Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 120838 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 604(@200wpm)___ 483(@250wpm)___ 403(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 120838 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 604(@200wpm)___ 483(@250wpm)___ 403(@300wpm)
“You’re going to be a patron to charities?”
Even if Dair was still troubled by what he’d learned about Blake the evening before, and he hadn’t had a chance to talk to her about it, he hadn’t meant to sound that disbelieving.
And his tone earned him a sharp, wounded look.
“Is it so unbelievable?” she asked.
He moved swiftly to cover.
“Ye need to be in the UK to do them any good, hen.”
Mercifully, that settled her.
So much so, she twisted, wrapped both her arms around his and leaned into him, tipping her head way back.
This was his Blake, with that impish light in her eyes.
Impish, mingled with love.
As much as he liked that look, Dair adjusted himself restlessly in his seat without losing her hold, because, fuck him, he was questioning it.
“Do I need to make it official?” she asked quietly.
Setting aside his contradictory thoughts, and settling in with this Blake, his Blake, he felt his lips curve up. “Dinnae reckon ye do.”
The impish light switched to a soft, loving one.
Aye.
He was with his Blake.
“I thought we’d head back up to Edinburgh soon,” she suggested. “Get Sorcha out of doggie prison.”
He laughed. “She isn’t in doggie prison. She’s with Auntie Davi now. She loves her Auntie Davi.”
“I bet she loves her daddy better.”
She’d win that bet.
“So, we’ll get my family to Heathrow on Sunday,” Blake planned. “You can go home for Sorcha. I’ll stay here for a while. It will save you from the mess I’ll be making while I go through Mum’s stuff at the London house. Also, I’ve got to go over things with Sarah, the housekeeper there. I’ll head back to Treverton. Do the going over things with Christine. Pack up and grab a train to Edinburgh.”
“How long do ye think all that will take you?”
She shrugged. “I can aim to be with you on the weekend, but I’ll have to head down again. Alex is going to come back out, and soon, before she gets too far along in the pregnancy. We have to make decisions about Mum’s things. We’re going to auction a lot of it, and I should know who I’m going to be a patron for before we do. We can auction it off for one or several of the charities I select.”
“You’re going to give that money away to charity?”
Again, he sounded more skeptical than he intended to, but this time, her eyes narrowed, she let him go and sat back in her seat.
“I hardly need the money, Dair. Norton is loaded, and I am too,” she said haughtily.
“I didnae mean it like that, lass.”
“How did you mean it?”
How did he mean it?
Why was he even surprised by it?
She’d given him no indication she was not who she seemed to be, when, looking back at it, if he hadn’t been so blinded by all he was feeling for Signe, she did. And those close to him saw right through her, whereas those close to him loved the idea of him being with Blake.
He was still surprised by it.
And questioning them.
He couldn’t get into what Rix told him right now and how it was fucking up his head. Alex and Rix were sitting across the aisle from them and Ned was at a table section behind them, working on his laptop. They’d overhear.
“It’s just a lot of work for ye,” he hedged.
“What else am I going to do?” she asked. “I don’t have a job. I have plenty of time to do just about anything. Alex doesn’t even have to come out, except I don’t want to accidentally give away something she might want. Dad’s already been through Mum’s things. There was nothing he’d want, they’ve been over for decades, but he checked anyway, and he didn’t find anything. He’s good. But Alex is different. However, by the time she comes out, I want it organized for her so she doesn’t have to sift through a lot of stuff. And, Dair, Mum had a lot of stuff. But Alex has a job that matters. She can’t be spending weeks sorting through Chanel she’s not interested in in the slightest.”
“So you’ll head up to Edinburgh but have to go back down to Treverton to finish seeing to that?”
“Will that be a problem?”
It wouldn’t.
They’d known each other their whole lives, but what they had now started fast, and it continued even faster. It had barely been a month before they became an us.
A break, or several, would be good.
Time to take a breath. Time to assess. Time to see if it was just history, dramatic events and great fucking instead of what it seemed to be, the rest of their lives.
Maybe Blake was right.
Maybe how easy this had been should freak him.
Maybe they both needed time apart to understand what it really meant to them that they were together.