“Please,” Heather pleaded.
“Okay.” Taran gave her a wobbly smile. “I can’t resist the bakery.”
Leth Sholas Bakery & Tearoom was owned by an Australian couple—Harry and Bryan Weaver. They moved to Glenvulin around eight years ago and their business took off quite quickly because their food was fucking amazing.
Taran sat on the opposite side of the blanket from where I stood, but Heather took the spot I was planning to take, forcing me to sit next to my ex.
The tension radiated off Taran.
It was hard not to look at her. Anytime she was in my vicinity, I found myself studying her, checking for physical indicators of her mental well-being. I knew Isla’s death had hit her like a wrecking ball. Yet, with the sun shining on her face, Taran’s skin had some color, and she looked better rested. Her high cheekbones weren’t as sharp as they had been a few months ago.
“What’s romantasy?” I asked after I’d doled out the rest of the sandwiches in an attempt to break the palpable tension between me and Taran.
“They’re kissing books,” Angus piped up, shooting his sister a disgusted look. “But worse.”
Taran choked on a snort of amusement.
I quirked an eyebrow. “What does worse mean?”
Heather mirrored my expression but toward her brother. “Aye, Angus. What does worse mean?”
“I dunno.” He shrugged, mumbling around a bite of food. He swallowed. “I just heard Gary say they were kissing books but worse.” Angus referred to their stepfather.
Scowling at what that probably meant, I opened my mouth to question my daughter, but Taran cut me off. “Romantasy is fantasy and romance put together. It just means they’re fantasy books that are heavy on the romance.”
For a moment, I just stared at her.
Taran Macbeth was talking to me. Actually having a conversation with me. It took me a minute to respond. “And by romance, you mean …”
Her full lips twitched, pressing together lushly in a way that was very, very distracting. My gaze dropped to her mouth for perhaps a moment too long because Taran suddenly swallowed nervously and looked away to take a bite out of her sandwich.
I dragged my attention back to Heather.
She studied me and Taran. Then she grinned cockily. “It means the characters fall in love and have hot sex, Dad. The books have hot sex in them.”
“Aw, yuck!” Angus wrinkled his nose. “Don’t ruin this sandwich for me.”
No one was surprised Angus knew what sex referred to. When you grew up on an island where farm animals could be spotted copulating outside your window, you learned these things quickly.
At Taran’s chuckle, my son grinned.
Taran sucked in a breath suddenly and gave Angus a pained smile in return.
I wondered at that response. Wanted desperately to know what was going on in her head.
“So, Taran, do you miss Glasgow?” Heather asked, changing the subject before I could grill her more about her reading material. It was hard for me to reconcile my wee girl was technically not a wee girl anymore. “I mean, I think I’d find it really hard to come back here after living in the city.”
Those words hurt because I would have given anything for my kids to want to live and work in Leth Sholas. I wanted its simple attractions to appeal to them as much as it did to me.
I wanted my kids to want to be near me.
Just like I’d wanted Taran to want the same thing all those years ago.
Frankly, I wasn’t sure I could bear to hear her answer my daughter’s question.
4.Taran
May, Twenty-Nine Years Ago
