Page 56 of Finding the One (River Rain #7)

Friendly Family

Blake

D air opened the door to his family home that was situated in the countryside about an hour north of Edinburgh, and Sorcha nearly bowled us over as she dashed inside.

I’d always thought their house was a mite bit strange.

It looked like a castle, and that part was pretty, but it had an attached garage, and that looked weird.

That said, I thought the interior was anything but strange, probably because that was all Kenna.

It was an attractive, inviting mix of sturdy, warm, leather, plaid, soft toss pillows, comfy throw blankets, multiple seating options, books, crossed swords, antlers, dog statues, great lighting, wide hearths, timbered ceilings and SCOTLAND!

I’d always felt at home there too. Like I didn’t have to take off my shoes. Like I could curl up and read a while.

Like I was welcome.

Like I was safe.

Wow.

Our whole lives were totally leading up to Dair and I being together.

Dair had shut the door and was taking my jacket when we heard Davi coo, “Who’s my wee bonny lass? You’re my wee bonny lass.”

Evidently, Sorcha found Auntie Davi.

I waited until he’d shrugged his own coat off and tossed it on the coat stand then took my hand and guided me into their sitting room.

We barely got over the threshold when Davi called, “Warning, bruv, Dad’s coming to dinner.”

“Davina!” Kenna snapped, bustling in with a dishtowel slung over her shoulder

“He needs as much opportunity to prepare as he can get,” Davi defended herself.

Kenna made it to us.

“Son,” she said to Dair and accepted his kiss on her cheek while patting his face. She then turned to me and offered both hands. “Our bonny Blake.”

“Hey, Kenna,” I said, taking her hands, and we held on while we touched cheek to cheek to cheek.

She didn’t let me go when that was over.

She said, “I’m so glad you two could work things out.”

“Aye. And I’m so glad to learn the great Alasdair Wallace can be a tosser,” Davi put in. “It came in the nick of time. I was getting an inferiority complex.”

Kenna let me go and whirled on her daughter. “Do I need to uninvite ye?”

“Relax, Mum,” Dair drawled. “She’s messing with ye. Davi hasn’t had an inferior thought in her life.”

Davi fake preened. “This is true. ’Tis the result of being born rich, gorgeous, smart as hell and funnier than Billy Connolly.”

“I see you’ve learned how to control your ego,” Kenna remarked.

“Oh, I forgot that on the list of things that are awesome about me,” Davi replied. “I’m humble.”

I burst out laughing.

When I was finished, I didn’t feel like laughing, more like skipping, after I caught the expression on Dair’s face as he’d watched me do it.

“Get your woman and yourself a drink,” Kenna ordered Dair. “And get your sister to shut her mouth. Ye just won her back, we dinnae need Blake taking a runner again.”

With that, she swept off toward the kitchen.

“Do you need help?” I called.

“I’ve got it!” she called back.

“Dad’s coming?” Dair asked Davi.

“Apparently, they had a very civilized dinner at The Dome after Dad told her Blake’s plan to stop Signe from further embarrassing herself, and Mum realized Dad was stepping up for ye,” Davi replied.

“They’ve hashed everything out. They’re getting a divorce.

But we’re all still going to be one big friendly family. ”

I watched with concern as Dair’s head slowly turned toward where his mother disappeared.

Distracted, he looked down at me. “Wine or a cocktail, darling?”

“Whatever’s easiest,” I said.

He nodded, glanced at his sister’s glass because he was a gentleman, and gentlemen ascertained the need for drink refills before they left a room, then he followed his mother.

I moved and sat in the armchair next to Davi’s.

“Are you okay with this friendly family stuff?” I asked.

“Not even a little,” she told me. “I think Dad should squirm for as many years as he made Mum put up with his cheating.” She shrugged. “But it can’t be denied he went all out to help Dair deal with Signe. So I guess he’s still a dad.”

He did go all out.

And he’d always be a dad.

Last, the thing with Signe was good and over.

I’d had a peek, and when I saw she’d taken all the videos down on all her platforms that had anything to do with Dair, I’d shown him we’d won.

This victory was sweet.

I let my questions about Bally coming to dinner go, and Davi and I made small talk for a few minutes before Dair came back.

After handing me a glass of white wine, with his Scotch, he sat on the sofa cattycorner to Davi and my armchairs, both that faced the lit hearth.

The two sofas that flanked the fireplace were smaller than couches, bigger than loveseats, and presently, Dair was glancing at the space beside him, that glance came to me, then he pointed a finger at the space beside him.

With a long-suffering sigh, I got up and sat next to Dair.

He draped an arm around my shoulders and tucked me to his side.

Okay, so it was worth putting up with his bossy.

“Bloody hell, he’s such a man ,” Davi grumbled, but her eyes were bright and happy as she watched us.

“Mum says she told Dad to be here half an hour after we got here so we can adjust to the fact he’s going to be here,” Dair announced.

“Are you okay with that?” I asked him.

After Hale left, and I’d unearthed some pictures of us when we were kids someone (not Mum, for certain) had put in a scrapbook, and arranged for them to be overnighted to his dad, while I was on enforced rest on a heating pad, he’d told me his thoughts had grown even more confused about how he felt regarding his father.

I could see why it would be difficult to wrap your head around loving a man who was as protective and supportive of you as ever, the same man who had done what Bally had done.

“This is who we are now, I reckon,” Dair answered me.

I wasn’t fond of his answer.

Kenna came in carrying her own wineglass, the dishtowel was gone, and she arranged herself elegantly in the sofa across the plaid upholstered coffee table from us (yes, it was an upholstered coffee table with a bench area around the coffee table part, it was huge, and it was fantastic).

“Everyone have what they need?” she inquired.

“Outside of an explanation of why we have to put up with that man, sure,” Davi replied.

Kenna sent her daughter a soft look and said, “Love, if ye feel I’m forcing this too soon, then I’ll meet your father at the door and tell him we’ll have to do this some other time.”

She took a sip of her wine and then addressed the whole room.

“But ye must know, I’ve come to terms with the fact I’ve been mourning my marriage perhaps since it began. What was upsetting me was that I allowed it to go on as long as I did. I should have ended us long ago. When I was younger.”

Davi shifted agitatedly in her chair, and I sensed this was because, if Kenna had done that, their family would not have had what it had all this time.

A father and mother who did indeed love each other—it was just messed up by my mother being, well…

Helena, along with Bally’s flaws—that mother and father loving their children.

I couldn’t imagine all Davi was feeling. Guilt, for being happy her mum didn’t do that so they could have their family. This mingled with regret for the time Kenna lost. And obviously anger, for her dad fucking all of it up.

“It took time to realize I didnae regret it,” Kenna went on. “I loved your father. He loved me. We made happy memories. We shared the pleasure of raising you two and watching ye grow into smart, capable, responsible, talented, lovely people.”

She took another sip before she carried on.

“I’m actually excited to start a new phase of my life. Your father has agreed to give me the house and my solicitors say the settlement he’s offered will see me very comfortably. Though, I’ve secured a part-time job doing some fundraising for the local SPCA. I start tomorrow.”

Wow, Kenna had been busy.

And by the by, the SPCA was the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, one of the charities I was considering patronizing.

“It goes without saying,” she continued, “ye need to have whatever feelings you have. Those are yours and not mine to dictate. So if this is too soon, when he arrives, I’ll ask him to go away.

But the shock of it is over. The decisions made.

And I’m looking forward to my future. Though, I will say, I hope that future includes this family adjusting to become something loving and functional again, if different. ”

“And how is Dad with your decisions?” Dair asked.

Kenna looked to the fire, her expression a warring mixture of sadness, triumph and contentment, and I understood that.

It was over, and she was smart enough to allow herself to feel sad about it.

But she was now calling the shots, and it was Bally who had to put up with her decisions, that was no small victory, and it was one that was well-deserved.

Last, she’d worked through it and was in a better place, and that brought peace.

“He wishes to attempt a reconciliation.” She turned back to her children. “That will not be happening.”

“So he’s all right with this friendly family thing?” Davi asked.

“He says he’ll take ye both, and me, remaining in his life after what he’s done any way he can have us,” Kenna shared.

I really didn’t want to like Bally.

But he was behaving in a manner it was hard to hold onto that.

Perhaps feeling his discomfiture, Sorcha moved from resting her head on Davi’s leg for pets, to her daddy, where she rested on his leg for pets.

Dair didn’t scrimp in giving them.

The doorbell rang.

And the room descended into a profound quiet that confused me at first, before it hit me.

That was Bally, and he had to ring the doorbell to their home, and that was strange, weird, wrong, right, and sad all at once.

I looked to Dair to see his jaw bulge.

So I put my mouth to his ear and whispered, “You’re unbearable.’

He started and turned to me.

“Love ye too, lass,” he said softly.