“I’ve never thanked you for being my dad. I couldn’t have asked for a better one, and reconnecting with Mac doesn’t change that.”
To my shock, Seth’s eyes brightened with emotion and he swallowed hard, blinking as he looked away. It took him a minute to get himself together before he looked at me again, his love clear in his eyes. “You’re my kid, blood or no.”
It was my turn to get choked up.
“What are you two whispering about?” Mom broke the moment as she strutted up the stairs, whipping off her dirty gardening gloves. “Darlin’, give me a drink of that beer, will you?”
Seth held out his beer with a small smile and watched her nearly empty the thing.
“So?” She handed him back the beer as she settled on his lap. His arm wrapped around her waist, pulling her against him. “What’s the chat?”
“Just telling Seth what an amazing dad he is,” I answered honestly.
Mom looked proud of me. “Isn’t he, though?”
“Right, you’re embarrassing me.” Seth snorted. “Subject change.”
As if on cue, we heard the faint ring of the doorbell.
“I’ll get it.” Mom popped up and hurried through the porch door into the house.
“More shoes?” I asked Seth.
Mom had a small shoe addiction.
“Who knows.”
Only a minute later, Mom stepped back out onto the porch, her eyes on me, worried. I understood why when a tall man appeared behind her. I barely heard her say, “Robbie, there’s someone here to see you.”
Knees goddamn shaking, I stood up, a sense of unreality coming over me to see Lachlan Adair standing on my childhood back porch next to my mother.
“You’re Lachlan Adair,” Seth said, and his tone broke through my dazed state.
My stepfather actually looked starstruck.
“I’ve seen all your movies.” Seth held out his hand to my ex-lover, and his words reminded me who Lachlan was to the rest of the world.
Sometimes I forgot.
To me, he was Lachlan. The man I loved (and hated a little too).
Heart pounding, I watched on as Lachlan shook Seth’s hand, amiable, telling him how nice it was to meet him.
Then all eyes were on me.
“What are you doing here?”
Lachlan stared at me in an emotionally hungry way that didn’t do anything to help the speed of my pulse. “Can we talk? Alone?”
“Seth”—my mom practically yelled my stepfather’s name—“why don’t we go to the grocery store and get what we need for dinner tonight? Are you staying, Lachlan? We’ll get extra.”
The big Scot shrugged uncomfortably. “I’m not sure.”
“We’ll get extra, anyway.”
Then my mom guided Seth into the house with such haste, my stepdad almost tripped over the kitchen doorway.
It might have been funny if I wasn’t so confused.
“What are you doing here?” I repeated.
“May I?” Lachlan gestured to the porch chair Seth had vacated.
I nodded dumbly and sat in my chair, much to the relief of my wobbly knees.
There we were, sitting next to each other, just a small table between, and the breeze blew the scent of his cologne my way. Longing pierced me. Damn, he looked good. A little tired, maybe, but it did nothing to mar his rugged handsomeness.
“You’re wearing jeans,” I said inanely.
Lachlan smirked. “Yes. Is that a problem?”
Just that you look insanely hot and I miss you so much, I feel like I’m splitting in half, and I hate that you can do that to me.
“’Course not.”
A tense silence fell between us, and my right knee bounced with nervousness.
Lachlan’s eyes dropped to it and he frowned. “Robyn—”
“What are you doing here?”
His gaze flew back to mine. “Mac told me you’d moved back in with your parents while you figure out your next move.”
“I meant here in Boston, not here at this house. Although that too.”
His eyes washed over my face, seeming to caress every minute aspect of it, and blood rushed to my cheeks. “Fuck, I’ve missed you,” he confessed hoarsely.
My stomach fluttered. Since the moment he’d stepped onto the porch, hope had risen within me. Was it possible that Lachlan Adair did love me? “You came all this way because you missed me?”
“I came all this way because I was scared that if I didn’t follow you here, you’d make up your mind to not come home.”
His words hit my chest, expelling a shocked exhalation. “Home? Is Ardnoch my home?”
He pushed up off the chair and knelt at my feet. He reached for my hand and placed my palm against his chest. I could feel his heart pounding hard beneath it. “Braveheart, I want your home to be where I am because my home is wherever you are.”
Tears filled my eyes at his beautiful words.
But he wasn’t done.
His expression turned fierce. “I am so sorry I let you walk away. That I ever allowed you to think that my love for you isn’t real.” His grip on my hand tightened, pulling me toward him. “So many people have failed you, made you feel like you aren’t a priority. I don’t want to be one of those people. Not when you are the most important person in my life. You consume me. You are beyond a priority at this point. You’re … fuck, you’re everything. Robyn, I don’t know if I deserve you … but I can promise you, no man will ever try harder than me to be worthy of you.”
My tears, tears of pure relief and joy, spilled down my cheeks as I threw myself at him, almost taking him off his knees. Lachlan grunted and regained his balance as I peppered his face with kisses. When my lips met his, his laughter filled me, and then he was kissing me back, his arms strong, tight bands of steel, not letting me go.
But I didn’t feel caged.
I felt bound by belonging.
“Does that mean you’ll come home?” he broke the kiss to demand gruffly.
I stared up at his face, a face I’d come to love more than any other and asked, “Is that where you’ll be?”
He nodded, grinning that mischievous, boyish smile I hadn’t seen in weeks.
I
