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Sunset on a veranda, with a string of light bulbs adding a soft glow, a sofa filled with plush cushions and her, with her head in some guy’s lap, his eyes on her face as she grins up at him. A boyfriend, perhaps, a passing friend...
My grip tightens around the phone and I scroll past that picture. Back to the wildlife, to her and some cheerful locals in Malaysia, to the canyons and sea adventures.
Back to her and that guy again.
He only appears once. It should be enough to stop the fierce ache in my chest. The desire to have her head in my lap like that, looking up at me like that. At ease, happy...
I throw the phone back on the bedside table and lie back, stare at the ceiling.
No, she hasn’t been lonely. She’s happy. Every one of those photos proves it. Gran didn’t know what she was talking about.
And now she’s stuck here, in the freezing cold Highlands, with the rain and the responsibility. How long before she needs to be free again? To cut her ties and escape back to that life? The lone wolf ready for her next adventure...
Leaving Glenrobin and I, a distant memory once more...regardless of Gran’s last wishes.
Then I think about her lying awake too, on the other side of the door, so close and yet so far away. I think of Ted beside her, just as he was all those years ago. Her one true constant, she’d called him.
I think of the pleading look on her tear-stained face as she asked me to give her a chance, and I think of my diligent team of lawyers, now dissecting Gran’s will, and I know what I must do. Even though every instinct screams at me not to be so stupid, so weak...
I fork my hand through my hair with a curse, tell myself it’s only three hundred and sixty-three days to go and then...
And then what?
This estate will always bind us on some level.
But being bound by the tangible estate and the intangible chaos inside are very different things, and so long as she keeps the line drawn, I can toe it. I won’t take advantage of this situation, just as I refused to back then.
And I certainly won’t make the same mistake of thinking that she cares for me as deeply as I once did her.
No. Toe the line, keep things simple...and stay the hell away from her in night clothes.
I turn to switch off my lamp but there’s a sound. Movement beyond the door. I stare at it, see the handle start to shift, and my heart launches into my throat.
What is she...?
No, she can’t be...
The door opens and I throw my feet to the floor, sit bolt upright...
‘Summer?’
