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"Why did you announce that to the whole family?"
"You agreed to public therapy. But like I said, we can move this to a room inside the castle."
Hugh lifts one shoulder in a casual shrug. "If you can't handle public therapy…"
"I can handle it." But I need a moment to drum up the nerve to say this in front of Hugh and everyone. Only Kate knows. She's right, though, that I need to deal with the real issue. "I never felt inferior to you until after the accident."
The man who used to be my best mate just stares at me without blinking.
"I was the Super Kitten Man," I say. "A joke. The damn eejit who froze during a crisis and almost got a mate and an elderly woman killed. But it's all right. I saved the kittens. So what if I became the butt of every joke in the Highlands? I felt like a fool."
"No one thought that," Hugh says. "You're always too hard on yourself. But that doesn't explain why you hid your relationship with Kate and lied to me about it."
Kate gives me an encouraging smile.
Well, if I'm doing this, I might as well go all the way. "Before I met Kate, I hadn't had sex in almost nine months."
Everyone is staring at me now.
"After the accident," I say, "everyone treated me like I was a bairn who needed help to go to the bog. Jack kept telling me to get therapy, and you kept telling me to get laid. Didnae want to do either one. Being the Super Kitten Man was the most humiliating thing that had ever happened to me."
"I'm sorry you felt that way, Cal," Hugh says. "But you never told me any of it. And why would your accident make you envious of me?"
"Because you have everything. Money, status, women, mates. You work because you want to, not because you need to."
"Maybe I had more luck with women than you did, but you were my only real mate."
It's my turn to stare at him. "But you always had people around you. Every time we went to a club together, men and women gathered around you like flies to honey. And you've got the Dixons and Hunters as your mates."
"Yes, people gathered." Hugh rests one elbow on the table and sighs. "I didn't know those men and women. They only spoke to me at clubs and other public venues where they would be seen with me—seen with a viscount. They didn't give a stuff about me. The Dixons and Hunters are mates, but I'm not particularly close to them. Maybe that's my fault because I expect everyone to want something from me and keep my distance to protect myself."
Could all of that be true? I don't believe Hugh would lie about it. Maybe I had misunderstood what his life is like.
Kate rests her erse on the table's edge. "That was excellent, Callum. I know it couldn't have been easy to expose yourself that way."
"Actually, I feel sort of…better."
"Glad to hear it." She points a finger at Hugh. "Your turn."
"I already said my piece."
"But you haven't talked about the real issue."
He groans. "I'm getting bloody sick of hearing the word issues. But I will do my bit."
"Tell Callum the truth."
Hugh squirms and makes a face. "The truth is that I'm not actually angry with you, Callum. I'm experiencing something that has never happened to me before."
"What's that?" I ask.
"I couldn't get the girl. Kate kept telling me she wasn't attracted to me and that she didn't want a relationship. I believed her, but I also believed I could convince her otherwise." He squirms again and scratches the back of his neck. "If I want a woman, I get her. Seduction is my forte. Kate rebuffed me at every turn, but then she slept with you."
"Don't blame Kate."
"I wouldn't do that. The problem isn't that she chose you over me. It's that I failed, and you succeeded." He plants both elbows on the table and cradles his forehead in his raised palms. "Ifailed, Callum. That's never happened before, and it's knocked me off balance."
"You've both done very well," Kate says. "But there's one more obstacle. You need to confess your lies to each other."
