“It sounds like Mum and Dad are already spoiling him rotten. Only grandparents can get away with ice cream before dinner.”
Everyone chuckles. Except me. I shake my head in confusion.
“Lennox is…?” I ask the table at large.
Avi’s throat bobs on a swallow, color slowly leeching from her face as her wide eyes bounce between my grandparents and then to me. “My… He’s my son.”
I obviously knew she had a child, but hearing her say it—my son—only reignites the hurt I rarely let myself tap into anymore.
Letting my curiosity get the better of me, even when I should leave well enough alone, my next words rush out before I can fullyform them. “Ah, and he’s staying with your parents? Why not with your husband?” I drop my gaze to her left hand… herbareleft hand. No ring.
My head snaps up. The familiarity of her deep brown eyes, with their flecks of gold mixed in, hasmeswallowing hard this time.
“I’m not married. It’s just me and Lennox,” she says, her voice a little shaky, and there’s confusion across her brow and in her eyes, like she can’t imagine why I’d ask such a thing. Even Gran and Grandad appear confused. But none of them know I’ve seen her with Lennox’s father before, so maybe the question does seem overly invasive.
She doesn’t clarify further. Of course she wouldn’t. She’s not about to spill her entire relationship history at the dinner table with her new employers and her ex–best friend, or whatever it is we ended off as. I didn’t imagine it though—her with that guy in the pub. But I can’t exactly ask her where he is now, can I? It’s not my business, and I don’t care.
I don’t.
“Oh,” I say.
Really, Jamie? That’s the best you can muster?
“Well, I for one am excited to see him again,” Grandad says, breaking the tension. “And your parents too. It’s been too long,”
“You’ve met him? When?” I ask, my tone sharp with surprise. Will the hits of today ever end? Maybe I just need to go up to bed and this whole nightmare of a day will turn out to be just that. A nightmare.
“Last year, when Avonlea came up to settle her grandparents’ estate. She and Lennox stopped in for lunch. He’s a good lad.” Grandad’s eyes sparkle with mischief in a way only his can.
“Thank you,” Avi says. “I think so too.”
I want to ask more about him, but it will only take me back to that last summer—the summer I came back to Skye for her, and she wasn’t here.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Avonlea – Now
Iclimb the ladder to the roof—a place I haven’t been in years but could navigate with my eyes closed. A place that might be able to hold all the feelings I’m having about being back in Cluaran… with Jamie.
Who’s Lennox?he’d asked, and I’d nearly choked. To hear Lennox’s name on Jamie’s lips was a shock I wasn’t prepared for, and I’m not sure I covered it well.
This whole situation is a mess.
I need to think, to breathe, and I can’t do that inside the inn.
It’s dark now, but the light of the full moon makes it so I can somewhat see as I clamber up the last rung. Only I’m brought up short by a figure already sitting against the chimney.
“You shouldn’t be up here,” Jamie says, his icy tone freezing mein my tracks.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know you were up here. I’ll just—”
“Why are you here?” he asks, and there’s so little of the boy I remember in his voice. His accent has dulled from years spent in the States, and the harshness of it affects me more than it probably should.
“I needed some air.” I shrug, though I’m not sure he can see it. “Thought maybe I’d find it up here… maybe some perspective too.”
He snorts a derisive laugh. “Well, I haven’t found any, so I doubt you will either. And that’s not what I meant. What are you doinghere, Avonlea? In Cluaran.”
It cuts to the quick that I’m “Avonlea” to him now. I guess the days of me beinghis Aviare well and truly behind us. Of course they are. They have to be. We aren’t the same people we were back then.
