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Mia
Our return to the McRae estate wrapped me in a sense of safety that I’d rapidly begun to associate with Valentine. After neatly evading Greg, he’d got us back on the road, speeding us north again. Though he’d thrown glances regularly backwards, I felt only certainty that he’d done what he’d promised. Brought us home.
Maybe it was tiredness, but that did dangerous things to this woman’s heart.
Valentine slowed the car, cruising past the gateposts to the estate. His gaze found mine in the rearview. “What time do ye need to start work?”
I checked my phone. “Half an hour. I only have bookings until lunchtime, though.”
He indicated with his head to my sleeping daughter. “I’ll call Cameron now and see if he can take Tobi for breakfast.”
I wanted to protest, but I’d learned by now to hold my tongue and take the help.
Valentine made the call, idling his car on the far side of the bridge that spanned the river leading to the loch. The water spread out to our right, icy at the edges and calm in the centre, the shape of the towering mountain reflected back. Picture-perfect places I hadn’t explored yet, but that were becoming so familiar.
“Grand. We’ll be there in a few.” He hung up the phone and twisted to speak to me. “Cameron said bring her on by. Avery’s excited to meet her new friend. They’ll take her until you’re done with work.”
“Thank you,” I said, a wave of emotion threatening me again. “For everything. Without you, Greg would have found me, either at Molly’s house or he would’ve been able to follow me here. Because of you, we’re safe.”
His gaze held mine, a new expression in it. I knew amused, wry Valentine, sweated over him when he turned on the charm, and sat back and admired his all-action state. This was different. Tender, maybe. He opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out. Instead, the big man reached back to take my hand. His warm fingers enclosed mine for a brief but meaningful second before he turned back to the wheel, shaking his head like he had to dislodge a thought.
On the cool, misty morning, I was reading far too much into that gesture. A dangerous amount I knew was absolute fantasy on my part.
Yet it clamped on to my other emotions and held tight.
Driving on, he took us on a road to the right and up a hill, the opposite direction to the aircraft hangar. I carefully woke my daughter, her smile of happiness when she realised it was me and not Molly, warming my heart.
“This morning, you’re going to meet a new friend who you’ll be going to school with on Monday, and I’ve got work for a fewhours. Then this afternoon, I’ll show you where we’re sleeping tonight.”
Tobi yawned, her cheeks flushed. “Together?”
“Just you and me.”
I yawned, too, and she grinned even bigger. I was the luckiest mama around for my sweet-tempered child. She had every right to be grouchy with me for staying away, having her sleep in a new bed, and now leaving her with strangers, but her bright eyes took in the surroundings with interest.
“Valentine’s still driving us,” she noted.
“That I am, little lass.”
“Did you drive all night? Aren’t you sleepy?”
He gave her a quick smile. “I don’t need much sleep.”
“I can make you tired.” Tobi’s eyes turned devilish.
“Oh no,” I told her. “No tricks.”
Valentine peered back at the same moment Tobi thrust forward her hand and formed her fingers into a beak, opening it in staggered stages like a bird yawning. She’d learned it from another child in preschool and did it to me regularly to make me yawn.
On cue, Valentine’s mouth opened.
“See, you are tired,” she chirped. “Maybe you can nap with my mom later.”
He burst out with a laugh that he disguised as a cough, and I distracted her with a promise she could pick something from the pub’s menu for dinner tonight.
We arrived at a long, brick building Valentine named as the crofthouse, and which had clearly been renovated to a high spec. Valentine hopped out and opened my door, and I unfastened Tobi from her car seat. A woman with a girl stood in the house’s entrance.
At our approach, the woman smiled, and her daughter hopped up and down on the spot.
