11. Isla
ISLA
“So, you’ve got Locke and Ranger on the slide together?”
“Yes, with the leash tangled around Locke’s legs,” I said to Weston as his shoulders shook. His face was already red from laughing as I recounted the story of how Locke ended up crammed in the playground tower with an exuberant six-year-old and a one-hundred-and-ten-pound dog.
“I just managed to get that giant mutt to the bottom of the slide when Aisling comes flying down behind us,” Locke said, arms waving as he demonstrated her speed. “Those little feet go straight to the kidneys.”
“And then we all fell on the ground!” Aisling announced as if it was the best thing that had ever happened to her. She sneakily slipped Milo a piece of chicken under the table.
“Oooh,” Lena said from the other side of Lochbrae’s massive dining table.
When we’d showed up to drop Aisling off at the end of the day, Weston and Lena had insisted I stay for dinner, and Aisling had immediately started recounting the day down to the tiniest detail.
“You really put Uncle Locke through it today.”
Aisling tipped her head, fork pressed to her lips. “Ranger wanted to slide.”
“I don’t know that he did,” Locke said. “I think there might have been some miscommunication there.”
I chuckled at the flat look on his face, though I knew that girl had him wrapped around her finger. There was no reality where Locke wasn’t climbing into that tower today.
Lena’s eyes flickered in my direction. “Please tell me you got pictures of some of that?”
“Every precious moment,” I assured her.
“Eat your beans,” Weston said, turning to Aisling. “Don’t just push them around your plate.”
She pouted and stabbed one. “I don’t like the green ones.”
“You can’t waste good beans,” Locke said to her, eating a forkful of his own. “You never know which ones might be magic.”
Aisling perked up, leaning across her plate to be sure she’d heard him right. “Magic?”
Locke nodded. “Hasn’t anyone told you the story of Jack and the beanstalk?”
Her eyes widened. “No! Who’s Jack?”
“Finish your beans and then we’ll talk,” Weston said, smirking at Locke.
Aisling ate them so quickly Lena had to beg her to slow down so she didn’t choke.
“Speaking of the beans,” I said. “Please tell Agnes everything is delicious.” I’d never once been disappointed by anything that woman had cooked, and after the busy day, I especially appreciated a home-cooked meal.
“I’m all done!” Aisling announced proudly. “Can you tell me about Jack now?”
Weston stood and Aisling darted to his side, staring up at him with so much adoration it made me wish I’d brought my camera.
It amazed me how perfectly Weston, Lena, and Aisling fit together as a family.
The way Lena watched the two of them, a soft smile on her face, I suspected she thought the same.
My stomach dipped, and I thought briefly of the family Locke and I were building.
“Say goodnight to everyone,” Weston was saying, “and I’ll tell you a tale of a beanstalk that stretched far above Lochbrae.”
Aisling gaped at him. “Bigger than the castle?”
“Straight to the clouds.”
Lena opened her arms for a hug as Aisling dove at her. “G’night.”
“Night, sweetheart,” Lena said, kissing the top of her head.
Aisling darted to me next. “Night-night, Auntie Isla. Night, Uncle Locke. Thanks for babysitting me. I had so much fun.” She leveled Locke with her most serious expression. “But next time we need to do our nails, okay?”
“We will absolutely do manicures,” Locke promised. “See you in the morning.”
Weston snagged Aisling around the waist, hiking her into his arms and carrying her off to the stairs. We could hear her giggling all the way to the second-floor landing.
“So, how’d the inspection go?” I asked, picking up my water glass.
“Honestly, as good as we could have hoped,” Lena said, finishing her cod. “A few things got flagged by the inspector, but thankfully nothing unexpected.”
“It’s always nice when there are no surprises,” Locke said.
Lena hummed in agreement. “We’ve got a few months until the next inspection. That’s plenty of time to put all our issues in order.” She glanced across the table at me. “Thanks for keeping Aisling today. I know it’s a big ask when you’ve got people coming and going from the inn.”
“She’s no trouble,” I insisted. “Really. Plus, I had Maisie with me today to help turn over the rooms, and Locke was a big help while I did the afternoon check-ins.”
“I still don’t know how you managed to get out of manicures,” Lena said, pointing a finger at him. “I’m impressed.”
He laughed. “I introduced Aisling to the wild world of poker while Isla was busy. She’s a card shark, by the way.”
Lena’s face fell. “You did not. She’s six.”
“Of course not,” he reassured her. “We played go fish. She still cheated though.”
“That’s Weston’s doing,” Lena said, shaking her head in exasperation. “We’ve started Sunday night board games and one of them is always leaving the table in a huff. They’re both too competitive for their own good.”
I grinned as Lena recounted a story of a cutthroat Monopoly game that ended with everyone being put in time out. By the time she was done, she’d finished her wine, and we relocated to the library with a platter of Agnes’s millionaire shortbread.
Though there was no need to fake anything here, Locke crowded in next to me on the loveseat. My pulse skipped when he placed his hand on my knee briefly, leaning over to pick up the napkin I’d dropped.
Lena picked up a piece of shortbread, playfully wafting it around. “I swear this is like a homing signal for him. Watch.”
Weston walked into the library a moment later, looking perplexed as we all laughed. His expression brightened when he saw the dessert. He came right to Lena, nibbling at the piece in her hand. Milo ran up beside him, looking for his own treat.
“Aisling asleep?” she asked.
“Yes, but she’s requested magic beans for Christmas,” he said.
Locke snorted. “It’s summer.”
Weston gave him a pointed look. “That gives you plenty of time to source said magic beans since this was all your doing.”
“Hey,” Locke argued. “I’m the one who got her to eat her vegetables. You’re welcome for that moment of sheer brilliance.”
“Who’s been talking up that ego of yours?” Weston joked, looking at me.
I held my hands up, pleading innocence. “Don’t look at me. Though I do admit that being able to negotiate with a six-year-old is pretty impressive.”
Locke shot me a crooked smile, and a flash of heat shot straight through me, turning my insides molten. Calm down, girl! I reminded myself as my pulse thumped in my chest. Before your damn cheeks turn to tomatoes!
“All I know is she’s gonna be outside inspecting Agnes’s vegetable garden tomorrow for signs of magic beans,” Weston said, sinking down beside Lena and throwing his arm around her shoulders.
“Better Aisling than Bonnie in the garden,” Locke pointed out. “I’ve heard she’s been pulling up Agnes’s carrots.”
Weston rubbed his jaw. “Callum’s already put up two fences, for all the good they did. I don’t know how to stop her.”
Lena’s lips twitched. “Someone got the moment Bonnie burst through the tent at the vow-renewal ceremony on video. She drives me nuts, but it’s probably the funniest thing I’ve seen in my life.”
Weston turned his head, bussing her temple. “What would life be without Bonnie?”
“Blissfully quiet and far less chaotic,” Locke suggested.
I laughed. “I don’t know about that. I think Aisling would keep all of you here at Lochbrae on your toes, regardless.”
“She does,” Lena agreed. “But we love it. Honestly, things have been going so well with her.”
“So well, in fact,” Weston cut in, looking a little shy, a little excited, “that we’ve actually decided to start the adoption process.”
I clasped my hand to my mouth, a heady mix of happiness and joy swelling in my chest. The next thing I knew, I had tears streaming down my face. Damn pregnancy hormones!
Locke looked a little alarmed, reaching for me, his hand settling in the middle of my back as I swiped tears from my eyes.
“I’m so happy for you guys,” I said, laughing away the emotion.
Lena stood to give me a hug. “She’s such a special little girl.
She deserves to have a forever home. And you guys deserve all the happiness she brings. ”
“She certainly completes our family, and we want her to know that,” Weston said.
“How long does that whole process take?” Locke asked as Lena released me. She gave me a funny look as she sat back down.
“Nine months to a year,” Weston said, “so we’ve got a while to go. We haven’t talked to her about it yet because it’s quite an involved process—”
“And there’s always hoops to jump through,” Lena said. “You know how these things are.”
“All the best things in life require hoop jumping,” Locke said.
He caught my eye, and I wondered if he was talking about the distillery and our fake relationship or the baby.
I caught my lip between my teeth, and his eyes fell to it.
A hot flush crept across my chest, and my pulse started to race again.
He couldn’t look at me like that! Outside of the baby, we were business partners.
None of the rest of this was real…right?
“We just don’t want her to get discouraged if things move slower than she’d like,” Weston said.
“She’s been disappointed so many times in her short life, and we want this to be a happy experience.
We figure we’ll start having the conversations in a couple months, once all the legal wheels have started turning. ”
“Just tell us the moment she knows, and we’ll be there to celebrate,” Locke promised.
“You can have a manicure party,” I joked, patting his leg. I turned back to Weston and Lena. “Sounds like you guys are going to have another busy year with the adoption and camp and the wind farm.”
“And this guy wants to expand the camp!” Lena said, perking up. “He just told me yesterday.”
Weston pinched his fingers together. “Just a little expansion. I saw this amazing wildlife activity center online, and I mean, we’ve got the room.”
“You know, when we were campers, we entertained ourselves by climbing trees and flinging mud at each other,” Locke reminded him. “We didn’t need any fancy activity centers.”
“Oh, they’ll still be climbing trees,” Lena said. “Don’t worry. We can’t keep the current batch off of them. The nurse is going through Band-Aids like crazy for all the bumps and scuffs.”
“It’s a Highland camp rite of passage,” Weston said. “Except for when you get banned from tree climbing.”
I snorted. “Banned?”
Weston nodded, gesturing to Locke. “That summer when we were eleven. Don’t you remember?”
Locke pursed his lips, shaking his head. “Not ringing a bell.”
“Now I know you’re lying,” Weston said, huffing a laugh. “There’s no way you’ve forgotten getting yourself stuck in a tree. The firefighters turned up with lights and sirens.”
“Christ!” Locke rubbed his face. “I do remember that.” He bit his lip. “But I only got stuck because the branch broke.”
“So you kept saying.”
I grinned at Locke. “In my defense,” he said, playing down his embarrassment. “The entire camp loved getting to hang out in the firetruck all afternoon, blaring the sirens. So I actually did everyone a favor.”
“At the expense of being banned from climbing trees for the rest of the summer.”
Locke scoffed. “From what I remember, Alistair and I used to have to boost you into half the trees because you had zero upper body strength. Having an excuse to skip out on that was probably a relief.”
“I was a footy player!” Weston cried. “Not a gymnast!”
Lena rolled her eyes, and I laughed at Weston’s indignant look before nudging Locke. “Sounds to me like you three got up to all sorts of trouble.”
“We could be bad,” he agreed, lips pursed as his shoulders shook with laughter. “Hopefully, our kid is better behaved.”
My eyes went wide the moment the word kid left his mouth. It took Locke a second to register what he’d just said, then he winced, shooting me an apologetic look.
“What did you…” Lena began, almost jumping out of her seat. She latched onto Weston’s arm. “Did you just…”
I waited for Locke to say something. There was really no backtracking now, but he’d started this, so he needed to finish it. He shook his head, huffing in disbelief. “Guess the cat’s out of the bag.”
“Yeah, we’re having a baby,” I said, giving an awkward, halfhearted wave of my hands, unsure of how the news would be received.
Lena gaped at Weston. Weston gaped at Locke. Everyone was speechless for a beat.
Then Lena was on her feet, dragging me into another hug. “You guys! This is incredible news. I’m so excited!” she squealed. “Congratulations!”
Milo barked, tail wagging at everyone’s excitement.
Weston pulled Locke into a hug. “It’s a big year for all of us, apparently.”
“We’re, uh, not making it widely known until we’re past the first trimester,” Locke said, still a little sheepish. “Just you two and Cat know so far.”
“Of course,” Lena said. “It’s our secret.” She squeezed my hands. “I can’t wait to spoil this little bundle rotten.”
“Aisling’s going to be over the moon when we tell her,” Weston said, eyebrows still hiked in surprise. “Another little cousin.”
Lena laughed. “I don’t know if she’ll be more excited about this or the adoption.” They paused, locked eyes, and laughed in tandem. “Definitely the baby.”