“Let’s go have some cake.” Joss clapped her hands and then shooed us out the door. “Momma needs some chocolate and a big ol’ glass of wine.”
We strode together back into the kitchen and as soon as we appeared, Beth’s outgoing cousin January yelled across the din of conversation to us. “Why haven’t you two gone Instagram official?”
“Jan,” Beth huffed. “You don’t just ask people that.”
“Why not?” January, an eighteen-year-old stunner who had less of a filter than Baird, crossed her arms over her chest. “You’ve been in the tabloids. Callan has two hundred thousand followers, and a lot of the comments are people drooling over your man, Beth. You should claim him.”
Lily shook her head with a groan. “You read too many MC romance books.”
Beth burst out laughing but turned to me, humor lighting her eyes as she asked, “Why aren’t we Instagram official?”
“I’m letting you lead the way. We can post our relationship on socials if you want. I’m quite happy to let the world know you’re mine.”
“Awww,” January and Baird cooed in unison. She shot my mate a far-too-interested look after that. Baird pretended not to notice. He might be a massive flirt, but girls under twenty-one were a no-go for him. He reckoned they didn’t understand the game of casual sex and didn’t want to hurt someone unintentionally.
Beth tugged on my hand. “Really?”
“Really.”
“I’m ready when you are.” She leaned up to press a kiss to my jaw.
I thought of everything Joss had said to me in the study. She was right. There was no one in this world I wished to hurt less than Beth. If I hurt her, it would probably hurt me worse. It was time to stop the fear from messing us about and just be with her. Make the decision to justbewith her. The thought of the alternative made me feel so fucking empty, it was agony, so what was the point in pushing her away? Self-sabotage? Aye, I wasn’t into that.
“Let’s do it.”
CHAPTER FIFTY
BETH
Iain Erstwhile had delegated the marketing head at Pennington’s Edinburgh to work with me. I didn’t take it personally. Now that romance was off the table, it made sense for him to set me up to coordinate with the Edinburgh store team. I was just ecstatic to have them as a client. And Callan was relieved to hear I wouldn’t be spending time with Iain directly. He still wasn’t quite over the sting of seeing me climb into the back of that limo. I got that. It had been an emotional night for both of us.
I left the offices above the department store, feeling good about our strategy discussions and was in the middle of emailing my team to update them when a notification dropped on the screen. Stopping in the middle of the store, I tapped it and my belly flipped.
Callan had tagged me in a photo on social media.
The photo was from a few weeks ago when we’d taken a Saturday walk up Calton Hill. We had the view as our background and I was in Callan’s arms, laughing at the camera because he’d said something filthy. But it was the way Callan was looking down at me that made the photo so special. He lookedat me like he adored me. His caption read:Worth the wait, but I knew you would be. <3
Tears of happiness filled my eyes. He was right. I think my young heart knew Callan was the one back when we were teens. And he was so worth the freaking wait.
My thumbs flew over my screen as I commented:Yours then, yours now, yours always. <3
I stared at the photo a little longer, giddiness, relief, a wee bit of smugness for having finally found “the one” keeping me there, completely unaware of anything else around me.
Then I saw Callan had commented immediately with the blowing-kiss emoji. I was about to send one back when my phone rang.
Callan.
I grinned, finally lifting my head up to take in my surroundings as I answered. Thankfully, no one was paying a bit of attention to my goofiness. “Hullo, Captain.”
“Guess we’re Instagram official,” Callan said dryly.
“You made me cry.”
“In a good way, though?” His voice was gruff.
“In the best way.”
He was quiet a moment. Then, “What you said … you really mean that?”
