Love on Loch Ness

by Aubrie Dionne

  "Dr. Phillips telling us to loosen up? That's a first." Tom smirked and stuffed half a biscuit into his mouth.

  Flynn touched Gail's hand. "You're right. I'm sorry."

  She waved his apology away. But as sweet as he was, her stomach still felt like she'd done too many sit-ups. Their future loomed like a mist-shrouded forest where one couldn't distinguish the right path. More and more she feared what she'd find if she succeeded.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Shattered Hopes

  Flynn watched everyone devouring their meals with enormous satisfaction. He'd inherited his mom's talent for cooking, and tonight had given him a chance to show it off, especially in front of Gail. Although Gail ate more daintily than Blarney and Tom, she cleaned her plate and dove in for seconds, which boded well.

  Although Flynn was thankful for Tom's video recordings, he wanted time alone with Gail. They hadn't had an official end to their date the other night, which had given Flynn no opportunity to do the one thing he'd burned to do since he'd first laid eyes on her in the forest: kiss her. Tom's continual presence had impeded any progress.

  All I should be thinking about is finding Nessie. It was so hard to concentrate on work when Gail's blouse kept tickling his arm as she moved beside him. She'd said it herself, "No more talk of work." So he couldn't do anything further on Nessie that night, anyway. Might as well dream of kissing.

  "That's about all I can eat." Tom threw his napkin on his plate and unbuttoned the top button of his shorts.

  "Spak for yourself, lad." Blarney grabbed another biscuit and slathered the top with butter.

  Tom gave Blarney an appraising look. "You do what you have to, bro." He stood and belched. "Gotta get to those videos. More reviewing to do."

  "You're not going to help clean up?" Gail's jaw clenched as she gave him a motherly glare.

  Although Flynn would never call Tom out on such a trivial thing, he found it hilarious Tom's idiosyncrasies annoyed Gail. Good thing Flynn was nothing like the round-bellied lug or he wouldn't have a chance in the world with her.

  "Nope." Tom basked in the glory of his rude habits, leering at her in a come-over-and-do-something-about-it look. When Gail did nothing, he turned and paraded off, gloating.

  Gail dropped her fork and stared open-mouthed at the empty hallway. He's crossed the line.

  "Daena wirrie. I've cleaned enough dishes in me time." Blarney wiped his beard. All matter of crumbs had lodged inside it. At least he'd have enough food stored away for the next day.

  Gail put her hand over Flynn's and his skin burned with her touch. "I'll help out, too. We're not all as rude as Mr. Salmon Lover."

  "Now daena get your knickers in a twist, lass." Blarney pointed his finger in her direction. "Let me dae the honor, and you two lovebirds can hae some fun."

  Gail stiffened. "We're doing research—"

  Blarney wiggled his finger at her. "Daena try to hide it from me. I knaw love when I see't."

  Gail's cheeks reddened and she hid her mouth beneath a napkin.

  Flynn threw his own napkin on the table and took her hand. There was no sense in arguing with Blarney or sitting at the table, stewing in the awkward moment. If Flynn had to rewash the dishes in the morning, so be it.

  This was the chance he needed. "You heard the man." He turned his head and winked so only she could see it. "Let's go."

  Flynn led Gail up the stairs, wondering whose room he should head to. If he headed to his, she might not follow him and the night would be over. If he headed to hers, she might take his bold move the wrong way and kick him out.

  Decisions, decisions.

  They stopped at the top of the stairs. Thank goodness Tom had retreated to his room and closed the door. Flynn could already hear the pre-midnight snores.

  "Listen, about what Blarney said…" Gail trailed off. Her fingers danced along the banister, back and forth. She looked as though she stood on the edge of a precipice, deciding whether or not to jump. He'd have to convince her.

  "Blarney's right."

  Gail's eyes widened. Flynn placed both hands on her upper arms and leaned down so his breath touched her lips.

  "I've been waiting for another chance to be alone with you. We never properly ended our date."

  "But Tom—"

  He gestured toward the snores. Downstairs, plates clinked as Blarney did whatever he was doing to wash them. "No one's watching."

  He leaned in, and Gail closed her eyes as their lips met.

  The kiss sent him straight to heaven — white clouds, singing angels, golden harps. Her lips were soft against his and yielded when he pushed more passionately. She released a small groaning sigh and fell into his arms, her hands clutching his back.

  The chorus of "I See the Sun" broke out. Flynn thought the song was part of his imagination until Gail pulled away. She gave him an incriminating stare.

  "Not my phone." Flynn had never heard her ring tone. No one had called Gail in his presence since she'd arrived.

  A light bulb went off in her eyes, and she dug in her pocket and pulled out her phone. "I let a little girl play Angry Birds on my phone on the plane, and the girl must have changed my ring tone while I slept." Gail's face sobered as if she'd just awoken from a dream. "It's my mom. She hasn't called in over a month."

  Disappointment riled Flynn's body. He ached to kiss her again, but family was important to him, and he never let a call from a family member go unanswered. "You should get it."

  Gail nodded, brushing his chest with her fingertips. "I'll be right back." She slipped into her room, leaving the door ajar. Flynn waited in the hallway, tapping his foot with anxious energy.

  "Hi, Mom." Gail's voice resonated from inside her room.

  Flynn tried not to listen, but the only other sound was Tom's snores. He busied himself with admiring a photo hanging on the hallway wall of the lake taken by previous L-PIB researchers. Each crest of wave lured him to look closer.

  Somehow I've got to get that picture back from Tom.

  "What?" Gail's voice dropped three levels in pitch.

  Flynn whipped his head toward her room.

  "Where?" She took a quick intake of breath and her voice hitched as if she'd started crying.

  Flynn clenched his fists, wanting to be in that room with her so badly. Bad news should never be heard alone.

  "I kept holding out hope…"

  Oh gosh. Flynn's stomach dropped to his feet. Is this about her father? All of a sudden everything else that had happened that day seemed unimportant and trivial.

  "I should have gone with him. If I had, I could have convinced him to go back before it was too late."

  A long moment of silence followed and Flynn's heart tore apart. Not now. She'd been so happy just a few moments ago. Their research was going well, and their relationship had finally taken a step forward. He cursed her mother's call, even though he knew letting Gail know about her father was the right thing to do. Why now?

  Although Flynn wanted to interrupt, he knew it wasn't his place. Gail's mother must be consoling her. He'd have to wait. The question was, should he go in at all or leave her be for the night? He didn't think he could just walk away.

  "Love you, too, Mom. That's okay. I'm glad you told me. I'd rather know. No, no, no. Don't worry about me. I'll be fine."

  Gail's room fell silent. Flynn stood in the hallway in awkward indecision, mocked by Tom's snores. How could he sleep so soundly when such turmoil took place outside his room? Flynn ran a hand through his hair, trying to decide what to do. It was probably a good thing Tom was asleep, because he'd most definitely say the wrong thing anyway.

  Downstairs, dishes clanked and Blarney burst into singing the "Blue Bells of Scotland."

  "Oh whaur, tell me whaur, is your Highland laddie gane? Oh whaur, tell me whaur, is your Highland laddie gane? He's gane wi' streamin' banners whaur noble deeds are dean. And it's oh, in me heart I wish him sauf at hame."

  As crazy as it sounded, the song resonated Flynn's own s
ense of irretrievable loss. The words cut deeply, opening a wound he'd hidden under layers of cheery smiles and promises he didn't know if he could keep.

  Flynn needed Gail as much as she needed him. He stepped toward her room and knocked lightly on the door, careful not to push it open any farther if she didn't want him there.

  Gail sniffed. "Come in."

  Flynn opened the door, hoping he had the right words to say.

  Gail sat on her bed with used tissues in her lap. She gazed at him with red-tinged eyes, and the look of desolation on her face tore him apart.

  Flynn held himself together with only courage and the need to comfort her. "Bad news?"

  She nodded and took a deep breath. "They found him. I mean—" Her voice hitched. Her eyes had a glassy, faraway look. "They found his remains."

  Flynn sat on the edge of the bed, careful not to invade her space. He reached out and laid a gentle hand on her arm. "I'm sorry."

  "He was at the bottom of a cliff. The search team thinks the blizzard conditions might have blinded him, and he fell off the edge. The fall alone would have killed him." Her shoulders shuddered. "At least he didn't suffer."

  Flynn had no idea what to say, or if he should say anything at all. Instead, he just sat there with her, his thumb brushing her arm back and forth.

  "I kept hoping all those years he was still alive." She shook her head and hid her face in her hands. "I feel so stupid."

  "Listen to me." Flynn drew her hands away from her face. "Loving someone and hoping to see them again is not stupid."

  "Whenever I have faith in something, I open myself up to more hurt. I don't want to ever feel anything again." She wiped her eyes with a tissue. "I should stick to reason and fact. That way, when confronted with the truth, reality won't hurt as much."

  Flynn knew enough about cold, hard facts and how they settled in his stomach like rocks and blocked his dreams like walls he couldn't pass. "Believe me, the truth can hurt just as much, whether you're expecting it or not. It's in these dark times that you need faith, Gail. You need to believe in things greater than science and equations to rise above."

  A tear slid down Gail's cheek. She wiped it away and gave Flynn a bitter look. "He's gone. What can I believe in now?"

  "You can believe in his cause and his love for you."

  "Hah." Gail laughed sarcastically, gripping a tissue in her hand and shredding the top with her fingertips. "You want to hear what I really think? Sometimes I wonder if he had loved my mom and me more, he wouldn't have had to go out looking for mythical creatures at night. Why weren't we enough?"

  "Gail, everyone needs dreams." Flynn wrestled with a rising current of frustration tinged with fear. Did she think he was just as bad as her father? He had to remain calm to make her see through his eyes. "I know better than anyone that love for a dream takes nothing away from my love for those around me. If anything, their love strengthens my purpose, giving me the power to aim higher. I follow my dream for them."

  Gail nodded and studied the floor as if considering his words. She licked tears from her lips and breathed deeply. Long moments passed, and Flynn thought he'd lost her. She'd probably never love another man like her father again. "You have to believe your father's dreams had no bearing on his love for you, and you can't keep cursing them from taking him away from you. You have to let him go."

  Gail turned to him, shaking her head. Her chin wobbled. "I can't."

  "Yes, you can." He reached out and took her hand, pulling her close against him. "I'll help you."

  He thought she'd wiggle away from him, but instead she snuggled up, wrapping her arms around him and burying her face against his chest. It felt so good to finally hold her close and show her how he felt.

  Too bad his phone picked that instant to ring.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Cold, Hard Facts

  Flynn pulled away, breaking the bond that lent Gail such deep comfort when a black void of pain and loss threatened to swallow her whole. The insistent buzzing that had been nagging at her thoughts grew louder as he dug into his pocket and brought out his phone. "I'm sorry."

  "It's okay." Gail wiped her eyes as she waited for him to come back to her.

  Surely he's going to turn it off.

  He checked the caller and his gaze shot up to her in a desperate plea. "I have to take this."

  Gail's mouth dropped open. "Are you kidding? Right now?"

  "Yes." Flynn stood, and the bed bounced back up, knocking Gail over. She felt like a gum wrapper thrown in the trash.

  "I'm sorry. I'll come right back when I'm finished." He shot out of her room, leaving her in an emotional tangle. Gail blinked through the pain, trying to make sense of his abandonment.

  Here she was, fatherless, raw from grief and desperately vulnerable, and he had the audacity to walk out and take a call? A current of fury rose inside her. Was the caller his hon?

  This had gone too far.

  Gail stood, and a few wadded tissues rained around her feet. She kicked them away and entered the hallway. Empty. Aside from Tom's snores and Blarney's singing, she heard a muffled conversation coming from Flynn's room.

  Gail walked over and mushed her ear up to the door. Normally she'd control such impulses, but her mother's news had brought her back to reality and she couldn't live in denial any longer.

  Flynn spoke in a hushed tone. "Don't worry. I'll see you soon, hon."

  Gail's nails dug into his door. How could he go back and forth between them so easily?

  "I love you, too." Flynn's voice was melancholy.

  That was it. She wrapped her hands around the doorknob and twisted. The door gave way, and she forced her way in.

  Flynn stood by the window, cradling his phone against his ear. He whirled around and stared at Gail as if she was a cleaning woman who'd clearly picked the wrong time to enter his room.

  "Don't you give me that look." Gail pointed a finger at his chest. "Who is she?"

  Flynn shook his head, which infuriated her even more.

  "When are you planning on telling her about your feelings for me?"

  Flynn collapsed on his bed and dug his hand into his hair. "Soon. It's just so complicated, and now's not the right time."

  "The right time?" Steam must have come from her ears, because she couldn't contain the anger that swelled up inside her. Mostly she was angry at herself for having feelings for a man as fickle as Flynn.

  Somehow, he was missing her biggest point. "How can you let this carry on with the two of us?"

  Flynn sighed like the world weighed on his shoulders. "Tabitha is my younger sister, Gail."

  His words froze her anger and sunk in her stomach. Confusion, followed by embarrassment, trickled through her. "Your sister?"

  Flynn nodded. "Ten years younger than me."

  Gail processed the full ramifications of the truth. Flynn doesn't belong to someone else. He isn't a scoundrel, he's a saint to spend so much time comforting a teenager on the phone. "For Pete's sake. Why haven't you mentioned her before?"

  "It's hard for me to talk about her." Flynn glanced at his phone as though his sister was still there. His finger caressed the screen. "She's sick, Gail. Really sick."

  Gail's heart seized like he'd grabbed it in his fist. Here she was reaming him out, and he'd been on the phone with his sick sister. "What's wrong?"

  "She has an inoperable tumor in her brain. When the doctors first discovered the growth, they thought it was benign. But over the last year, the tumor has been growing, pressing on her optic nerves. She gets awful headaches and passes out. They say she'll lose her eyesight first, then most likely die of seizures within six months."

  "That's awful." Talk about cold, hard facts. "Is there nothing that can be done?"

  "We've seen so many specialists. They all say the same thing. If they take the tumor out, they take out a major part of her brain along with it. She'd be alive, but she'd be a vegetable or at most, only a shadow of who she is today. We've tried several rounds of ch
emo, and now she's on some experimental drug treatment therapy, but the doctors have pretty much told us not to keep our fingers crossed."

  It was so horrible. Gail couldn't wrap her mind around it. "I'm so sorry."

  "That's why I need to find Nessie soon." Desperation showed in Flynn's eyes. "You see, she's spent her life looking for Nessie along with me. I want to give her something to look forward to, some sort of hope that dreams can come true before…" He swallowed. "Before it's too late."

  Gail sat beside him on his bed and draped her arm around his shoulders. He took her hand and squeezed. Flynn's vulnerability and his cause for his sister made him the most heartfelt man she'd ever met. She'd never felt so strongly for someone.

  "Can I stay here with you tonight? Just to sleep and be together, not…."

  Flynn turned his face to her and smiled for the first time since he'd taken the call. "Absolutely."

  They lay down and held each other. Flynn's proximity soothed Gail's pain. She rested her head on his shoulder and curled up to him as he lay on his back. His fingers played with her hair and stroked her back as his breathing slowed to a deep sleep.

  For the first time, Gail hoped she was wrong about Nessie. For Tabitha's sake, she wanted Flynn to be right.

  ****

  "By yon bonnie banks and by yon bonnie braes." Clink.

  Gail peered through misty morning light, then closed her eyes and curled her arm around Flynn's.

  "Where the sun shines bricht on Loch Lomon'." Clank.

  What the? She buried her head under her side of the pillow.

  "Where me and me true love were ever wont to gae." Clunky clunk.

  A vague memory of an old, furry man rose up, and she pushed it away. Her dream mingled with Flynn's spicy scent was much more sweet.

  "On the bonnie, bonnie banks o' Loch Lomon'." Dishes clattered as if someone had turned the cupboards upside down and emptied them on the floor.

  Fully awake, Gail rose from Flynn's arms. "Oh no. We've left Blarney alone for too long."

  Flynn pulled her back down and snuggled against her. "Let him be. Let's just sleep for a little while longer."