“Aye. He is.”
“For how long?”
“I’ve just about got him convinced to stay the year. Though if Aileen has anything to say about it, I’m sure she’ll push for longer.”
The year?
I swallow thickly. There will be no avoiding him for a year, and there definitely won’t be anyhidinganything either… It won’t be possible.
“You knew this,” I question, “when you asked me to move up here early?”
“Aye.”
Of course he did. Meddlesome old man.
“But… why didn’t you tell me?” My voice rises to an uncomfortably high octave.
“Would you have come if I did?” he asks gently. Too gently.
I send him a glare because, no, I probably wouldn’t have. I would have chickened out, no matter how much I want this job. Because even though we talked about the possibility of Jamie someday,maybe, coming back to Scotland for a visit, it never occurred to me that it would happen so soon. That I would have to confront the mess of it all the moment I walked in the door.
“I want you here, Avonlea.” Angus’s voice is as tender as his hand wrapping around mine. “I want Lennox here. I told you as much when I offered you this job. But I want Jamie here too. I want my family with me…” The words he leaves unspoken contain multitudes.
When I meet his grey eyes, I find a look that mimics the one from last year when I brought Lennox into this very inn for lunch… The one that told me heknew. It was a few weeks later, when he called and offered me a job, that I told him everything. Aside from my parents, he and Aileen are the only ones who know the truth, and they promised me they would respect my wishes. And as far as I know, they have. But now…
“I know the position this puts you in, Avonlea.” He raises an eyebrow at me, and I press my lips into a firm line. “I just hope you’ll stay. I need you here. And we will follow your lead where Jamie is concerned, but—”
Before he can finish, the back door bangs open and a group of men walk in, tousled hair wet from the rain that started just after I arrived.
“Ah, perfect timing.” Angus stands again and pulls me over to the large kitchen island, my hand still in his. “Let me introduce you to your staff.”
Mystaff. This ismyrestaurant. That’s what I was promised in return for this move. The T&T Pub is mine. I’m officially a head chef. Of my very own restaurant. It’s what I’ve always wanted, what I’ve dreamt of since I was a little girl watching my parents run the Gables, watching Angus here, in this kitchen.
“Been a long time, lass,” Hamish says. I almost can’t believe he’s still here after all this time. He’s been Angus’s sous chef for as long as I can remember.
As my brain attempts to focus on committing the names and faces of the other men around me to memory, my heart feels miles away from this kitchen.
It’s pulling me toward the front desk and the man who was once a boy I loved with my whole heart. It’s also tugging me toward thecity, where another boy, who now owns that heart, is going through his day—without a thought for the fact that his father is closer than he’s been his entire life.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Jamie – Now
Why would she agree to this?
That question runs rampant in my mind—while I check guests in, while I make small talk with old Mrs. Baird and her pompous son when they come in for an early dinner, while I continue to ignore calls and texts from my agent back home. Brent’s a problem for another day.
Because today’s problem arrived in the form of a woman I never thought I’d see again. God, she’s even more beautiful now than when we were teenagers—back when I thought she was “hot,” because using words likebeautiful,gorgeous, andfucking sexynever crossed my mind as a seventeen-year-old kid. But they’re crossing my mind now and, god dammit, I can’t deny that she’s all of those things.
But why is she here?
A pointless question, because I know the answer. It’s the same reason I’m here. Because Grandad asked her to be. And because he offered her the restaurant.
I still remember how she’d watch him in the kitchen, a hunger for knowledge in her eyes. She didn’t fall far from the tree in that respect—as far as I know, her parents still own the Green Gables Pub in Glasgow. This is what she always said she wanted.
So why didn’t she just stay to take over for her mum when she eventually retires? The Gables isherfamily business, why does she want mine?
Not that it’smine; I don’t have a stake in the inn… but it’s the principle of the matter. This family is mine, even if I abandoned it once. I’m here now, shouldn’t that be enough?
