That is, if she wants to stay in Scotland. Something I try to not think about. There’s plenty of time to see if this goes anywhere, plenty of time to convince her to stay if it does.
“God, you smell amazing,” she says, pressing her lips to mine one last time, her hands gripping my shirt tightly.
“Thank you.” I find her hand and walk her to my pickup, where I open the door for her. When she’s situated, I grab the seat belt and hand it to her. “Buckle up, lass.” I wink and round the truck, hopping in on my side. “You haven’t driven to the Inner Sound yet, right?”
She shakes her head. “No, Dakota and I went northeast on our exploration. Isla gave us directions to a beautiful spot looking over a river valley.”
“Aye, well, you’re in for a pretty drive.” I turn the music up just enough so she can hear it. I’ve chosen one of my favorite Scottish bands, Tartanium, for our short road trip.
“Wow, really setting the mood, aren’t you?” she says over the soft hum of a fiddle taking a solo right before the drumbeat kicks in.
I smile at her. “Just trying to give you the full Scottish experience. Is it working?”
“I think the full Scottish experience will come later. Don’t you think?”
“Aye, if you’re lucky,” I say, laughing.
“I’m feeling lucky tonight.”
We spent a good hour at Campbell’s Carpentry picking out tables. There were two sets Bonnie couldn’t decide on, so we opted to mix and match them, which will give the space a more eclectic feel. With the new tables and chairs ordered, a purchase I know Maw will be happy about, we walked through Kyle for a wee bit, spent some time around the waterfront, and now we’re sitting in the Waterside Restaurant, our food ordered and drinks on the table. Smiles stretch over both of our faces as we stare at each other in the dim lighting.
“Who were the celebrities you assisted back in the States?” I ask, breaking the comfortable silence.
“My first job, I was assistant to an executive manager for a production company. The guy fired me because I wouldn’t sit on his lap when he asked me to.”
Anger rolls over me. “Seriously?”
“Yeah. He said he could really help further my career if I helped him out . . .”
“What the fuck is wrong with men?” I take a sip of my water. I didn’t opt for a beer because I’m driving, but I’m coming down with the urge to drink. “I hope you told him to fuck off.”
“I did. And then he screamed that I would never work in the industry again. Which wasn’t true, because, as you can imagine, there are a lot of awful people who need assistants, and some of them don’t care if you have a reference.”
“I could see that.” Growing serious, I reach across the table and take her hand in mine. “You’re very strong for making sure he didn’t take advantage of you.”
“Thank you,” she says quietly. “Looking back now, I think I grew to respect myself a bit more.” She smiles to herself. “You know, I never looked at it that way until just now.”
“That you grew to respect yourself?”
She nods. “Yeah.” Her eyes connect with mine. “Thank you.”
“No need to thank me, lass. You’re the brave one.”
Hell, the way she’s looking at me right now, like I’m some goddamn hero, it puffs my chest while simultaneously twisting my stomach into nervous knots. Doesn’t she realize how much strength and courage it takes to stand up to someone like her old boss? It’s a horrible and far too common situation, but the fact that she recognized her worth in that moment makes me want to plant myself firmly by her side.
“Who were the other two?” I ask.
“The second person I assisted was a basketball player’s wife, actually. She was pretty nice, but it was her rabid troll of a sister who was the problem. She accused me of hitting on the basketball player, which of course wasn’t true. For starters, he wasn’t my type—not much into the blonds.” She winks. “But I’m also more professional than that. I valued my job too much, especially after losing the first one. But alas, the wife didn’t believe me, so I was fired—yet again.”
“Sounded like a toxic environment anyway.”
“I did like Lisa, but . . . ugh, now that I think about it, she was the one who introduced us to Isabella, Dakota’s ex. Isabella was working for one of Lisa’s collaborators. So yeah, ‘toxic’ is the right way to put it. We did have some fun times, but the fun didn’t outweigh the bad—not even close. Plus, Lisa was trying to launch her own makeup line and had me test the products. Oh boy, the number of times my lips swelled from her lipsticks is too high to count.”