The Trouble With Kilts (The MacLarens of Balmorie) (3 page)

Dev gave Jamie a look that warned him to keep his mouth shut, but Jamie was already feeling the brotherly ribbing coming on. "What? Did you just finish reading Dr. Phil because, damn it man, that was just beautiful."

Dev's jaw went slack. Then, his brother smiled, a smile that grew until the corners crinkled at Dev's eyes. "Welcome back, pip squeak."

Jamie rolled his eyes and snorted against the embarrassment creeping in. "It's not the first time I cracked a joke, man."

"First one since you've been back. In six months."

Had it been? He doubted that. "Yeah well, I've had a lot to deal with."

Dev shrugged and slipped his arms around Kate. "Do you think we should go find them?" Kate asked.

"Wouldn't hurt to know where they went and be around in case she needs us." Dev looked to Jamie. "You in?"

"Sure. If he gets out of line I'll just throw my leg at him."

Kate looked at Jamie as if he'd grown two heads. He sighed. Yeah. Apparently, he'd not been himself for a
very
long time.

Riley was shaking inside. The shock at seeing Mark completely obliterated her buzz. It was like she hadn't drank at all. Well, except the headache she felt coming on. Leave it to him to grace her with an instant hangover. Her heart was still pounding, though now it pounded for a reason other than the kilt-clad Scot in the conservatory. She'd gone from a near, sure to be volcanic kiss to being doused with a bucket of cold surprise.

Awesome.

Riley shoved Mark through the hall and into the formal living room. Thankfully it was empty of guests. Wanting it to stay that way, she pulled the heavy doors closed, turned, and then leaned against them. Her head shook in disbelief. Mark was
here,
standing in front of her, looking disheveled. His usually perfect hair was a mess. Dark shadows hovered beneath his red rimmed eyes. He needed a shave, too, though the stubble on him didn't look nearly as bad ass as it did on Jamie. She blinked, annoyingly putting that errant thought aside.

"I haven't slept in twenty-four hours," he said, shoving one hand into the front pocket of his pants. It was then Riley noticed he was wearing his work clothes. Dress pants and white dress shirt—the one with the gray pinstripes. The tie was long gone. There was a yellow stain on the shirt, and it was criss-crossed with wrinkles. He glanced down at himself. "Worked all day, then hopped a flight from Denver to New York, then New York to Glasgow, then charter flight to Inverness, and had to rent a car…"

"Why?" But she knew the answer. He wanted her back. The fact that he'd done all this, had come all this way, it blew her mind and confused her more than a little. What she wouldn't have given for him to have shown this kind of devotion before, when they could have saved their marriage.

Her hands gripped the doorknobs behind her. No one had ever done anything like this for her.

Riley released the knobs and smoothed her hands down the front of her gown. If there was a time for Mark to see her, she supposed it was the perfect time given the fact that she looked pretty damn stellar in the dress, shoes, and professionally done hair and make-up.

"I need you to sign the divorce papers, Riley."

Surely she hadn't heard him correctly.

"Marta and I are getting married. We need to get the papers signed and filed. I've been trying to call you. Repeatedly. God knows how long you're planning to stay here. Why didn't you just sign the papers before you left? Would that have been so difficult? Now I had to come all this way..."

His voice faded into the background. Something about them making an appointment to be married at the ultra exclusive Wincourt Club. If the papers weren't signed and filed immediately, so that the divorce would then be official in time for the date they'd set, they'd have to cancel and wait an entire year before getting another time slot at the club.

What the hell?

Riley shook her head. She couldn't focus. Pain radiated across her chest.

All this way, he'd come. All this way for Marta.
For Marta
. The six foot tall Swede.

God. Just . . .

"Riley. Riley are you even listening to me?" Mark plopped down in one of the old wing back chairs, muttering about getting a drink.

"Are you out of your mind?" she finally found her voice, shaky albeit.

Red mottled his cheeks. "Yes. I am. I'm out of mind in love with Marta. I'd do anything for her. And there was no way we could know if you'd ever pick up the phone, if you'd respond at all. The only way to make sure you'd sign, so the papers could be filed immediately was to come here myself. So I'm here, Riley. Your assistant said you got the papers when you stopped by the office before your flight. She said you would've had to have taken them with you. Please tell me she was right."

"Yeah. She was."

"Good. If you can sign them, I'll take them back with me and record them." He glanced around the room as if seeing it for the first time. "This a hotel? Maybe I can get a room and head out first thing tomorrow."

"Are you even sorry?" she asked.

"Sorry for what?"

She practically choked on that. "Cheating on me, Mark. Breaking me. Hurting another human being."

He frowned and she wondered why she ever thought he was the one. "I can't help that I met Marta. I fell in love. What would you have me do?"

"Oh gee, I don't know, be a man about it? Talk to me first before you started up with her? And now you come all this way to throw it in my face, what you're willing to do for her?" Her voice had risen, but she didn't care. All the old hurts had come roaring back. The injustice of it stung and made her gasp for air. Tears clouded her vision. She laughed. "What was I thinking?"

The door opened behind her. Kate came in. "Everything all right?"

Devin and Jamie came in behind Kate like two bouncers waiting for the word to throw Mark out on his ass. But the last thing she wanted was an audience. She was humiliated enough already. "Everything is fine," she said between gritted teeth. "Stay here, Mark. I'll get the papers and then you can find somewhere else to stay because it won't be here."

Chapter 4

Riley hurried up the stairs to her room. Hands shaking, she flung items from her suitcase until she found the stupid papers. As she held them, the hurt became too much. She sat on the floor, the pretty chiffon skirt poofing out all around her.

"Oh, Riley," Kate's voice came as her cousin entered the room and sat down beside her. "I'm so sorry."

She held onto tightly as Kate hugged her.

"I don't even know why I'm crying," she said several minutes later, leaning away from Kate and wiping her eyes. "How could I have ever loved him? It's embarrassing."

"No it's not. You just wanted to be loved. And you tried, Ri, you really tried. He just—" Kate handed her a tissue from the bedside table.

"He just what?"

"He wasn't the one. The only person who couldn't see it was you," she said in the gentlest way possible.

"Well why the hell didn't you say something?"

"I did. We all did."

"Oh. Yeah. I suppose you did..." She just hadn't listened; hadn't wanted to. With a heavy sigh, she rested her back against the side of the bed. "Lucy was so pretty tonight wasn't she?"

Tears sprung to Kate eyes and she smiled. "And happy. The way they looked at each other…"

"Did we look like that? Mark and I?" Kate's mouth opened and closed. Riley had to laugh. "Nevermind. It was more like a mutually beneficial business relationship with status and sex thrown in." She shook her head. "I don't know what I was thinking."

The door burst open and Grammy Lin swept inside, her face lined with worry. "Oh you poor girl," she said hurrying over, gathering her long skirts and slowly sitting herself down on the floor next to Riley. "Come give your Gram a hug." She was already pulling Riley into her arms.

"It's okay. I'm fine."

"No, you're not." Gram held Riley back after a hard hug, her eyes going narrow and shrewd, her brow lifted high. "You girls were never able to bullshit your way around me."

"Unfortunately true," Kate said wryly.

"That man has some nerve." Gram huffed with indignation. "Coming here, ruining your night, our night. I just want to bury him to his neck in snow and throw haggis at him."

Riley and Kate burst out laughing. "Please, let's do that," Kate said. "Then I'd set the dogs loose on him to clean the mess up."

Love filled Riley's heart as she listened to Gram and Kate going on about torturing Mark in inventive Scottish ways. They were behind her one hundred percent. They always were. Even when she was off trying to make it as a writer, even as she fell into life with Mark and let his world of social standing change her, they'd stood by her.

"I love you guys," she said, making them both silent for a moment before they swamped her with hugs and tears and laughter.

As they changed out of their bridesmaid gowns, Gram went downstairs to give Fergus her phone number. Riley left her hair pinned up, but changed into jeans, fur-lined boots, and a soft hoodie before joining Kate by the dresser.

She signed her divorce papers, slid them into the envelope, and gave Kate a wry smile. "Let's get this over with."

Kate squeezed her shoulder. "You're the strongest person I know. One day you'll meet someone, someone with a deep sense of right and wrong, with honor and loyalty, whose word means the world to him."

Riley rolled her eyes. "I think I'm good. One marriage was enough."

"Please." Kate scoffed as they left the room. "Like you said, that wasn't a marriage. It was a mutually beneficial relationship. You're still due your one and only."

She stopped at the top of the stairs. "How did you know, Kate? With Devin I mean."

Kate paused and turned, her hand on the railing. "He stole my breath. At every turn. And it was the little things. The things he didn't realize he did that showed me what kind of man he is, that he was worth the risk."

The night seemed to be a showplace for love and marriage. One new, one broken beyond repair. And one about to happen if Kate and Devin were any indication. "He looks at you like that," Riley said, making Kate stop again with a question in her eyes. "The way Ian looked at Lucy today. Devin. He looks at you like that."

Kate stared up at her with the dopiest look on her face that Riley had to laugh. "And, yeah, you look at him the same way," she said passing her cousin on the stairs. "All this love in the air is going to give me indigestion."

Kate laughed behind her, quickly catching up. "I don't know. Maybe it'll rub off on you," she said, eyes going right for Jamie as he stood in the hallway with Devin.

She leaned close to Kate. "Don't even think about it." The secret smile spreading across Kate's face made Riley concerned. "I'm serious, Kate."

"What? I'm not talking about Jamie. No. He's all wrong for you."

"Really."

"Well, look at him. He's too . . . much."

Riley snorted and bumped Kate with her shoulder, rolling her eyes. "The trick to reverse psychology is not to be so obvious about it."

They found Mark in the Great Hall, eating. Jamie and Devin followed her in and were joined by Liam, Liam's older brother Ross, and two of their American cousins. Word had obviously gotten out. And Mark was oblivious.

Riley couldn't help but compare Mark to Jamie and the rest of the men in the room. There was no comparison, really. Mark was tall and built nicely, but he was missing the raw aura of masculinity that surrounded the others. Would Mark take care of his own at any cost? Maybe. Maybe Marta brought that out in him. Maybe love was all it took. But Jamie and Devin, they didn't need love to risk life and limb for others. They had strength and honor in spades. Something Riley was pretty sure Mark lacked—in spades.

Riley stopped in front of her ex and held out the envelope. It felt momentous to her—sad and utterly heartbreaking. She was physically handing over the final tie that bound them, all the hopes and dreams she once had gone. Just gone. It hurt, but at the same time a sense of anticipation gripped her. She could start over. A fresh start. A new direction. She wouldn't make the same mistakes twice.

Mark took the envelope and for a moment his eyes turned grateful and sad, almost apologetic. But the expression passed as quickly as it had come. "Thank you."

An awkward silence descended, accentuated by the laughter and music coming from the reception.

Mark cleared his throat. "Looks like I missed a wedding."

"Lucy's wedding," Riley said.

"No kidding." The half smile on his face looked genuine. "Good for her."

"Yeah. She married one of them," Riley said, gesturing toward the MacLarens who stood there with arms crossed over their chests, feet apart, looking like Scottish warriors of old in their kilts and dress shirts.

"Riley…" Mark began. "I want you to know with Marta . . . I'm sorry. Neither one of us could control it, or ourselves. It's too strong, too—"

"Thanks. Really. I get it." Anger rose in her chest. Only Mark could roll an apology and an insult together. They'd certainly never experienced anything that 'out of control'...

Whatever.

She was done. She couldn't stand another second around him or another second at the reception. Overwhelmed and needing to get out, she marched to the bar and went behind it, swiping a bottle of whisky, wanting to smash something. Wanting to bash the bottle over her ex's head.

And she wasn't about to go hide in her room. She just needed out.

Leaving the bar, she passed Jamie and said, "Get me out of here."

He fell in step beside her. She could feel Kate and Devin staring at her back, but she didn't care, she just lifted the bottle up in a wave.

"Where to?" he asked quietly as they crossed the hall and neared the main door.

She turned the knob. "Anywhere but here." She faced him and pushed open the door with her rear end.