Chapter 32 Skye
SKYE
Irun through the station. An announcement comes over the loudspeaker that the train to London is now boarding.
Shite. I might be too late. I run faster, wishing I had my bike.
I can’t believe Miles actually likes doing this, arms pumping, legs burning.
“Fairytale of New York” plays from a band set up in the corner.
The platform is crowded. Streams of people bundled up for the weather, presents in tow, board the train. I scan for Miles but can’t find him.
My eyes keep roaming. It’s like trying to find an individual snowflake in a blizzard.
But then, through the window, I see it. That ugly purple hat Miles thinks is somehow a disguise.
He’s seated near a window, the glass tinted, turned the other way so I can’t see his face, but the window next to him is mercifully open a crack.
“Miles! Miles!”
I jump up, but I can’t quite reach the glass to knock. He doesn’t turn toward me. I’m not even sure he can hear me, or maybe he’s still upset.
“Miles, I read my mother’s journal, and do you know what I realized?
I’m terrified of change. So much has happened that’s been entirely out of my control, and I thought, well, I felt if nothing ever changes, then everything would be fine.
If nothing ever changes, nothing can get worse.
Then you came, and everything changed. You really did change my world, but for the better. ”
People are turning to look. My cheeks grow hotter than they already were from the exercise. A few more of the windows have come down on the train.
The train makes a loud noise just as I say, “Miles, I love you.”
Little lights on phones twinkle like stars.
I’m sure this will be all over the internet.
I think of that picture of us walking into the bookstore.
How mortified I was to see my face on YHF.
But right now I couldn’t care less. Film away.
Post it all over Instagram, TikTok, and any other social media I’m not hip enough to know about. The whole world can know.
I scream it this time to make sure he hears me. “I love you, Miles Casey.”
The train starts to pull away, and I run after it. I swear I’ve never run this much in my whole life. He starts to turn in the window. I see that bright-purple hat standing from the seat, then fiddle with the window.
“Miles, you can’t leave. I mean, of course you can, but I’m asking you to stay. We don’t have to stay here. I’m asking you to stay with me. We can decide where we want to live or how to date long distance.”
The figure in the purple hat leans out the window, and I see clearly now it’s not Miles.
It’s Minnie. She points and makes her hands into the shape of a heart. I stop, my shoulders slump, my chest heaves, my breath ragged. All that, and it wasn’t even Miles.
A deep voice behind me says, “We?”
I turn to see Miles standing behind me, smiling ear to ear, slightly out of breath himself, with a small crowd around us, some with phones out.
“I was trying to catch you, but you were so focused.”
I laugh. “That I was. Did you hear any of it?”
He nods. “All of it.”
He picks me up and swings me around, the world a blur of white and Christmas lights.
The crowd cheers. He sets me down, pulls me close, and we kiss.
It is a proper, knees-to-jelly, leave-the-world-behind kiss.
We would have kissed longer, but the wolf whistles from the crowd signal it’s time to find a more private location for this conversation.
The conductor announces another train arrival, and some of our adoring fans dissipate.
“Miles, don’t go.”
He shakes his head. “I’m not. Well, I do have somewhere I need to be, but I’m not getting on a train.”
“You’re not?”
“Nope. Minnie has family in London. She quit, and I was just giving her a ride.”
He pulls me closer, and I laugh into his neck. “So, I didn’t have to run after a rolling train and pour out my heart in front of a bunch of strangers?”
He shakes his head. “No, but I liked it.”
“You liked it? Do you see how many bloody people I just yelled like a nutter in front of…”
He kisses my neck behind my ear, and I let my sentence trail off. He takes my hands in his. “I loved it. I love you. You’ve changed my world, too.”
I smile. “Coo-Coo-Ca-Choo, babe.”
We kiss, and the train station falls away. Nothing exists but this man and his lips, his smoky-sweet scent, and his broad chest. After an eternity, yet not long enough, our lips part. He smiles his most charming smile. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Miles, I love you.”
Miles’s hand feels solid and strong in mine as we make our way into the pub. We returned the rental car and took my dad’s Jeep all the way to Fort Augustus, but as much as I pester him, Miles won’t tell me what we’re doing.
“Is it a good surprise?”
Miles laughs. “Of course it’s good. Why would I keep something bad from you?”
I nod. He wouldn’t. I know that. The pub is a cute brick house right across from the Caledonian Canal. We enter, and a couple with matching silver hair waves from the corner. Miles waves back and squeezes my hand.
“Miles Casey,” the woman says, adjusting her heavy cardigan. “As I live and breathe.”
Miles holds out his hand to shake, but the woman pulls him into a hug.
The older man with her laughs. “Let the boy go, Isla.”
We all laugh at this. Introductions are made around, and we all order pints.
After a good fifteen minutes pass, I start wondering what we are doing here.
Who are these people to Miles? I’m just about to ask how they all met, when Isla pulls out a set of keys, the bright-yellow keychain catching the light shimmering through the windows, and passes them across the table.
“Here ye are. I hope you enjoy it as much as we have over the years.”
My mind is trying to sort through what’s going on, but I can’t quite catch up. I look at Miles. His smile is luminous. He hands me the keys. I look down at them in my hand, a glittery sunshine hanging off the chain along with two small house keys. “Miles?”
“I bought you a house.”
Isla nods. “Paid a pretty penny for it, too.”
The older gentleman finishes his beer and stands. “Come on. Let’s give these two some privacy. It’s not every day a man buys a woman a house.”
We say our goodbyes, and Miles walks them out, thanking them the whole way out the door.
He comes back and sits.
I’m still in shock. “You bought me a house?”
“More specifically, I bought you Somewhere Only We Know.”
My heart blooms. It’s one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever stayed.
I picture Miles and me making dinner, starting a fire, gazing out at the stars while snuggled up on the couch.
But he keeps saying he bought it for me, so maybe he doesn’t plan on being there a whole lot.
My face must look as confused as I feel.
Miles reaches out and smooths the wrinkle in my brow.
“There’s quite a bit of land that comes with the house.
We could probably build an addition, or I was thinking we could build another, smaller house as a writing office for you.
There’s room for a garden, too. I thought…
Well, I was hoping…we could stay there together when I’m in Scotland.
I’ll still have to go back and forth for work, and you’ve made it clear that Scotland is your home.
I don’t want to try to change you. I just want to be with you, whatever that looks like for us. I love you, Skye.”
The last words sink into my skin, like submerging myself in a hot bubble bath. I sigh and close my eyes. “Would you mind saying that last part again?”
I hear Miles move in his chair, and then his breath is hot on my ear. “I love you, Skye Ainslie.”
I open my eyes and turn my face to Miles and kiss him.
When we part, I say, “I’m more open to the idea of travel than I was before.”
“You are?”
I nod and look down at the keys. I hold them up and jangle them. “Let’s go now.”
Miles nods. “I have one last scene to shoot for the film, not tomorrow but the next day, so we’ll have to be at the castle by then.”
“Sure, but then if we want, we can go right back?”
Miles nods.
A warm smile melts over my face like butter on toast.
The sun is setting by the time we make it to our new house. I get out of the car, and Miles sweeps me off my feet and carries me over the threshold, with some complicated one-handed juggling to unlock the door.
We hardly even shut the front door before we tear each other’s clothes off, the sky awash in pink light out the windows behind us.
Miles runs his hands down my back and whispers in my ear, “I love you.”
I can’t hear it enough. It’s as rich and decadent as a form-fitting ball gown but also feels as cozy and everyday as my softest blue sweater.
I try explaining this to Miles as I’m lying on the rug in front of the wood stove, the throw blanket from the couch wrapped around my shoulders.
Miles is making a fire, and I’m trying not to take over.
“So, our love is your ratty old cardigan?”
I shake my head. “No, well, sort of—hey, it’s not ratty. It’s well-worn.”
He laughs, putting another log on the fire. “You’re the writer, so I’ll leave the analogies to you. Oh, I read your book. Did Elsie give it back to you?”
My heart hammers in my chest. I wanted to ask about the book the whole way here.
I’m dying to know what he thinks, but I also didn’t want to be the one to bring it up.
Since he hadn’t mentioned it yet, I am almost certain that he hates it.
He probably didn’t connect with the characters.
Story of my life. Particularly gutting, seeing as he is basically one of them.
“She did. It’s just a first draft. I still have a lot of work to do, fleshing it out—”
“I loved it. It’s warm and funny but also cutting and emotional. Just like you.”