The Legend Mackinnon (42 page)

Cailean laid her hand on her arm. “I understand all about unexplainable feelings.”

“It’s Alexander, isn’t it,” Maggie said in a hushed tone. “He’s ‘the one’?”

Delaney slapped the table, making them jump. “See, that’s just it! He can’t be ‘the one.’ Can’t be. He makes me crazy. Not to mention the fact that he was born just a few years before me.” She dropped her head to the table. “It makes no sense. I waited all this time for him?”

“Who said it was supposed to make sense?” Cailean said.

“Why did you crave adventure?” Maggie asked quietly.

Delaney lifted her head, frowning. “I’m not sure. Maybe because my parents were gone when I was so little, I was left to my own devices a lot. I was always creating wild, fantastical worlds.”

Maggie grinned. “See? Now you have a real fantastical world. Maybe this makes more sense than you think.”

“You’ve accepted us into your life fairly easily,” Cailean said.

“Yeah, but you guys are flesh and blood normal.”

Cailean rolled her eyes at that. “So you say.” She grew serious. “You’ve accepted that we’ve all been brought together for a reason. A larger than life reason. Why not accept that maybe Alexander is going to play a role in that as well.”

“Because I can deal with rescuing other people’s lives and making the ending work out right. That’s much safer than thinking about my own. I can’t control that as much.” She swallowed. “Nuts, huh? Handling terrorists is safer
than handling my own life. What in the hell does that say about me?”

Maggie leaned forward. “It says you like to be in control and when you lose for someone else, it isn’t as hard as when you lose for yourself.”

“I hate to lose period,” she said, scowling.

“Make-believe worlds and make-believe love are easier to believe in, to trust in,” Cailean said.

“I certainly deal in real enough life! As real as it gets,” Delaney shot back defensively.

“But that’s an unreality of it’s own, don’t you think? Keeps you from doing the white picket fence thing.” Her tone gentled. “The normal mom and dad thing.”

She opened her mouth to argue, then stopped and leaned back in her chair. “Okay, maybe you’re right. But it doesn’t mean I’m ready to accept that my future is meant to be tied with a … to a …”

“Actually, I think he makes perfect sense for you,” Maggie said, then raised a hand. “So it’s not totally perfect, it would be nice if he were born in this century.” She smiled and deflected Delaney’s half-hearted smack. “But look at your backgrounds, your training, everything. Finding yourself attracted to him makes perfect sense. And it’s obvious he’s never met anyone like you.”

Delaney scowled. “Attracted is one thing. It’s the feeling that we’re linked somehow, that it
has
to be him. I don’t like it.”

“And you think we did?” Cailean asked. “Your destiny is as intertwined with Alexander as mine is with Rory and Maggie’s is with Duncan.”

“What happens if I don’t want it? Hell, maybe I don’t know what I want or what is right for me. I’m thirty-two and single for Christ’s sake.”

“So? All three of us are single. It doesn’t mean we’re losers. We’ve all given a great deal of attention to our careers,” Maggie said. “That doesn’t mean we can’t incorporate
that into a fulfilling relationship and do the happily ever after thing if the right man came along.”

Delaney snorted. “And these are the ‘right men’? Come on! We should all run screaming for the hills.”

“So why haven’t we,” Cailean said seriously.

“I hate it when you do that ‘Key’ thing. Gives me goosebumps.”

Maggie shook her head. “It’s not about ‘is it normal and is it easy.’ It’s about whether you could walk away without trying. If you can walk away, then that’s your answer right there. It’s when you can’t walk away that things get interesting. I know I might be in a no-win situation. Believe me, I’m terrified as much by never seeing Duncan again as I am about trying to make it work and failing. But the other alternative, to just walk away now, curse or no curse, is simply not an option. What I feel for him—” She broke off.

Delaney covered her hand. “I’m sorry, Maggie. I didn’t mean to make you hash through all of this.”

“It’s okay. But do you understand? Am I supposed to ignore it because it’s not what I imagined true love to be? How I feel, how he makes me feel, all of it, is so incredible, and so different than I’ve ever felt before. We both decided we’d rather have it for whatever time we can than not have it at all.”

“I’m not sure we ever really have a choice when we meet someone who affects us like that,” Cailean said quietly.

“You mean fate?” Delaney asked.

“Not exactly. Certainly we are all free to make the choice to follow our feelings or not.” She looked at Delaney. “You could walk away right now and not look back. I believe we have many potential destinies depending on the choices we make as we go along. But there are some paths that will bring greater fulfillment than others.

“As to what you feel, well, it doesn’t seem to matter if it’s an inconvenient time to feel them. The right person
comes along and bam, you feel it. You have a reaction like you’ve never had to another person. Time doesn’t matter, place doesn’t matter, propriety doesn’t matter, nothing matters. You may not like it, but you can’t change that, any more than you can make yourself feel something for someone just because he has come along at the right time, at the right place, and fits in perfectly.”

“I’m not sure what my feelings are,” Delaney said, even more confused.

“Well then, you’ll have to decide if you want to find out,” Cailean responded.

Delaney groaned. “You make it sound so easy.”

Maggie and Cailean both laughed. “Oh yeah,” Maggie said dryly. “Piece of cake.”

Their food arrived and they all fell silent as they ate, each lost in her own thoughts. What did she feel for Alexander? It wasn’t anything simple enough to put into words. They were finishing up when she spoke quietly. “He gets my attention. Like no man has ever gotten my full and undivided attention before.” She stopped, but couldn’t find any better way of putting it. “He drives me crazy, totally frustrates the hell out of me. I want to wring his neck every other second, but I can’t take my eyes off of him. Or stop wondering what he’s thinking, or what he will do, or say. Or if he’ll ever kiss me again.” Her cheeks flushed at that unplanned admission, but Maggie and Cailean simply smiled and nodded.

“We never said it was all bliss and birds singing,” Maggie said. “It can be that and more, but all your emotions are engaged. Full scale chaos.”

“Sounds like something you should get a shot for,” Delaney muttered.

They paid their bill and were in the parking lot when Delaney spoke again. “Well, whatever happens, at least we’ll have each other to hang on to. And that’s already more than I’ve ever had before.”

Maggie and Cailean agreed and they moved into a brief, tight embrace.

It was then that Delaney noticed Cailean looked a bit paler than she had moments before.

“Are you okay?”

Cailean looked up, almost startled by the question. “Yes, yes, fine. I’m fine.”

Delaney shared a quick look with Maggie. “What is it?” She led Cailean to a bench overlooking the lawn and Maggie followed. “You felt something, didn’t you?”

Cailean kept her gaze focused on the water.

“Cailean,” Maggie said. “You can’t keep this inside. It tears you apart, and it’s not fair to us.”

Her gaze swiveled to Maggie, eyes flashing. “Not fair to
you
?”

“It’s our lives too, and you’re part of that. Maybe we can’t do anything to help, maybe it will just make us more scared, or whatever. But we are family and we will stand with each other.”

“She’s right.” Delaney put her hand on Cailean’s shoulder. “You don’t have to suffer through this stuff alone anymore.”

Cailean’s shoulders slumped and her chin dipped as a weary sigh slipped out. “I don’t want to suffer with this stuff at all, alone or together.”

Maggie slid off the bench and crouched in front of her, taking both her hands. “Just tell us what you saw. Don’t take it all on yourself.”

Cailean looked first to Delaney, then to Maggie. “We’re going to find the key.”

Maggie’s mouth dropped open then quickly shut. Cailean tried to stand but both Maggie and Delaney held her back.

“When?” Maggie asked.

“That’s just it. I don’t know. Maybe today, maybe not
for a few days. But we will find it. Soon.” She did stand then, turning to stare up at the craggy pinnacles of the Quiraing that loomed in the distance behind the hotel. “And then we will see what is to become of all of us.”

A
lexander paced the length of Calum’s council room, which he’d turned into makeshift quarters for himself. Delaney had asked to meet with him privately before they all sat down as a group.

He was tired and not a little frustrated. He’d planned to present the Claren women with a united front when they returned this morning. However, neither Rory nor Duncan had complied. They’d listened to his plans, they’d asked dozens of hard-hitting questions, and hadn’t been at all reticent in voicing their doubts. For all their joy in being reunited and their interest in what he had to say, both men had been preoccupied and it hadn’t taken a genius to determine the source of their distraction.

If he weren’t so frustrated, he’d have been forced to admit to a little distraction himself. Delaney might be mortal, but she had an unnatural hold on his attention.

She chose that moment to stride into his chambers. Despite his determination to maintain strict control, or perhaps to purposely mock it, his attention was pulled directly to her mouth.

She’d been making a point yesterday, when she’d slipped
her fingers through his hair and tugged his mouth down to hers. He’d allowed it, had thought to prove to her that it was he who wielded the power between them. But the strategy had been a tactical error of startling proportions, one that had only proven that the game they played was far more dangerous than either of them expected.

“Good, you’re here,” she said.

“I believed this was something of a command performance, was it no’?”

She laughed. “Don’t play the pompous clan chief with me, Alexander. I asked to see you and here we are.”

His scowl deepened. “Pompous am I now?”

“At times. I imagine it would serve you well as laird, but it’s really not necessary now.”

He didn’t know what to think. She never let his mind progress in a rational, straightforward manner. One word, one look, and his thoughts were all a jumble. Dangerous game indeed. “A shift through time does not change what I am, Delaney.”

“Nor am I to be blamed for what my ancestors did before me. But this is the twentieth century, not the seventeenth. You are not a ruler, you’re just a man. So can’t we unbend a little and just have a conversation without all the posturing?”

Posturing? He wasn’t posturing. As if she’d read his thoughts, she cocked a skeptical eyebrow and looked pointedly at him. He looked down to find his arms crossed over his chest and his legs braced in a commanding stance. He scowled again, but refused to shift to suit her sensibilities. “A conversation about what?” he demanded instead. “The portal? You know where I stand on that issue. I imagine that you’ve already rallied your cousins to your way of thinking.”

“As you have rallied your brothers to yours, no doubt. That is why I asked to speak to you before we all talk. There’s something you and I need to get figured out first.”

Alexander badly needed to pace the floor, to burn off the excess energy that seemed to spike within him every time he was around her. Instead, as a test of sorts, he remained still. “And what could that possibly be?”

Delaney blew out a breath. “Why did I know you’d make this difficult?”

He narrowed his eyes and studied her. Beneath all her forthright speech, she appeared almost flustered. “What on earth are you talking about?”

“You see? Normally, I have no trouble communicating with men. Until you, that is.”

He raised his eyebrows at that, but wisely remained silent. What was she about now?

“Normally, when I’m not interested, I have to spend at least half my time making sure I don’t send out the wrong signals, because, face it, some men think breathing is a signal. The other half of the time, when I am interested, I have to make sure I don’t come on too strong, you know? I mean, I’m small, but I can pack a pretty mean punch, so men are kind of surprised when they get to know me. And I refuse to play dumb and weak so they can feel all strong and protective. It’s a stupid ritual and most times I have no patience for it at all, which is probably why I’m still single. But I’ve never, once, had to explain what the signals are in the first place. Most men get that much.” She looked up at him, absolutely serious. “Are you with me so far?”

Alexander nodded, just to be safe.

“Good.” She propped her hands on her hips. “So, what are we going to do about it?”

He blinked, half afraid to ask. “About what?”

“Us!”

“Us?”

“You didn’t hear anything I said, did you?” She turned and began pacing. He was sorely tempted to join her.