Gift-Wrapped in a Kilt (Hot Scots #4)

Chapter Four

Gavin fidgeted in the metal folding chair, glancing around the trailer that served as the offices of MacTaggart Construction. His sister, Calli, and her husband, Aidan, owned the company together. Aidan had made her a full partner after they got married. This morning, Calli studied him from across the metal desk, her arms resting on its fake-wood surface. The sallow light from a desk lamp darkened her flame-red hair and emerald-green eyes.

"Are you planning to answer my question?" Calli said. "Sometime this century, I mean."

"Maybe." Gavin scratched his head. "What was the question?"

Calli gave him a long-suffering look. "Why did you give Jamie a credit card she doesn't need or want instead of asking her to marry you?"

"Oh. That. Yeah." He had no frigging idea how to answer, because he had no clue why'd he'd done it. He'd meant to pull out the ring box, drop to one knee, and pop the question he'd wanted to ask for a year. Longer than a year. Almost since the day they'd met. Acid roiled in his gut at the memory of the heartbroken look on Jamie's face when he'd offered her the credit card. God, he was such a stupid, stupid jerk.

And he had no idea how to fix this. So naturally, he was asking his baby sister for help. With a mental groan, he rubbed his forehead.

"Don't groan at me," Calli said.

Okay, more than a mental groan. Damn, he couldn't control his guttural noises any more than his dumb-ass mouth.

"Tell me the truth, Gav. Do you love Jamie?"

He made a probably rude face at his sister. "Come on, C. Would I be so messed up if I didn't?"

Calli drummed her fingertips on the desk. "Is this about Leanne or Afghanistan? Or both?"

"Neither, not really."

"You're lying." Calli waved a finger toward his head. "Your ears are turning red, which always means you're feeding me a whopper."

Gavin wiped at his ears like he could make them stop screaming liar liar with their flaming-red skin. "Kid sisters are supposed to look up to their brothers, not treat them like babies."

She leaned back, hands clasped over her belly. "If you'd stop acting like a schizo infant, maybe I'd stop treating you that way. I love you, Gavin, but you're screwing up your life and I can't figure out why."

He coughed and rapped a knuckle on his thigh in a rapid-fire beat. "I — I don't know why this happened."

Calli scrutinized him with narrowed eyes, her focus so intense a tiny shiver raced down his spine. Sometimes, he felt like she could read his mind, like they were twins with a freaky connection. She was eight years younger, though. Unless their parents bought twin embryos and saved one for later, he and Calli didn't have telepathic mojo.

"I'm going to ask you a question," she said, "and I want you to say the first thing that pops into your head. No thinking, no balking, just say it. Okay?"

This sounded like such a bad idea, but he didn't have much to lose. He'd already lost the woman he loved.

"Yeah, sure," he said. "Whatever."

Calli puckered her lips, canting her head. "What are you afraid of?"

"That Jamie will get sick of me and leave." He dropped his head into his hands, groaning again, sickened by the realization. "She already did that, though. I made her do it."

"I believe that's called a self-fulfilling prophecy."

With his head in his hands and all, he didn't see her come around the desk to kneel in front of him. When her hands settled on his knees, he peeked through his fingers at her. The empathy in her expression chafed his heart. Calli didn't feel sorry for him. She didn't do pity. No, she understood his feelings better than he did.

Great . Some tough guy he was.

"I get it," Calli said, her voice as compassionate as her expression. "I was afraid too when I met Aidan. Remember? You told me, and I quote, 'love isn't rational, you've got to take a chance'. You also told me you were over your divorce, but that's not true, is it? I'm sure you thought you'd gotten past it, until you fell in love again." She tapped a finger on his forehead. "Love isn't rational, and you have to take a risk for it."

"Not fair to use my own words against me." He lowered his hands but kept his eyes downcast, unable to stomach meeting her gaze. "Besides, you're a girl. Things are different for guys."

"Uh-huh," she said. "It's different because men are so totally not self-aware. Emery says women think about their issues and work through them, but the only issues men dig into are their monthly subscriptions to Playboy magazine."

Gavin opened his mouth to spout a sarcastic retort but stopped. Calli was the smartest person he knew. Well, tied with Jamie.

A pain throbbed behind his ribs. He rubbed the heel of his hand on his chest, but it didn't alleviate the pain. Jamie. Her name was all it took to make him sick.

"Jamie deserves better than me." He blurted it out before his brain analyzed the statement. Maybe Calli and Emery were right about men and their non-self-awareness. He let his shoulders cave in and his chin drop toward his chest. "I lost my job."

"Oh Gavin, I'm so sorry. What happened?"

He hiked up one shoulder. "Downsizing. Plus, I've been kinda distracted with weekend trips to Scotland. More than enough reason for me to be first in line for the pink slip. On top of that, I spent most of my money on overseas phone calls to Jamie, presents for her, fancy dinners when we saw each other, anything I could think of to keep her happy. Not that it worked out that way."

"The tension with Jamie," Calli said. "It's been building for a while."

"Would you stop being so damn insightful? Jeez, C, let me think for myself."

Calli sat back on her haunches, arms crossed over her chest. "Then start thinking."

He rubbed his jaw because it ached like somebody had slugged him. "How can I marry Jamie when I don't have a job? No prospects, running out of money. She deserves a guy who can take care of her."

"Stop being so medieval." Calli stood, and his baby sister loomed over him in a way that made him feel weirdly small. "Jamie has a job working for me and Aidan. She can support both of you until you find a new job. Besides, all the MacTaggart men have offered to help you find employment in Scotland." She rocked forward, looming over him even more, her expression fiercer than he'd ever seen her. "You keep turning them down."

And here it came again. The brothers. Rory had semi-retired from practicing law, taking on only cases that interested him and mostly for free. Emery, Rory's wife, provided computer troubleshooting services to anyone who needed it, often at no charge. Lachlan had sold his financial consulting business because he no longer needed the money, and these days he and Erica operated a small farm. They donated fresh produce to the local schools and sold it to everybody else for whatever they wanted to pay. Aidan wasn't rich like his brothers, but he did pretty well as far as Gavin could see.

Everybody did better than Gavin was doing lately. Accepting help from Jamie's brothers — her rich, successful brothers — would make him feel like a stray dog they took in out of pity.

He wanted to get up, but Calli blocked him. Instead, he straightened in the chair and frowned up at her. "Exactly what I need, your Scottish husband and his brothers making me their charity case."

"It's not charity. You are family, and we MacTaggarts help our family."

A wave of cold sluiced through him. She'd called herself a MacTaggart. That made Gavin the last living member of the Douglas clan. With their parents gone… Their cousin, Tara, had married too and joined another family. He was alone.

Calli stepped aside, chewing her lower lip. "Gavin? Are you okay?"

"No, not even a little bit." It was the most honest thing he'd said all day.

"Find Jamie. Talk to her."

He pushed up out of the chair, shaking his head. "You were right, C. I have no goddamn idea what I'm feeling or why. I can't work this out with Jamie, if it can be worked out, until I sort out my own shit."

Calli laid a hand on his arm. "Can I help?"

Gavin rolled his eyes heavenward. "I need therapy from my sister. This keeps getting better."

She nudged his arm with her fist. "You're still my hero, Gav."

He grunted.

"My advice stands," she said. "You should talk to Jamie today. Let her know you'll be sticking around instead of flying back to America tomorrow."

"Since when am I sticking around?"

Calli grinned. "Since I told you to."

"You sure have gotten snarky since you married Aidan. I think he's a bad influence." Gavin swung his arms and clapped his hands together. "I can't afford the hotel anymore, so —"

"Oh please, like that's an insurmountable problem. You can stay with me and Aidan, or with Lachlan and Erica, or…" Her smile turned impish. "You could stay with Emery and Rory."

Gavin threw his hands up. "Uh-uh, no way, no how. Rory would probably sneak a rattlesnake into my bed."

"There are no rattlesnakes in Scotland."

"He'll find something else awful and excruciatingly painful to kill me with, then." He raised one hand to silence her impending comment. "And I'm not staying with Lachlan or Aidan either. Lachlan hates me almost as bad as Rory does, and you and Aidan have Jamie with you."

"I'll find you a place to stay, don't worry about that." She slapped his arm. "You go talk to Jamie while I call every MacTaggart from the parents on down to the cousins."

Bunking with a MacTaggart, knowing every single one of them loved Jamie and would take her side, sounded like the awesomest plan ever. They should take her side, of course. But that didn't make it any easier for him to accept charity from them.

One thing he knew for sure. He could not talk his pigheaded sister out of an idea once she'd decided it was the plan.

"Fine," he said with all the resignation of a man sentenced to death row. "I'll go with your plan. Got any idea where Jamie might be?"

"Nope." She poked a finger into his chest. "You get to call Rory and ask him."

Yep, this day just kept getting better.