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

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Fourteen days until Christmas. Jamie sleepwalked through her daily life, returning to work at Aidan's company, filling out paperwork and answering phone calls, pretending to be cheerful when she talked to customers though she felt her heart withering away inside her chest. How could she still breathe and walk when a dead thing had replaced her heart?

Rory insisted he was making progress on "sorting what the bastard did" to screw up her life. Gavin had been forced out of the country because of her, because she'd broken up with Trevor five years ago.

"It's not your fault," Emery told her on the thirteenth day before Christmas. "For the bazillionth time, Jamie, no one is to blame except Trevor Langley. He needs a nice, long stay in a resort for the emotionally deranged. Preferably one in Antarctica."

They sat in chairs at the kitchen table in Calli and Aidan's house. Calli occupied the chair beside Emery while Erica had taken the seat at the head of the table, directly opposite Jamie. The American Wives Club had declared they would cheer her up by whatever means necessary. Cat and Fiona, seated across from Calli and Emery, rounded out the gathering.

"Would the lot of you stop trying to make me feel better?" Jamie said. "I won't feel anything close to better until Gavin comes back."

"How about a stripper?" Calli suggested. "Ogling a naked man always improves my mood."

Erica exhaled a long-suffering sigh. "The only naked man you've ever seen is Aidan. Of course his nudity perks you up."

Rory's wife got a sly look on her face. "I'm feeling a bit down today. Calli, why don't you have Aidan come in here and strip for us."

"Ech!" Jamie exclaimed. "He's my brother, Emery. Ahmno watching him… do that."

"Neither am I," Fiona said.

"Count me out too," Cat agreed.

Emery threw her hands up in surrender. "Sorry, I forgot for a second. But I did get Jamie to do something other than moan and mope. Righteous disgust is a step up."

"It is," Erica agreed.

Disgust was the only thing that broke through Jamie's malaise. Her brothers and sisters kept eying her like she might collapse into a lump of weeping gelatin on the floor at any moment. Rory insisted she stay with Aidan and Calli instead of "haunting the castle like a forlorn spirit." Staying with Aidan and Calli hadn't helped. Sure, she had more company and less room to sequester herself in a dark corner. She got to play with baby Sarah too, but none of it helped.

She wanted Gavin.

Trevor wouldn't let her have what she wanted. Somehow, he managed to derail her every attempt to renew her passport. The paperwork got lost, repeatedly. Then it got misplaced, buried in a pile of papers on the desk of the wrong person at the Home Office. Last she'd heard, someone was reviewing her request. That had been yesterday. Even the fast-track option took a week.

Phone conversations and text messages with Gavin didn't fill in the hole in her chest. Not even when he texted her a picture of him in the kilt Rory had given him — the kilt and nothing else. The sight of his muscular chest should've bolstered her spirits, but it only made her long to have him with her, pressing that body down on hers right before he stripped off the kilt and made love to her for hours.

She cried for ten minutes after seeing the picture.

On the twelfth day before Christmas, a package arrived for Jamie. Aidan brought it to her in the living room. He didn't even smirk when he set the box on her lap.

"It's from Gavin," he said. "I'll leave you to it."

"No suggestive jokes? Or nosiness about what's in the box?"

Aidan shrugged. "I hope whatever it is makes you feel better."

Oh God . For Aidan to treat her with sensitivity meant she was worse off than she'd realized.

Tears gathered in her eyes as she ripped the tape off the box and folded back the flaps. Inside, nestled among crumpled bits of newspaper, lay a box wrapped in colorful Christmas paper. A large gift tag was attached to the box. She read the note scrawled on the tag in Gavin's masculine hand.

"Happy first day of Christmas," he wrote. "Day one is supposed to be a partridge in a pear tree, but I don't know what a partridge is or where to get one. Not sure why one would live in a pear tree, either. Instead, I got you the next best thing. Call me after you open your present."

Jamie ripped the paper off the box and tore it open. Tears stung her eyes anew as she lifted out the two items inside, a pair of plush toys, one an avocado and the other a black-and-white bird. The half avocado had a smiley face on its brown pit. She hugged the toys to her chest, burying her face in them, hoping to find a hint of Gavin's scent on them. They smelled like nothing in particular.

Still hugging the toys, she grabbed her phone and dialed Gavin's number.

"Hey, babe," he said when he answered. "Did you get the package?"

"Aye." She blinked to clear the tears from her eyes, but new ones emerged in their wake. "I love the gift. An avocado and a bird. They're so sweet, Gavin. You are so sweet."

"You hate pears, but I remembered how much you liked avocados when we had guacamole at my favorite Mexican restaurant in Minneapolis."

"Never had one before then." She petted the little stuffed bird. "What sort of bird is this? I don't recognize it."

"A chickadee. They're American birds. I see them in the tree outside my bedroom window." He exhaled a weary sigh. "Didn't think I'd be stuck in this apartment again, alone. Got used to being your sex slave."

She nuzzled the plush chickadee. "I miss you, Gavin."

"I miss you too, Jamie, so bad. Won't be long till we're together again."

"Need my slave back soon."

"Maybe later we can try phone sex. I hear it's hot."

She giggled. "Emery swears by it. She says a woman shouldn't let a man forget what he's missing when he's away."

"I know exactly what I'm missing."

The intensity in his voice made tears spring anew, and they rolled down her cheeks.

"Wish I could talk longer," he said, "but I have to get to work. Gotta pay the bills while I'm stuck here."

"You shouldn't have to work at a fast-food restaurant. It's what Trevor would want, you beaten down."

"I'm not beaten down." He paused, and when he spoke again, his voice was stronger, imbued with an iron resolve. "I'll do whatever I have to do, even scrub the bathroom floors of a burger joint where kids have barfed up chicken nuggets and fries. This won't be forever, and no work is beneath me. A job's a job. I'm fine with it."

A couple months ago, he'd been ashamed to tell her he lost his job. Now, he gladly took a menial job to stay afloat. He really had changed. Or rather, he'd rediscovered the man he'd been before his fears got the better of him.

Every day after that, she received a new gift from Gavin. He reinterpreted "The Twelve Days of Christmas" to give each day's present a new spin. For day two, he sent her two chocolate turtle candies — the kind with caramel and pecans inside — and taped each candy to the breast of a small, plush dove toy. Three French hens? He gave her three plush chickens wearing berets. Calling birds? She got four more chickadees, each holding a tiny mobile phone. Each gift came with a handwritten note from Gavin.

When she received the box for day five and read his note, she burst into tears and sobbed for fifteen minutes, until Calli found her and insisted she go out to lunch with the American Wives Club.

Five golden rings, that was day five. He gave her gold-colored plastic toy rings. The note said simply, "Only four because you get the fifth on the day we say 'I do.' All my love, Gavin."

Lunch with the girls had to be relocated from a public venue to Erica and Lachlan's house for privacy. Every time someone mentioned Gavin, she started crying again.

Gavin's gifts kept coming, but the days and the presents blurred together. Though she tried not to be a pest, each new gift made her want Gavin back more, and she had to call Rory to ask about the progress of Gavin's case.

"It's progressing," Rory said in that annoyingly even voice he used with his clients. "Relax and enjoy the holidays. All will be settled soon."

She wanted to believe him. She needed to believe him.

Every new day without Gavin eroded her belief that anything could work out.

On day eleven without Gavin, Aidan and Calli dragged Jamie out of bed at six a.m. Calli instructed her to "dress up nice" because she was going to an important meeting. Though Jamie pressed for more information, neither Calli nor Aidan would tell her anything else. They all but shoved her out the door and toward Rory's Mercedes. Rory and Emery had pulled into the driveway seconds before Jamie was ejected from the house.

Once in the backseat of the Mercedes, Jamie began firing questions at them.

They wouldn't crack either. She had no talent for wheedling information out of anyone.

Emery twisted around in her seat to glance back at Jamie. "Take it easy. This is a good surprise."

"Not in the mood for early morning surprises." And yes, she sounded a bit grumpy. She was a bit grumpy after getting ousted from her bed with no explanation. Growling out a sigh, she asked Rory, "How is the visa issue coming along?"

"Hush, Jamie."

"Don't tell me to hush, Rory. You haven't wanted to tell me one bleeding thing this whole time, so excuse me for being irritated with you."

"It's better than you crying nonstop."

Jamie sank back into the seat and glared out the window. Kidnapped by her own brother and his wife. If they were taking her for an intervention because they'd gotten tired of her melancholy mood, she'd run them over with this car.

"Here," Emery said, thrusting a plastic cup at her. "Have some coffee. It'll wake you up."

Grumbling, Jamie accepted the coffee and sipped it through the small opening in the cup's lid. Hot but not too hot. With cream. Emery knew how Jamie liked her coffee.

By the time they reached their destination, Jamie had perked up — but only a little.

Their destination turned out to be Dùndubhan.

Jamie sat forward, peering between the front seats at the castle visible beyond the windshield. "Why are we here? If you wanted me to move in with you again, you didn't need the cloak-and-dagger routine."

Rory arched an eyebrow at her.

Emery spoke. "Go inside. Your surprise is waiting in the vestibule."

"Ahmno moving until ye tell me —"

Rory covered her mouth with his hand. "For once, do as you're told without questioning it. Go inside, Jamie. Now."

"Fine," she mumbled through his hand. She swung the rear door open at the instant he removed his hand from her mouth. "You'll be paying for this later, Rory."

He smirked. The blasted man smirked at her.

Emery gave her a knowing smile.

Dear God, they were the strangest couple on the planet.

Jamie climbed out of the car and headed for the vestibule door.

It was flung open from the inside.

And there, framed by the doorway, stood Gavin.

She shrieked and bolted for the door, tackling him and lavishing kisses over every inch of his skin she could reach while suspended in his arms. He claimed her mouth, raking his tongue over hers, holding her so tight she could hardly breathe. When he plunged deep inside her mouth, she completely lost the ability to breathe or think.

When their mouths separated, and Gavin plunked her down on her feet, she twisted her head around to shout to Rory, "I forgive you."

Then she kissed Gavin again.