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Before he could say Meall a’ Bhuachaille, I grabbed up my purse and jacket, and followed him out the door. We met Spencer coming up the stairway as we headed down. He looked his usual sad self, but I acted on impulse anyway.
“Do you want to join us for lunch?”
The invitation seemed to startle him out of his gloomy thoughts.
“There’s nothing to be had if you stay here, apparently,” I went on. “I think I’m pretty okay company. For a while, anyway. This guy…” I nodded at Duncan and made a so-so gesture with my hand. “But joining us would be better than nothing.”
He glanced from me to Duncan but shook his head. “I’m not really in the mood right now.”
“All right.” Honestly, I hadn’t expected more, but I had to try.
He stepped past us up the stairs while Duncan and I continued down.
“Just okay company, am I?” Duncan fixed me with a comically intense stare, making excellent use of his Murder Face. He might have been the stuff of action movies but for the glint of playfulness in his eyes.
“No, that was me. You, I said—” I made the so-so motion again, but he stopped the gesture by taking my hand in his.
“Yes, I saw that.”
He didn’t bother letting go of my hand as we stepped out of the lodge and onto the street. I tried not to revel in the sweet gesture, but my heart did its own thing when it came to Duncan.
“Lewis said there’s a chippy just over here.” He pointed along the street at a bright blue building. “Fish and chips place,” he said in answer to my quizzical look.
“Mmm, yum. As long as the fish are wild caught and the batter gluten-free.”
“With organic chips cooked in recycled oil.”
We found the restaurant and took a booth overlooking the harbor. I scanned the menu of assorted deep-fried items—deep-fried haddock, cod, prawns. Deep-fried haggis—that was new.
“Deep-friend Mars bar?” I asked. “Is it any good?”
“You’ll have to try one.”
“Challenge accepted.”
The waitress took our orders and hustled off again, leaving Duncan and me alone in a cozy booth, our hands almost-but-not-quite touching in the middle of the table.
It was normal for a kiss to echo over your mouth like your lips were having a delightful dream, right?
Just me?
“I love fish and chips,” I said before I could blurt something likeLet’s make out!“Seattle has a lot of seafood restaurants, too, and it was always one of my favorite dinners out with my parents growing up.”
“Are your parents in good health?”
I ran a hand over my mouth, covering my smile at his inadvertentPride and Prejudicequote. “Very much so. They both retired two years ago and I think it’s the greatest thing that’s ever happened to them.”
“What are they like?”
“They’re total opposites: a brainy engineer and a bubbly music teacher. Dad doesn’t reach out a ton, he’s just quieter by nature, but Mom keeps me up to date on all their activities. They go out on dates every Friday night and have taken up new hobbies. I’m happy they’re enjoying themselves so much.”
Even though sometimes I felt like they were the teenagers sneaking off on dates and I was the parent waving goodbye as they spread their wings.
“Everyone should hope for that kind of health and enthusiasm in their advanced age.”
He dropped his voice over the last two words and I snorted a laugh at how he’d echoed my teasing. I would never put Duncan in the same category as my parents.
“It’s kind of weird, though.” I ran my fingers over the tabletop, trying to put my conflicting emotions into words. “I’m an only child. I sort of envisioned myself taking care of them in their old age, but they’re out here living it up, traveling with their friends, learning languages. They’re doing their own thing. They love my visits, but they don’t exactly need me.”
