He scratched his chin. ‘I’ll work on my mind reading skills.’
‘You’d better.’ Her razor-sharp attention returned to Rae. ‘Could I be really cheeky and ask you something?’
‘Ask away.’ Rae shuffled closer to Struan with a laugh.
‘Would you ever consider catering a wedding?’ Harper pointed at her Leaning Tower of Wedding Plans. ‘I’m sure you’re super busy with the farm—’ Another almighty gasp. ‘Thefarm!’
‘Harper,’ Struan interjected, ‘I think you’re overwhelming the poor lass. Could you stop talking like a senile wizard?’
‘Sorry. I’m just very excited and very stressed.’ Harper put her hands on her hips and blew out a breath. ‘I started planning the wedding a bit too late, but I know my mother-in-law, Myra, works in the farm shop, and she’s always saying how beautiful it is, and how you’ve been working on reviving it. Would you maybe perhaps mayhap consider hosting a cosy little celebration before I grow planet-sized?’
‘Planet-sized?’ repeated Rae.
Harper patted her stomach, which hadn’t yet swollen to reveal her pregnancy. ‘I’m also slightly pregnant. We want to be married by the time the little peanut comes along, and I already have the perfect dress…’ Her eyes sparkled with warmth. Struan couldn’t imagine how nice it must feel to know a love like that. To be surrounded by family the way the Milligans were.
‘“We” meaning the two of you?’ Rae motioned between Eiley and Harper, earning a shared guffaw.
‘No. Although, you know, if I hadn’t met Fraser first, who knows?’ Harper teased.
‘She’s marrying my brother,’ Eiley explained, embarrassment creeping up her neck.
‘Oh!’
‘So? Would you pretty please with cherries on top consider it?’ Harper clasped her hands together with bated breath.
Struan braced himself for thenothat was sure to come; there was absolutely no way Rae could manage an entire wedding without help, and as far as he knew, Doug and Audrey had never hosted an event on that scale with the exception of the Strawberry Fair.
But Rae slipped her sunglasses off her head and said, ‘Well, it depends. What date did you have in mind?’
Harper’s squeal ricocheted through the bookstore, causing both Eiley and Struan to plug their ears.
Oh, dear. Rae would surely need all the help she could get.
An hour later, a visit to the farm had been planned for tomorrow, and Harper had dashed out of the bookstore to tell Fraser the good news. Dot had snuck out at some point between talks of colour palette – warm jewel tones – and floral arrangements – sunflowers and roses – leaving just Struan and Rae sitting side by side on the couch. Admittedly, Struan could have left at any moment, but he hadn’t. Mostly because Rae’s round eyes as Harper had talked had said,Please, don’t go, but also because he knew Rae felt already overwhelmed, even if she wouldn’t admit it. He couldn’t just leave her to do this alone.
And also, perhaps he didn’t want to pass up the opportunity to be around her.
While Eiley helped a customer at the counter, Rae slid to the armchair opposite, the movement sending the Strawberry Fair fliers scattering across the coffee table. She neatened them back into a pile with painstaking precision before smoothing her wispy baby hairs and braving eye contact.
He felt like splinters were burrowing under his skin, and leaned forward with his elbows on his thighs just to torture himself a little bit more with their almost, not enough, proximity.
‘You look like you could use a coffee.’ He tipped his head in the direction of Bel’s Beans, the café across the street. The usually calm strip of storefronts bustled with more and more colourfully dressed tourists as the afternoon wore on, likely walkers who had spent the day enjoying the surrounding forest and loch and now hoped to fill their stomachs. People lined up for smoothies and iced lattes outside Bel’s, examining the chalkboard menus while Captain Angus surveyed them from the bench, pipe dangling from his mouth. Not ideal, but he wouldn’t have minded the wait. Pathetically, he’d be glad for it.
The lines around her mouth deepened. ‘I think that would be breaking our rule.’
‘We wouldn’t technically be alone,’ he pointed out. ‘There’d be a whole town of buffers. Besides, I think I could control myself. Unless, of course, you’re worried about your own fragile self-restraint, Little Rae.’
She dug the heel of her white trainers into his shin, earning a chuckle from him – and some satisfaction, too, because she was blushing.‘I think I can restrain myself just fine,Nevis. But I don’t have time. Need to get back to the farm. We actually had a few visitors this morning thanks to the fliers.’
‘That’s great. I’m glad things are looking up.’ He couldn’t help but give her a sobering look. ‘Are you sure you can manage a wedding, though? Harper wouldn’t exactly be an easy first client.’
‘Don’t say that in front of her if you want to keep your manhood,’ called Eiley somewhere from the children’s book section, earning a perplexed look from the elderly bloke the next aisle down.
Mirth brightened Rae’s expression. ‘I’m not going to turn this down. The farm needs all the help it can get. Dad was talking about selling, and I just…’
‘Can’t let it happen?’ Struan completed softly when grave lines crumpled her features.
‘No. I can’t. I know I don’t have a right to dig my heels in at this point, but that place has always been the one constant in my life – through Mum leaving, Granddad dying, high school and uni and a dozen different pets being buried in the far field.’
