You have to understand. Dunc—” She swallows thickly. “Your father was my world. My pride and joy, you see? He was…He was so smart. Such a kind, sweet boy. From the day he was born, he brought me…such joy.”

She doesn’t seem to be looking for any sort of input from me, so I say nothing, just leaning a little closer to the table as she continues.

“Your mother was here on holiday when they first met,” Rhona tells me. “From the first time he brought her around, I was scared. Scared that she would take him away from me. I could see in his eyes that he was over the moon for her, and I knew she had the power to whisk him away, to take him from my life and leave me with nothing but the odd holiday. I couldn’t bear the thought of it.”

It feels…strange. Hearing her talk about my mother this way.The stories my dad told me painted my mother as a kind, thoughtful woman who loved everyone she met—so I can’t reconcile the woman Rhona speaks of with the mother I was told about.

“I don’t think she would—”

“Aye, aye,” Rhona sighs. “It was the error of an auld fool. I made a right arse of myself when the inevitable happened. When he told me he was marrying her…I said many things I wish I could take back.”

“And that’s why you had a falling-out?”

She shakes her head slowly, the action filled with sorrow. “No. Things were strained between us, but we still spoke. We wrote letters, talked on the phone…They even came to visit when they could. It wasn’t until he told me they were going to haveyouthat I went and ruined it all.”

“I—” I rear back, confused. “Me?”

“Aye. Did you know the MacKay clan haven’t had a girl born in this family in centuries? You’re the very first.”

“I didn’t know that,” I answer, not sure what to do with that information.

“I thought maybe you might bring us back together. I thought that your birth would mean our family would find a reason to reconcile. That maybe, just maybe, we could finally make things right.”

My fingers grip the edge of the table, my knuckles turning white with the force of it as answers I’ve been denied foryearsfinally seem within reach. “What happened?”

“It was the last time he ever visited,” Rhona says slowly, like each word is difficult. “He called me down to this very table. He seemed…frantic, somehow. Not quite himself. He told me that your mother was pregnant, and that they had found out it was to be a little girl. I remember how shocked I was to hear the news, but Duncan…Duncan almost seemed upset by it.”

This throws me for a loop. My dadnevergave me any indication that he was unhappy with me. Not once. “Why would he be upset?”

“I don’t know. I never got the chance to find out. He started rambling about taking your mother back to America. About raising you there. He started talking about never bringing you back here. He said—” Rhona looks to the ceiling, and I notice her eyes are shining. “He said that he knew I had never approved of his marriage, and he didn’t want his bairns growing up around that kind of animosity. I…didn’t take it well.” She flashes me a thin, watery smile. “You might have noticed I have a bit of a temper.”

At any other time, I might laugh at that, but even though I’ve only known Rhona for a short while, seeing her look so fragile is…jarring. She’s been nothing but the picture of strength since the first day she opened her door to me.