Page 74 of A Scottish Highland Hideaway

“Yes. On what was supposed to be our wedding day.”

I bawled up one fist. “I wish I hadn’t been so blind, so naïvely trusting.”

Zach took charge of the laptop and clicked on a photograph of Declan and me sipping champagne at some charity event. Declan was grinning like a great white shark, as though he couldn’t believe his luck.

I rubbed at my arms. “Because of Declan and my own stupidity, I lost everything – at least it felt that way. I lost money of course, but I lost my self-respect, my ability to be open and vulnerable with people. It took a long time to rebuild myself.”

I clasped and unclasped my hands in front of me. “I recently travelled to Glasgow to see if I could find Declan and speak to him. I wondered if I could reason with him, more fool me. I spoke to someone else who he’d conned too, but they hadn’t seen him.”

I got a waft of Zach’s delicious woody scent beside me. Pain gripped his handsome face. “And you’re only telling me all this now? I thought…”

His wounded expression tore at my insides, but I was also determined to stand up for myself.

“You don’t have an automatic right to all my most intimate secrets just because you showed up on my doorstep asking questions! I worked hard to give myself a fresh start, and to become someone I’m proud of. You don’t get to come here and demand a piece of me like you’re entitled to it! I’m Bailey McArthur. End of.” I turned and jabbed my finger at another photo of myself with my brother and parents, taken about ten years ago. “Can you really not understand why I wanted to lay low, start again without the past hanging over me? If I’d told you, a journalist I still don’t know that well, I’d have been insane! It’s no one’s business but mine.”

My voice cracked but I swallowed and fought to keep my composure.

“My mother is so good at all that. She embraces it and it embraces her. She knows her role and she excels at it. I always wanted to be like her – and for a while, I thought I was good at it too, but I’m not and never will be. And that’s fine. I like who I am now. Finally.”

Ezra’s brows bunched together and it felt like he understood me and empathised with me. This celebrated and talented actor, standing in my shop, understood me! Zach, however, was another matter.

He turned away from me and stormed out into the street.

“Zach. Wait!” I shouted after him, following him to the shop door. “Zach, please, talk to me.”

The street lamps were thronged like orange stars against the backdrop of inky sky out in the street and I shivered without my coat on.

“I thought we were getting closer,’ he said, rounding on me. ‘But now I feel humiliated.’

“That’s never been my intention!” I breathed hard. “Can’t you see that it’s not about you? None of this is about you. I was protecting myself.” I closed my eyes for a moment in frustration. “Zach, I’m sorry you feel hurt by this but I’m not sorry I lied.” I looked back at my shop, at everything I had worked so hard to build, and I felt at peace. “I’ve had enough of looking over my shoulder, and I’m strong enough now to face the person I used to be and the mistakes I made in the past without it destroying me. But I won’t let anyone break me again – including you. And I won’t be judged for protecting myself against gossipy tabloid journalism!”

My words vanished into the darkness.

Zach was striding away from me. “I thought I was beginning to get to know you, Bailey. Or Anastasia, or whoever you are. I thought you were different. Open. Principled. The real deal.” He swallowed. “I even thought I was falling for you.” He let out a dry laugh. “The thought scared the hell out of me, but I knew I couldn’t ignore it. Even securing some big exclusive didn’t matter anywhere near as much as you.” He shook his head ruefully. “Just goes to show. Some journalist I am.”

“If that’s how you feel, then maybe you’re not the person I thought you were either.”

He snapped his mouth shut but I could tell he was furious.

Well, let him be furious. I’m pretty mad too.

All I could do was watch him through a tearful haze as he disappeared around the corner to his car.

“Oh, Bailey, I’m so sorry,” said Ezra. “When I returned inside the shop, I couldn’t help overhearing that…”

“Thank you. At least I know you won’t judge me,” I said, giving Ezra a weak smile and propping my chin on my hand as I leant on the counter. Tears burned in my eyes but I refused to let them fall. “At the beginning, I had no intention of telling Zach anything. But then I began to get to know him and I wanted him to know the real me.” I blinked back my emotions. “But then he started trying to track me down, after sodding Declan spilled his guts to Zach’s editor and it just made everything so complicated and messy and there was no way for both of us to get what we wanted.” I turned back to Ezra, willing him to understand. “I didn’t want anything sitting between us, but to trust him … after everything … I just couldn’t.”

An echo of a smile played around Ezra’s wide mouth. “You like him. A lot.”

I nodded. “I do. But it’s not like he’s told me anything about himself either. I guess there’s a lot we don’t know about each other.”

Ezra studied me with his questioning stare. “Does anyone here know? Have you told the two young ladies who work for you who you are?”

I gave a fierce shake of my head.

“I thought as much.”

We fell into a considered silence again.