“I am angry with ye, Grace. I doona think there is need for explanation. ’Twas verra apparent.”
“No, believe me, there’s a great need for explanation. It’s a complicated situation.”
He made a noise that lay somewhere between a groan and a laugh. A noise that gave away just how truly hurt and angry he was. “I doona doubt that lass, but I doona wish to hear it. Goodnight.”
He shut the door.
The breeze that followed froze my face.
Chapter 14
“Good morning.” I entered Jeffrey and Cooper’s room bearing coffee and orange juice. Although I didn’t much feel like it, I couldn’t help but smile at the sight of Cooper and his dad coloring together.
Jeffrey stood as I entered, reaching desperately for his coffee. “You’re amazing. Thank you. Last night didn’t go so well, huh?”
“Why do you say that?” Setting Cooper’s orange juice down on the floor next to him, I started in on my own cup of coffee.
“Give me some credit, Grace. I know you. I know that,” he pointed to my forehead, “the large vein that runs across the top of your head bulges with you’re stressed or upset. It’s bulging big time this morning.”
“Great.” I rubbed at the vein and then stopped, knowing it would only aggravate it more. “You’re right though. He wasn’t in the mood to let me explain. I don’t know if he’ll ever be.” Waving a hand dismissively, I took a large gulp of coffee. “Just as well, I guess. It would be a bad idea to get involved. Ya know, since he lives in Scotland and we live in New York.”
“What a load of crap, Grace.”
He was absolutely right, but if I admitted that, I knew I’d get all sad and mopey. I had too much work to do for that.
“No, it’s not. It’s practical. This is a work trip, and that’s what I plan on doing today. Coop and I are going to be gone taking photos this afternoon. Want to join us?”
“No. I think I’ll hang around here.” There was an expression on his face that made me nervous. An expression that said, ‘I have definite plans, but I’d just rather you didn’t know about them’.
“Are you sure? What is there for you to do around here? You’re not planning on saying anything to Eoghanan are you? Because there’s no point. Please don’t.”
“Yeah, I’m sure. I plan on sleeping most of the day, not meddling in your dating life.”
Dating life. He said it like I usually had one. I didn’t think that one date could be considered equivalent to my having a dating life—dating incident, perhaps. “Sleep is the worst thing you could do for your jet lag. You’ll never get adjusted that way.”
He rolled his eyes. “I’m adjusted. I’m just exhausted and want to spend a lazy day doing nothing but sleeping and eating.”
“Okay, fine. Just don’t say anything to him, okay?”
“Sure thing, Grace. Sure thing.”
*
Eoghanan slept fitfully, visions of Grace’s face as her husband walked up on them kissing, floating up behind his eyelids each time he tried to shut his eyes. He thought over the events of the previous evening repeatedly, each time all of it making less sense than the last.
He’d seen it on her face, the guilt, the regret she felt at kissing him. She’d not been pleased to be seen with him. It had been his mistake really, to assume Cooper’s father was dead. He didn’t understand enough of the customs of today’s times to have another explanation for why the lass and her son would have traveled such a great distance alone.
How ironic that he would be accused of having an affair once when he was innocent only to be guilty in a different one without his knowledge. It was unfair of Grace to treat him thus, to pull him into such a situation. Surely, he’d not behaved in such a way to make her think he was the kind of man who would kiss another man’s wife.
One aspect of the evening confused him more than any other. Why had the man Grace had called Jeffrey not knocked him on his arse for placing such intimate hands on his wife? He certainly would have had it been him. Instead, the man had smiled at them both, with no show of anger in his eyes.
As if summoned by mere thought, Eoghanan opened his door to the rough knocking of the very man he’d been thinking about.
The man held the same unsettling smile. Surely it wasn’t a common thing for men to share their women so leisurely in this time. The man extended his hand toward him. Ignoring the painful pull of his shoulder, Eoghanan met the man’s hand with his own.
“Uh, hello. I didn’t get to properly introduce myself last night. Name’s Jeffrey. Do you mind if I talk to you a minute?”
“I’m Eoghanan. Aye, come in.” Eoghanan stepped aside to allow the man entry, wondering if now would be when the man might swing a fist in his direction. Perhaps he’d only refrained from doing so last night so that young Cooper wouldn’t see the altercation.