Chapter 33
Thirty-Three
FYFE
Lewis brushed his wet paintbrush over Callie’s nose and she squealed before chasing him with hers. Eilidh giggled at their nonsense, shaking her head before turning back to help me with the peel-and-stick mural.
It had been a couple of weeks since Peter Pryor’s attack. We’d postponed decorating the nursery because I wanted Eilidh to be a part of it, and I wanted her to feel comfortable in my home again.
Since her attack, a few things had happened.
The media descended on Ardnoch, attempting to hound Eilidh. Like always, Ardnoch rallied around one of their own and made sure the media felt so unwelcome, they fucked off onto the next big story only a few days later.
Walker shooting Peter had the bonus of apparently scaring the shit out of Cameron Phillips.
He’d departed Ardnoch before his week was up.
Lachlan, never one to let an abuser get away scot-free, was keeping tabs on Dr. Dick.
He’d taken a job in Edinburgh. Lachlan had put him on the radar of a journalist down there who was, as we speak, digging up enough dirt to bury the bastard, at least under the scrutiny of public opinion.
As for Peter Pryor, although his attack on Eilidh took place in Scotland, many of the charges he faced had occurred in London, so he was transferred to jail down there where he’ll await his hearing in a few weeks.
If the case goes to trial, and we’d been advised it most likely would, Eilidh would have to face the bastard again in about four or five months. We’d deal with that then.
Millie was almost eleven months old. Her Ae’s were definitely an attempt to say Eilidh and best of all, a week ago she’d started calling me Dada.
I doubt I could ever articulate how it felt to hear my child’s first word.
Or for that word to be the word that described her attachment to me.
The magnitude of it wasn’t lost on me. Though I was still scared shitless about somehow finding a way to mess up my kid, I felt a little more confident now that I could be a good father to Millie.
My daughter had settled into daycare with Regan’s team, and we’d found a routine together. Lewis’s aunt Eredine was happy to watch Millie and Harley twice a week in the evenings so I could return to instructing my tae kwon do classes that Lewis and Callie also attended.
Eilidh had returned to writing, but I knew she stopped by the daycare for hours to see Millie, which was probably why Millie had adjusted to the change so easily.
Easing Eilidh into returning to my house was a process.
We’d been meeting up at Callie and Lewis’s for dinner a few nights a week or catching up for a coffee in the village.
Last week, she agreed to have dinner at my place. Callie and Lewis were there with Harley to offer support. Eilidh had been tense, pale-faced, and I’d regretted suggesting it. However, she told me she didn’t want Peter to taint a place she’d grown to love.
I loved that she’d grown to love my home.
It kept my hope afloat that despite the lack of romantic progress between us, a future together still hovered on the horizon. I was taking it slow because she’d been through so much.
Yet looking at her now, her bruises all healed up, a smile curling her soft mouth, olive skin aglow with health as she helped me decorate my daughter’s nursery … well, it took everything within me to not order Callie and Lewis out of the room.
Eilidh’s dark curls were piled on top of her head, a few falling onto her cheeks as she moved.
She wore a tank top beneath cotton dungarees.
It shouldn’t be a sexy outfit, but the tank was short on her and I could see flashes of smooth tan skin.
I could slip through the gaps on either side and cup her delicious arse in my hands.
I swallowed hard and returned my focus to the mural.
My need for Eilidh had grown into this hunger I’d never experienced before.
I’d had time to think on why, and I assumed it was a mix of impatience to be with her now that I’d finally pulled my head out of my arse.
But maybe also to quiet the guilt that had plagued me since Peter attacked her in the house I’d sworn she was safe in.
Every time I thought about how close I’d come to losing her, I felt frozen to the bone.
I was eager to claim her, not just so we could start our lives together with Millie, but to reassure myself she was alive, that she was mine, and that I’d be there to protect her going forward.
I just wasn’t sure if Eilidh was ready.
I’d been waiting for three weeks for her to make a move.
It was only last night and this morning that I’d started to notice her looking at me again. For instance, I’d been bending over to take the lids off the paint tin for Lewis and Callie and when I’d straightened, I’d caught Eilidh guiltily turning away from ogling me.
The truth was, I didn’t know how much willpower I had left.
“Lewis Adair, you brush any more of that paint on me, and I’ll knock you on your arse,” Callie warned behind us. “Such a child.”
I glanced over my shoulder from smoothing down the mural. Lewis chuckled like a wee boy as he returned to painting.
Eilidh followed my gaze. “If you stop messing about, we might actually finish the nursery so Millie can get into it tomorrow.”
“What about the paint fumes?” Callie asked. “Don’t you have to let it air out for a few days?”
“Aye,” I confirmed.
“Still, we’ve only got the weekend.” Eilidh narrowed her gaze suspiciously on her brother. “Why are you acting like a five-year-old hopped up on Haribo?”
I stepped down from the ladder, watching Lew. He had shown up in an awfully good mood this morning. I’d just assumed it meant he’d gotten some. Lucky bastard.
As Lew stared at his wife with a secret smile, and Callie’s cheeks flushed, I saw something else pass between them.
“Wait.” Eilidh stepped toward her brother and sister-in-law and they both reluctantly turned to her. “Are you … oh my god, are you pregnant?”
Callie’s lips parted. “How … how did you know that?”
“Oh my god, you are?”
I met Lewis’s gaze, and he grinned smugly like he hadn’t just done something many men before him had. “Aye?”
He turned to Callie and she threw her hands up, accidentally brushing the wall with the paintbrush in her hand (luckily, it was the correct wall). “Well, it’s out now.”
“Ahh!” Eilidh squealed and threw her arms around Callie who laughed, trying to keep the paintbrush away from her while she returned her embrace. “Congratulations!”
I reached out a hand to Lewis; he shook it and we shared a grin. “Pleased as fuck for you, mate.”
“Thank you.” His voice was gruff with emotion before he accepted Eilidh’s hug.
“So happy for you, big brother.”
“Thanks, Eils.” He grinned at his wife over Eilidh’s shoulder. “No getting away from me now.”
Callie rolled her eyes. “You make it sound like you’re trapping me in this marriage with pregnancy.”
“No, he already did that with Harley,” Eilidh teased and I laughed.
Lewis shot me a mock hurt look.
Callie chuckled, wrapping her arms around her husband.
Lewis snuggled her close, pressing a kiss to the top of her head.
I felt a rush of envy. My attention moved to Eilidh, and I reckoned everything I felt was in my eyes because when our gazes locked, her lips parted, her eyes flaring with surprise.
“We aren’t telling anyone else just yet because it’s such early days,” Callie said. “You have to promise not to tell anyone.”
Eilidh reluctantly dragged her attention from me to her family. “Not even our parents?”
“Nor mine. Nor anyone’s,” Callie insisted. “Seriously. I’m only six weeks along. I want to get to at least twelve weeks this time before the entire village finds out.”
“I get it. I promise. Just between us. But you two need to do a better job of hiding it. Lewis is acting like a fool.”
“Uh!” Lewis’s voice went comically high-pitched. “I didn’t do anything.”
“Other than act like a kid at Christmas, which is the way you acted when Harley was born.”
He turned to me for support.
I shrugged. “Sorry, mate. Eils is right.”
“Well, excuse me for being excited I’m about to be a father again.”
Callie rubbed a soothing hand up his arm. “Just keep the excitement inside for a while.”
“You’ve no chance.” Eilidh studied her brother. “Lewis will give you away.”
“Your faith is astounding.”
Her lips twitched. “It’s adorable that you can’t hide how happy you are.”
“I am not adorable.”
Callie scoffed.
Lewis scowled. “What was that?”
She made a “you’re so cute” face. “You can be adorable sometimes. In a manly, biker sort of way.”
“What is with the roastin’?” Lewis threw his arms up. “A man finds out he’s going to be a father again and it calls for a roastin’?”
“Only when that man is absolutely adorable,” I teased, leaving the room to the sound of his insults. Shoulders shaking with laughter, I hurried downstairs to grab some bottled water from the fridge and a few snacks before returning to the nursery. I handed water and food to Callie first.
She smiled as she took them. “Thanks. I’m good, by the way. A little morning sickness like with Harley, but otherwise good. Lots of energy.” A slight flush on her cheeks was telling.
“Aw, so that’s why you’re so happy.” I handed Lewis his water and snack with a cheeky grin.
“Watch it, Moray.”
Chuckling, I turned to Eilidh. She laughed as she took her water and snack but said, “Please don’t talk about my brother’s sex life in front of me.”
“Fine, we’ll just talk about mine.” Callie grinned wickedly. “This morning, my husband woke me up with his—”
“La la la la la la!” Eilidh yelled, squeezing her eyes closed like a toddler.
We all laughed as we found a seat on the busy floor.
“Okay, let’s stop torturing Eilidh because it’s slightly torturing me at the same time,” Lewis joked. His amusement drifted off as he glanced at me. “Any word from Millie’s birth mother?”
An instant chill swept over me. “Not a word so far. Had a look into her family. Dad was out of the picture at an early age, so no reason to believe he’ll come looking for a granddaughter.
Her mum relocated to Australia and remarried a bloke in Melbourne.
There’s no one else. No siblings. No close aunts and uncles. ”
“That’s maybe why she thought she couldn’t handle raising Millie alone,” Callie offered quietly. “I couldn’t imagine raising Harley without a support system.”
Anger cut through the chill, and I gritted my teeth against it. “Your mum did it for a long time. I know you would do it if you had to.”
“Not everyone is made the same way.” Lewis sighed heavily. “From what you said about her reaction, it sounds like a messed-up situation for her.”
“So?” I scowled at my best friend. “You do not abandon your child. Ever. You compartmentalize whatever the fuck is messing with your head so you can prioritize the innocent child who is relying on you to not only keep her alive, but to make sure she knows she’s loved.”
Tension crackled between us.
I didn’t give a fuck if they thought I wasn’t being compassionate toward Pamela.
They weren’t the ones who somehow had to explain to Millie when she was old enough to understand that her real mother just didn’t want her enough to stick around.
As a kid who very much understood what that did to a person’s sense of self-worth, I hated Pamela for putting our child through that.
“Fyfe, I know—”
“Stop, Lewis.” Eilidh spoke up. Her tone was like silk over steel. “Fyfe doesn’t need to feel anything but what he’s feeling.”
“I just—”
“No. You’re a good person who wants to believe the best in everyone. But sometimes it’s more important to just have your friend’s back and let him feel what he needs to feel.” While I ached for this woman, I watched as she offered her brother a kind smile. “Just ask my therapist.”
Callie jumped on the chance to ease the tension. “Are you still seeing her?”
Eilidh nodded. I knew she’d been talking to Diana more recently. “I’d stopped checking in with her for a bit when I came home, but after the incident with Peter, I needed to talk it out.”
“Has it helped?”
“Loads.”
To my relief, Eilidh had slept in my arms that first night.
She’d drifted off easily and hadn’t woken up with nightmares.
However, there hadn’t been a repeat of the sleepover, and many nights since I’d lain awake (instead of grabbing sleep while I could in between Millie’s sleep sprints), wondering if Eilidh was sleeping or if she needed me beside her.
We chatted for another ten minutes before getting to work.
The afternoon passed quickly, and my mind kept wandering to later that evening.
Regan had offered to not only watch Millie with Harley during the day but to keep Millie overnight so I could catch up on sleep.
It was overly kind, and I’d tried not to accept the offer, but Regan and Thane had insisted.
I trusted them implicitly, so I wasn’t worried about Millie being away from me, though I hoped she wouldn’t grow fussy.
I’d made Regan assure me she’d call me to come pick Millie up if she couldn’t get her to settle.
“It’s good for you to be apart,” Regan had reassured me. “For Millie too.”
Now, with a free evening ahead, it wasn’t sleep I was thinking about.
When Eilidh squeezed past while we were trying to hang the last strip of mural, her breasts brushed my chest, and my whole body tightened. The merest touch had me reacting like a fucking teenager.
This need for Eilidh was becoming almost debilitating.
Was she ready for that, though?
Before Peter, she’d been trying to insist on casual.
The night of the attack, she seemed to suggest she was ready to commit to me instead.
But we hadn’t discussed our relationship since.
I pushed those thoughts away as we finished up for the evening. Lewis ordered pizza from Thurso and it arrived just as we put the finishing touches on the décor.
“It’s going to look amazing,” Callie opined as we sat around my dining table to dig into the food. “We’ll come back tomorrow to help you put the furniture together.”
Gratitude moved me. “I can’t thank you enough for your help.”
Lewis shrugged. “What is family for?”
My eyes caught Eilidh’s and that overwhelming feeling I got when I looked at Millie swelled beyond bearing. They were my family.
Always would be.
But I wanted to one day make it official.
I didn’t know if Eilidh read my thoughts, but whatever she saw on my face made her eyes bright and a small, sexy smile curl the corner of her mouth.