He laughed.“I’d probably deserve that, too.”
ChapterThirty-One
Aisling
For the firstweek Aisling was home, any time Tamsin was within grabbing distance, Aisling pulled her into her arms for a kiss.
Unfortunately, they couldn’t spend all of that time in bed letting Carl and Mateo take care of the kids, because Carl and Mateo had flown to Wales to spend time with Jake and Maya.Mateo would return in a week, but Carl would stay over there for the next couple of weeks.
Maya wouldn’t be traveling for a while yet.She needed to decompress, they needed to make sure her physical condition was stable, and the psychologist wanted to work with her in tandem with Callum to help her process the trauma.
But yes, she wanted to move to Florida so they could live with Carl and Mateo.They would build a house with two wings on it and the kitchen and living room in the center so they could have their privacy as well as live as a family.
Aisling still hadn’t told her family about them mating.She wasn’t sure how to approach it, and was also selfishly wanting Tamsin all to herself for a while.
Two days after Mateo’s return, on a Saturday when they didn’t have the other kids to take care of, while Maisie was napping, they were lying in bed watching TV when they looked up at a knock on their open doorframe.Mateo stood there with a rather large package in hand.
“Tamsin, were you expecting something from Trevor Clarke?”
She let out a happy squeal and bounded from the bed to take it from him.“Yes!Thank you ever so much!”Tamsin didn’t outright slam the door in his face, but she gently shooed him away so she could close the door.
And she locked it.
Aisling sat up.“Love?What’s all this then?”The rectangular box was approximately a meter long and didn’t appear to be heavy from how Tamsin carried it.
Tamsin’s eyes gleamed with playful mischief as she walked over and sat on the bed, facing Aisling.“It’s for you.”She set it in Aisling’s lap.
Aisling was surprised by how light it felt for its size.She retrieved the pocketknife from her back pocket and carefully slit the tape to open it while Tamsin eagerly watched, practically vibrating with excitement.When Aisling dug through the packing peanuts and discovered what was inside, her heart nearly seized.
She looked at Tamsin, who sat there wide-eyed and happily nodding as Aisling carefully removed the familiar, battered black fiddle case from the box.There wasn’t anything else in the box besides the packing peanuts, so she set that on the floor, her pulse now racing as she unfastened the latches and opened the case.
The instrument itself was even more battered than she remembered, but it looked like it’d been recently polished and serviced.New pegs, new strings, a new chin rest, a new bridge, a new tail piece with fine tuners, where before it didn’t have those, and several additional packs of high-quality strings, as well as two fresh cakes of quality rosin.The two bows were also new, one carbon fiber and one wood, with real horsehair on both.
Aisling’s vision blurred from the tears bubbling up as she carefully unfastened the leather strap holding the instrument in place and removed it.
“I called Trevor and asked him if he could find it,” Tamsin said, her smile fading.“He talked to your brothers first, and they couldn’t remember what happened to it.Then he spoke to your mum, and she said it’d been up in the attic for decades.She caught some of the grandkids playing with it once and they nearly broke it so she tucked it away for safekeeping.Trevor flew one of his men over to retrieve it.He delivered it to the best luthier in the UK.It didn’t have any bows in the case, and there was some damage, and?—”
Aisling leaned over, cupped the back of her neck, and slanted her lips over Tamsin’s in a long, crushing kiss she never wanted to end.
Finally, Aisling sat back, blinking away tears.“Thank you, pet,” she hoarsely whispered.“This is amazing.Truly.”
Tamsin fished her phone out of her back pocket and swiped into an app, showing Aisling.“I looked this up.It’s specifically for tuning violins.”
Aisling smiled and used it to tune the instrument, although she was surprised to find her ear still served her well.Then she took out the wooden bow, tightened it, and after rasping one of the rosin bricks, she started prepping the bow.
Tamsin sat and watched her the whole time with that playfully pleased smile Aisling loved, as if this were the most fascinating event in the world to her.
As ifshewere fascinating to Tamsin.
No one had ever looked at her like that before.
Finally, after checking the tuning again, Aisling fitted the fiddle in place and then looked at Tamsin.“It’s been quite a while, love,” she warned.“This might not sound pretty.Maybe ye should have thought of buyin’ earplugs.”
Tamsin’s smile widened.“I don’t care.It’s worth it to see how happy you look right now.”
Happy?
Aisling couldn’t remember the last time she’d used that word to describe herself.Certainly, never since she was an adult.
