Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 109783 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 549(@200wpm)___ 439(@250wpm)___ 366(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109783 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 549(@200wpm)___ 439(@250wpm)___ 366(@300wpm)
Tension crackled between us.
I didn’t give a fuck if they thought I wasn’t being compassionate toward Pamela. They weren’t the ones who somehow had to explain to Millie when she was old enough to understand that her real mother just didn’t want her enough to stick around. As a kid who very much understood what that did to a person’s sense of self-worth, I hated Pamela for putting our child through that.
“Fyfe, I know—”
“Stop, Lewis.” Eilidh spoke up. Her tone was like silk over steel. “Fyfe doesn’t need to feel anything but what he’s feeling.”
“I just—”
“No. You’re a good person who wants to believe the best in everyone. But sometimes it’s more important to just have your friend’s back and let him feel what he needs to feel.” While I ached for this woman, I watched as she offered her brother a kind smile. “Just ask my therapist.”
Callie jumped on the chance to ease the tension. “Are you still seeing her?”
Eilidh nodded. I knew she’d been talking to Diana more recently. “I’d stopped checking in with her for a bit when I came home, but after the incident with Peter, I needed to talk it out.”
“Has it helped?”
“Loads.”
To my relief, Eilidh had slept in my arms that first night. She’d drifted off easily and hadn’t woken up with nightmares. However, there hadn’t been a repeat of the sleepover, and many nights since I’d lain awake (instead of grabbing sleep while I could in between Millie’s sleep sprints), wondering if Eilidh was sleeping or if she needed me beside her.
We chatted for another ten minutes before getting to work. The afternoon passed quickly, and my mind kept wandering to later that evening. Regan had offered to not only watch Millie with Harley during the day but to keep Millie overnight so I could catch up on sleep. It was overly kind, and I’d tried not to accept the offer, but Regan and Thane had insisted. I trusted them implicitly, so I wasn’t worried about Millie being away from me, though I hoped she wouldn’t grow fussy. I’d made Regan assure me she’d call me to come pick Millie up if she couldn’t get her to settle.
“It’s good for you to be apart,” Regan had reassured me. “For Millie too.”
Now, with a free evening ahead, it wasn’t sleep I was thinking about.
When Eilidh squeezed past while we were trying to hang the last strip of mural, her breasts brushed my chest, and my whole body tightened. The merest touch had me reacting like a fucking teenager.
This need for Eilidh was becoming almost debilitating.
Was she ready for that, though?
Before Peter, she’d been trying to insist on casual.
The night of the attack, she seemed to suggest she was ready to commit to me instead.
But we hadn’t discussed our relationship since.
I pushed those thoughts away as we finished up for the evening. Lewis ordered pizza from Thurso and it arrived just as we put the finishing touches on the décor.
“It’s going to look amazing,” Callie opined as we sat around my dining table to dig into the food. “We’ll come back tomorrow to help you put the furniture together.”
Gratitude moved me. “I can’t thank you enough for your help.”
Lewis shrugged. “What is family for?”
My eyes caught Eilidh’s and that overwhelming feeling I got when I looked at Millie swelled beyond bearing. They were my family.
Always would be.
But I wanted to one day make it official.
I didn’t know if Eilidh read my thoughts, but whatever she saw on my face made her eyes bright and a small, sexy smile curl the corner of her mouth.
Thirty-Four
EILIDH
Iate two slices of pizza before the butterflies forced me to stop.
We chatted a little more about Callie and Lewis’s plans to create space for the new baby in the nursery because they wanted Harley and the baby to be together while they were both still young. I could imagine how excited my niece would be once the baby came. Harley would be around two and a half by the time my new niece or nephew arrived, big enough to be aware of the change but not too old it might cause rivalry. Hopefully.
All throughout our chat, I attempted to conceal my anticipation. Lewis and Callie seemed oblivious, but Fyfe had been throwing very hungry looks my way for several days and today the tension crackled between us.
Something shifted for me that night I’d lain in Fyfe’s arms after Peter’s attack. Trying to force a casual relationship on Fyfe had been born of my fear of rejection again.
But I’d known the moment he’d turned to me, overcome with emotion and guilt, that I meant a great deal to him. Maybe it wasn’t love yet, but I hoped it could turn into love. If I was just brave enough to reach out.
Tonight, I wanted to be brave again. To be the Eilidh who ran toward the things she wanted, instead of hiding from them and the world.