CHAPTER 9

SOPHIE HAD FALLEN ASLEEP WEARING her green dinosaur onesie, with a pink tutu on top. She had a shark motif swim cap tugged onto her head and ski gloves on her hands. Isobel grinned at her unconscious three-year-old. She was never quite sure what she would find when she went in to check at bedtime. As soon as the light was out, Sophie dressed in what she thought was appropriate for bed, and it was never what Isobel had put her to sleep in.

After softly closing the door on the bedroom she shared with her daughter, Isobel knocked on her son’s door. There was a grunt, which Isobel took to mean “come in”. Jack was sitting on his bed, his headphones around his neck and his tablet computer in his hands. He’d retreated to his room after dinner, once Isobel had explained that Callum would be spending the night. He hadn’t said a word to her since.

“You still in a huff?” Isobel wished he would still let her kiss him goodnight and ruffle his hair the way he’d done when he was little.

“About your boyfriend moving in?” He gave an exaggerated shrug. “Why would I be upset about that?”

“It’s not like that. He’s only going to stay tonight to make sure we’re safe.”

“The same way he made sure you were safe when he jumped your bones?”

“Jack!” Isobel felt her cheeks heat.

“What? I’m not allowed to talk about how some random guy might be the father of my new little brother?”

“There’s no baby. I told you that. I’m not going to explain what happened between Callum and me; that’s between us.”

“Sure. Will it still be between you two when he walks out on us, like everyone else does? Don’t know if you noticed, Mum, but I live here too. I need to deal with the crap they leave behind when they run, just like you do.”

He was breaking her heart. “I know you do. I’m really sorry that my bad judgement has hurt you. I never meant for that to happen. You know I love you, Jack, right? You’re the best thing that ever happened to me, and I wouldn’t change a second of my life if it meant you weren’t in it.”

His cheeks turned pink and he looked away, suddenly mesmerised by his computer screen. “If he hurts you, I’ll make him suffer. I’m not a little kid anymore. He doesn’t get to hurt you.”

“I know.” Isobel itched to touch him. “How about a hug?”

“No!” But he did give her a smile.

He put the headphones back in place and tuned her out, his eyes fixed on the screen in front of him.

Isobel closed the door silently and pressed her forehead against the shabby cream paint. She was screwing this parent thing up again. Who knew what sort of long-term emotional issues she was passing on to her son? And really, she couldn’t blame him for anything he said. She was a disaster as a mother. Sure, she did her best, but it was never good enough. Even she could see that. They lived hand-to-mouth, relying on her sisters for extras, like tablet computers for school and second-hand games consoles, so that her teenage son would fit in with his friends.

She turned and sat on the top step, pulling her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them. Of course Jack was upset about Callum. It was yet another man Isobel had dragged into their lives, even though she didn’t want him in it any more than he wanted to be there. She’d screwed up. Again. And her kids would suffer because of it. Again.

“What are you doing sitting up there?” Aggie called softly. “Come down here, where we have cake.”

Isobel tried to surreptitiously wipe away her tears as she painted on a fake smile. Aggie wasn’t fooled; her eyes filled with sympathy as she walked up the stairs to meet Isobel halfway.

“Don’t mind me, I’m having a pity party.” Isobel forced another smile.

“It’s going to be okay,” Agnes said as she wrapped an arm around Isobel.

“Jack’s angry with me.”

“Jack is a teenager. He’s angry with everybody.” They headed down the rest of the stairs together.

“I’ve made a mess of his life. His dad didn’t even want to meet him, and then I married Rob thinking he’d make a good father for Jack. How could I have been so dumb? Why am I such a terrible judge of character?”

Her other two sisters jumped up to hug her when she entered the kitchen. For a moment, the comfort of being in the middle of them all made her burden lighten. Without these three amazing women, she wouldn’t have survived.

“We’re all terrible judges of character.” Donna stroked Isobel’s hair. “It’s the Sinclair curse. We’re genetically incapable of telling a good man from a bad one.”

“It’s why the rest of us are single,” Mairi agreed. “We know if we pick someone, he’ll likely be a dickhead. You were the only one brave enough to try.”

“Dumb enough,” Isobel corrected.

“We were all fooled by Robert.” Agnes tugged Isobel out of the group hug and guided her into a chair. “We all thought he was a great guy. None of us saw the slightest indication that he was a gambler.”

“He had a good job,” Donna agreed as she placed a huge wedge of chocolate cake in front of Isobel. “He’d had it for years. We thought he was stable.”

“Plus, let’s be honest,” Mairi said as she sat down beside Isobel. “He wasn’t that good looking, and we all thought he’d be more dependable because of it.”

The sisters stared at her in stunned silence.

“What?” Mairi said around a mouthful of cake.

“We didn’t think that,” Donna said. “Did we?” She looked at Agnes and Isobel, who shook their heads.

“No, we didn’t,” Agnes said. “Why would we think the fact he was skinny and had bad hair meant he was stable and honest?”

“Because he had to work harder to be popular. Because he should have been grateful he landed someone as gorgeous as Isobel and treated her fabulously because of it. Because he had no muscle mass and wasn’t able to fight off anybody who came after him. You’d think the inability to defend himself would mean he wouldn’t get into trouble in the first place.” Mairi sat back with a triumphant smile, as though she made perfect sense.

“I worry about you,” Agnes said. “You don’t think like normal people.”

“Like you would know what normal is,” Mairi scoffed, before digging back into her cake.

“Robert wasn’t bad looking and he wasn’t skinny. He was lanky,” Isobel felt the need to point out. “He was handsome in a kind of geeky way. The way that guy who owns Facebook is handsome.”

“He is not handsome,” Donna said.

“Yes, he is. He’s handsome, but not hot or sexy. There’s a difference, trust me. I know. Jack’s father was hot. Robert was handsome in an understated way.” And Callum was sexy as hell. But she kept that last part to herself.

“Have you had your eyes tested lately?” Mairi asked with such seriousness that the rest of them burst out laughing.

“Callum McKay is hot and sexy,” Agnes said with a sneaky smile at Isobel. “Isn’t he? How on earth are you going to keep your hands off him for a whole night?”

“Oh!” Mairi sat up straight. “I nearly forgot. Jack said Isobel already had sex with Callum.”

“What?” Agnes said. “I was kidding about keeping your hands off him. Isobel?”

Isobel squirmed in her seat. “Jack didn’t say that,” she said as firmly as she could.

“That’s right,” Mairi said as her thumbs flew over her phone, “he said you could be pregnant. That Callum was shouting about you carrying his child.” She shrugged. “I guess the sex part was implied.”

Isobel glared at her youngest sister, but it was wasted on her.

“You slept with the outlaw?” Donna screeched. “When?”

“This morning,” Mairi said. “To pay for his help.”

“He wanted sex for his help?” It was Agnes’s turn to screech.

“I did not sleep with him to pay for his help!” Isobel practically shouted.

“Then why did you sleep with him?” Donna demanded.

“Because he’s hot!”

There was silence. Isobel realised what she’d said, and her face burned.

“You really did have sex with Callum?” Mairi said. “I thought Jack had misunderstood and I was winding you up.”

Isobel groaned, put her elbows on the table and dropped her face into her hands. “Kill me now.”

“Somebody should,” Agnes snapped. “What were you thinking?”

“I wasn’t thinking,” Isobel snapped back. “That’s the whole point. I wasn’t thinking at all. It was a rerun of Jack’s father. Only worse. Much worse. Callum kissed me, and I didn’t have another thought until it was over.” She threw up her hands. “But what difference does it make? I thought long and hard before I married and slept with Robert, and look how that turned out.”

“You didn’t think long and hard,” Mairi said. “You married him three weeks after you met him, and he charmed himself into your pants a whole lot earlier than that.”

“We’re not talking about Robert,” Agnes said. “We’re talking about Callum McKay. A man you barely know, who you somehow still managed to have sex with.”

“You only went over there to feel him out about helping us,” Donna said incredulously.

“She felt him out, all right.” Mairi grinned.

Isobel scowled at her. “Not helping.”

“Please tell me you used protection,” Agnes said.

There was silence. It was pointless lying. She’d stutter and they’d know the truth anyway.

“You didn’t,” Donna whispered. “Are you insane?”

“How could you?” Agnes demanded. “You of all people? The poster child for teenage pregnancy? Didn’t you learn from that mistake?”

“Apparently not!” Isobel pushed back her chair and stomped to the sink. She needed a glass of water. No, she needed alcohol. But seeing as she didn’t drink, she’d have to make do with water. She really needed to start drinking.

“Wait a minute,” Donna said. “Callum could have thought about protection too. Didn’t he say something? Suggest you use something?”

“We were too busy for the topic to come up.” And didn’t that make Isobel sound like the world’s biggest tart?

“Are you pregnant?” Mairi asked.

“You can’t tell in a matter of hours,” Agnes said. “Don’t you know anything?”

“I know enough to use a condom,” Mairi said.

“Could you be pregnant?” Donna asked. “Is it possible?”

Isobel gripped the glass of water tight enough to make her knuckles turn white. “It’s possible, but not probable. The timing is off.”

“I can’t believe you did this,” Agnes said. “I really can’t.”

“You can’t believe it?” Isobel felt her temper flare. “I was there and I can’t believe it! I’m a cliché. An uneducated woman with no morals, who jumps into bed with any man who comes her way.”

“You’ve slept with three men,” Donna pointed out. “Including Callum. And the only reason you didn’t finish school is because of Jack.”

Isobel ignored her. “I’m one of those women on daytime TV. On those chat shows where they use polygraphs to find out if the boyfriend is sleeping with his best friend’s wife. I’m one of those people. I mean it. What else would you call a person who has children to three different partners?”

“Unlucky in love?” Donna said.

“A slut?” Agnes said.

“Mr President,” Mairi said.

There was a second of silence, before they all burst out laughing. Isobel sat back down at the table with her sisters and pulled the rest of the chocolate cake towards her.

“Guess I have no other choice but to wait and see if baby number three is on the way.”

“To be fair,” Donna said, “babies one and two are totally awesome.”

“There is that,” Isobel said. But she wasn’t encouraged. She knew nothing about Callum McKay, other than what he ordered at the shop, and what the rumours said about him. She didn’t know if he’d be another deadbeat dad who ran out on his kid the first chance he got. Did she even want him in her children’s life? He was sexy, and terrifying, and dangerous, but was he honourable? Probably not. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have jumped her in his hallway and he wouldn’t be hiding in Arness.

“This is a mess,” she said around a mouthful of cake.

“Aye, and it gets worse every day.” Agnes reached for the pot of tea to top them all up.

“I don’t like any of this,” Donna said. “I think we should pool our money and move away. Start again, somewhere new, together.”

“We don’t have a lot,” Mairi said, “but it would be enough to get us all settled. I’ve always fancied living in a city. You know, somewhere where there’s work and I could get a job where I didn’t talk rubbish to men online all day long.”

“You love talking rubbish online,” Agnes said. “We’d need to move somewhere cheap, though; a city would be expensive. I hear Wales is cheap. We could probably buy a whole town there for a couple of pounds.”

“Oh, I hear Welsh guys are hot,” Mairi said with a grin. “I can move to Wales.”

“Mmm, probably best if we kept away from the hot men,” Agnes said, her eyes sparkling with mischief. “Our eldest sister can’t keep her pants on. We wouldn’t want to exhaust her by providing too many options.”

“Funny, oh so funny,” Isobel said.

Isobel’s three sisters reached over and covered her hands with theirs.

“Whatever happens,” Donna said, “we’re in this together. You won’t be alone.”

“I love you guys,” Isobel said as she fought back tears.

“We know,” Agnes said.

“Aye,” Mairi said, “we love you too. Even though you’re a loose woman. Maybe one of us should spend the night while Callum is here? Just to make sure you keep your underwear on. I vote for Agnes.”

Agnes threw a tea cosy at her head.

There were four women waiting for Callum when he returned to Isobel’s house. Four women, and one very angry teenage boy. Jack Sinclair stood at the bottom of the staircase, his hands in the pockets of his jeans, and his dark eyes filled with resentment. Callum didn’t blame him one bit.

“Later,” Callum said to the boy, who nodded tersely. They understood each other.

“Later what?” Isobel’s worried gaze flicked between the two of them.

“Never mind that,” the woman beside her said. “I’m Mairi. I’m the youngest sister. And we want to know if you plan on keeping your pants on overnight, or if someone has to stay here to chaperone?”

“Mairi!” Isobel spun on her sister.

“What?” Mairi said. “I’m just saying what everyone is thinking.”

“Not me,” the one beside her muttered. “I was thinking that he looks like he could kill a man with his bare hands.” Her eyes shot to Callum’s, and she blushed. “Which is good. You’ll keep them safe. Right?”

“Donna,” Isobel said.

For a second Callum thought it was a rhetorical question, but Isobel’s three sisters seemed to be waiting for an answer. “That’s why I’m here.”

“So you’re not here to sleep with Isobel, then?” Mairi said. “Just to clarify.”

A low growling noise came from Jack, and Isobel smacked her hand over her sister’s mouth. “Ignore her. Her mouth works independently from her brain.” Still holding her sister’s mouth, Isobel gestured to the angry-looking blonde. “That’s Agnes. The only sister I have who knows how to keep her mouth shut.” She looked back at Mairi. “Stop licking my hand! Are you going to stop talking or do I have to tape your trap shut?”

Mairi nodded and Isobel removed her hand. Which didn’t make any sense, because technically she’d agreed to both options. Callum decided that mental health issues ran in the family.

“How exactly do you plan on protecting my sister and her kids?” Agnes asked. “There are lots of rumours about you. We don’t know what’s true. Are you even able to protect them?”

“I take it back,” Isobel said to the ceiling. “None of my sisters know when to shut up.”

“I was an SAS soldier. I can handle myself in an altercation. Is that enough information for you?” He kept his eyes on Agnes, who wasn’t the least bit intimidated by him. It wasn’t a reaction he came across often, and he respected it.

“Are you involved in anything illegal?” Agnes said.

“Aggie,” Isobel almost wailed.

“No,” Callum told Agnes. “Unlike you four.”

Agnes cocked her head in acknowledgment. “Do you have any criminal convictions? Are you on any watch lists? Were you kicked out of the armed forces?”

“No.”

“Kill me know,” Isobel said as she sat on the steps beside her son. “You might as well. I’m going to die of humiliation anyway.”

“Oh, get a grip,” Mairi said, “she’s only asking what we all want to know. Although there is one more question I think is important.” She looked up at Callum. “Will you take responsibility for your kid, if Isobel is pregnant, or do you plan to run like every other rat bastard we know?”

“Out!” Isobel was on her feet and storming towards the door. She threw it open and waved her sisters towards it. “Out now. He answered your questions. You don’t have to worry. Now leave.”

When no one moved fast enough, Isobel came up behind them and started shoving her sisters towards the door. They complained and shouted more questions, but Isobel was ruthless. She slammed the door after them.

“No more chocolate cake for you!” someone shouted, but then Callum heard their footsteps echo down the path.

“Interesting family,” Callum said when Isobel turned back to him.

“Don’t start.” She strode past him and into the living room, Callum and Jack following her. “This is the couch.” She pointed at it, in case he was confused. “It isn’t very big, but you’ll have to make do. There are only two bedrooms in this house. I share one with Sophie, and Jack has the other.”

“I don’t share,” Jack snapped.

That wasn’t a surprise. “The couch is fine. I’ve slept on worse.” Callum put his bag on it. He didn’t plan to sleep anyway. He planned to stay up and keep watch. He glanced around the room—it was small, with only a couch, an armchair, a wooden coffee table and a chest of drawers with a TV on top of it. Heating was a cheap gas bottle heater, which couldn’t do much to warm the place during a Scottish winter. On the walls were photos of Isobel with her kids and her sisters. They were in mismatched frames, but in each and every one, they looked happy.

“I’ll get bedding.” Isobel gave them a worried look. “Be nice to each other while I’m gone.”

Jack and Callum stared at her until she left the room, muttering about men as she went. As soon as she was out of earshot, Callum turned to Jack.

“Let’s hear it.”

“You mess with my mother, I’ll mess with you.”

Callum was impressed. The boy stated his threat as though it were fact. There was no posturing. No emotional outrage. No inflection at all. Only confidence.

“How are you going to do that, exactly? I have a lot of years and a tonne of experience on you.”

Jack’s eyes narrowed. “I’ll find a way.”

Callum nodded. He had no doubt that the boy would do exactly what he said he would. “Fair enough. I don’t intend to mess with your mum.”

“Yeah, I’ve heard that before. This time I’m big enough to do something about it.” Jack took a step closer to Callum. The boy was almost tall enough to look him in the eye, and he hadn’t finished growing yet. There was evidence of muscle building, too. In a few years, Jack Sinclair would make a formidable foe. “Don’t think you can use her for sex. She isn’t some cheap night out.”

Callum stilled. “Do people say that about her?” If they did, he was going to put a stop to it pretty damn fast.

Jack searched Callum’s eyes, looking for something he obviously found, and his shoulders relaxed slightly. “She has two kids to two fathers. Both men ran out on her. People talk.”

Callum’s fists clenched. “They talk to you?” About his mother?

Jack shrugged, like it was nothing, but he couldn’t quite keep the emotion from his face. It wasn’t nothing. It was a huge bloody deal. “I handle it. But people will talk if you’re here. And don’t think they won’t know. Someone will notice. Rumours will spread. You need to be gone before that happens.”

“I plan to be gone in the morning.” Although, for some reason, the words seemed to stick in his throat as they came out.

Jack nodded and his eyes hardened, but not before Callum saw a flash of vulnerability that reminded him that Jack was still very much a boy. “And if there’s a kid on the way?”

Callum opened his mouth to say that he’d never turned his back on a responsibility in his life. Then he remembered walking out on Benson Security and closed it again.

“That’s what I thought,” Jack sneered. “You’re just like the rest.”

There was nothing Callum could say to that. He couldn’t make promises he wasn’t sure he could keep. He couldn’t tell the kid that he was a reliable bet when he knew he wasn’t. He couldn’t offer him anything at all.

“Let’s see what the future brings first,” Callum said, and heard exactly how pathetic he sounded.

“Sure.” Jack turned away. “Whatever.”

Callum felt the boy’s obvious dismissal like a blow. He wasn’t entirely sure why Jack’s opinion of him mattered, when the opinions of most people didn’t, but he had to bite his tongue to stop from making promises he couldn’t keep. To stop from trying to convince the boy that he was a better man than he knew himself to be.

“Here you go.” Isobel walked into the room, her arms full of folded bedding, and looked at them both. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing,” Jack said. “I’m going to bed.”

He kissed his mother’s cheek, which, from the look of shock on her face, wasn’t something he did every night, and then sauntered from the room. Isobel placed the bedding on the couch, and her fingertips brushed the spot where Jack had kissed.

“You have a good boy,” Callum said.

“I know,” she whispered before clearing her throat. “I’ll show you around.”

“Good. I need to get a feel for the place. And I want to make sure the house is secured.”

“I thought you might. Do you need to go upstairs? Sophie’s asleep, but we could peek into the room if we’re quiet.”

“I want to check all the windows and doors.” He’d already noticed that she had no alarm system and that she didn’t even own a dog. The lane leading up to her house was only lit by one low-wattage orange lamp, and the path to her front door was flanked by overgrown bushes. It was a security nightmare.

“Callum.” She hesitated in the doorway. “I know you didn’t want any of this. But thank you. I mean it. Thank you for being here tonight.”

She looked so earnest and vulnerable standing there with her hair wild about her face, and that oversized purple cardigan pulled tight about her. She looked like she was drowning in the thing. Or hiding in it. And Callum had never seen a sexier sight. Without thinking about it, he took a step towards her. Her eyes went dark and the tip of her tongue flicked out to moisten her lips.

Callum had never wanted to taste a woman more than he wanted Isobel right then. Her gaze flickered between his eyes and his lips, and he knew she was thinking the same thing. He knew she was feeling the same intense pull.

“Callum?” she whispered.

For one second, it felt like time had stilled and there was nothing else in the world except him and Isobel. He knew, without a doubt, that if he kissed her right then, she would return the fire he felt burning inside of him. He knew she wouldn’t reject him, wouldn’t turn away. He knew because he could see the same desperate need in her eyes as he felt growing inside of him.

But they couldn’t.

He took a step back. There were tremors running throughout his body. The need to touch her, to take her, was so great that it almost brought him to his knees. But he couldn’t lose his mind over her. Not again.

“Show me the house.” His voice was husky and low, a declaration of what he desperately wanted, but a reminder of what he wouldn’t allow.

She swallowed hard, her cheeks flushing a pretty pink. “Of course.” Her dark eyes met his. “I… We… I mean…”

“No.” Callum strode towards the doorway, making her follow him. “Show me the house. There is nothing else. There can’t be.”

For a second, he thought she might argue. Instead, she nodded and followed him into the kitchen. Callum felt strangely bereft. He knew there was no future for them. Their brief past had been a huge mistake. And yet…and yet her soft scent had him mesmerised, and the memory of her body pressed to his, had him in agony. He suspected that Isobel Sinclair had managed something that morning that no other person had ever managed with Callum. She’d managed to get inside of him. And he was very much afraid she could never be removed.