Chapter 27
Aileana
To see Kendrick leave this morning was much harder than she imagined it would be. To say they’d grown close would be an understatement. However, they arranged to Skype each other on his downtime. It had to be enough for the time being, they had no other options.
She felt so confused about what was going on with her feeling on their relationship. She wanted to say the three little but important words to him. Aileana just wasn’t able to get the words to leave her lips. She knew in her heart Kendrick was nothing like the men in her past.
Her history with men was poor. She’d fallen so fast for the wrong type of men, and now that she was with a male of worth, her heart was guarded. What in the holy mother of Eros did he mean “make ye mine?” Was she hoping he meant to be together, as in a committed relationship? He spoke of them as bonded and life mates. He said his brain turned to porridge when they were having sex; well hers appeared to turn to mush when she tried to think about being in love with Mr. Seal, Selkie, whatever.
From what Kendrick told her of Selkies, it would appear that Meghan Trainor’s song, All About That Bass seemed to fit most circumstances. As her song said, it was all about some “booty,” as in getting some ass for most Selkies. Even Kendrick acknowledged that Selkies were known to have many human lovers, but seldom took a human as a life mate. Was she going to be fighting off her jealous inclinations because other females would be drawn to Kendrick’s Selkie beauty? She knew it was her own insecurities triggering the jealousy. But someone in her past had stomped on her heart, and it was awfully hard to trust again. Trust is especially hard to give; especially if one had feelings for a creature known to have the catnip effect on humans.
She thought she’d have plenty of time in the next month to think about her feelings in regards to her Selkie. She needed to finish up the article and get it off to her editor, figuring she would be able to get it done by tonight and email the article in the morning. She’d thought of writing her next article about the sea life off the Scottish coast. Since their salmon dinner last evening, she thought she would do a piece about the commercial salmon farming that began in Scotland in 1969. She’d read in 2002, over 145,000 metric tons of farmed Atlantic salmon was produced. She thought a salmon farming article would be of interest to quite a few people.
She needed to make a phone call to her sister Adaira. Aileana had emailed Adaira and mention she wanted to talk. She would place the call at six p.m. tonight, which would make it ten a.m. Los Angeles time. Adaira said she would be available at ten in the morning her time, and it would work for her now that her Mr. Seal wasn’t around to distract her.
All day she’d been looking forward to the time to talk to Adaira, or as their family and friends sometimes called her, Dare. Namely, they had a lot to catch up on. When it was nearly six there, she got all comfy on the couch and ready to catch up with the news on her family. She wondered what they had been up to since she left the California, and she wanted to talk with her sister about the new man in her life.
Adaira picked up the phone on the second ring. “Hey, Aileana, it’s so good to hear from you! I’ve missed you.”
“Dare, I’ve missed you, too. What’s happening on the Pacific coast? How are you and the family hanging?”
“We’re all doing great, so enough about us. So how’s Seanmhair doing, and have you met any yummy men?” She said it all in a rush.
“Cool your jets and I will tell you everything. Seanmhair is doing wonderfully.” She laughed.
“Well! I can tell by your tone something is going on out there.”
“Yes, Dare, I met someone…kind of.”
“What do you mean kind of?”
“Well, I don’t know if you remember when I was fourteen, I met a guy named Kendrick when we were visiting Scotland for the summer?”
“That doesn’t ring a bell. Wait! Wait a minute. Are you talking about the older, college-aged guy who gave you the pink pearl?” she replied.
“Yeah, he is older than me.” As she thought Yeah, he is a lot older than even Seanmhair, but Adaira doesn’t need to know that detail. “We kind of bumped into each other at the pub,” she explained to Adaira, who certainly didn’t need to know about her swimming with Mr. Seal, she thought.
“Well, possibly I will have time to meet him if you’re still seeing him; I’ll be flying out to Scotland after the first of the New Year,”
“It will be wonderful to have you out here, what brings you out to Scotland?”
“I don’t want to jinx it, but a job I hope to get. I will tell you more when I arrive.”
“I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you and your job.”
“I fly out for a visit after the New Year, no matter what happens. However, I have some fun plans set up for the two weeks before the end of the year.” The excitement was evident in Adaira’s voice.
“What’s going on in SoCal?”
“Well, for starters, one of my friends has the use of her parents’ home on the beach in Playa Del Rey. Her parents are on location in Canada for two months, so it’s party time. Her father starts filming some creature feature. Then after a week at the beach, all of us girls are going to Las Vegas for the big blowout on New Year’s Eve. Then a few days later I fly out to Glasgow and then drive on up to Durness.”
“Wow, you’re cramming in a lot in a short time, but it sounds fun. Are you getting a car to drive up to Durness?” Aileana asked.
“The job I hope to be starting said someone will be available to drive me up north. I will go to a final interview close to Durness. I have been online with the company; this will be the face-to-face meeting.”
“I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you, and I can’t wait to have you fill me in on the job!”
“Thanks, Aileana, I can’t wait to visit with you and have you fill me in on Mr.Wonderful. Take care and see you soon. Love you.”
“Love you too, bye.”
Oh, shoot, I forgot to ask about Mom and Dad! I will have to call them later. When Seanmhair is not busy, that way she will be able to talk to Dad and they can get some visiting done over the internet.
Finally, she got the article finished and sent to her editor. He seemed pleased with the piece and said he looked forward to the next article on the salmon industry in Scotland. Now that she had talked to her sister, she wondered what type of job she was interviewing for up in this area of Scotland. She had her degree in geology. She had taken a course over the summer, but hadn’t wanted to tell her about until after she finished them. Aileana had no idea if they were related to her geology degree, or if it was some fun course that had to do with her love of photography. She guessed she would find out once Adaira came out for her interview.
She couldn’t wait for that evening to Skype with Kendrick. She wanted to let him know the news that her sister would be in Scotland at the start of the New Year. Adaira had remembered who Kendrick was from the past, but they had never met in person. She wanted them to meet and get to know each other. Kendrick was important, and she wanted her sister to see why she was crazy about him.
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All too slow the time had dragged by. It had only been three weeks since Kendrick had gone back to the rig. She thought for the tenth time that day, Holy Eros, this has turned into the longest three weeks ever! They’d Skyped each other when he was off his work shift. The video chats were the next best alternative to actually being in his arms. She would hate to think of not being able to see his handsome face. Even on the video calls, she could view those soulful eyes, and his sinful grin, and it helped with her loneliness, somewhat. Part of her melted inside with each call. She tried not to let him observe just how needy she felt without him. She swore to herself that he must be using his Selkie magic on her; it couldn’t be normal to fixate on someone this much. Besides being the most handsome man she’d ever met, he kept her laughing with his wicked sense of humor.
His stories of his and Duncan’s pranks on each other were just too hilarious. Kendrick always seemed to have some interesting tale to share with her. Aileana loved hearing about their childhood and the trouble they gave their parents. Kendrick must have been a handful, but the stories he told about Duncan made Kendrick sound like a saint. She was sure Kendrick and Duncan’s mother would say something like her mom would say. Her mother often told Adaira and Aileana, “You both gave me every gray hair on my head.” Yeah right! As if their mom would ever be seen with a gray hair; so, in essence, they truthfully never believed her.
There were four more days until Kendrick got off the rig. She kept sensing a feeling something wasn’t right. Every time she talked to him things were going well with his work. But she had an eerie feeling or premonition about something. She had always had premonitions off and on since she was a child. It came as feelings that something wasn’t right. The forewarnings were never specific, in turn, just vague feelings that got stronger as time got closer to an event. As her mother would say, it was a “gut feeling.” Unfortunately for her, her “gut” didn’t work so well on her own personal relationships. Like when she needed to bail on some dirtbag she’d dated, she guessed it was like the old saying: love is blind. Not that she felt Kendrick wasn’t true to his word. This sensation was something else she couldn’t put a finger on.