“Is the cat deid?”
“Is the cat dead?” I translated.
“Aye. But it’s a saying.”
Bewildered and wondering if he really was just making phrases up now, I announced, “How the hell am I supposed to know what that means?”
He chuckled. “You would say it to someone to mean, ‘Your trousers or your hem is too short.’ ”
“You’re lying.”
“Am not.”
“Why would you ask if ‘the cat is deid’ for that?”
“If your hemline is too short it’s like a flag flying at half mast.”
Understanding dawned and I felt a snicker rise in my throat. “Like when someone dies.”
“Exactly.”
I threw my head back in laughter, tears of mirth drenching my eyes, and I heard Caleb’s soft, husky laughter join mine. “Okay, that’s funny.” I giggled. “Completely bonkers, but funny.”
“We’ve got tons of sayings like that.”
“And you all grow up saying them?”
“Nah.” He shook his head. “Most of them are from generations past. I only know them because my gran still says them.”
I thought of the last three weeks of bliss together and how although Caleb hadn’t repeated that he loved me; he showed it in his every action. At his brother’s art show in Chicago, he barely let me out of his sight, and Jamie looked genuinely pleased to see us together. Since arriving back home in Boston, we hadn’t spent a night without each other. The bathroom cabinet in my place was overflowing because of the toiletries Caleb kept there, and I had my own products littering the bathroom in his apartment. Although we were both busy with work, Caleb wanted us to come home to each other at the end of the day and I was not complaining. Not a bit.
In fact, we felt so much like a couple, I wondered if he would introduce me to his gran and the rest of his family during one of their Skype calls. I was nervous about their reaction to me after Jamie’s presumption that I was just like Caleb’s deplorable ex.
Sweeping the thought from my mind to concentrate on my guy, I smiled and leaned closer to him. It was a Saturday morning, we both had nothing to do but laze around with each other, and so far it was tremendous. “Tell me another one. One I might actually guess this time.”
“Whit’s fur ye’ll no go by ye,” he answered, reaching out a hand to draw his finger in a soft caress from the top of my shoulder down my outer arm.
I translated its literal meaning in my head and melted into his touch, realizing this wasn’t just another saying for me to guess, but one with significance for us. “What’s for you will not go by you.”
“Meaning?”
I thought of a similar saying here. “What’s meant to happen will happen.”
Caleb nodded, our gazes locked, and I felt a little breathless at the shine of love in his eyes. “See, you guessed one correctly.”
“We were meant to meet at O’Hare,” I whispered, feeling emotional because although I’d thought it at the time, I hadn’t dwelled on the fact that we had kept weirdly bumping into each other everywhere. “Meant to sit next to each other on that plane. It wasn’t just coincidence. You knowing Patrice, staying with her, her being my client, my friend, and then us meeting in Canterbury just when I was contemplating ending things. It was all meant to be.”
He pushed up off the pillow and moved over me, pressing me gently down on my back to brace himself above me. I opened my legs, caressing the back of his calf with my foot and feeling more than a spark of lust ignite through my body. “You really think that?”
“I never believed in fate until you,” I answered honestly.
Caleb studied me thoughtfully, seeming to drink in every facet of my face. “I dinnae know if I believe it was fate.”
I frowned. “No?”
“Maybe the flights, aye, and I suppose it was quite the coincidence about Patrice. But when she said your name, I could have just ignored that she knew you and went about my business. I didn’t. I pursued you. From that point on we’ve been in charge of this, Ava. When one of us stopped fighting, the other didn’t. And I know you think you fought harder than me for us, and I’m not saying that isn’t true—although you know I plan tae make that up tae you from now on—but even if my mind battled against wanting you, it didn’t always win.”
“I know that,” I said. I did. Otherwise we wouldn’t be lying in bed together.
“No.” Caleb shook his head. “I’m talking about when I left for Scotland. When I got offered the job in Boston. I talked it over with my family tae see how they’d feel about it. I knew they weren’t too keen on me leaving, but they wanted me tae do what was best for my career. And it was best for my career … but it wasn’t the only reason I accepted the job.”
My breath caught as I began to understand his meaning.
He nodded and gave me a rueful, boyish smile at odds with his ruggedness. “I couldn’t even admit it tae myself at the time … but I was addicted tae you, wee yin. And you swayed my decision tae get on that plane and come back here.”
Tears pricked my eyes as my heart filled with too much emotion, too much need and love. And guilt. “And I mentioned Leo the first night we were together again.”
“You didn’t know. Hell, I didn’t even know really. I just knew I wanted tae tear off his head and I didn’t even know him.” He lifted a hand from beside my head and followed it with his eyes as he trailed his fingertips down my collarbone, across my naked breast, and down my ribs. I sucked in a breath as desire flushed through me. “All I knew was that the thought of any other man touching you drove me crazy. Still does.” His eyes came back to mine. “You’re the first person I’ve ever wanted tae belong tae, Ava. The first person I ever wanted tae belong tae me.”
“I never thought I’d ever want that,” I admitted on a hitched breath. “But you have a habit of changing my perspective.”
He stared down into my eyes, his fierce with love and mine reflecting the intense emotion back at him.
I’d never felt more cherished, more loved, more wanted or needed as Caleb made gentle, sweet love to me that morning.
We kissed, sweet, luscious kisses that made me feel drowsy and satisfied, and then Caleb lifted his head from my lips and said, voice hoarse with vehemence, “I love you, Ava Breevort.”
I tightened my hold on him, anchored to him.
Safe with him.
Home with him.
“I love you too, Caleb Scott.”
This time his kiss was more savage, needful, and when he eventually broke it, he nuzzled his lips against my neck, rolling so I was lying sprawled across the top of him. We lay in sweet silence for a while. A silence he ended when he whispered, “You’re right.”
“About what?”
“You make it easier tae feel it every day.”
I held on to him tighter and was just dozing off when his body jerked beneath me. “What is it?” I raised my head to stare at him in concern.
He was frowning. “What time is it?”
“I don’t know. Why?” I clambered off him to reach over to the nightstand where my phone was charging. I flipped it open. “Just past ten fifteen.” I glanced back at him, watching curiously as he relaxed against the pillows.
He reached out to me. “That’s fine. Come back.”
I did, but as I crawled over him, I asked, “Why?”
“I forgot, I have a Skype call with the family at two o’clock.”
“Oh, you’ve got plenty of time,” I assured him.
“They’re looking forward tae meeting you.”
I tensed, my voice involuntarily high-pitched as I replied, “Today?”
His arms tightened around me. “That a problem?”
Glaring at him incredulously, I didn’t see any concern etched between his brows. “You could give a girl some warning.”
“You dinnae want tae meet them?”
“Of course I do!” I slapped his chest. “But meeting your family is a big deal and I haven’t even—Look at my hair!”