Page 24 of Finding the One (River Rain #7)

Breaking

Dair

D air stood outside international arrivals at the Edinburg airport, waiting for Blake to come through the doors.

It had been a busy week and a half, and busy normally made time fly, but waiting for her to come to him, it seemed to drag on.

During that time, they texted frequently, and talked every evening (or, his evening).

In the beginning, when she was still in Arizona, he got detailed reports on his mum. When they’d go out for a meal. When they’d cook together. How his mum spent a lot of time alone on the back deck with her tea or a glass of wine, and Blake left her to it to give her space.

She also shared how the sadness wasn’t shifting

“But it won’t, Dair,” she warned. “Not for a while. She’s lived with this a lot longer than we probably know, but following through with ending a forty-year marriage is going to be hard.”

It settled him Blake was there with his mum, because he knew how deeply she cared for her.

It settled him more she had a sense of what his mother was going through, even if he hated both of them went through it.

However, when she got back to New York, she was a good deal less quick in returning texts, even though she always picked up when he phoned.

This was because she was having lunch with the “G-Force” to fill them in on Alex and Rix’s wedding and her mother’s shenanigans.

Or she was over at Nora and Jamie’s to work with Nora on some event.

Or she was shopping with Cadence, Mika’s daughter, for some special occasion.

Or she was busy cooking, because she’d been asked by one of the G-Force to make some dessert of hers that he wanted to use to impress a date.

Or she was at her father’s, making sure some repair she’d ordered happened as she expected.

It unnerved him how full her life was in New York. She’d given the impression it was aimless, when it was anything but.

He could live anywhere, but considering the matches he called were mostly European, the commute would be impossible. He’d have to keep his flat in Edinburgh and be there most of the time regardless.

If they got to that place, he’d hoped she’d move to Scotland.

He was wondering about that now.

A long-distance relationship was far from the best-case scenario, but it could work, if you both had a firm sense of where you’d land when that time came.

It’d never work if both parties lived full lives where they were and neither wanted to leave it.

That wasn’t a worry for now.

They’d had two dates, multiple phone calls, a myriad of texts, and each had an understanding this was something deep, something special, something they wanted to explore, and that was all Dair needed for the now.

He knew her flight had landed. He’d timed in his head how long it would take to get through Customs and Immigration. And he knew she should be through those doors any minute now.

Five minutes later, she was.

And the instant he saw her, his chest warmed, at the same time he roared with laughter.

She gave him a dour look.

He strode forward, still laughing, and when they met, he swept her in his arms, the massive bouquet of deep red roses he held slammed against their hips, and he heard a variety of things tumble to the ground as he took her mouth.

She tasted of bubblegum and Blake, and it was the sweetest thing ever to touch his tongue.

When he lifted his head, he teased, “Did ye leave any duty-free shopping in the shops, lassie?”

“Shut up, Dair.”

He grinned at her, it getting wider as he saw her hair down, the front sweeping back to fall into big fat curls on her shoulders.

She was wearing a black cardie over a black turtleneck and a pair of gray trousers with pleats and very wide legs.

A thick statement belt was around her waist. And of course she was wearing high-heeled boots.

“Trust ye to look like you’re walking off a runway when ye walk off a plane after a seven-hour flight,” he remarked.

“I’m famished and I hate airports, so stop being wonderful and get me out of here,” she demanded.

Dair continued to smile as he let her go but gave her the flowers, and they were worth every bit of the exorbitant cost of buying them with the way her eyes lit but her expression gentled when she took them.

He then gathered up all her shopping bags and took the handle of her large suitcase.

He rolled it with his arm around her shoulders. She carried her tote, rolled her carry-on and juggled the flowers so she could wrap her arm around his waist.

“Flight go all right?” he asked on the way to the car park.

“It was a flight. It’s over,” she replied.

“Not a fan of flying?”

“I consider flying downtime. Time I can do things I would think it was a waste to do on a normal day. Like reading fashion magazines or playing games on my iPad. I look at it like a mini-vacation on the way to a vacation.”

That was an interesting way to consider it, and smart too.

She carried on, “But people turn into monsters at airports. Their behavior is appalling.”

He could not disagree.

“I don’t know what it is,” she went on. “It’s like something is in the air.”

“Well, you’re here now, hen, safe and sound. I’ve got plenty of food in. I’ll take care of ye.”

When he said that, he wasn’t imagining that she adjusted so she was closer to him. Now, not only were their hips touching, their outer thighs were brushing too.

He paid for parking and got her and her tote in the front seat of his Range Rover. He tossed the rest in the back, got in and set them on their way.

“A red Range Rover, Dair?” she asked when they he was maneuvering the car park.

“Aye. What of it?”

“It’s just so… you .”

“As it would be, since I picked it.”

She laughed softly.

He listened and enjoyed.

“Heard from Alex?” he asked.

“She’s texted some pictures. It looks beautiful there. Seems like they’re having a great time. But they don’t get back until tomorrow.”

It was Saturday.

Blake was leaving the next Sunday.

And he had to figure out how to fit a trip into New York between matches soon after.

Again, that was for later.

She was at his side now.

“Have you been to the Caribbean?” she asked.

“Aye. Turks and Caicos and Bermuda.”

“It’s beautiful down there.”

“It is.”

“These roses are beautiful too, Dair. Extraordinary.”

He knew she was looking at him when she said that, so he turned to her.

Christ.

Her face was filled with wonder and gratitude.

Fuck, he was glad she was here.

“Glad ye like ’em, love,” he murmured, turning back at the road.

Another sideways glance showed him she’d gathered them to her face and was smelling them.

They cost a bundle, but they were just roses.

However, she was acting like they were her sister’s bouquet, something he saw she’d painstakingly disassembled and put the flowers in water, and the plants in pots by the time they’d come over for prime rib that first night.

Maybe she just liked flowers.

Then again, she’d been taken aback when he’d bought her earrings, jewelry, not incidentally, she was wearing right now.

She was worth a load. Her mother’s estate was worth more. Her father even more.

But she was a woman who sincerely appreciated the small things if there was meaning to them.

“Have you heard from Kenna?” she asked into his thoughts.

“Yesterday,” he told her. “She’s rearranged her flight to be here mid-week. You’ll be seeing her before ye go.”

“Wonderful.”

She let some time pass before she queried carefully, “Have you heard more from your father?”

“As I’ve told ye, love, he’s been repeatedly attempting contact.”

“I know. You said. But he still is?”

“I’ve texted him that once I told ye about to tell him to back off and wait until I’m ready to speak with him.”

“It’s good to establish healthy boundaries.”

“Aye.”

“But even if you’re not replying, he’s still not recognizing them?”

“No. He keeps trying. I just ignore it. Davi’s doing the same thing.”

“Your mum?”

It was hard for him to think on that one, because it pissed him off so much.

“Aye.”

“He’s still badgering your mum?” she asked, her voice pitched higher.

“Aye,” he repeated.

“Oh, Dair,” she said softly.

“It’s okay, baby,” he replied.

“It isn’t.”

“Well, it is what it is.”

“Yes. It is that.”

They got out of talking about the heavy as he guided them the rest of the way to his terrace flat and he parked in the back.

He wrestled her bags and suitcase up the walk while she rolled her carry-on and hugged her roses to her chest.

He let them into the boot room at the back.

She entered and stopped, taking it in, before he moved them into the kitchen.

She continued gazing around. “God, Dair, this is?—”

She ended her words abruptly on a high-pitched squeal.

This was because Sorcha, his Scottish Deerhound, came loping in, and after a cursory sniff and tail wag Dair’s way, she went right to Blake.

Blake edged away as Sorcha followed her.

“What is it?” she asked after she butted up against his kitchen worktop, staring at Sorcha like she was being cornered by a diseased rat.

Dair felt his neck muscles tighten, because he didn’t like this one bit.

It was a huge problem due to the fact it was a dealbreaker.

You liked him, you liked his dog.

You couldn’t love him, unless you loved his dog.

“She’s Sorcha, my dog.”

Blake’s overwrought gaze came to him. “It’s a dog?”

“ She is, aye.”

“She’s huge.”

Sorcha was snuffling Blake’s hand.

“She’s a deerhound.”

“Dogs are supposed to fit in bags so you can take them shopping,” she declared.

Bloody hell.

“Are you going to eat me?” she asked Sorcha.

Sorcha panted.

“Even though you’re furry, when it gets cold, are you going to let me put a sweater on you?” Blake asked.

Sorcha’s body vibrated with excitement.

Bloody fucking hell.

Although Sorcha was taking the opportunity herself, Blake offered her hand for his dog to sniff. She did, before she licked it, then Blake gave her head a rubdown.

Dair relaxed.

“With all that beautiful, shaggy gray-white fur, I’m thinking, cashmere. Black, obviously. How about you?” Blake asked his dog.

Sorcha got even more excited.