“Thanks.” I hung up and wiped my face before I lowered to Akiva to hide in her fur. I hugged her and the sweet dog leaned into me like she could sense my emotions. “Hey, beautiful girl.” Pulling back, I sniffled and then laughed when she tried to take her usual swipe at my face with her pink tongue.
“Silver.”
Sighing, I reluctantly stood to face Ramsay. Akiva settled at my side, pressing her warm, furry body into my legs. Resting my palm on her head in gratitude, I faced her owner whose gaze darted between me and his dog.
“Well? Why are you crying in the middle of the street?” he demanded, as ifmytears had puthimin an awkward position.
“None of your damn business.”
Ramsay scowled. “Akiva.”
The dog seemed reluctant to return to him.
“Don’t make her pick sides.”
“She’s my dog. There are no sides but one. Mine.”
“Territorial, aren’t we?”
“When something is mine … aye.” He answered in a tone that almost bordered on teenage girlduh.
“I have to get to the B and B.” I moved past him, stopping to stroke Akiva’s head in goodbye, before hurrying down Main Street.
Problem was, Ramsay had a good eight or nine inches of length on me and easily caught up. Akiva happily followed along. “I’m heading that way too or did you forget I’m one of your contractors?”
“I haven’t seen you around so yeah, actually, I did forget.”
It was true. Not the forgetting part but the not seeing him around part. Ramsay had successfully avoided me for most of the past six weeks. We’d seen each other across the church at Isla’s funeral, which I’d attended out of respect and to be a comfort to Cammie and Quinn. Ramsay stood at the back, unmoving, face blank. I’d caught glances of him here and there, but I’d also taken myself off to the mainland a lot these past few weeks. Cammie and I had gone on interior decorating trips that sometimes had us staying overnight. We spent an entire weekend in Edinburgh, which was nostalgic and a much-needed escape for the two of us.
Ramsay didn’t respond to my cheeky reply. Instead, as we turned the corner past Macbeth’s Pages & Perks, taking the back road that led up the winding hill toward the B and B, he asked again, “Why were you crying?” This time his tone was softer, curiouser. Less demanding.
For some reason, that was even worse. “It’s been an emotional few weeks. I’m kind of on edge, I guess.”
“Because of your parents?”
I shrugged.
“So … everything’s all right?”
“I’m fine,” I lied.
And he knew it too.
A muscle clenched in his jaw but he didn’t push me any further on it. We stood to the side to let a couple of cars pass and then turned up onto the private road that led to my B and B in her elevated spot. My phone suddenly rang again and I yanked it out of my back pocket, thinking it might be Perri.
It wasn’t.
It was Hugh. I’d blocked his last number and then he started calling me on another.
Asshole.
With a frustrated growl, I blocked him again.
“Who is Hugh?”
I glowered up at Ramsay. “No one that matters.”
“Is he harassing you?”
