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"How can we have a garden party? It's nighttime."
"Oh ye of little faith."
Iain smirks and walks away.
A few minutes later, I get stuffed into Rory's Mercedes with Lachlan, Erica, and their baby son. Thankfully, the bairn doesn't cry. He sleeps for the entire three-hour drive to Dùndubhan. Maybe it's three and a half hours. Feels like even more than that, though, since I have to listen to my brothers and Erica blethering about what they should do with me. Nobody needs to "do" anything. I'm fine. Aye, the woman I love essentially told me "away and chew a brush," but I'm not that easy to offend.
If my family decides to help me, though, I won't have much of a choice. Unlike my brothers, I don't mind if the MacTaggart clan butts into my love life. Let them have at it, I say. Whatever they do, it won't make a difference because they don't know Calli the way I do.
The garden party turns out to be a nighttime gala with white lights strung up around the garden and a metal fire pit. We roast sausages and marshmallows over the flames, and everyone blethers for hours. I want to go home and sleep, but I won't disappoint my family by leaving early. Since the MacTaggarts are never rude, they wrap up the celebration before ten o'clock.
Iain offers me a ride to my home on the outskirts of Ballachulish and says good night without getting out of the car. A ride in Iain's dilapidated Land Rover doesn't relax me since the vehicle seems to have no shocks. My erse hurts by the time I shamble into the house, and I don't even bother undressing. No, I just drop onto the bed and fall asleep within a minute, maybe less.
I dream of Calli, of course. Dirty dreams. So no, I don't mind the torment those fantasies inflict on me, not at all.
While I eat breakfast in the living room, I wonder what to do about my other problems. I'm skint, as everyone knows, and now I've got the Seona rubbish too. How much longer will I be able to afford the mortgage payments on this house? How long can I keep my office? The construction company had been dormant for too long after my accident, and I haven't had the money to get it going again.
I'm just finishing up my breakfast when someone knocks on the front door. I set my bowl of oatmeal on the coffee table and wander to the door, swinging it open without peeking out the window first to see who's there.
Rory skims his gaze over me and lifts one brow. "Going casual these days, eh?"
He's being sarcastic, of course. What's wrong with my clothes? Maybe I'm not wearing a shirt, and my pajama bottoms have leprechauns on them, but that doesn't make me any less manly. Jamie gave me the leprechaun pajamas because she didn't think I would wear them. Naturally, I do wear them, for the sole purpose of proving her wrong. But now Rory is studying me like he thinks I must've gone off my head. I might not have shaved this morning or yesterday, and it's possible I forgot to comb my hair, much less shower, so… Aye, he probably has good reason to think I'm barmy.
But I'm tired, that's all.
"Get dressed," he says in his stern-solicitor voice. "It's time to get off you erse and take legal action against Seona Ross."
"Donnae want to destroy her, Rory."
"You need to demand a paternity test, Aidan. Once you know for certain you are not the father of her child, she will have no legal grounds to demand anything from you."
"Aye, fine, let's get it over with." What if I am the father? I can't think about that until I know the truth.
But on this afternoon, on my first full day away from Calli, I make one very important decision. I decide I need to ring her every day to make sure she knows I haven't given up on us and I will never will. Words won't convince her, so daily phone calls feel like the best way to demonstrate my commitment to us. Our conversations have become awkward and uncomfortable, but I know things will get better. They have to. Calli says she's told her brother and her cousin about the marriage fraud thecacanRade sweet-talked her into committing. At least he can't hold that over her head anymore, especially since he is as guilty as she is. More guilty, in my opinion.
The days drag by like I'm walking through wet cement. Seona refuses to have a paternity test, so Rory has filed the paperwork to get a court order. Naturally, Seona keeps demanding money. I take my solicitor's advice and cut off all contact with her, which includes blocking her number on my mobile. How long will it take to force her to have a paternity test? Even Rory can't say for sure.
Two weeks drag by like I'm trapped in purgatory for all time. But finally, I have news Calli needs to hear. Rory told me this afternoon, in his home office at Dùndubhan, but I've needed this long to drum up the courage to ring Calli. Rory suggested I spend the night here, and I agreed because I'm too knackered to drive. Well after midnight, I head into the sitting room. Then I dial her number.
It rings three times before I hear her lovely voice. "Hello?"
"Calli, it's me."
"How are you?" she asks, though I can't tell anything from her tone.
"Exhausted but fine." I pause for a heartbeat, then lower my voice to a husky whisper, "I've missed you."
"Oh Aidan, I've missed you too." She falls silent for a couple of seconds. "No wonder you're exhausted. Why are you awake? Isn't it two a.m. over there?"
"It is. Planned to get some rest and ring you in the morning, but I cannae sleep."
"Is there news?"
"Aye." Why do I feel anxious? This is good news I'm delivering. I haul in a deep breath and tell her. "The baby's not mine."
"Did she lie?"
"No, not quite. After the results came in, she admitted she'd slept with someone else while she and I were together. She couldn't know which of us was the father."
