“Then she’ll take care of herself.” He grinned at me, and I melted at his sexy, admiring smile. “She’s proven she’s more than capable.”
Eventually, after a few more reassurances and several more hugs, my mother reluctantly got into the SUV that drove her away.
“I love her … but God, it’ll be nice to have this place to ourselves.” I cuddled into North. “I can’t believe we have a whole six weeks alone before you start work.” After a few online meetings （because North didn’t want to leave me either）， he’d decided on his next project, a television show filmed in Glasgow based on a series of Scottish crime novels. Part of me wondered if North had chosen the project to be closer to me, but he promised he’d chosen it because it was the one that called to him the most. Moreover, it fit into his schedule while Birdwatcher was in postproduction for the next nine to twelve months. So there was a good year to eighteen months before North would need to do the press tour.
“And filming is only scheduled until Christmas.” North pressed a kiss to my temple. “I can’t wait.”
I grinned as we watched the SUV disappear out of sight. “You haven’t even started filming and you’re already wishing it over?”
“I’ll miss you.”
“You’ll see me every weekend.” I turned in his arms. “But let’s not think about it while we actually have uninterrupted time together.” We had the entire weekend to ourselves. “What do you want to do first?”
North chuckled, a wicked gleam in his eyes. “Oh, I can think of a thing or two.”
“Yeah?” I gently shoved him toward the door. “Then what are we waiting for?”
“I thought Sundays were for sleeping in?” I teased as I hiked behind North, who checked his phone for his bearings.
After a delicious Saturday spent mostly in bed, North had woken me up at the crack of dawn to tell me he had a surprise for me. He’d then instructed me to wear comfortable clothes and hiking boots.
Now we were in the middle of nowhere, walking through woodland.
“We’re almost there,” North muttered. “I think.”
I laughed, and he shot me a cheerful smile over his broad shoulder.
The truth was, I didn’t care where he was taking me as long as we were together. Being kidnapped and almost murdered by my ex-friend put life into perspective. I’d already decided to work my ass off to deserve North and to make sure he knew I had every faith in him. But when I saw him in Little Tokyo, his face a pale mask of terror mixed with relief, I knew there was no one else in the world I wanted to find me whenever I got lost.
Somehow, having never fired a gun before, I hit Caitlyn in the shoulder. She lived but has been charged with kidnapping and attempted murder. The district attorney concluded that Caitlyn should be hospitalized, and if she responded well to treatment, she would face a lengthy prison term.
I hoped she got better, for her sake. I truly did. However, I felt safer knowing that if she did improve, she’d go to prison.
It was hard to keep the story out of the press, and I found myself caught up in a media storm all over again. Thankfully, North could handle it and we had Ardnoch to retreat to on the days I felt like I couldn’t.
I still woke up in the middle of the night from nightmares, and North always woke up with me. He held me while I tried to fall back asleep. The nightmares bothered him as much as they bothered me, but Allegra’s therapist told me they were normal. Eventually, they would dissipate.
North had practically moved into the beach house, but Lachlan had told me a member who owned the beach house three down from us wanted to sell. I hoped to broach the topic with North. See if he would be interested in buying the house together. Of course, it was a big move, and I was totally putting myself out there by even suggesting it … but I felt brave.
Smiling to myself, I watched my handsome boyfriend as he stopped, frowned at his phone, and then looked to his left. His cheeks were unshaven, and just staring at them reminded me of this morning and the rasp of his whiskers against my inner thighs.
Heat swirled low in my belly. “Hey, boyfriend, any chance we’re lost?”
He looked at me, a slow grin lighting his face. “We’re here.” With a wink, he stepped off the path that hikers had created in the woods and started walking through the trees on our left.
Bemused, I followed and as I did, a sense of familiarity tingled through me. “Wait,” I called out to his back. “I know this place.”
Then suddenly we were out of the trees and standing in a field of purple heather.
My field of purple heather.
North turned to gaze at me, and my breath caught at the love in his expression. “I asked Lachlan where your field might be … did he get it right?”
I nodded, emotion thick in my throat. “This is it.”
He took off his backpack, keeping his eyes on me as he unzipped a pocket … and pulled out a dark blue velvet jewelry box.
Shock, joy, anticipation, love, so much love, flooded me as North dropped his backpack and walked toward me with that box in his hand.
“North?” My eyes flew to his from the box.
He swallowed nervously. “You once told me that this is where you realized you were lost and that maybe staying in Scotland would help you find yourself again.”
He remembered.
He remembered everything.
“I wanted to bring you back here because I know what it feels like to be lost.” North stepped closer to me. “I’ve been lost since I was seven years old.”
Tears for that little boy who’d had so much taken from him burned my eyes.
“Until you,” he confessed. “And I think what you felt here that day was fate. I think fate kept you here for me. To find me. So we could stop being lost together. Will you stay?” North got down on one knee and opened the box to reveal a stunning large oval diamond within a cluster of smaller diamonds set in a diamond-shaped platinum clasp. It looked old Hollywood and was so me that I was momentarily dazzled by its perfection. North continued, drawing my eyes back to his, “Will you stay found with me, Aria? Forever?”
I nodded, lowering myself to my knees. “Forever.”
Relief and joy filled North’s face and then he kissed me, hard, hungrily, our lips parting in laughter and tears, until finally he let me up for air. But only to slip the diamond on my ring finger.
“Do you like it?” he asked, caressing my finger with his thumb.
“You couldn’t have picked anything more perfect.” I reached for his face, the diamond winking in the late September sun. “I couldn’t have picked anyone more perfect. I’m so lucky you picked me back.”
North closed his eyes as if in sweet agony before resting his forehead on mine. A cool breeze fluttered over our skin as birds sang the perfect engagement song. Peace, a sense of utter rightness, moved over me, and I knew North felt it too as we kneeled in blissful silence, together, connected.
Home among the heather.
Epilogue
THEO
This was Scotland for you. Only a few short hours ago, the sun had been shining, glinting off the North Sea. I’d even taken a bracing walk along the private beach on Ardnoch Estate.