Page 28 of Priceless (Return to Culloden Moor #7)

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

I felt like such an idiot when I woke up and realized what had happened. But I was still on that boat, and those killer whales might still be?—

“Easy, lass. They’re long gone.” Banner sat by my feet, nothing but sympathy in his eyes.

“Just a couple of locals lookin’ for breakfast. But I promise they wouldnae bother samplin’ the likes of us.

” He went on, his voice pulling me back from a full-on panic attack.

“We’re headed in now. Another fifteen minutes should do. ”

“Headed back? I’m sorry it’s on my account. But I won’t beg you to reconsider.”

He chuckled. “There’s no shame in faintin’. Do ye ken, the moment I met my Jessica, standin’ outside her father’s shop, I fainted at her feet?”

“Really?”

“Aye. I have no stomach for the sight of blood, ye see. Caught sight of some and down I went. When it happened the next time, right out here on Moray Firth, it didn’t end so well for me.

Luckily, my lass knew just what to do and got me to hospital.

” He waved his hand in front of his face.

“Long story. Ye’ll have to hear it from her. ”

It sounded like the romance that Jocko had sent me, only the character that fainted was named Brodie and was supposedly a ghost that had been brought back to life.

“Here she is.” He jumped up, probably relieved he was done babysitting. “Jess, I was just tellin’ Laira about the time ye saved my life.”

Jacob came up behind Jess, then moved around her to get to me. “Ye can tell her another time. We need a moment.” He sank to one knee and shooed them both away.

I tried to stand up, but he put two fingers on my sternum and pushed me down again. I hated it when he pulled them away.

“Ye’ll lie right here until we reach the dock, do ye hear? And the doctor has forbidden any hot tub sittin’ for the time bein’—”

“Doctor?” I looked around, but there was no one new on the boat.

“That’d be my wife,” Banner called over his shoulder as he and Jessica shuffled toward the front of the boat.

“Jessica’s a doctor?”

“Aye. A surgeon. And ye’ll do as she says, or I’ll hear about it.”

Something niggled at the back of my foggy brain, but I couldn’t imagine what it was.

He scowled with worry again, so I tried to distract him by pointing behind us. “They’re not following us, are they?”

“What? The orcas?” He shook his head, but he didn’t laugh at me.

“I’d been going for a laugh.”

His brow cleared. “Auch, ye’re feelin’ yerself, then.”

“Almost. A little groggy maybe. Sorry you had to haul my butt?—”

“Dinnae say it. I am kickin’ myself again for makin’ ye come?—”

“You didn’t make me. I… I will be honest. I wanted to prove I was a badass. But I’m not one. I was just pretending?—”

He rose over me and planted his lips on mine, probably to stop my rambling, but I wasn’t complaining.

It was a long kiss that left us both breathing hard and ready for whatever came next, but I remembered, vaguely, that we weren’t alone on that boat.

And we weren’t young. And we certainly weren’t married.

I nudged him back a little and smiled. “You can shut me up anytime.”

He smiled too. “I’ll remember that.”

“Will you let me sit up now?”

He nodded and helped me. “Need anythin’?”

“A cold drink, if you don’t mind.”

“One for us both, then.” He chuckled and went to Jess’ fridge.

I found my bag and dug out my phone. I felt like I needed to let someone know I was all right, but then I realized the only one I would text was Jocko, and he would need a full explanation before I’m okay would make any sense.

“That doesnae look like relaxation to me,” he said, frowning at my phone. He brought two dripping bottles of water and sat beside me.

“You’re right.” I stowed the phone back in my bag, accepted a water, and took a long drink. Jacob, on the other hand, put his bottle on the back of his neck. I didn’t laugh. I probably should have done the same. “No hot tub, huh?”

His eyes crinkled, even without the smile. “Nay. But we’ll go to their house all the same, if that is good with ye. We’d feel better if ye relaxed where we can check on ye.”

“We.”

“Jess and I.”

“So you’ll stay too?”

“Aye. All night… if necessary .”

I pretended not to understand his double entendre. “I don’t want to put them out?—”

“We’ll be no bother. Jess is like a sister to me.

A much younger sister, obviously, but those of us who own businesses in town are a family of sorts, especially those businesses that go back generations.

I watched her grow up. I’ve fished with her brothers and her da a hundred times.

The Mad Molly was my escape when I was a wild teenager.

And I greeted alongside them when Jess went off to The States for medical school. ”

I remembered the bet. “I’m sorry you didn’t have time to catch anything!”

“Auch, go on with ye. I caught precisely what I wanted.” He lifted my hand and kissed the back of it.

“Well, if I’m all you wanted, we didn’t need to leave the dock.”

The other two joined us, interrupting what would have been another heated kiss.

“We’ve discussed it,” Banner announced, “and the prize goes to the women. Laira obviously hooked the biggest fish.”

“But I didn’t land anything.”

“No matter. The catch was what counted.”

“I can’t take your money. I already stole your afternoon. Let’s call it a draw.”

The Wallace home was a beauty, and to Jacob’s delight, Laira was suitably impressed.

“I think your house is older than my country,” she told Jessica, when he handed her out of the car.

“Oh, not that old,” Jess said. “Wasn’t built until 1786.”

After a brief tour through the lower level of the Georgian manor, we went out to the room lovingly referred to as the hoogah . Jacob explained to Laira that it was a Danish term for coziness and a sense of well-being.

“Naff, crabbit, feartie, greetin’, loo, and hoogah. My sister will think I’ve learned a completely different language. And I definitely want to build a hoogah when I get home.”

Jacob took an invisible punch to the gut, though she hadn’t realized she’d dealt it. The thought of her going home was tearing at his insides, and he could only imagine how much worse the pain would be in nine days.

The hoogah was attached to the house on the far east end that faced a pine-covered hillside.

Stepping into it, one faced a stone fireplace with a massive oak log for a mantlepiece.

All three walls that were not attached to the house consisted of glass windows from floor to ceiling, with heavy gold panels made of velvet that pulled together to block out the light, or the cold, or curious eyes.

The furniture was equally cozy. Sofas, overstuffed armchairs, and lounges, along with a dozen soft pillows. Tapestry, velvet, and silk in assorted colors and patterns. Well-worn or tasseled and new, it all went together beautifully with the gold tartan carpet.

Since Banner didn’t appreciate gas fires, there was a pile of pine logs at the ready, and always a fire laid on the grate and waiting for a light.

The sap and sawdust from the logs made it smell as if one stood in the middle of a forest. They would smell even better once they began to burn, but at the moment, the midday sun made the hoogah warm enough.

“Yeah,” Laira said. “I think I can relax here.” Then she laughed and sank onto a sofa, leaving room for Jacob. He tried not to seem too eager, but wandered around, admiring the view for a whole ten seconds before ending up beside her.

Jessica disappeared to get their lunch from the cooler. Banner hurried off to help her. And it took Jacob far too long to lean over and kiss his lass, because the others returned before he got in more than a peck or two.

Laira laughed softly. “I’m starting to remember why we had to carry ChapStick around in high school.”

If their hosts overheard, they pretended they hadn’t. Jess set a platter down on the ottoman. Banner handed out bottles of fizzy juices. And they all tucked in.

“I’m starving,” Laira said, surprised.

Jess nodded. “It’s the sea air that always does it for me. We never go out without food.”

“Well, when you’ve caught your breath, I would really like to hear the rest of the story, about how you saved Banner’s life.”

Jacob choked and fizzy juice shot out of his nose. He jumped to his feet and headed to the loo, but not before he shot Jess a warning look and a quick shake of his head. When she didn’t seem to understand, he nodded for her to follow him.

“Aye,” Jess said. “I’ll be right back. Forgot napkins, didn’t I?” She followed him down the hall.

He pulled her into the loo and closed the door.

“Ye cannae tell her yer story.”

She snorted. “Well, I wasnae going to tell her the part about Banner rising from the dead, was I?”

He shook his head. “It’s not that. She asked Jocko for the most romantic Celtic story he could find…and he told her yers. I changed the names, but the story is the same. He even told her yer husband was recently a ghostie.”

“Jacob!”

“I know. I know. But at the time, it was just a story. I never imagined she’d ever hear it repeated.”

She thought for a moment while he cleaned the juice from his face. Finally, she shrugged her shoulders. “Ye ken what this means, then. This is yer sign that it’s time to come clean, yeah?”

His heart sank. “We just need to distract her. She’s in no condition?—”

“Jacob, she’s fine. She’ll never be ready for the blow she’s about to take. So it might as well be now. That will leave ye both time to reconcile and still have some days left. Ye don’t think ye can convince her to stay longer?”

“I think hearing the truth will send her home without another thought.”

“Well, then, she was unworthy of ye in the first place.” She reached for the doorknob.

He put a hand on her arm. “Dinnae say that. Dinnae say that.”

She noted the passion in his eyes. “Alright, my friend. All right. I will find a way to get Banner out of the room and we’ll leave ye to it.”