Chapter Twenty-One
Eric
While Iona and Rafe stand on the threshold of the front door, kissing like there's no tomorrow, I try to remember the reasons why I thought Iona Buchanan was the only woman for me. The reasons were super important. I remember that much. I believed she would eventually realize nobody else could make her happy.
Uh, why? Not sure anymore.
Iona pulls her lips away from Rafe's and beams at him like he's the sun and the moon and the stars all wrapped up in one gruff British package.
She met him last week.
I spent months trying to find a way to convince Iona we belong together. Every chance I got, I drove to Scotland to see her. Okay, maybe I should've taken the hint every time she called me a "sweet laddie" and suggested I should find a girl my own age.
Rafe and Iona walk into the house hand in hand. When he sees me, Rafe whispers something to Iona and then approaches me. "I'm sorry, Eric. We shouldn't flaunt our relationship in front of you."
"Why not? I deserve to get flaunted." That's not the same thing as flogging, is it? Better look that up on the Merriam-Webster online dictionary later.
Rafe clamps a hand on my shoulder. "Don't feel bad. Iona despised me when we first met. If I could overcome that obstacle, you can find a woman your own age who will appreciate you."
"Yeah, I know. I finally figured that out, and it didn't even involve you beating the crap out of me." I slump my shoulders and stare down at the wood floor. "I finally realized I was just banging my head against a brick wall."
"We'll be good mates, eventually. You can count on it."
I cannot believe how nice he's being after the way I acted---like a total lunatic, that's how I was behaving. When did Rafe turn into a good guy? The asshole who stormed up to Iona's house and raged at her so hard she got him sent to jail.
Things often aren't the way they seem at first. I've learned that lesson the hard way.
Now that Rafe has come back, we're ready to start our journey. But just as we're opening up the trunk---the boot, as Brits and Scots like to say---Thane drives up in his fancy pickup truck. The glare on the truck's windows makes it hard to see who else might be in there, until both doors are thrown open. Thane, my mom, and another guy I don't recognize all pile out of the vehicle, clomping straight up to our little flock.
Iona knows the new guy, though. She smiles and kisses his cheek. "Magnus, how wonderful it is to see you. But I didn't expect you to see us off. Piper didn't come with you?"
"No," says the enormous, musclebound Scottish guy who has the deepest voice I've ever heard. "Piper is at home with the wee one. I'm delivering the message on my own."
"What message?"
"It's about your stalker." Magnus eyes me and Toby upside-down and sideways, like we're members of SPECTRE or something and he might need to crush us into pulp with his bare hands. "Who are these ones? I assume the tall man is Rafe Knight, but these two I don't recognize."
"I'm Eric Taylor," I announce. "And this is my best friend, Toby Knight."
"Then your friend would be Rafe Knight's son. Aye?"
"Yeah. So, what's up with Iona's ghost man?"
Magnus glances at Thane. "Should I tell them? Or would you prefer to do it?"
"I suppose it might be easier coming from me, since the laddies and Rafe already know me." Thane hugs my mom to his side, and they exchange whispers that I can't make out. Then the whisky man aims his attention at Iona. "You shouldn't travel by car, gràidh . It would take at least nine hours."
"Why does that matter?"
"Because we still haven't found your stalker, and I dinnae like having him running around in the Highlands in secret. He has a mobile phone, but he must have masked it somehow, so we can't track him that way either." Thane walks up to his sister, grasping her shoulders. "Please, Iona, let Rafe and the others take you to England, to his home. I trust him to protect you if that cacan manages to find you there."
She kisses her brother's cheek. "I'll do what you say, Thane."
I raise my hand like a kid in school, not sure why. Maybe because Toby and I are the youngest people in this group. "May I ask a question?"
Thane chuckles. "Of course, laddie. This isn't primary school."
"Well, I'm wondering how we're going to get to England if we don't drive."
"On a jet, that's how."
"I hate airline seats. They're so cramped and uncomfortable. Driving would be better than that."
Thane gives me a tolerant smile. "Did I mention commercial airlines? No." He shakes his head at me. "You're flying private, laddie. Lachlan MacTaggart is lending us his jet."
"Wicked!" Okay, I probably shouldn't have shouted that. Oh, who the hell cares? I'm stoked. "That'll get us there in no time, huh?"
"Don't get too excited, sweetie," my mom says. "You'll have to drive about an hour and a half to reach Inverness, the closest airport. Then it'll be about an hour or so of in-flight travel."
Two and a half hours total, approximately. Yeah, that's not bad at all. "Uh, where exactly are we going in England?"
My best friend elbows me in the side. Then he whispers out of the corner of his mouth. "To Dad's house, moron. We already went over that."
"Not all of it. Where does Rafe live, exactly?" I forgot to whisper, so now Toby is giving me a disgusted look. He'll get over it.
Rafe speaks up. "My home is just outside Norwich. But my research lab is a bit further away, situated on a rather large plot of land."
I prepare to ask more questions, but I don't get the chance. Thane and Mom need to say goodbye to Iona, then me. My mom gets embarrassingly gushy, hugging me and kissing my cheek while blubbering about how much she'll miss me. Jeez, I live in England. She's shacking up with Thane in Scotland. That means she doesn't see me all the time.
Toby doesn't need to say goodbye to his dad. Rafe is coming with us.
"Listen up, laddies and lasses," Thane shouts. "Rebecca and I will lead the way to Inverness, but we'll be dropping Magnus off along the way. Then, it's on to the airport and London after that."
Magnus managed to steer clear of the gushiness by jumping into the backseat of Thane's truck. I wish I could do that. Mom is going overboard big time.
Finally, Thane and Mom climb into the truck with the gruff private eye who masquerades as a bounty hunter. But they still don't leave. Only after the rest of us have piled into Rafe's car do we finally get on the road. Thane veers around our vehicle while grinning at us. He's a weird guy, but I've gotten to like him way more than I expected. Sometimes I even wish Thane were my dad, since my real one is a jackass.
During the ride to the Inverness airport, we play the kind of silly traveling games my family had never really been into when I was a kid. We didn't travel that much, actually. Now I get to play games with my best friend, his dad, and Iona. They're all amazing people.
We drop Magnus off in Ballachulish along the way.
By the time we reach the airport, I'm getting excited about seeing Rafe's "rather large plot of land." It's an intriguing mystery, just like the man himself. Lightning researcher? I'll need to quiz him about that in flight.
Turns out we don't even need to go through security at the airport. Flying private has its perks, for sure. On the tarmac, we say our goodbyes again since my mom insisted on walking to the jet with me like I'm a six-year-old who needs his mommy to hold his hand. Thane had wanted to just turn around and drive away without leaving his truck.
Yeah, like Mom would let him get away with that.
Another goodbye, then we're on board and in the air.
This is going to be the best vacation ever.
Except for that niggling worry we all have about Iona's stalker. Maybe I don't want to marry her anymore, but I still care about her safety. And I'll do whatever it takes to ensure nobody hurts her---or any of my friends and family.