Chapter 36 Thane
THANE
“Brother, a word.” I didn’t care if I was being rude as I took Lachlan’s elbow and forcefully removed him from his conversation with the famous director, Merriam Burbanks.
“Excuse me,” Lachlan said before he was hauled away. “You can let go of me now.”
I released him, knowing my big brother would follow, as we moved swiftly through the crowd, our expressions warding off anyone who might approach to engage us in conversation.
I searched through the famous faces to find Regan.
She was in profile, flashing her pretty dimples at Roman fucking Bright, of all people.
Even in the ridiculous livery Lachlan made his staff wear, she was appealing.
And Bright seemed to think so as he stopped her from drifting away with her tray of champagne flutes.
His lips were quirked in flirtation. The bastard was married, but I knew via Lachlan that the son of Hollywood legend Garret Bright was a well-known womanizer.
My gut twisted as I wrenched my gaze away, stormed from the party, and turned down the castle corridor toward Lachlan’s stage office. Once inside, I waited until my brother shut the door behind him.
“You said she wouldn’t be here.”
“I said she wouldn’t be a guest here.” Lachlan shrugged.
“You bastard. I can’t believe you hired her.”
Lachlan stared calmly at me. “Robyn is as good as my wife. Regan is her sister.”
“So you hired her? For how long? Until her visa expires?”
“No.”
My stomach dropped. “No?”
“She’s applying for her ancestry visa. I have a friend at the Home Office who’s going to push it through so she doesn’t have to return to the States to wait for it. I offered her a position and a cabin here on the estate for however long she needs it.”
“With no thought to me or the kids?” I seethed.
Lachlan quirked an eyebrow. “I’m sure the kids will be pleased Regan can still be in their lives. Frankly, your attitude to this point has suggested you don’t give a fuck about her. I didn’t think you’d care. But Robyn does. Robyn wants her here, so I’m making that happen.”
“Don’t give a fuck? Didn’t think I’d care?” I whispered harshly, feeling the unfamiliar urge to punch my brother.
I received a hard warning look. “I’m not the one you’re angry with.”
“Oh?”
“You’re angry with yourself, you hardheaded prick.” Lachlan cut me a dark look. “A decade of happiness is better than a lifetime of emptiness.”
I tensed, remembering those words.
“That’s what you said to me,” Lachlan pushed. “Not even eight months ago. When I came to you about Robyn, you advised me to face my fears and just be with her. Not very good at following your own advice, are you?”
“You love Robyn.”
“And by that, I suppose you mean you don’t love Regan?”
Sweat dampened my palms and suddenly my bow tie was too tight. “We don’t make sense.”
“That’s a lie and you know it. I have never seen you happier than I have these past few months.
I suspected something was between you but couldn’t be sure.
What I did know was whether you had given in to your attraction to Regan, you were more content with her in your life than you have ever been. Ever, Thane.”
The truth in his words was soul-destroying.
“I have to protect Eilidh and Lewis. If Regan was older, ready to settle down, then it would be a different story. It would be a calculated risk that anyone takes when they’re in love.
But Regan’s too young. Right now, it’s just asking for Eilidh and Lewis to be hurt. ”
“And asking for you to be hurt, am I right?” Lachlan glared at me. “Or I’m wrong. Because you can’t love her if you don’t trust her. And you obviously don’t trust Regan and her feelings for you.” My brother shook his head in disappointment and strode away.
As he opened the door to leave, he glanced back at me and said grimly, “One day you’re going to realize how in love she was with you, that you betrayed her with your mistrust and destroyed the best thing that ever happened to you since the kids came along.
And I will be there for you on that day because you’re going to need me.
But Christ, Thane, you could save yourself a world of misery by just pulling your head out of your arse before it’s too late. ”
I flinched, not at the slam of the door as my brother departed in frustration, but at Lachlan’s words.
They held an air of prophecy that filled me with dread.
Tonight should have been a good night. The beginning of a new year, as Lachlan had said, after a horrifying one.
A night to move on. My children were safe in their beds at home, Sean McClintock was out of their lives for good as per the correspondence I had received from the arsehole’s lawyer, the pall of Eilidh’s paternity no longer hung over me, and a fresh start beckoned.
Except I was still fucking miserable.
“Now what could you possibly have going on in your life to make you brood so?”
I looked up from my glass of whisky at the husky, upper-crust voice. Angeline Potter, current young darling of the British film industry, leaned against the castle library door with a champagne flute in her hand.
I hadn’t ever conversed with her, only knew her from her films and the odd sighting here and there at the estate and in the village. “Nothing,” I replied, in no mood for pleasantries. “Just wanted to be alone.”
Not taking the hint, she sashayed into the room, swinging her slender hips.
“I know the feeling. That’s why I found my way here.
It’s my favorite room at Ardnoch.” She settled into the armchair opposite me and crossed one leg over the other so the slit in her blue dress revealed her pale, lovely leg from stiletto-encased toe to upper thigh.
Angeline gave me a sultry but hard look.
“My partner disappeared with Lizette Mayfield ten minutes ago. One guess what they’re getting up to. ”
At her bitter tone, I murmured, “I would think Angeline Potter wouldn’t have to put up with a cheating boyfriend.”
“Oh, we’re just casual. We’re working on a film trilogy together, and the director asked that we pretend to be more serious than we are, you know, for publicity.
But you’d think”—she pouted—“that the arsehole could get through one evening without fucking someone else. As if he’d ever be allowed to step onto this estate if it weren’t for my membership.
And he goes and fucks Lizette Mayfield of all people.
” She lowered her voice. “I will never understand how she was granted membership.”
I raised an eyebrow.
“Oh. I don’t mean to disparage your brother.
I just think he’s too kind sometimes.” She leaned forward, eyeing me in a way that couldn’t be misinterpreted.
“I haven’t seen the youngest brother, but it seems the handsome gene runs strong in the Adair men.
I met Brodan in Cannes once. He’s a rather delicious specimen, isn’t he?
I like my men broody, though.” She grinned flirtatiously.
“That American of Lachlan’s is certainly a lucky woman. Are you married?”
“No.” The word was like ash on my tongue. Not in the mood to be Angeline Potter’s distraction for the evening, I stood abruptly. “If you’ll excuse me, it will be midnight soon.”
She gaped at me, as if shocked I was giving up the chance to be with her in private. As I marched away, I heard the rustle of her dress and the click-clack of her heels as she called, “Wait for me. I don’t want to miss the fireworks.”
Wanting to run from her was completely incongruous to the way my father had raised me, so though I didn’t slow down, I didn’t run off either.
Back in the reception hall, we found many of the guests had donned coats and jackets and were making their way outside again, this time for the fireworks display. It was almost midnight.
“There you are!” Lachlan called to me from the main door. He gestured for me to hurry.
“I don’t have a coat,” Angeline whined, reminding me she was at my side. “But I don’t want to miss the display.”
The gentleman in me shrugged out of my kilt jacket, despite how irritating I found her. I placed it around her shoulders, and she clutched it, staring up at me with wonder in her big Bambi eyes.
“Thank you,” she whispered, apparently amazed. Then she grinned and looped her arm through mine to snuggle into my side.
Oh, wonderful.
Lachlan glowered at me as we approached, and I threw my brother an exasperated “I don’t know how this happened” look.
Outside, I couldn’t shake her, and as we wandered along with the guests to find a spot to stand on the driveway, I saw Robyn with my sister and Mac.
She turned and caught sight of me. Her lips stretched into a smile that faltered when she saw who was on my arm.
Her features hardened, and she glared at me as fiercely as my brother just had.
Fantastic.
Sighing, I looked down at Angeline, who now rested her head on my shoulder. How had this happened? “Don’t you want to find your … friend … before the clock strikes midnight?”
“I’m very happy where I am.” She lifted her head and squeezed my biceps. “You feel like a man. He feels like a boy. I like the difference.”
Her words struck so close to something Regan had said to me many months before that I flinched and looked away. “I’m not on the market.”
“I thought you said you weren’t married. Involved?”
“No.”
“Then I’m harming no one by keeping you company.” She squeezed my arm again. “Loosen up, darling. There’s nothing worse than standing alone at midnight on Hogmanay.”
“I’m not alone.” I looked over at Robyn, Arro, and Mac to see Lachlan had joined them. Where was Regan? I searched the crowd of guests and staff for her.
“Well, I am.”
Angeline’s forlorn tone brought my eyes back to her. She gave me a rueful, melancholy smirk. “I’m alone. I don’t want to be alone at midnight.”
As if on cue, the piper quietened the crowd with a blow of his mournful instrument. Then Lachlan’s voice boomed into the night. “Ten! Nine! Eight …”