My Highland Lover (35 page)

Authors: Maeve Greyson

Tags: #Fiction, #Romance, #Time Travel, #Historical, #Scottish, #Contemporary, #General

BOOK: My Highland Lover

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“What’s going on with you?” Tall, willowy Mairi reached across the counter and gently patted Kenna’s hand. “Spill it, Kenna. You never get like this unless someone’s crossed you. What’s rubbed your fur the wrong way?”

Kenna gripped the edge of the counter so tight her knuckles popped. How could she tell her baby sisters their comfortable life was about to get put through the time-travel shuffle again? Her heart sank even lower.
How can I tell them I’m about to leave them too?

“You’ve been talking to Granny. Haven’t you?”

Kenna nodded without lifting her gaze from the yellowed countertop. “Yes, Mairi. I spoke to Granny. The two of you just missed her.” Kenna huffed out a heavy sigh. “She sends her love and said to tell you she’s very proud of both of you.”

“If that’s what she said, then why do you look like you’re about to throw up?” Mairi’s eyes widened and she suddenly sat ramrod straight. “Oh, no. Is Trulie all right? Please say she didn’t lose this baby too.” Mairi hopped off the stool and rushed around the counter to Kenna’s side.

“No…not again.” Lilia rounded the other end of the kitchen island.

Kenna waved both sisters a step back. “No. No, nothing like that. Trulie’s feeling fine and due to deliver our little niece or nephew into the world any day now.”

“Then what?” Lilia bumped Kenna with a curvaceous hip and grinned. “Did Granny tell you it was your turn to go back to the past and hook up with a sexy Highlander?”

Kenna didn’t say a word, just turned and glared at Lilia. Baby sister already knew the truth of it, and she hadn’t even needed any of her damn foretelling visions that happened to be her dominant talent as a Sinclair time runner.

“Holy shit, she did. Didn’t she?” Lilia’s mouth dropped open.

“Holy shit,” Mairi echoed.

Both sisters’ profound statements pretty much summed up exactly how she felt about the whole situation. Kenna yanked open the overhead cabinet door, reached all the way to the back of the shelf, and snaked out a dust-covered bottle of brandy. “Granny didn’t exactly put it that way, but she might as well have. You know she’s always had plans on seeing us all settled, and she never liked this point in time on the web. In Granny’s mind, thirteenth-century Scotland is the only era fit to claim as home base.” Kenna plunked the round-bellied bottle down on the counter and nodded to Mairi. “Get some glasses. I need a drink and you both will too after you hear Granny’s plan.”

“Wow. It really must be bad if you’re gonna let us drink too.” Lilia circled back around and perched on the stool. “Especially Granny’s brandy.”

“Here.” Mairi settled the glasses beside the bottle. “Are you sure you really want a drink? You know alcohol always makes you feel like crap, no matter how little you drink.”

Kenna nodded, pulled the stopper free of the bottle, and poured a generous splash of the dark-colored liquid into each of the glasses. They’d gotten this bottle when they’d accidently missed their targeted era on a practice jump and landed in fourteenth-century Italy. Granny had taken a liking to the sweet brandy, and she’d brought a bottle of it back when they’d returned home. What a jump that had been. The girls had loved Italy.

A strained moan gurgled up from her middle. “I already feel like crap.” And she did. The thought of jumping back to the past already had her stomach churning. She often wondered if something was wrong with her. She was a freakin’ time runner, for cripes sake. A Sinclair. Born into long generations of females able to skate back and forth across time anytime they pleased. Kenna downed the swallow of brandy and cringed against the burn. She was some time runner, all right. Every time she’d jumped the web, she’d vomited up everything but her socks. Kenna swallowed hard against the rising nausea already roiling with a sickly burn.
Damn.
She already felt like she was going to puke at the very thought of time running again.

“So when do we leave?” Lilia asked. She sniffed the contents of her glass, wrinkled her nose, and set it back down. “I’m not gonna drink that. It smells like cough syrup.”

“
We
don’t leave.” Kenna licked her lips and refilled her glass with an even more generous splash of Italy’s best. “I do.”

Mairi intercepted the glass just as Kenna raised it to her mouth. “No more. Not until you’ve shared what’s going on. After that, you can drink all you want and sleep beside the toilet.”

The idea of retching the night away stayed Kenna’s hand. Mairi had a point. Making matters worse by self-induced misery was not the solution. “Granny says it’s time for me to jump back. Alone.”

“She wants you to leave us? Alone?” Mairi gathered up all three glasses and set them in the sink.

“I can’t believe Granny would have you leave us.” Lilia leaned forward, propping her chin atop her fists. “What are we supposed to do without an
older adult
to make sure we don’t do anything stupid? I know we’re not considered minors anymore, but until we turn twenty-one, we’re still kind of limited when it comes to business dealings. Nobody wants to deal with a couple of kids. What if we need a loan or something to expand the shop? How are we supposed to support ourselves?”

Kenna stood on tiptoes and shoved the ancient brandy bottle back to its place on the high shelf. So much for fueling herself with liquid courage. “She says she’s sending a friend to look after the two of you until it’s your turn to jump back. Someone named Eliza. Do either of you remember Granny ever mentioning her?”

“A friend named Eliza.” Lilia straightened on the stool. The dubious look on her face said it all. Lilia didn’t like this sudden upheaval any more than Kenna. “I don’t remember Granny
ever
talking about some woman named Eliza.”

“Is she a time runner too?” Mairi leaned against the counter beside Kenna. Her dark brows puckered with a worried look and she caught her bottom lip between her teeth. Mairi struggled when it came to meeting new people, because all the Sinclair siblings had learned at a very young age that their survival depended on knowing who they could and couldn’t trust with their family secrets.

“I don’t know.” Kenna closed her eyes and bowed her head. She suddenly felt a great deal older than twenty-three years.

“How much time do we have left with you?” Lilia slid off the stool and scooped up the sweater she’d tossed across the back of the couch. She hugged the fuzzy gray garment against her chest and stared down at the floor. “I don’t want you to go. I’m tired of our family being split up across centuries. It was bad enough when Trulie and Granny jumped back.”

Kenna’s heart ached at Lilia’s words. She felt exactly the same way. “I don’t want to go either, Lilia.” She rounded the counter and hugged an arm around her little sister’s shoulders. “But Granny sacrificed so much for us. How can I refuse to go? I owe it to Granny to at least give whatever she’s got cooked up a chance. Look how happy Trulie is. Granny’s grand plan worked out great for her.” Kenna struggled to keep her tone upbeat and convincing. Quite a feat, since her spirits were currently sagging so low they could wipe out her footprints.

“We’ll be fine.” Mairi’s voice cracked with emotion and she turned away.

Kenna blinked hard against the threat of tears as Mairi ripped a paper towel from the roll and dabbed at the corners of her eyes.

“You’re right. We have to do this for Granny.” Lilia brushed the back of her hand across her cheeks and sniffed.

Kenna blinked faster and swallowed hard against the unshed tears aching in her throat. When had her two little tomboy sisters grown into such mature young women? Kenna coughed and turned away. “Well. We’ve got a week to get me ready to meet my sexy Highlander. So we best stop all these tears and be gettin’ after it.”

Lilia’s sad smile slipped a notch as one corner of her mouth trembled. “So, I guess this means I get to keep this shirt?”