Skies Over Caledonia: A Small Town Marriage of Convenience Romance (The Highlands Series Book 4)

Chapter 15

My fields were grateful for the break in the weather. It had rained for two days straight, and the skies were dark and overcast as I drove Allegra to Sloane and Walker Ironside’s home. I knew the couple fairly well as I’d been drawn into a friendship with them through Sarah. It was hard to believe the cousin who’d been so shy she barely had any friends was now in a book club with the wives of the family who owned most of Ardnoch.

None of the Adairs would be at this dinner tonight. Sloane had assured Allegra that it was just us.

A tense silence existed between Allegra and me as we pulled up outside the bungalow in the quiet cul-de-sac. Everyone knew, because it had been all over the news at the time, that Sloane Ironside had inherited a fortune from her dad. It made the news because her stepmum had hired Sloane’s ex-boyfriend to kill her so she’d inherit instead.

Yet, she’d moved into Walker’s unremarkable bungalow when they married. It wasn’t so unremarkable inside, but still, I liked her choice. She knew what really mattered in life, despite her privileged upbringing. The thought made me glance at Allegra as we got out of the car. Allegra didn’t seem to be missing the luxury of her family’s beach house, but I wouldn’t know for certain. We’d barely spoken in days.

My doing.

After the way I’d reacted to her coming home late, I knew I needed to put even more distance between us. To make matters worse, my father had called me, but I hung up at the sound of his voice. He sent a text before I could block him.

Heard u married money. That wont stop me frm takin whats mine.

I’d blocked the bastard, knowing he was just trying to mess with my head. He knew now I could best him in court if he took it that far, but he didn’t have the cash flow. It was a bluff. Didn’t mean it didn’t fuck with me, the reminder that I was the son of a piece of shit.

Locked in my head, I barely said a word to Allegra for the rest of the week.

And she’d finally stopped trying to get to know me. The questions about my life before the farm, about why I loved the farm, what I wanted for the future … I didn’t respond to them, and she stopped asking.

It was a bit twisted, but I hated the cool silence she treated me to now.

I hated the sadness I caught on her face when she thought I wasn’t looking. I just didn’t know how to fix it without complicating things we had no business complicating.

“Ready?” I asked as we approached the house.

“Sure,” she replied tonelessly, refusing to meet my gaze.

She hadn’t looked at me in days, and it made me realize that I liked the way she looked at me. Allegra always gave you her full attention and seemed to find me genuinely interesting. Funny how I’d unconsciously taken that for granted.

A burn flared across my chest, and I ignored the sensation as I knocked on the door. It flew open as if Sloane had been waiting for us. The blond was a few years older than me but looked about the same age as Allegra. As the women embraced, Sloane’s sunny blond prettiness only highlighted Allegra’s dark beauty. My wife took my fucking breath away just standing there. Possessiveness curled in my gut.

Sloane turned to me. “And here’s the husband.”

Allegra allowed her smile to drop while Sloane’s attention was elsewhere. She walked away as I embraced Sloane, and I fought the urge to go after her. To tell her I was sorry for being such a prick. For years, I’d watched my mum let men treat her like shit. Whether they shouted at her constantly, bullied her … or ignored her. I’d vowed never to treat a woman like that. And I never had. Until her. Until my wife.

Covering up my gloomy thoughts of self-reproach, I gave Sloane a tight smile as she led me into the dining room.

Where I discovered Allegra hugging her sister and greeting everyone else.

As in more than just me and her and Walker and Sloane.

Sarah and Theo and North and Aria were also in attendance.

“Regan and Thane are babysitting Harry.” Sloane referred to Regan and Thane Adair. “And Callie’s staying at a friend’s house tonight, so it’s just us adults.”

“If it’s just us adults, why is Jared here?” Theo drawled in his posh English accent.

Walker tried not to smirk at my cousin-in-law’s dig as he greeted me with a hard pat to my back. “Take care of her, eh.” It wasn’t a statement. It was a warning.

I nodded and then grit my teeth as North and Aria came to greet me too.

Soon we settled in the sitting room with drinks with Walker or Sloane or both getting up now and then to check on dinner. Allegra sat beside me on the couch, and I tried not to notice the abject difference between our body language and the other couples in the room.

Walker didn’t sit but hovered at Sloane’s chair, his hand on her shoulder as she conversed. North sat as close to Aria as he could, his hand resting possessively on her knee. And Theo never could seem to keep his hands off my cousin, even five years down the line. He sat on an armchair and had pulled Sarah down onto his lap like they were teenagers.

There was at least five inches of distance between me and Allegra.

“So … no honeymoon, then?” Theo suddenly asked us. There was a gleam of mischief in his eyes I knew well. My cousin-in-law was a total shit-stirrer.

Allegra didn’t look my way or answer, so I shrugged. “Things are busy on the farm right now.”

Theo gasped in mock outrage. “Too busy for a honeymoon? I thought all that animal husbandry would have taught you a little something about … well … animal husbandry.”

Sarah elbowed him, trying not to laugh. North didn’t even bother covering his. Usually, I’d laugh, too, but my sense of humor had withered in the coldness of Allegra’s aloofness.

“We’ll do a honeymoon sometime later,” Allegra said before taking a sip of the soda Sloane had offered. Again, she didn’t look at me. My eyes trailed the curve of her soft profile as she swallowed. There was a tightness in her jaw.

“Oh? Where are you thinking of going?” Sloane asked.

“Maybe a beach somewhere.” I shrugged because there wouldn’t be a honeymoon.

“Ally’s not really a beach person,” Aria informed me with a quirked eyebrow. “She prefers city breaks where she can be a real tourist and go to art museums. That kind of thing.”

Right.

That did make sense. I didn’t know why I’d immediately thought beach. Maybe because she grew up in Malibu.

At least I knew that much about her.

“I had mentioned the idea of a beach, actually,” Allegra jumped in with the lie. “Well, really a resort. Laze by the pool kind of vacation.”

“Oh.”

Awkward silence fell between us for a few seconds.

“Did Ally ever tell you about the time she yelled at everyone in the Sistine Chapel?”

“Oh, Ari, no.” Allegra slapped a hand over her face with the first giggle I’d heard out of her in days. I couldn’t take my eyes off her. “Please don’t.”

“Please do,” Sarah insisted.

“Well, when Ally was ten years old, our mom, who’s Italian, decided to take us on a grand summer tour of her home country. She almost immediately got called to some far-off place for a job, and I was left to take Ally around.” Allegra shot her sister a sad, knowing smile as Aria continued. “It was better this way because with Mamma, we’d have to do everything after hours so she could have privacy. This way, we got to do all the tourist stuff like regular people.”

“Who have private security,” Allegra teased.

“Fair, fair. We did have private security. Anyway, in Rome, we did a tour of the Vatican. And talking is prohibited in the Sistine Chapel. But there were so many people, and no one would shut up. Ally, this cute little ten-year-old, wanted to experience the Sistine Chapel the way it was supposed to be experienced—in utter silence. And all these tourists were being noisy. I could see Ally getting more and more agitated. I did not, however, expect her to suddenly stop and yell, ‘Don’t any of you know the meaning of quiet!’”

I chuckled at the imagery and Allegra shot me a surprised look.

“We were asked to leave,” Aria finished the story with a snort.

“Like I was the rude one.” Allegra huffed.

“Jared, have you ever been to Italy?” Sloane asked.

Discomfort cut through my amusement. “I’ve never been out of the UK. Travel’s not really my thing.”

“Oh?” North quirked an eyebrow. “Your wife loves to travel.”

Allegra narrowed her eyes on her brother-in-law. “Actually, I love Scotland more than I love to travel.”

As the conversation continued from the sitting room to when we were seated around the dining table, I grew more uncomfortable. The couples asked us questions and it became clear to everyone in the room that Allegra and I knew very little about each other.

It was my fault.

She’d tried to make conversation with me. To ask me questions. I always had some excuse to be elsewhere so I could keep my distance. When Allegra had shared that she thought we might not even have to do an interview for her visa, I’d grown even more distant with her.

But as I avoided the concerned glances of the people who cared about us, that guilt I’d felt earlier formed into a hard knot in my gut. I was desperate to get back to the house, to escape the feeling, but Sloane had insisted on after-dinner coffee. I’d excused myself to use the bathroom, but it was really to get a reprieve from them and from my own self-flagellating.

What I didn’t need was to step out of the bathroom and almost walk right into my cousin-in-law.

Theo nodded silently toward a back room that was set up as an office. With an irritated sigh, I followed him.

“What a fucking mess you’re making of this, old boy,” Theo opined in a low voice.

I scowled. “Why do you care?”

“Because Sarah cares.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “I don’t like when she’s worried about you. It detracts her attention from me.”

Liar. He just didn’t like when she was worried, period. Sarah had him tied tightly around her wee pinky finger. “Well, it’s none of your business.”

Theo’s expression was grim. “If you want people to buy that you married Mrs. McCulloch for love—and by people, I mean the appropriate authorities—you are going to need to stop treating your wife with the indifference of a stranger.”

That guilt swelled almost painfully inside me. “I don’t do that.”

“Yes, you do. You might not want her—though I don’t bloody well know why not—but you could at least treat her with a modicum of interest. At least encourage friendship.”

“You’re giving me relationship advice?” I scoffed.

Theo closed the distance between us. “Everyone thinks I’m a cold bastard who doesn’t care about anyone but Sarah. They can think what they want. Frankly, she tops a very small list, so they’re not wrong. But when I married her, you became family, whether either of us wanted that or not.”

“Gee, thanks,” I muttered.

“I treated Sarah badly once,” Theo admitted hollowly.

His tone surprised me, the irritation slipping from my face.

“Worst I’ve ever felt. I still think about it, and even after all these years, it still makes me feel like scum.” His voice lowered again. “Everyone Allegra cares about … she’s lying to them. You have absolutely no idea what that girl has been through in her life. I don’t either. But it doesn’t take a genius to know she’s been through something. My guess? You married her to save the farm and she married you for a visa—don’t worry, I won’t repeat that—which means the only person she’s not lying to, and has as a confidant right now, is you.

“That’s the bargain you made when you married her. And you’d be an epic sort of prick if you left her to feel alone in this scheme of yours. No one’s asking you to love her, Jared.” He patted my arm. “But you could at least treat her with something more than indifference. For her sake. And for yours. Because I know you. If you hurt her, you’ll start to hate yourself for it.”

I nodded grimly at him.

Allegra had already changed because of my callous attitude. And I was starting to hate myself for that alone.