With a heavy and defeated heart, I opened the front door to the little cottage I was renting for me and Rayna. It was still fucking weird calling Rosa by a totally different name, but she was doing great with remembering to call me Cameron. She even called me Cam on occasion; she figured, she informed me, that she’d shorten it if it were my real name. Crazy kid.

There was a mouth-watering smell of baking emanating from the kitchen, and I made my way through to find Rayna putting the finishing touches to a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. It smelled amazing, but I knew why she’d made it, and it hurt like hell that I was about to let her down. I walked over and ruffled her hair before placing a kiss on the top of her newly dyed red hair. And when I say red, I mean the colour they paint mailboxes in the UK. It suited her and somehow made her eyes even more vivid blue.

“Hey, big bro. How’d it go with Kelly? Did you propose on the shore of the loch? When do I get to meet her? Is she your wee lassie now?” Her barrage of questions and terrible attempt at a Scottish accent made me smile in spite of my heartache. She was nothing if not enthusiastic about love.

But my smile soon faded. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. She’s…” I cleared my throat. “She’s marrying someone else.”

Rayna dropped the utensil she was using and flung herself into my arms. “Oh my gosh, no! That wasn’t supposed to happen. I don’t understand. You loved each other. It’s only been six months or so.”

“Yeah… but sometimes love just isn’t enough.”

She pulled away and glared at me. “You’re wrong. Love is always enough. Take that back.”

I shrugged as the weight of the realisation that I had lost Kelly forever pushed down on me and my lip trembled. I fought the emotion hard. The last thing I wanted to do was break down in front of my kid sister. “Not this time, Ray.”

She scrunched her brow and shook her head defiantly. “But you’ll make it work. She’ll see sense.”

I cupped her cheek and kissed her forehead. “I’m gonna go take a nap, kiddo.” I turned and walked away as she began slamming the dishes into the sink.

As I made my way up the stairs, I stuck my fingers into my pocket and pulled out the silver ring I’d been keeping there. Holding it aloft, I watched as the tiny diamonds set into the infinity symbol glinted in the light coming through the glass in the front door. It wasn’t an engagement ring. More of a promise of what I had wanted from our future. It was such a shame that Dermott had beaten me to it.

Clutching the silver band in my fist, I closed my eyes as sadness washed over me.

Dermott turned around to blow a kiss in my direction as he left. Completely daft but such a sweet guy all the same.

I twisted the ring he gave me around my finger. I didn’t deserve his love.

The day so far had been an exhausting period of discussions and difficult decisions, and I felt drained. As I stood there watching his retreating form, I spotted a young woman wearing post-box-red hair, skinny jeans, a white tank top, and bright white trainers, walking down toward my house. I glanced along at the other houses, but everyone appeared to be out, and I absently felt for the poor wee girl for having wasted a very long walk from the main road.

As I turned to go back inside, a voice stopped me in my tracks. “Kelly!”

Turning around again, I watched as the young woman jogged toward me, looking rather upset. “It is Kelly, right?”

“Yes… yes, I’m Kelly. And… who are you?” I didn’t really need an answer, as the American accent gave her away.

“My name is… um… Rayna… Rayna Iss. I’m—”

“Cameron’s sister. Yes, I figured that out, actually. What are you doing here?”

She stopped at the end of my front path and folded her arms defensively across her chest as she narrowed her eyes. “I need to talk with you.”

I nodded. “Well, you’d better come in, then.”

Surprise registered on her face as if she’d thought I would’ve sent her away. But when I stepped inside she followed me.

“Can I get you a cup of tea or coffee, Rayna?”

“Um… sure. Coffee, thanks. Your accent’s cute.”

I smiled. “Thanks. So is yours.”

We walked through to the kitchen, and I gestured for her to sit. She glanced at the table for a moment, still appearing to have doubts about my reaction toward her. She sat and folded her arms once more. “He never stopped thinking about you.” Blunt and to the point.

I kept my back to her and prepared the mugs before me. “Yeah. He said that when he came to see me.”

“He thinks he’s not worthy of you. He just gave up because he thinks that the other guy is more your type.” With the way she said your type I could imagine her making little air quotes, and I smiled to myself. “But the truth is, Kelly your type is whomever you’re in love with. And you’re in love with my brother.”

And crack went my heart. She was right.

She heaved a frustrated sigh and slapped her hands on her thighs. “When Melody got pregnant, he always said he’d never marry her. Did you know that? He loved her. Of course he did. He adored her and took care of her like she was some fragile little doll. But marriage? Nah… that wasn’t something he could ever see working for him. Even she wasn’t enough to make him want that kind of commitment. But you. Whole other story. You were the one exception to that rule. Marrying you is something he wanted even though he couldn’t admit it to you. And the reason he couldn’t admit it is because he still feels he’s not good enough for you. The criminal biker and the shrink. It’s not what happens in real life, you know?”

I slowly turned to face her as my stomach dropped. I’d had no idea about that particular fact. He hadn’t told me that he hadn’t wanted to marry Melody. As far as I was concerned, she was the love of his life and I was second fiddle to anything he had ever felt for her.

I carried the two mugs across to the table and with shaking hands I placed them down as carefully as I could. “He… he wasn’t going to marry Melody?”

She snorted. “Nope. I was so damned angry with him over the whole thing. He’d been such a player before her. A different woman every night. Leaving ‘em begging for more. It was disgusting. Truly. But you can’t choose your family. And I do love the bastard. Then he met Mel and he seemed to change. Seeing him being monogamous was weird. And boy, did Mel come in for some shit from his other hos. But all that said… he wouldn’t do the marriage thing. Insisted that no woman would convince him otherwise.” She tentatively sipped at her steaming coffee and stared at my hands. I glanced down too and realised that the ring Dermott gave me looked out of place even on my right hand. As if she knew what I was thinking Rayna chimed in, “The idiot. Did Cam even give you the ring he got you?”

I snapped my gaze up to meet her vivid blue eyes straight on and opened my mouth as the words took root in my mind and echoed around my head like I was standing in the Grand Canyon. “W-what?”

“I’ll take that as a no, huh?” She placed her mug down and held both hands up in a cease gesture. “Don’t freak out, okay? He wasn’t gonna propose or anything dumb like that. Not yet anyway. He knew he had a lot of making up to do. But he wanted to show you he was committed to you. He got you this gorgeous infinity symbol ring. Infinity, Kelly.” She raised her eyebrows to punctuate her point before huffing out a long breath through puffed cheeks. “Fucking coward never even gave it to you. Shit, what an asshole my brother is, huh? How the hell are you gonna know he means business if he doesn’t go the extra mile?”

Assuming the questions were rhetorical, I stared open-mouthed, still trying to process the fact that he had bought me a ring.

A ring with an infinity symbol on it.

A bloody ring, for goodness’ sake!

“Tell me something, Kelly. Why would you marry someone else when it’s clear you’re crazy about my dumb-ass brother? I mean, if you didn’t love him you’d have told me to leave by now.”

Her words brought me back to earth with a bump. “Marry someone else?”

“Yeah. The guy who was leaving as I got here. I take it he’s the ‘perfect’ guy for you?” Yep… she did the air quotes thing. “The one that my hulking, tattooed, jerk of a brother couldn’t clean the boots of?”

What the hell did she mean that Cain… Cameron couldn’t clean Dermott’s boots? “I’m… I’m sorry Rayna I have no clue what you mean by that.”

She rolled her eyes like an errant teenager and shook her head. “Fuck, seriously? Jeez, I’m only just an adult and I see things so much clearer than you douches.” She heaved a disgruntled sigh. “Cam arrived home looking all broken-hearted. Said you were marrying some other guy. I get here and see Mr Perfect-Ass leaving and blowing you a kiss. In my head, that’s a serious two-plus-two-making-four situation right there.”

Ah. Okay, now I get it. I disappeared into my head once again, and my thoughts left my mouth before I could rein them in. “Dermott is just… so right for me.” Obviously I was still trying to process this new batch of information that Rayna had dumped on me like a heavy snowfall.

Sadness washed over her pretty features, and for a moment I thought she was going to cry. But instead she leaned across the table and squeezed my arm gently. “Look… if you really do believe that… then I wish you all the happiness in the world. I really do. I’d… I’d better go. I’m sorry to have taken up your time. I had to try though. For Cain’s sake. You understand right?”

Hearing her call him by his real name again snapped me from my daze. “Yes… of course you did. I totally understand. You’re just looking out for your brother.”

She stood and walked around the table to hug me, and my eyes suddenly began to sting as the sweet but feisty young woman held me tight.

Her voice wavered as she spoke. “It’s a shame, you know. I was kinda looking forward to having a big sister. Be happy, Kelly. Whatever you do, make sure it’s what makes you happy.” She released me from her embrace and walked away; and as I heard the front door close behind her, I began to sob.