Chapter 18
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Ben was watching the door.
So was his son.
Cooper had been running on about all the plants and flowers they’d picked, his smile so wide it was almost contagious. Hearing how much his boy was setting his sights on Hannah gave him a strange feeling in his chest—so did knowing he needed to find a moment alone to apologize.
Depending on that reception, he was trying to decide what to do next. Show her the good stuff, Gramps had said. But would she laugh in his face? Smack him? Gramps said it wasn’t rocket science. Ben wanted to believe him.
When he heard the knock on the door, Cooper shot out of his chair with Tank trailing him.
Rising a bit stiffly out of his chair, Will shot him a look. “You ready?”
Not really. My heart is knocking against my chest. “As I’ll ever be.”
His brother arched his brow as he walked by. “Ben, your fly is open.”
He looked down and cursed as Will’s boyish laughter filled the air. It wasn’t. “You doofus,” he muttered.
As he stepped out of the family room to the entryway, he stopped in the doorway.
She’d worn a navy dress that fit her curves and stopped a few inches above her knees—one he didn’t know.
When she’d been his, he’d been familiar with every piece of clothing she wore.
New dresses on a date had always been a delightful surprise, knowing she’d loved to both tease and tantalize him. All that was different.
What wasn’t different? She still took his breath away.
Her auburn hair was curling down around her shoulders and flowing down her back.
He could see the faint tinge of mascara to her lashes, highlighting the green of them even more, one of her old tricks, she liked to say.
She’d applied a tinge of deep pink to her full lips, ones he still wanted to kiss.
There was a touch of sunburn on her nose and a new smattering of freckles.
Their gazes caught and held, and attraction crackled. He watched her chest rise with her rapid breath. She was as nervous as he. Good. Some comfort there. Cooper had hold of Hannah’s hand, he realized after finally being able to breathe again himself.
Will was talking to Neil. Then he felt a gentle hand touch his back. Turning, he found Grams there with a smile on her round, wrinkled face. Her glasses sported a smudge, a little rouge dotted her cheeks, and she’d donned a Sunday dress of pale peach.
“Come along, dear heart,” she ordered softly, taking his hand. “Good idea on shaving tonight, by the way.”
He’d been hoping Hannah would know he’d made the effort.
Gramps and Dad appeared from the study where they’d been lounging, then Reba came out in a flour-dusted jean dress. She also wore rouge and some lipstick. Everyone was clearly showing their best, as much for him as it was for Hannah.
“Well now.” Reba clapped her hands. “Let’s get this party started.”
“We brought a couple of little gifts,” Hannah said hesitantly, holding the gift bag out to Grams.
A gift? She’d never needed to bring something store-bought. A pie or side was fine, sure, but not this… “You aren’t a guest,” he bit out. “There was no need—”
“A gift is always welcome,” Grams said, squeezing his hand before stepping forward and taking it. When she looked inside, she gasped. “Oh, Hannah, you sweetheart you. Donald, come and see what this little traveler brought us.”
He strolled over in a Sunday dress shirt, black pants, and silver-plated belt buckle, his boots scraping on the hardwood floor. “Oh, Cora! She brought the MacAlister plaid.”
Ben’s throat knotted up. She had?
“All the way from Scotland too,” Gramps mused, fingering the red tartan with a blue overcheck. “You remembered a few of our ancestors bringing a tartan back from Scotland when they’d visited times past?”
“I did.” Hannah smiled as Cooper wiggled closer to see the cloth. “Of course, they spell your last name a little differently, and this is a modern pattern I didn’t remember you having.”
“We don’t.” Grams kissed her cheek, then pinched it. “You always were as sweet as you were smart. Thank you.”
“Like I said, it’s only something little,” she said shyly.
Ben was sure that if the entryway light was better, he’d see a flush spreading up her chest.
Neil thrust out his own black gift bag. “Another treasure from Scotland.”
Gramps laughed as he lifted out a bottle of single malt. “I don’t know this brand. Glen Tostaich. Did I pronounce that right?”
“Pretty close, and you’ll notice we spell it ‘whisky’ and not ‘whiskey,’ like the differences with your last name,” Neil answered, his obvious pride making his chest puff up like a rooster. “It’s from my mother’s family—the Ross family—in Speyside.”
Dad took the bottle from Gramps, testing the weight. “We like whiskey in this house, so thank you.”
“Does Tostaich mean anything particular?” Will asked.
“Aye. It’s Gaelic for the Valley of Silence. My mother likes to say it also means to make quiet, because that’s the best way to make whisky. The grain likes peace while it rests. But she’s a little fae.”
“What does that mean?” Cooper asked with a puzzled look.
Neil gave a hearty laugh. “Well, laddie, in brief, I’d say she’s in touch with the magic of nature.”
“Oh good! So am I. Hey, Dad, I’m fae. And a laddie.”
Ben shook his head in amusement as his son giggled. “What you are is hungry. I can hear your stomach all the way over here. Reba, are you ready to feed us?”
The pointed look she shot him made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. “I see we’re in a hurry to eat like usual. I’ll have Charlie carry in the last of the serving plates. Why don’t you all get along to the dining room?”
He didn’t stir from the doorway, because suddenly, he didn’t know his moves. What was he supposed to say to Hannah exactly? Welcome? With Neil at her side, he had no clue, so he simply crossed and shook his hand and thanked him for the scotch. The giant only gave him an amused smile.
How the hell am I supposed to act nice and show her the good stuff with her beau in waiting at the table?
“It was nice of Hannah and Neil to think of us, wasn’t it, Benjamin?”
Grams was putting him in his place and reminding him of his manners. “Yes, ma’am. It surely was.”
He caught Hannah’s muffled laughter. No one called him Benjamin anymore except Grams when she was feeling testy with him.
He couldn’t help but smile and look over.
Hannah was watching him. He sent her a wink to test things out and watched as her brow rose.
Only moments later, her mouth curved, which had him feeling both relieved and eager for more.
Reba must have been in the mood for matchmaking because she seated him next to Hannah with Neil on her other side.
Cooper was almost in his lap, smiling over at her.
He started to rise from his chair to change places with his son, but Reba smacked mashed potatoes on his plate. Hard. He sat the hell back down.
The faint smell of summer was on her skin from being outside along with a hint of something spicy he didn’t recognize.
Another new item for him to ask about later.
She sat a little stiffly beside him as Grams asked about her time in Scotland and all the healing she’d been doing, Dylan Prentice notwithstanding.
He listened eagerly, pushing his chair back a couple of inches so Cooper could better see.
He barely tasted the beef and pork roast Reba had served because he was so rooted in her stories. Usually, two roasts were for special occasions, and tonight the message was clear.
Hannah was back among the McAllisters.
But it wasn’t like she’d never left.
As he heard her talk about feeling like a fish out of water when she’d first arrived in Scotland, his heart grew heavy in his chest. He should have been at her side when she was trying to learn how to get around on the trams and using British pounds or even fumbling to understand what people were saying due to the strong accent.
When Neil comically demonstrated what sounded like gibberish, everyone started to laugh.
Cooper practically fell into his lap, giggling.
Ben couldn’t scare up a smile. Hearing the stories, he could imagine how much fun they’d have had together trying to figure it all out.
She’d been so brave to go on her own. How could he have cut her off completely like she meant nothing to him when he’d loved her with his whole being? Someone should rope his ankle to a saddle horn and drag him across two counties.
His throat thickened as she talked about the history and visiting the Highlands and how the mountains were as majestic as Wild Mountain, but lower to the ground and rounder.
Dad engaged Neil in a discussion about his background, and it was nothing Ben hadn’t researched himself until the subject of one of his brothers dying in a car accident came up.
He stiffened and turned in his chair, watching anguish fill the man’s face as he told them how he’d been unable to save him.
God, Ben knew the agony of almost losing Will—but he hadn’t lost him.
His own heart went out to the man. Cooper had cuddled into him, feeling the sadness around the table.
Ben had looked over to Hannah, and she was watching his reaction.
Now their deep connection made sense. They’d shared losing a sibling.
Grams patted Neil’s hand with tears in her eyes, as he was sitting next to her, and then Reba rose and started removing the nearly empty gravy boat, saying she knew some people were going to have seconds like usual.
He wasn’t one of them.
God, he’d been so wrong and such a fool. Seeing the depths of his own stupidity wasn’t rocket science either.
When Reba finally served the strawberry pies, he could barely choke down a slice. Normally, he and Will competed for who could eat more, but not tonight. His mind was on what he needed to say to Hannah and how he might have let his own jealousy make him misjudge a man so thoroughly.