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My eyes snap up to his as he rubs his thumb over my knuckles, no doubt trying to ease some of the tension that has to be radiating off me.

“There’s still time,” he promises. “All right?”

I let out a breath. “Since when did you start being the positive one?”

“Don’t know what you mean,” he answers indignantly. “I’ll have you know I’ve always been revered for my sunny personality.”

I say nothing, simply arching my brow.

“Yeah, yeah. Just get off your arse and come with me, yeah?”

I can’t help but grin.

“That’s more like it,” I chuckle.

I try not to think about the sinking sun as we say goodbye to Rory and Blair and even Brodie—try not to imagine a possibility where it will go down and not bring Lachlan with it when it returns. One of ushasto keep hoping for a solution.

But it’s getting increasingly hard to be the one to do it.

24

Lachlan

“Are yousureyou’re not running a long con to murder me?”

I chuckle as she clings tighter to my arm, carefully watching the rocky path under her feet. “I told you. There are a lot cleaner ways to get rid of you.”

“Still so comforting,” she mutters.

“It’s not much farther.”

“We couldn’t have taken your Rover?”

“It’s a shortcut,” I tell her. “Where’s your sense of adventure?”

She nearly slips on a loose bit of gravel, clutching me tightly as she tries to hold herself upright. “To hell with you,” she huffs. “The damn landscape is going to kill me.”

“Och, lass. But isn’t it beautiful?”

I push a branch out of the way as the setting sun filters through the tree limbs, finally coming into the open air that flutters over the glittering waves of the loch. I hear her breath catch beside me, and seeing the wonder in her eyes—it’s almost like seeing my homeland for the first time. This loch, this shore…it’s often a reminder of everything wrong in my life. It’s a rare thing that I can just stand back and admire how beautiful it is.

“The sunsets here are amazing,” I murmur. I can’t help but laugh softly. “I’ve seen many of them.”

“Lachlan…”

I hear the worry in her voice, and I shake my head. “None of that. We’re not going to think about any of that.” I jostle the blanket that I grabbed from the back of the Rover and is now draped over my other arm. “We’re going to have a sit, and enjoy the sunset, and we’re going to save everything else for tomorrow, yeah?”

I can tell she wants to argue with me, and funnily enough, that knowledge makes me smile. I let her stew as I lay out the blanket on the sand for us to sit, settling down on top of it and patting the spot beside me. She’s still looking at me like she thinks this is silly, like she thinks she should be running off right now to God knows where to try and solve my problems single-handedly—and I think that look in her eyes makes me fall for her, just a bit.

I’ve known her for barely a month, been touching her for far less than that, and it wasn’t very long ago we couldn’t share the same space without sniping at each other. But I think the way we started has only solidified the knowledge that Keyanna MacKay is fiercely beautiful in her determination, and it’s humbling to be on the receiving end of it.

“Come on,” I say, patting the blanket once more. “Sit with me.”

She presses her lips together as she sinks down next to me—no doubt holding back her arguments—and I don’t give her time to think about it, throwing my arm around her shoulders and pulling her against me as soon as she’s close.

“There now,” I say. “Was that so hard?”

“Like pulling teeth,” she mumbles.