All those mornings I’d found her sleeping on the couch after she and Nick watched movies into the night. With my baker’s hours, I always went to bed early. I never thought twice about leaving the two of them alone. She’d been the third party in our marriage for years. A sister to me. I couldn’t guess when I’d become the odd man out.
I watched Nick watching the crowd. He wasn’t eager to let the locals know that he was the husband who’d let me come alone. The husband who now stayed in another hotel, with another woman, instead of gluing himself to my side and counting his blessings because God had given me back to him.
But it was Cian who’d given me back—not to Nick, but to myself.
“Matty,” Tara began, nice and emotional. I ignored her and looked at her boyfriend instead.
“Hey, Matt.” He fidgeted with his hands and finally stuck them into his tight pockets.
“Nick.”
“We were so worried?—”
“You didn’t have to worry long, though, did you? It was only two days ago. You must have hopped on the first plane.”
He frowned like I’d insulted him. “Yeah, actually, we did.”
“Too bad you wasted all that money. I’m just fine.”
“I noticed that. Doesn’t look like your little adventure was too hard on you.”
I smiled. “Hard on me? Maybe for a couple of hours.” I finally looked at Tara. “Hey.”
“Hey.” She tried to communicate with her eyes, but I wasn’t in the mood to read her mind.
“I hope you didn’t just hand him your money. You were smart enough to have him sign a contract, right? Or would that have insulted him, since you were already sleeping together? You think there’s a chance that he was just after your savings?” I shook my head and laughed. “Sorry. I shouldn’t think out loud. That was rude.” I lifted my eyebrows and tried to look innocent. “I guess I’m supposed to congratulate you both now. How wonderful that you’ve found your soul mates.”
Tara’s eyes narrowed. “You never suspected a thing.”
“Nope.”
“Tara.” Nick tried to shut her up by just saying her name. It’s what he’d done to me a thousand times. “None of this is helpful.” He directed that at me. “We just wanted to let you know that we’re relieved nothing happened to you.”
“Oh, I didn’t say nothing happened to me.” I could almost feel Cian standing at my shoulder, waiting for permission to drag my ex-husband outside to knock him around. From then on, he’d just be a ghost to me. And I chuckled at the irony.
I remembered the heels I was wearing just for Nick and got to my feet. He took an unconscious step back so his shorter stature wasn’t so obvious. But I took a step too, grabbed his shoulders, and pulled him close for a nice long hug and spoke loudly.
“Thank you so much for coming. I’ll have papers drawn up as soon as I’m home. Nice, simple ones that will settle things quickly. You two can be married as soon as you like.”
I released him and grabbed Tara in the same way, held her tighter than necessary, then spoke low enough that Nick couldn’t hear.
“I owe you sooo much for taking him out of my life. And especially for sending me here. Otherwise, I would have never met…” I pulled away and shook my head. “Nevermind. I realize now how badly you wanted everything I had. And now you have it. All of it. I hope you’re content for a long, long time. But I guess we’ll see, huh?”
Nick tried to drag Tara away, but she yanked her hand out of his. She couldn’t look away from me, still waiting for me to finish that sentence, to see what else I had that she might like.
How had I been so blind to the real her?
“Who did you meet, Matty?”
I laughed. “I was just teasing.”
Those eyes narrowed again. “There’s nothing wrong with me wanting to be happy too.”
“You’re right. There isn’t.”
I noticed the crowd had slyly shifted closer without my notice. The noise had died to a low buzz, and the music had stopped. About fifty sets of ears were straining my way. But I refused to hold back.
“That’s why you and I are so much alike, Tara. We both know exactly what will make us happy. For you, that’s my husband, my restaurant, and my house. But after coming to Scotland, this literally magic place, I can honestly say that Nick—cute little manipulative Nick—could never do it for me anymore.”
