I shrugged, turning back to the view. “That’s what Aunt Robyn’s photo captures. Every time I look at it, I feel like I’m on the banks of a loch with no one else around. Utterly at peace because everything will turn out all right in the end.”
After a while the tourists who’d accompanied us disappeared and we were on our own. I’d grown up in the Highlands and places like this still took my breath away. We were guardians of such a beautiful planet.
Yet that peace I’d spoken about evaded me. I was hyperaware of the man and child beside me. Fyfe’s inability to say he loved me didn’t seem like one of those insignificant things I’d spoken of. Realizing I wouldn’t find my peacehere, I wanted to leave.
“I think we should head back.” I started climbing up the slight incline toward the car park.
“Eilidh Adair!” Fyfe called.
I spun around to shush him because some people might recognize my name.
He grinned, looking so handsome with his adorable baby daughter strapped to his chest that my lips clamped shut against the admonishment.
“Just thought you should know … I’m pretty much as in love with you as a person can get.”
Joy flushed through me so quickly, I should be terrified by how much this man affected my mood. “Really?”
His expression turned serious. “Now get your arse back here so I can kiss you.”
“Bossy,” I grumbled but hopped down beside them. “Say it again.”
And there it was. That look I’d witnessed earlier. Tenderness and awe and possessiveness. “I love you so fucking much, Eilidh Adair.”
I bit my lip to suppress a cheesy grin, and Fyfe reached out to pull me closer. Millie kicked me in the chest as she beamed at my sudden proximity. “You shouldn’t swear in front of Mills.”
“I’ll stop when she’s older,” he promised. “Now fucking kiss me and tell me you love me.”
My laughter was swallowed in his kiss as he maneuvered around Millie to take my mouth. It was short but beautiful and when he released me, I told him what he already knew. “I love you too.” My gaze dropped to Millie. “I love you both.”
I kissed Millie’s cheek and then reached up to kiss Fyfe again.
His voice was gruff as he announced, “Move in with us.”
“What?”
“We’re already living together. You know we’re meant to be a family, so why wait?”
I didn’t think it was possible to get any happier than when he’d told me he loved me, but there I was. So giddy, my cheeks hurt from smiling. “Okay.”
Fyfe’s return smile was so big, it made my heart swell. “Aye?”
“Aye. But I’m buying rugs and throws and cushions and putting up—” He cut me off with another kiss. Millie broke our connection by slapping us as she let out a high-pitched squeal. Laughing, we pulled apart.
“You can do what you want to the house,” Fyfe assured me. “It’s yours now too.”
The bliss was just a wee bit too much and tears blurred my vision.
Fyfe was used to the fact that I’d become a crier. Whether happy, sad, frustrated, or stressed, I was now a big old crier and I couldn’t care less. Neither could he. He just pressed a tender kiss to my forehead and laced our fingers together. “Let’s go home. Ready to go home, wee yin?” he asked Millie as we climbed up the incline.
“Dada Ae!” she squealed.
And there went my heart, bursting all over the place.
Thirty-Nine
FYFE
Iwas only twelve when Lewis first invited me to his parents’ house for a family dinner. I’d walked into the beautiful coastal home and looked past the impressive architecture, the privilege, the view … because I was overwhelmed by the energy in the room. Lewis’s aunts and uncles and cousins were like an overfilled fruit bowl. So much color and vibrancy spilling out everywhere.
