A Scot Like You (The MacLarens of Balmorie, 2) (6 page)

"What?"

"I don't know. It's kind of weird-sounding." She drew in a deep breath, rolling her eyes. "I always felt like I could communicate with them. Not like telepathy or anything. Just that I could sense their mood better than most is all."

It embarrassed her to admit it, and it made Dev curious. "So you went into dog walking and grooming. Why not training?"

"Everyone asks me that. That was going to be the next step. I don't have any formal training. I'm not qualified."

"I don't have a degree in carpentry. Yet," he glanced around the room.

"Your work speaks for itself," she finished his thought.

"So train a few dogs. Train a few more. Word gets out. And presto, you've got work that speaks for itself."

She thought it over, eyeing him straight on with a slightly bemused tilt to her mouth. Not a lot of people looked at him head on like that, like they weren't afraid to see into the darkest parts of his soul. "Suppose now that I'm broke and starting over," she said, "I'll have to do just that."

He offered her the last chunk of bread, but she gestured for him to take it. He chewed, wanting to change the subject and redirect his thoughts. "Where'd you find the terrier?"

"He found me. A stray, I think. You haven't seen him before?"

"No. Apparently Hildie has…"

"She likes him." Kate smiled and wiggled her eyebrows at him.

"I wouldn't go that far," he muttered.

She laughed. "You sound like a protective father. He's not going to run away with her and knock her up."

Dev rolled his eyes. Kate leaned across the food and placed her hand on his bare knee. Her palm was warm and soft. "I'm serious, though. You're not going to lose her. But there is room in her life for a canine friend."

His blood pressure rose. He knew he wasn't going to lose her. He didn't need some know-it-all coming in and butting her nose into his life and acting like she knew all about it.

But . . . what if he
did
lose Hildie? What if she got hurt? Lost? Oh God. What if he couldn't do a damn thing about it.

"Hey. Devin…"

He was dimly aware Kate was speaking. He could hear the concern, even understand that she'd shoved the food away from them and had scooted closer to kneel in front of him. He heard Hildie scratch at the door and bark. No. He wasn't going to do this now. Not in front of her.

Goddamn it. Not in front of her.

He squeezed his eyelids closed and then blinked a few times, trying to clear the haze of anxiety.

Kate's soft hands cupped his cheeks. She was muttering words. She didn't know what to do; he could hear it in the slight panic in her voice. In the "fuck," she uttered right before she kissed him.

Time stopped.

It all just stopped, like someone hit the pause button.

Then, slowly, the anxiety ebbed. His senses returned. Her hair smelled like apples.
Apples
. He loved apples. Her lips, soft. Her breath softer as she eased away from him. "No," he whispered immediately. "Please." Part of him winced at that, how desperate and weak it sounded.

Her arms came around him and she was in his lap, pressing her lips against his, her hands still cupping his face. Lust detonated, wiping out every last trace of darkness inside of him and replacing it with the best kind of ache. A hard, hot ache. Dev was lost. He grabbed the sides of her face, angled his head, and took her mouth in a slow, blistering kiss that magnified his ache by a thousand.

When they broke apart, he could barely breathe, his heart hammering so fast, he felt dizzy.

Finally his sight cleared. Kate was kneeling back, a shell-shocked look in her wide eyes, her lips swollen and parted. Breathing heavy, too.

Claws hit the floor as Hildie raced in from the main hall. She'd gone to the front of the house in order to get to him. She slid to a stop in the kitchen. The hairs on the back of her neck rose. She was confused. This wasn't normally how his anxiety attacks went. She must be sensing the difference in him. No doubt, Kate was putting off the same vibes as he was.

"I'm so sorry," Kate said, eyes on Hildie and then back on him. His chest went tight. They were glassy, her eyes.

Damn it.

She backed away from him, not wanting to upset Hildie. "She's confused," Kate said, her voice thick. "I'm just. I'm sorry…" She fled out the back door.

Still reeling, Dev fell onto his back. He rubbed both hands down his face and groaned. Hildie jumped him, licking his hands and face, tail wagging, whining. Dev sat up and hugged her, giving her coat a good rubbing, and telling her what a good girl she was.

Just him and Hildie. The way it usually was.

For months he'd told himself it was enough, being alone. Him and Hildie, dealing with being veterans together. But as he stared at the open door, he knew it wasn't enough. For neither one of them. He was beginning to understand that now.

Knowing he needed to calm his heart rate and make sure he was good to go before he went after Kate, Dev remained on the blanket for a few minutes. Once he was up, he headed outside, looked around for Kate and then went for his truck. He was pretty sure she was on the road back to the cottage.

Only problem, the truck wouldn't start.

Undeterred, he lifted the hood and found the spark plugs gone.

Hamish
.

Dev was sure that wily ole matchmaker had stolen his spark plugs in an effort to strand him and Kate together. Devin shut the hood and stood there a moment, amazed at the lengths Hamish would go. Ever since Ian had found Lucy, Hamish and Fran had turned their attention on him. Mostly, he ignored their efforts to set him up with whatever girl in the village or someone's daughter or niece, or have someone conveniently over for dinner.

Shaking his head, he returned to the lodge with a smile on his face. He loved that old man and couldn't fault him for trying. While Dev and his brothers loved their Scottish grandparents and spending their summers here on estate, it was the Grahams who cared for them. Fran filled them with food, made sure they were bathed, and had clean sheets on the bed. Hamish taught them things they hadn't learned from their father back on their North Carolina farm, like how to fly fish, smoke salmon, wear a kilt, and jump buck ass naked into the loch—a rite of summer passage Hamish called it.

When their grandfather had died and left the boys the estate, Devin had jumped at the opportunity. He loved it back home in the States where he was raised by his Scottish father and American mother. But he loved Scotland even more. Loved his roots. Even their mother had roots that originated in the Highlands.

Finding his boots, he pulled them on and tied the laces. "They're gonna get way ahead of us girl," he told Hildie as she waited with expectation. "Yeah, I know. Piece of cake." Going for a run in the Scottish summer in shorts was nothing compared to the lengths he'd traveled in war.

Chapter 7

Terry followed Kate down the road and away from the lodge. She was glad he chose to come because if he hadn't, she might have sat right there in the dirt and gravel and cried like a baby.

What a disaster.

What the hell was wrong with her? She'd kissed a man in a full blown anxiety attack. Maybe she should just tattoo IDIOT across her forehead.

She might be good with dogs, but obviously, once again, she sucked with people. When Devin's eyes glazed over… She hadn't known how to help him, how to get him to focus and breathe. Even now, she could taste the panic, the helplessness. She'd considered slapping him, like in the movies, but he was a soldier; there was no telling how he would've reacted to that—she might have been out of her element, but she wasn't stupid.

So she kissed him, thinking gentle was the way to go. Thinking distraction was the way to go.

Truth was, she hadn't been thinking at all.

She'd been terrified and desperate to help him. The look in his eyes had scared the hell out of her. And now she wept for him. She couldn't help it.

And Hildie… Oh, she understood the dog better than ever now and her heart expanded. What an amazing dog. Smart. Loyal. Brave. Hildie had assumed a new role all on her own, sensing Devin's attacks, alerting him, and staying with him through them. Kate could still hear the scratching and barking ringing in her head. Hildie had desperately wanted to get to Devin. And when she had, Kate was in the way. Hildie had no reason to trust her. None at all. Kate wasn't sure she trusted herself.

Eventually, the woods thinned, and the sky grew purple and orange with the setting sun. As her anger cooled, her steps slowed. Terry stopped on the ridge ahead and waited. He was a good boy. One that probably had a loving home, a family who was missing him. When she got back, she'd ask Lucy to help make a flyer in hopes someone would claim him.

Too bad she couldn't keep him. He was smart boy. He might even make a great service dog. Just the touch of an animal could calm a person, lower their fear, their blood pressure... It was incredible the difference an animal could make.

Working dogs amazed her. Always had. And today they made her wonder why she never pursued that side of her canine love affair. Thanks to Holdenmort she had to start over. Maybe it was time to switch gears, to work in the training field after all, training service dogs, making her own kind of difference.

Once the idea sparked, Kate couldn't seem to think of anything else.

Until Terry barked and zipped past her going the wrong way.

Turning, Kate eyed the road behind her. There was nothing there. Then she heard another bark.

A few seconds later, she saw a broad-shouldered figure appear, cresting the hill, jogging slowly, methodically toward her. Her nerves went chaotic. She couldn't deal with him right now.

She spun and started walking away before thinking better of it. Avoiding him now would make her more of a jerk than she'd already been. With a deep breath in and reluctant breath out, she finally turned around only to find Dev standing there barely winded.

Her stomach did an elaborate flip. She swallowed. He really was a beautiful man. If only that was all there was to him, but there was so much more. So much she was filled with emotion—hurt, confusion, fear, exhilaration. Devin MacLaren disrupted everything.

And more than anything, at that moment, Kate wanted out. Wanted him gone. Wanted to breathe normally. "Look, sorry about all that—"

"Hamish stole the spark plugs from my truck," he said at the same time.

Kate blinked. "What?"

"Hamish," he explained. "He's a little obsessed with the whole matchmaking thing since Ian and Lucy got together. Point is, I can't drive you back."

She hadn't asked him to. Being in a confined space with Devin was the last thing she wanted. "I was, uh, already walking back. It's fine."

"It's a long way."

"I remember."

An awkwardness settled between them. She wasn't a fan of awkward. She'd rather be caught skinny dipping again than this.

He scratched the back of his head, looking a bit perplexed and confused. "It'll be dark soon."

"Yep." She glanced at the beautiful sky awash in color. "I'm not afraid to walk in the dark. There's nothing around for miles. And I have Terry with me."

"All right."

Relief washed over her. Thank goodness. She gave Devin a quick nod, turned, and started down the road. He fell in step beside her. "What are you doing?"

"Walking back. Need my spark plugs."

Hildie and Terry ran ahead, and for a long time the only sound between them was the crunch of their shoes on the road and the occasional call of wildlife. The twilight grabbed Kate's attention. It was soft and muted and gave a fragile quality to the landscape around them. This was the gloaming she'd always read about in Gram's books. And here she was walking in it with a Highlander by her side.

"Lucy's taken some amazing pictures," Devin said, casting a look to the sky. "Right after sunset. Those are my favorites."

"The gloaming. Is that how you say it?" she asked, hoping her pronunciation was right.

"Aye."

She smiled at his response. "You know you go back and forth between accents."

He digested that and gave a consenting shrug. "We all do, my brothers and I."

"Was it hard? Deciding to live here rather than back home? Lucy said your mom is back there."

Devin thought for a moment. "In some ways it was. In others, easy. I've been away so long already... My mom loves it here. She would've been disappointed if we'd sold the land." A soft laugh escaped him. "Disappointed is a nice word for what she'd have been." They continued on a few more steps before Devin continued. "The place is special to her. Lots of memories of us and my dad here. She might be sixth generation American, but she's mostly Scot. Think it gives her a lot of pride that we're here, back on home soil."

Kate caught Devin's eye and smiled at the slight embarrassment in his tone. He wasn't a guy who talked much about his family, about what they, and the land, meant. "I bet she's really proud of you. Of all her sons." And she'd get to meet the woman at Lucy's wedding. Not only was Lucy's life changing, but so was Kate's—dramatically so. "Can't believe Lucy is getting married and will live—" she swept her hand to the panoramic view— "here. Raise her kids here. Can you imagine?" It was amazing, the way life could change so quickly. "And one day I'll be an aunt. Sort of. Second cousin really."