“I’ll make it up to you,” I whispered.
He frowned as he kept his eyes on the road. “Make what up to me?”
“Everything.”
A heaviness fell between us, and I didn’t know how to dispel it, so I asked, “Has anyone else seen the writing in the tattoo?”
Lewis drove onto Castle Street, heading toward the cottage. He grimaced. “Roisin saw it.”
His ex. “Oh dear. How did you explain it?”
“Well, she was already pissed about the woman’s face, and I lied to her and said it was from the artist’s imagination, so I let her assume Callie Forever meant Caledonia Forever.”
I snorted. “Caleyfor Caledonia is spelled differently.”
“Did I mention Roisin wasn’t Scottish?” He grinned sheepishly ashe parked outside the cottage. As soon as he turned off the engine, Lewis shifted to face me. “She found photos of you on my laptop and recognized you on my tattoo. It was the argument that led to the end.”
I couldn’t feel bad that Lewis was with me and not with her, but I did feel bad for her. The truth was I’d been jealous of any woman who had slept with him until I realized he still loved me. Now I didn’t begrudge him his relationship with Roisin and the fact that he had sex with her. It would be hypocritical. And if my boyfriend had a tattoo of another woman on his arm and lied about it, that might mess with my head. “Poor Roisin.”
Guilt flickered over Lewis’s face. “Aye. I should have told her the truth, but I didn’t want to hurt her. I ended up hurting her even worse, and though I did try to make it work, I think she knew then that you were the reason I couldn’t tell her I loved her. And she was sick of waiting. I don’t blame her.” He considered. “You know, this is the first night since that night we’ve really talked about the time we were apart.”
“I know. I think we have to find our way naturally with that stuff and not push it.” My eyes drifted by him to my cottage. “I—” I halted, leaning past him as something caught my attention. “Is … is my front door open?”
Lewis’s head whipped around as he stared at the door. Then he let out a muttered curse. “Stay in the car.” He demanded as he unclipped his seat belt and got out.
“Lewis!” No effing way was I staying in the car.
Lewis whirled around as he heard my door open and close. “Callie.”
I gave him a look, and he gritted his teeth and waved me back. He approached the front door and then we both startled when a voice called out, “The police are on their way!”
We whirled to see one of the villagers who lived above the outdoor clothing shop across the street, hanging out his window.
“Mr. Smith?”
His expression was grim. “I was drifting off to sleep when I thought I heard something. Looked out and saw two men leaving the cottage and getting into a black car. There was something off about it, so I called the police, worried about you.”
My heart thundered in my chest. “Thanks, Mr. Smith.”
A shared look with Lewis saw my worry reflected in his eyes. “We’ll wait for the police.”
My cottage was trashed.
Years ago, when I lived here with Mum, Nathan had broken in and destroyed the place.
I felt ten years old again.
Because my immediate thought was, somehow this was retaliation from Nathan.
Lewis and I waited for the police to arrive before we stepped inside with them. My books and ornaments had been knocked off shelves, my sofa cushions laid littered on the floor, anything that had a place was thrown about, some of it destroyed, some of it okay. The only thing that had survived was my TV.
The police asked me to tell them if anything was missing. Lewis walked around the cottage with me. Whoever had broken in upended my bedroom too. All my clothes were pulled from the closet, the drawers emptied of everything. My bed was stripped.
It looked like they were looking for something and the police officers said as much too.
In the end, the only things missing were my laptop and iPad.
Halfway through my statement, my parents and Lewis’s parents showed up. Clearly, they’d been alerted by a nosy neighbor to the disturbance because we hadn’t gotten around to calling anyone.
