I was very sure that itwaswhat he meant, even if he didn’t want to admit it.
“I have my priorities straight,” I insisted. “They haven’t shifted one bit.”
Dad smiled at me, nodding, but it was a weak smile, like he didn’t quite believe me.
21
ISLA
Iwaited in the hallway, hearing the last of the conversation between Locke and his father. My heart flip-flopped, Locke’s final words ringing in my ears.
I have my priorities straight…They haven’t shifted one bit.
I hadn’tintendedto eavesdrop on them. They knew I’d only popped down to use the bathroom and would be coming right back. I hadn’t deliberately hid. But the closer I’d gotten, the more the conversation had sounded…heated wasn’t quite the right word. They weren’t angry at each other, but there was certainly an awkwardness there I hadn’t wanted to intrude on. So I’d paused.
Only now I’d heard more than I wanted to. An embarrassed flush bit at my cheeks, and a strange, uncomfortable heat twisted into my gut.Something nagged at me, even though I couldn’t put my finger on what it was about their conversation that made me so uneasy.
Locke had defended me and our relationship to his father. He’d said things were good between us, and that he had his head onstraight. What more could you ask from the guy you were having a baby with?
But that priority comment rubbed me the wrong way.They haven’t shifted one bit…
That bothered me. Because…well, we were bringing this small life into the world. That baby would require his love and attention and focus. Thatshouldchange his priorities, shouldn’t it? At least a little.
It had certainly shifted mine. From the moment I found out, I wasn’t just making decisions on my behalf, I was making them for the both of us. That’s why I’d opened up my heart to Locke to see where arealrelationship could take us. And why I’d started to slowly let my father back into my life again. I’d also worked damn hard to make sure the distillery property wasn’t torn down so I could make sure I could share that place with the baby one day. Would I have fought for that for my own sake, because I loved the place? Definitely. But I fought harder for my baby’s sake. The baby came first now. Was that…not the same for Locke?
I knew Locke was a workaholic. I knew how important the business was to him and the lengths he was prepared to go to ensure Fraser Developments was successful. But a child needed more than a business empire to inherit.
No one knew that better than I did.
I batted away the fears as they surfaced. Sometimes, the best response to a nagging parent was telling them what they wanted to hear, even if you didn’t entirely mean it. Hadn’t I done the same thing from time to time? Besides, Locke wasn’t my father. He’d been as present as he possibly could since the moment hefound out about the baby. There was literally no reason for my unease.
I sucked in a settling breath, banished the butterflies, and plastered a smile on my face, deliberately scuffing my feet on Locke’s fancy hardwood floors. I didn’t want to surprise them. Locke’s eyes immediately flicked in my direction as I emerged, the corner of his mouth curling. “Thought you might have gotten lost.”
There was that half smile I adored. Everything was perfectly fine. “Just admiring your artwork,” I said. “My mother would have loved that landscape in the bathroom.”
Locke held his arm out for me, and I crossed the living room to settle against his side, one hand pressed to his chest, the other wrapped around his back. It comforted me being this close to him, even as I watched his father’s expression shift to something like intrigue. It was as if he wasn’t used to seeing his son so openly affectionate.
I smiled softly at Graeme, wondering how he’d feel knowing he was about to be a grandfather. “Any luck with the work situation?” I asked.
Locke sighed. “I’ve run into a bit of a roadblock on one of the properties. A local heritage group claims we’re about to build on land of archaeological significance.”
“Oh, wow.” I blinked in surprise. “Isn’t that something that should have been disclosed to you before you bought the property?”
Locke laughed. “Ideally, yes. But sometimes these things come to light after the fact and cause me all sorts of headaches.”
“It shouldn’t take us long to talk through the problem,” Graeme said, holding up the file he’d brought. “Once you’ve got a gameplan, you can go back to the heritage group and the local council and start replotting timelines for construction.”
That sounded like it was going to takeforever. Maybe I shouldn’t have sprung a visit on Locke after all. I glanced up at him, lip caught between my teeth, giving him a sheepish shrug. “If it’s easier, I can just head off. You’ve clearly got a lot going on.”
Locke’s arm tightened around me. “Just give us half an hour.”
“And then,” Graeme piped up, “if you two really don’t have any plans already in place, maybe I could take you to dinner?” He tilted his head in my direction. “I’d love to get to know you better, Isla.”
The promise of food immediately had my stomach growling. Locke shook with silent laughter, clearly amused at my current inability to turn down a good meal. He didn’t seem opposed to having dinner with his father, so I smiled and said, “That sounds wonderful.”
We’d gone to the Tap Room, a chic, upscale restaurant in Edinburgh where I was told Fraser Developments often entertained their business partners. I wasn’t dressed anywhere near as fancy as the other diners, and on a normal day I would have been chased out by the hostess. But the woman at the door had barely started to frown at me when she caught sight of the men on either side of me. Instantly, the frown turned into a beaming smile.
Dinner with Graeme was far less stressful than taking Locke to meet my father. Where Dougal had been prickly and wary, Graeme was warm and kind, if a little bit awkward. We’d chatted about everything from my mother to growing up in the US to Locke’s big plans for the Braeburn hotel.
