Allegra offered a sympathetic smile, amazing me with how well she was taking this. “I’m sorry. I just … I need to joke about it or I might crumple up into a ball.”
My hands tightened on her arms.
“I’ll be okay.We’llbe okay,” she reassured me. “This is good. We know now for sure what happened, and we know the people responsible can never hurt me again.”
I blew out a shaky breath. “I know … I just … nothing can happen to you, Allegra. It would fucking end me.”
She caressed my cheek, her fingers scratching over my short beard. “I’m not going anywhere. I’m your wife for life, Jared McCulloch. Not just for eighteen months.”
At her teasing, I swung her up into my arms, making her squeal with laughter. The sound warmed me to my very bones. It pleased me beyond measure that I could make her happy after something as fucked up as the NCA visit.
“What are you doing?” she cried, giggling as I carried her upstairs.
“Being a very, very bad farmer.” I pushed into the bedroom. “I have a tractor sitting in the middle of a field waiting for me … but first I need to?—”
“Plough your wife!” Allegra cut me off, shaking in my arms with amusement at her own joke.
I gave a bark of laughter as I fell onto the bed with her, careful to keep my weight from crushing her. She spread her legs for me, wrapping them around my back as I grinned down at her. “How long have you been waiting to say that?”
“I’ve been waiting for months to use that line!”
We kissed through our laughter until need overtook everything.
Months ago, the thought of abandoning duties on the farm, even temporarily, filled me with a fear of failure. Now, as important as this place was to me, I knew taking time for my wife when she needed me wasn’t going to cause a disaster for the farm.
I could be both.
I could be what the land needed me to be.
And I could be what Allegra needed me to be.
I also knew if it came down to a choice, I would choose the woman in my arms a million fucking times over. And I knew my granddad would understand. Once upon a time, he’d loved a woman as much as I loved mine.
ALLEGRA
“Jared, we have a gazillion decisions to make,” I grumbled as I followed him through the woods. “We don’t have time for this.”
My husband reached back for me, and I held his hand as we descended. It was a little slippery and muddy from last night’s rain. Now, however, the sunshine beamed through the trees.
“This might be the last time the loch looks this good this year. Autumn is almost here.”
I frowned. “And it’ll look beautiful in autumn too. We could look at it then when we’ve decided on kitchen cabinets and countertops and flooring and furniture and a million other things we need to decide if we want these pods up and running by New Year’s Eve.”
“Will you just hush, woman, and follow me?”
I made a sound of indignation. “Hush? I’ll hush you, Jared McCulloch. Hushing me …” I muttered under my breath.
Jared’s shoulders shook with laughter, but he didn’t stop dragging me down toward the inland loch behind Caledonia Sky.
Then, as we reached the flat, I glanced up and saw the building poised over the loch that hadn’t been there the last time I was here.
“What the—ah!” I tripped over a rock, but Jared turned at my cry, catching me before I face-planted. “Shit. Thanks.” He helped me straighten, searching my face, a gleam of mischief in his eyes. “What is that?” I pointed past him.
Jared grinned and stepped away to let me have a good look.
A modern, small building similar to the pods (except rectangular, not arched), sat on a new deck that had been built out onto the loch. Two walls of the building that met at a corner were made entirely of glass facing out over the water.
“You built another rental? Why didn’t you tell me?” I smacked his arm with a playful huff.
