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I watched him, blinking back my tears.
Then I said, “Now I have a dream.”
He narrowed his eyes and shook his head. “If yer dream is tae help me try tae no’ tae fail as badly as I hae, I canna let ye, Woodshee, what are ye goin’ tae do, ride tae m’rescue? Tis nae fair, I canna let ye do it.”
“So what? I am at the edge of a precipice of change, the cliff of a new world, a new life, I am going to marry Liam Campbell—”
“Sight unseen if ye think on it, ye dinna ken how bad twas—”
“Phbttbt. I one hundred percent knew how bad it was, I’m not dumb, Liam, you’ve been telling the world it was that bad since I met you and if that wasn’t enough, if I wasn’t going to take the word of a man who always, always says what he means, then I would have known the day I watched you brush the dust off the pile of sheets in your broken-down motel. This folder is nothing, it’s not a dealbreaker. If anything, this folder, your telling me about the folder, this is the deal clincher, Liam. You want to have success in your pub and hotel, you may not be willing to admit it, but you do. And you haven’t been actively failing, you’ve been setting the stage for your success since the beginning. For instance, you have beguiled a woodland fairy to come work some magic.”
He chuckled. “Beguiling? I haena ever been beguiling.”
“Oh yes, you’ve been beguiling me since the moment you carried the chair over your head that night in the Och Nae Pub.”
He said, “Ye liked that?”
“Oh I liked that so much.”
“I daena ken if ye ought tae call it ‘tae beguile,’ maybe ye hae a different definition.”
“Oh I have the right definition. To beguile: to carry furniture, to take middle of the night phone calls, to wear a tux well, to be an ex-husband-whisperer, and, Liam, to know right where to kiss me and how.”
He grinned.
“And most beguiling of all, to think I’m easy, to be proud of me. To beguile. It’s in the dictionary.”
I stood up and took the space in front of the fire. “So, here’s the plan.”
“Tis a plan ye hae tae stand for? In yer fuzzy pajamas?”
“Yes, here is the plan: You and I, as soon as my divorce is finalized, will marry. Do you agree?”
“Aye, but what kind of a wedding?”
“Don’t distract me from the future plan, Liam — a very small wedding. I think we should put on our duds and just go to the courthouse. Maybe Jess can come, since she’s my best friend. A Zoom call with your family in Scotland. Do you agree?”
“I am no’ sure what a Zoom call is, but aye.”
I widened my eyes. “You don’t know what a Zoom call is?”
He grinned. “Tis a deal breaker?”
“No, but holy shit, Liam, you’re practically a caveman.”
“I will drag ye intae m’cave if ye want.”
“Oh I want, but now we need this, the plan, first.” I picked up my wineglass and took a sip. “First, we are going to really own the Och Nae Pub and Ye Can Never Leave Hotel—”
He said, “But—”
I said, “No buts, this is me sharing your load, you need me to pick up half of your pack and I’ve been training for this forever — going on a long hike with someone. This is it, my dream. Do you want to accompany me on my dream of helping you carry half your load?”
“Och ye are confusin’ me with yer positive thinking.”
“I am incorrigible, it’s true, you love that about me.”
“I never thought you would use it against me.”
