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He nodded, making a slight smile. “Yes, and I appreciate all your help.”
Well. That was...good. “Do you think you could tell Andrew that for me?” She started to smile, too, but then stopped herself, remembering. “Please, just give me a good report. It really would help me with him.”
“Yes, I’ll tell him,” George said warmly. “I’ll tell Jay Astley, as well. Maybe he can do something for you.”
Jay Astley? Her pulse elevated. “Thank you. That’s...” She paused, thinking of their gentle CEO. “Did I mention that his wife recently died?”
He nodded, slowly drawing on his coat. “Yes.”
“Laura...his wife...was the person who interviewed me for this job six years ago.” Kristin couldn’t help smiling at her memory. “We hit it off right away.”
“She made a good decision hiring you,” George said.
He thought so? She snapped her head up, but he had discreetly turned aside and was wrapping a winter scarf around his neck.
Kristin turned off the electric heater. Laura’s sudden illness and then death had upset everyone. She had been the heart and soul of their little factory community. She had also been the most perceptive person Kristin had ever met.
Anybody else would’ve thrown Kristin out of her office once she’d seen Kristin’s grades and college transcript. Kristin had not been top of her class, far from it. Back then, she’d been hopelessly disorganized. Even during her scheduled interview—so important to her—Kristin had accidentally dropped her purse, and to her mortification, two packaged tampons had rolled out onto the interview table.
But Laura had been gracious to her and had looked beyond the mistake. Maybe she had been able to tell that Kristin was bright and knew what she was talking about, despite the rough nerves. In any event, she’d simply smiled and put Kristin at ease. “It would be nice to have another woman besides me in the plant offices,” Laura had said. “Tell me, what about Aura Botanicals drew you to us?”
And Kristin had relaxed enough to just be herself for the rest of the interview. Something all too rare back in those days.
Kristin blinked, coming back to the present. She bit the inside of her cheek and glanced at George. He had cocked his head and was quietly studying her.
She smiled at him. “When Laura interviewed me for this job, she asked me why she should hire me. And I actually said to her, ‘Because I’m addicted to your Red Chestnut shampoo. It makes me happy every morning when I smell it.’”
Laughing, she shook her head. “What would you have said to such a candidate? You would have run away, wouldn’t you?”
“Actually,” George said slowly, “I like that answer. If said honestly, it shows that the employee understands the company’s products. It shows a tendency to be loyal, and that’s the most important thing to me.” He swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down.
Something stirred in her heart. He looked so vulnerable and yet sexy at the same time. She pressed her palms to her sides and tried to stay calm.
“I definitely would’ve hired you,” he said quietly. The soft lilt of Scotland rolled over her. Her heart picked up and seemed to float.
“Really?” she breathed.
“Absolutely.” It was almost a whisper.
A spell hung in the air between them. Her knees weakened. She gazed at him, into his light, clear blue eyes, the color of the fading winter’s day, and she could not stop that bond that had seemed to spring up and suddenly intensify.
With a sharp intake of breath, George stared down at his watch. “Four o’clock,” he murmured. “My ride will be here soon.”
“Yes.” Flustered, she grabbed her coat. “I’ll walk you to the front door.”
He nodded to her. She wondered if he would reach for her hand. But, no, as always, he was careful not to touch her.
“Well, I guess this is goodbye, then,” he said. He kept his hands in his pockets.
“Yes. Of course,” she answered.
His phone rang, and he seemed relieved to turn away from her. “Hello, I’ll meet you out front,” he said into the phone.
She went back out to the packing area, trying not to think of him. She had wanted him to leave, after all. By now, the shipping guy had shown up and was loading the stack of boxes into his truck. Kristin signed time cards for Mindy, Jeff and Arlene, and was saying goodbye to them when George approached her, looking worried.
“I wonder if I might ask for your help,” he said.
So polite. But at least he hadn’t reverted back to scowling at her. She nodded. “Certainly, George.”
He seemed to flinch. “My, er, driver got into a small accident.” With a rueful expression, he gazed out the tall factory windows. In the light that fell over the parking lot, the snow swirled. Two inches accumulation, she judged. The fresh snowfall had amounted to more than the dusting she’d expected.
“Is he all right?” she asked.
George shrugged. “He’s not used to driving in snow. He skidded off the road and into an embankment. He called for assistance, and now he’s awaiting a replacement vehicle. They estimate two hours before he’s able to get here.”
“Oh.” She digested that information. What did it mean for them?
“Is there a taxi company nearby that I might call?” he asked, ever so polite. But she saw the worry lines on his face.
“Yes. Absolutely.” She went to the bulletin board in the break room and pulled the tack to release a worn business card, and then brought it back to George. “There’s only one taxi service in town, but they’re usually pretty reliable.”
He held the card between his fingers while he pressed the buttons for the phone number. He had large hands, the nails bitten to the quick. No rings, wedding or otherwise. She glanced up at him to see his gaze dart away from hers.
She felt warm inside, from her face to her toes. Now, that was strange. She definitely didn’t want that. A fantasy was one thing, but this...this physical attraction was reality. And it was still too dangerous—she didn’t know this man. Yes, everything had gone well so far, but...
Even if their work arrangement didn’t end tonight, she just wasn’t interested in a relationship with him. She seldom dated, and never with anyone she’d met at Aura. It just wasn’t who she was.
Frankly, these days, she’d pretty much resigned herself to the fact that she was meant to be single. The loyal employee, the quirky aunt, the want-to-be-adventurous sister. Maybe—on a good day—even the dutiful daughter. That was all that she was.
Thankfully, George Smith was leaving town. She turned away from him and marched from the packing area. She kept her hands balled in her pockets. She was far enough away that she couldn’t hear him, which was good, because the sound of his deep, low voice speaking into the phone was doing a number on her, making her body feel things she didn’t want to feel.
She busied herself by walking through the plant, checking that lights were off and doors were locked. Inside her office, she grabbed her flashlight from the shelf, along with a spare pair of mittens and a beret that she kept in one of her desk drawers. It would be a long walk home in the dark and the cold. She shut down her computer and closed up the room.
When she turned down the corridor, she saw George walking toward her. Her legs seemed to freeze. She stopped where she was, twisting the mittens in her hand.
“The taxi service isn’t willing to drive me to my hotel. The snowfall is supposed to intensify, and they don’t want to get stuck.”
“Oh,” she replied.
“Is there a diner where I can get something to eat and do some work until my ride arrives?”
“I... No.” She laughed ruefully, not able to avoid gazing into his eyes. Sky-blue. So beautiful...
She shook her head, looking away. “We’re a backwater town. All that’s open on Saturday night is a convenience mart, a seedy bar I don’t recommend, two gas stations and a twenty-four hour pharmacy.”
His countenance fell. Kristin rubbed her arms and risked glancing at him again. He really was worried. Suddenly, this was not just his problem, but their problem. They were a team, and he needed her to help him solve this.
It made her feel sick and a little anxious.
“How about if I find someone to drive you to your hotel?” she suggested shakily. Maybe her brother was home. He had a four-wheel-drive vehicle.
But her brother was like her; he tended to talk too much and inappropriate things often popped out without him intending it. “On second thought, never mind,” she said hurriedly, “I’ll take you instead.”
“No.” George shook his head. “Absolutely not. I will not have you jeopardize your safety. It’s out of the question.”
“Then...what do you propose we do?”
He set his mouth in a line. “I’ll wait in your office.”
“No, we can’t do that. Because of the alarm, you can’t stay in the factory without me being here with you.” She rubbed her trembling palms against her sides—she had no choice, really. “How about if you wait with me at my sister-in-law’s house?” Nothing could go wrong with that scenario. “My niece invited me for an early dinner tonight. We’ll sit with their family while you wait for your ride.”
“No, I don’t want to impose,” he said.
But she could tell he was being polite and cautious, refusing the invitation the same as she would have, in his place.
“Stephanie is a professional chef. To her, adding another seat at the table is a good thing. The more people who enjoy her meals, the better, as far as she’s concerned.”
He still looked dubious.
“I’ll call her now and tell her.” She had to—she couldn’t leave George out in the cold.
Holding her mitten with her teeth, Kristin took out her phone from her pocket and dialed her sister-in-law’s number. George gave her a pained expression, but he didn’t argue.
Stephanie picked up on the first ring. “Where are you? You said you’d be here at five o’clock.”
“I’m bringing a work colleague to dinner. That’s okay, isn’t it?”
George was now outright frowning at her and looking tremendously unhappy.
Kristin glanced away. “His name is George Smith, and he’s snowed in for a couple of hours until his ride shows up. I told him that he could grab a bite with us, and that it wouldn’t be a problem.”
“You’re bringing home a man?” Stephanie asked over the phone. “Our Kristin is actually bringing someone home? Are pigs flying?”
“Stop it,” Kristin murmured. George winced. She smiled gamely at him, trying not to tremble.
“You used to be fun,” Stephanie complained.
“I still am,” she whispered into the phone.
“No, I mean, you used to date. You used to like guys, and want to have a family of your own someday. You were gonna have a set of twins, remember—so they would be best friends with my kids—and we were all going to vacation together, happily ever after. I even married your dumb brother for it.”
Oh, no. Knowing Kristin’s brother, some elaborately planned prank had backfired. She glanced nervously at George. “Um, what’s he done now?”
“Nothing! That’s the problem—he’s refusing to eat my cooking. And me, a professional! You would think that after eight years of marriage, the dummy would learn.”
“What’s...going on, Steph?”
There was a pause, and when she spoke again, Stephanie’s mouth sounded full. “Actually, it’s a surprise. Ask George Smith if he likes haggis.”
Haggis? For a moment, Kristin couldn’t process the incongruity.
She glanced at George, confused. What was Stephanie talking about the Scottish dish for? Her family had never eaten or served it before, not once. From what Kristin had read, haggis was a pudding/meat kind of thing, made with sheep’s heart, liver and lungs all ground up and stuffed, along with oatmeal and onion and spices, inside a big sausage casing and served on a platter.
At least, that was what she had discovered on the internet when she’d been explaining Scottish customs to her niece Lily for the girl’s “What is Your Family Ancestry?” Girl Scout project.
And then it dawned on her. “Oh, my gosh!” Kristin squealed. “Today is January twenty-fifth! You made haggis for Lily, didn’t you?”
“Yes, I did,” Stephanie said. “Though technically, I prepared it for you. Maybe it will spark some sense of adventure in you and bring you back to life. The whole family is invited and we’re going to do it up—bagpipe music, toasts, songs—the works. Pretty good surprise, isn’t it?”
With a smile so big it felt as if her cheeks were splitting, Kristin suddenly remembered George standing beside her.
She stopped giggling and turned to him, her hand over her mouth.
His face had turned paper-white.
Kristin covered the phone so Stephanie wouldn’t hear her. “You know exactly what holiday tonight is, don’t you, George?”
* * *
WORSE AND WORSE. That’s how his day was going. He was in a section of Hades reserved for liars. Or at least, for imposters who were required to take security names as part of their jobs.
Malcolm bit his tongue, hard, not for the first time today, and probably not for the last time, either.
Kristin was right about one thing: he knew damn well what “Rabbie Burns” night was.
January twenty-fifth. Every year, a countrywide supper held in honor of the birthday of Scotland’s national poet: Robert Burns. Malcolm had been out of the country and away from home for so long, he hadn’t been to a Burns event since he was...
Ten years old. Exactly.
Damn it. He should’ve anticipated this. Kristin was obviously obsessed with his home country, romanticizing it like many women did.
The reality was, his home country just wasn’t that damn romantic to him. Not in his experience.
“Have you ever eaten haggis?” he made sure to say in his best American accent. “Because I haven’t. It sounds horrible. No offense to your sister-in-law.”
“Seriously? You’ve never tried it?”
“Seriously. I’ve never tried it.”
She smiled at him. “Then I guess you’ll have to come along and try something new tonight,” she teased.
Obviously, Kristin trusted him more than she had earlier. Her reticence had left her, and this was not good, for either of them.
What was she doing, believing in him?
Don’t, he wanted to tell her. But if he confessed to her what he was really doing visiting her company, then he would violate the terms of his agreement.
You have to make the hard choices, Malcolm.
Really, he had no choice.
CHAPTER THREE
MALCOLM STRODE BESIDE Kristin in the early darkness, his mood matching the light. Snowbanks lined the sidewalk. It was so frigid cold outside that the hard-packed snow crunched underfoot, and his breath made puffs of air as he walked.
They’d left the mill building and were cutting through the middle of what passed for a downtown—a New England-style town green surrounded by shops, shuttered tight, and old homes, typical of the region. It reminded him of the remote village in New Hampshire where he’d first been sent to prep school as a boy, which only depressed him further. He hunched his shoulders in his coat as they passed through a section of street without lamplights. Malcolm pulled his torch from his pocket and turned it on.
“You carry a flashlight with you, too?” she asked, breaking the silence.
“Everyone should.” If trouble warranted it, the heavy barrel could double as a weapon. He never went anywhere without considering the security implications.
She showed him her flashlight. Smiling sheepishly, she said, “Not everyone understands it, but a person has to protect themselves.”
Something they agreed on. Still, he thought of his sister who was about Kristin’s height, though slighter. He couldn’t see her bashing anyone over the head with a piece of metal. Too bad.
“Did somebody teach you to carry that?” he asked her.
“Yep, my brothers.”
He rubbed the back of his neck. “Ah...will they be present this evening?”
Passing beneath a streetlight, he noticed the dimple form in her cheek. “We may be blessed with their presence, yes.”
Lovely. At least his luck was predictable.
Within another block, they were at her family’s house, a multistory, clapboard Victorian. They climbed a set of stairs to a big wraparound porch. Stamping her feet to warm them, Kristin pulled a key from her coat pocket.
“You have a key to your sister-in-law’s home?” he asked.
“I live in the apartment upstairs. My brother and sister-in-law own the house, and I rent space from them.”
Interesting. Living here was safe, he supposed. “You have a short walk to work.”
“I do.” She smiled at him. Her hair was tucked inside her beret, and she looked...pretty. The fur from her collar framed her face, and her soft, green eyes gazed up at him. It made him ache.
He had too many secrets to keep from her. He only hoped he endured the night without incident. If he kept himself aloof from her and did not let himself care about her or her predicament once he left, then he would do fine.
“I have one thing to ask of you, George—please don’t hold me responsible for what my family might say or do tonight,” she pleaded, her hand on the doorknob.
He blinked. “Why? Are they likely to string me up because I’m with you?”
“Not you. They like strong, silent types.”
Is that what he was? In any event, nobody would think well of him once his handiwork was made known. Kristin certainly wouldn’t.
A gust of cold wind blew by, and he hunched his shoulders against the frigid temperature. “What are the risks tonight, then?” he asked.
“Me. I’m the risk. I’m bringing someone to a family event.” She choked out a laugh, and then glanced at him helplessly. “Trust me, they would love to pair us up. And it turns out the whole clan is going to be here, not just Stephanie and Lily. So, could you please back me up—make it clear that we’re work colleagues only?”
He stared at her. There were so many things ahead that could go wrong—so many potential traps she didn’t even know about. But he could only fixate on one thing.
“Don’t you have a boyfriend?”
“No.” She shivered. “I am happily single.”
For some reason he liked that response. He smiled at her. “Then we’ll be happily single together.”
She seemed relieved. Nodding, a look of grim determination on her face, she opened the door. “One more thing,” she said, turning to him. “If you don’t like the haggis, then you don’t have to eat it.”
“I’ll be certain not to. You can count on that.”
She smiled at him, and something in his chest pinged. This wasn’t good. He was getting drawn to her despite himself.
There was a reason he’d done his best to keep his distance from her during the afternoon. But now here he was entering her private home, and it was too late to back out. “May I ask why your family is having a Burns Night? All these years I’ve lived in this country, and I don’t think anyone has ever invited me to one. It’s not well-known outside of Scotland.”
“Meet my family, and I’m sure they’ll tell you why it’s important—well, important to me, at least.”
The door was creaky, so she threw her hip into it. With a rattle of glass and a squeak of hinges, they stood inside a warm kitchen. That distinctive odor of tatties and neeps—potatoes and turnips—hit him, and he wrinkled his nose. He also noted sheep—haggis—mixed in, and he grimaced.
He’d been following behind Kristin, but she was immediately whisked away by a female rug rat. She was a shrimp of a girl, a ginger, with the wildest red hair and a smattering of freckles that he’d not seen in ages. Such a combination usually only existed on his home island.
The ginger rug rat was wearing a kilt that clashed with her features. A bright red Royal Stuart tartan, displayed outside almost every tourist shop on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile. He was having difficulty not chuckling aloud, so he squeezed his lips between thumb and forefinger.
“George Smith?” a woman asked him. He didn’t answer right away; it wasn’t registering that she was speaking to him. When it did occur to him, he turned abruptly.
And looked down. She was a shrimp of a woman, too, to match the shrimp of a daughter. Black hair, flashing eyes, and wearing a chef’s white top, checkered loose pants and kitchen restaurant clogs.
That was a relief—she was a professional. Thus, it was unlikely he would be poisoned.
The lady chef grabbed his hand and pulled him into a small butler’s pantry off to the side. And then she shut the door behind them.
Inside, with a bare lightbulb hanging from the ceiling, and rows of spices and jarred dry goods arranged on shelves, she grabbed a bottle of whisky—single malt—from a top ledge and unscrewed the cap. “A word with you, Mr. Smith,” she said, pouring them each a wee dram.
Solemnly she handed him a glass. “I know you’re an out-of-town guest, a work colleague to Kristin, but I am telling you, they are going to crucify her in there. And if you don’t support her—or worse, if you join in on the laughter and the insults—then I will personally see you pushed into a snowbank. Do you understand?”
“I...”
“Of course you do.” She smiled sweetly and raised her glass to him before slinging back the shot.
“Whoa!” she said. “That waters the eyes.”
“Er,” he said, still holding the glass of whisky, “I thought this was Kristin’s family celebrating a Burns Dinner?”
“Sure, but they’re not always an easy crowd, and definitely won’t be tonight once they figure out what kind of food I’m feeding them.” She shivered. “Trust me, I’ve known this bunch forever. Kristin was my nap partner in kindergarten. She kept me laughing so much, I never got my sleep. We were always in trouble.”
“Kristin has how many brothers?” Were they big? How many stone did they weigh?
“It has taken me weeks to find a decent haggis recipe,” she said, ignoring him, “and then, importing the ingredients and testing it in my kitchen.” She poked him in the chest. “It’s taken me a while to crack the code and make it palatable. The rest of them likely won’t touch it, but you will. You will at least try to like it for Kristin’s sake. Do you hear me?”
“I hear you.” He slugged back the whisky shot. It burned his throat like comfortable fire. “That’s good stuff,” he muttered, smacking his lips.
“Damn straight it is. I’m bringing up a little girl who’s fifty percent Scottish-American. My husband has three Scottish-American grandparents, and one Scottish grandmother, actually born in the old country. I figure that makes me Scottish by injection, and I plan to act accordingly.”
He nearly choked.
“So, you’ll play along with Kristin and me?”
Mutely, he nodded.
Thankfully, she pivoted on her clogs and stalked back to her instrument of his doom—a silver range with six gas burners, four of them currently going full throttle, shooting up vicious blue flames. He wiped his mouth and ventured out of her kitchen and into the lion’s den.
With foreboding, he glanced into the dining room, where a crowd of men stood, drinking lager from brown longneck bottles. Unless they all ganged up on him, he figured he could handle each of them, alone, judging by height and weight. One of the men looked as though he might be bigger than Malcolm, but Malcolm couldn’t be sure because the man, unfortunately, sat in a wheelchair and had a glum expression on his face.
Kristin was nowhere to be seen.
Malcolm raked a hand through his hair. She would be back soon, with the little girl in tow, he assumed, and introductions would commence. He could behave seriously and in a low-key manner, the same as he’d been doing all day.
Or...there was still time to confess to her. Pull Kristin aside and tell her his real name. His true purpose. Let her in on his thoughts about what her CEO had asked him to do. Maybe some steps she could take for herself to mitigate the fallout before anyone else knew...
It was insanity to consider it.