Guilt swirled in his gut. Perhaps, it should’ve been the only thing he reached out to her for. It would certainly have made his words of comfort seem more sincere. To approach her with his problems now made him feel as if he only offered his comfort in the hopes she would do the same to him.
“No, lass. I just wanted to tell ye that. I hope ye have a lovely day.”
Rather than the goodbye he expected, Morna laughed and called his bluff. “Nonsense, lad. Talk to me about the girl. ’Tis my specialty.”
He should’ve known she would know if he lied. Sighing, he decided to speak plainly. “My past clings to me like the heaviest of cloaks. I feel ruined. Unworthy. Certain to repeat what I’ve done before.”
“Ach, lad. Ye doona need advice from me. Ye need only to listen to the words ye told me. Be kind to yerself. Give yerself the same grace ye offered me. As ye said, ye canna change the past—only do yer best going forward, aye?”
Morna was right. He would never be as hard on another person as he always was on himself.
“Aye. I suppose so.”
“Ye are not the same man ye were before. Ye willna make the same mistakes as that man. Ye will make new ones.” She laughed gently, before continuing. “Doona fear the mistakes, they are inevitable. Just listen to the lass. From what I’ve seen, she is wise. She knows her own mind. Be honest with her. Doona hide who ye are.”
It unnerved him to know that Morna watched them, but in truth, it came as no real surprise.
“I shall try.”
“Good. And Ross, ye might wish to make a trip down to yer mailbox this morning. There’s been a package sitting in it for weeks now.”
“Aye?”
“Aye. A package ye’ll be angry with yerself for not opening sooner. Saving someone from a fated death might be against nature, but healing someone from a few wounds certainly is not.”
Lifting Tink off his lap, he thanked the witch and hung up in a hurry to stumble down to the mailbox.
He couldn’t get to the witch’s package soon enough.
Chapter 18
When I woke Saturday morning to see the clock at straight up ten o’clock, I leapt out of my bed in a panic before remembering I didn’t have to go to work. It was the first weekend in recent memory that I’d been able to sleep a wink past my normal wake up time of six.
Smiling, I allowed myself to fall leisurely back onto my bed as I reached for my phone.
I already had two text messages from Ross.
The first:
“Good morning, Allanah. I’m afraid I’ve come down with something. I’m not feeling too well this morning. I think it best that I spend the weekend recovering.”
And then:
“Allow me to accompany you on Tuesday morning when you walk the girls to school again, and are you free Tuesday evening for our date?”
I looked at the time stamp on the messages. He’d sent them at seven. By now, I was certain he was growing nervous that I hadn’t yet replied—I would’ve been.
I typed out my response and hit send.
“I’m so sorry you’re not feeling well. Let me know if you need me to bring anything by for you. And while Tuesday works great for a date, I’m not sure you should come with me to walk the girls. It exhausted you last time. I’m worried if you do that, you’ll be too tired to take me out. ;)”
Seconds after the message showed delivered, I could see him typing a response. His reply popped up shortly after.
“I assure you, I’ll have plenty of energy for our date. I’ll meet you by the elevators at six-thirty Tuesday morning. I’m counting the hours until then. Have a wonderful weekend, lass.”
Setting my phone down, I stretched my arms high above my head as I smiled.
I would be counting them, too.
I spent my weekend with Gramps and Georgie as we worked to help him pare down his wardrobe to make some space in his closet. Things with Gladys seemed to be getting pretty serious. As she was staying with him more often, he thought it would be nice to make some room for her to leave a few things.
At least he thought so until he actually set about the task of cleaning out his closet. Then, the three of us all realized what a clothes hoarder Gramps really was.
Between all weekend wading through piles of jackets and vibrant ties at his place, followed by an incredibly busy Monday with patients, the wait between Ross’ text Saturday and our plans for me to meet him at the elevator on Tuesday morning seemed remarkably short.
I left my apartment early, intending to arrive at the elevator a few minutes before our planned time just in case he wasn’t there at six-thirty and I needed to go down the hall to his apartment to see if he needed help. He didn’t. To my astonishment, he was already standing by the elevator doors—sans crutches—shaved, and as put together as I’d ever seen him.
Confused—and concerned—I frowned as I approached him.
“What the hell is going on, Ross? Why aren’t you using your crutches? You need to get your weight off that leg right this second.”
He smiled and bent to lift his pants leg as he explained. “I’m all healed.”
My mind reeled. It was impossible. He was progressing more quickly than most to be sure, but his injuries had been extensive. There was no way in hell he was healed.
“No, you are not.” Dropping my bag to the floor, I bent down to examine him.
His leg looked entirely normal. I reached for the hem of his jeans and pulled them up as far as they would go, all the while expecting him to scream out in pain at any given second.
There was no scar from the surgery, and his muscles didn’t look the slightest bit atrophied from being in a cast for weeks.
“It doesn’t make sense, Ross.”
Feeling like I’d stepped into The Twilight Zone, I released my grip on his jeans and rose from the floor, still frowning.
He shrugged. “I doona know, lass. I woke Saturday morning feeling dreadful. My whole body ached. I thought I had the flu. By Monday morning, I felt much better. When I went for my appointment with my surgeon, he was as astonished as ye are. It seems I’ve had some sort of miraculous healing.”
While part of my brain knew I should be relieved that he was no longer injured, the most dominant part of my mind was growing bewildered and angrier by the second.
“That doesn’t happen, Ross. I…I don’t understand.”
I reached up to rub my forehead—a headache coming on quickly.
He stepped forward to grab my wrists as he gently pulled me toward him and kissed my cheek.
“Take a breath, lass. I know ’tis strange, but ’tis what’s happened. Doona distress over it.”
He moved the back of my hand and laid his fingers on my forehead.
“Ye feel clammy, lass. As ye can see, I’m well. I’ll walk the girls to school on my own. Go and rest until ye have to go to work. I’ll pick ye up tonight at six.”
I was sure I did feel clammy. My brain was having the most difficult time processing what I’d seen. I’d never witnessed or heard anything like this in my life.
Confused as I was, I was a little worried my wide eyes and pale cheeks might frighten the girls anyway.
“Okay. Maybe that’s best. You’re sure…you’re sure you’re totally well now?”
He picked up his leg, putting all of his weight on the one that was still dreadfully injured four days ago and began to hop up and down on it.
“Aye, lass. I’m fine.”
My eyes wide with shock, I said goodbye and made my way back to my apartment.
Nothing about it made sense.
Despite the impossibility of it all, I couldn’t deny what my eyes had just seen.
At least it meant he wasn’t my patient officially, or unofficially, anymore.
I could go on my date tonight guilt-free.
Chapter 19
“I knew this was going to happen.”
Hannah looked up at him as he stepped into the house, as if she weren’t the least bit surp
rised to see him without his crutches.
“Ye mean my leg?”
The young girl nodded as Ross turned toward the sound of Caleb descending the stairs, little Maggie in his arms.
“Ross? How? What?” Caleb continued to fumble over his words. “Where are your crutches?”
“I doona need them. Seems I’ve healed.”
Ross didn’t miss the fact that Caleb’s bewildered expression bore a remarkable resemblance to the one on Allanah’s face earlier.
“You’ve what? Ross, I saw what you looked like last week when you decided to walk the girls with Sue. How is that possible?”
He couldn’t very well tell anyone, save perhaps Sydney, the truth of his miraculous recovery. If he mentioned that a Scottish witch mailed him a potion, he imagined it wouldn’t take long before both Allanah and Caleb started looking for ways to have him committed.
Instead, he decided to go with the easiest explanation—none at all. As far as they were concerned, he was as in the dark to what could’ve caused such rapid healing as they were. He could deal with the incredulity for a time. He could deal with just about anything if it meant having the full use of his legs and body. He was ready to get back to work.
“I doona know. ’Tis as much a surprise to me as ’tis to ye, I imagine, but I see no sense in dwelling on it. I’d rather just be thankful that I’m well and get back to work. I’ve told Allanah that she needn’t continue to fill in for me with the girls. As ye can see, I’m well enough to walk them on my own.”
Caleb continued to frown, but slowly began to nod his head in resignation. “Okay. Well, I suppose we are all due a bit of a miracle after the past few months. I’m just glad you’re better. It will help me a ton to have you back at work.” He hesitated, shifting Maggie in his arms before continuing. “Not that I minded, of course. I truly wanted you to take all the time you needed.”
Ross gave him a quick nod and extended his arms toward Maggie. “I know. Now, let me see her. Ye best be on yer way. ’Tis yer last week of training before the big day, aye?”
Caleb groaned and closed his eyes as he answered him. “Yes, and I’m so nervous that I’m barely sleeping.”
“You don’t need to be nervous, Daddy. It’s going to be great.”
Ross looked down at Hannah and gave her a wink of approval at her effort to reassure her father.
“Thank you, sweet girl. You have a good day at school today, okay?”
Taking Maggie from Caleb’s extended arms, Ross watched as Caleb bent to give Hannah a quick kiss on her forehead before standing to leave.
“And, I’m off. Wish me luck. That old man is relentless.”
Quickly strapping Maggie to his chest, Ross helped Hannah with her backpack then reached for her hand as they headed out the door behind Caleb, both of them wishing him luck in unison as they turned and walked off in separate directions.
Hannah wasted no time to dig in with her usual questions. “Why didn’t Sue come with you this morning? She didn’t want to see us?”
That was the last thing Ross ever wanted Hannah to think.
“O’course she wanted to see ye, lass. ’Tis only that it took her by surprise to see me feeling so well. She needed a moment to herself before work.”
“I wasn’t surprised.”
He smiled, bouncing a little bit to soothe Maggie.
“Aye, why is that, lass?”
The little girl looked up at him and shrugged. “I’ve been asking Mommy to help you get better so we could see you more again. She never really answers me back, but I still knew she would help.”
Ross stopped short as Hannah’s words caused his eyes to grow blurry with tears and a lump rose in his throat. He didn’t want the girl to see him cry. If she could talk about her own mother without getting emotional, surely he could do the same.
“Ye talk to her?”
Hannah returned her gaze to the sidewalk in front of them as she spoke. “Yes. Dad said that not having our Mom around means that we have an angel assigned just to us. While I don’t know much about angels, you’ve got to be able to talk to them, or what’s the point really?”
He didn’t trust his voice not to break when he spoke. He coughed to try to push away his need to cry. “I doona know much about angels either, lass, but I imagine ye are right.”
Hannah looked up at him, her expression knowing. “You miss her, too, don’t you?”
“Aye, Hannah.” His voice did break then, but he continued on. “Every day.”
I spent most of my morning distracted by the impossibility of Ross’ recovery. It just didn’t make sense. There was no scenario, no explanation that I knew of, that made it possible. In the end, however, I decided that Ross was right. It was a good thing that he was healed. There was no sense in me dwelling on it beyond that.
It was easier once I got to work. With patients to pour myself into, I was able to forget about Ross’ leg and our upcoming date. I hadn’t the slightest idea what we were doing. He’d never told me, and I’d been so dumbfounded by the way I’d found him this morning, that it hadn’t crossed my mind to ask.
I shot him a quick text message as soon as I got home from work.
“What’s the dress code for tonight?”
It took him twenty minutes to reply, which made me hope that it was nothing I needed to dress up for. His delayed reply had me running behind.
“Casual. Bring socks. We’re going bowling.”
Bowling? I stared down at my phone and frowned. I was a terrible bowler, and it had been years since I’d done so.
Determined to put on a good face—it didn’t really matter whether I was good or not—I dressed in jeans, knee-high boots, and a v-neck sweater that paired really nicely with my favorite scarf.
I’d just finished applying a little bit of blush to keep me from looking so washed out when I heard him knock on my door.
He looked as handsome as he had on our first blind date, when he’d walked up to me sitting in the booth at the Indian restaurant.
“Are ye ready to get yer arse whooped?”
“What?” I looked at him, confused.
“Bowling, lass. I plan to beat ye in bowling.”
“Oh.” I sighed, then laughed. Of course he’d meant bowling. Having my brain muffled so early in the morning had thrown me off all day. “You probably will beat me. Are you good?”
He shrugged. “I’ve truly never bowled.”
Laughing, I reached for my purse and stepped out into the hall with him to close the door. Georgie wasn’t home. I wondered if perhaps she was out with her new beau. It seemed we were increasingly becoming passing ships in the night.
“If you’ve never bowled, then why are you so sure you’ll beat me? Admittedly, I’m a terrible bowler, but at least I’ve done it before.”
I turned toward him after locking the door to see him extending his hand toward mine. I gladly took it. His hand was warm and large around my ever-cold fingers.
“’Tis a feeling, I suppose. I hope ye doona expect me to take it easy on ye just because I like ye so much.”
“If you do that, it will make me like you quite a bit less.”
I destroyed him. My score for each of the three games we played was abysmally low, but Ross must’ve been close to winning the world-record for the most gutter balls in an hour. If I’d had any mercy at all, I would’ve insisted we put up the bumper rails.
I didn’t.
He pouted all the way to the pizza place around the corner from the bowling alley.
“I canna understand it. I’m usually quite good at games.”
“It’s karma, Ross. You talked a big game, and it came back to bite you in your ‘arse’.”
He gave me a playful little shove with his shoulder as we approached the small pizza dive.
“Are ye making fun of my accent, lass? Ye’ve a bit of one yerself.”
He clearly had no idea how hard I’d worked to minimize my Boston accent. Offended, I whirled on him.
&nb
sp; “I do not!”
He laughed as we found an open booth in the corner by the door.
“Aye, lass. Ye do. I like it.”
“Well…” At least someone did. “Thank you.”
The waitress showed up shortly and we ordered a bottle of the house wine and a supreme pizza—their specialty—for us to split.
As she walked away from the table with our order, Ross leaned across the table and spoke to me, his voice low and soft. “I think ye are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”
Our table’s location caused the cold air from the door to linger, but despite the frigid air, warm heat flooded my body at his words. I knew I was blushing and tried to look down so he wouldn’t notice, but he stopped me by reaching forward and gently lifting my chin so I looked at him.
“Doona look down, lass. Ye doona believe that about yerself, do ye? Ye should.”
I wasn’t used to such attention, and I felt uncomfortable and exposed beneath his gaze. Rather than accept his compliment, I hurried to deflect.
“Are you going to the race on Saturday?”
He tilted his head and narrowed his eyes, and I knew he was silently reprimanding me for brushing past his kind words, but he didn’t push the subject further and instead answered my question. “Aye. O’course. I’m waiting at the finish line with Hannah and Maggie. Do ye want to go together, lass?”
That truly wasn’t why I’d asked the question. It had only been my desire to change the subject to anything that didn’t have to do with me. If we went together that meant Ross would surely meet Gramps and Georgie. I would have to introduce him. How would I do that? What was this? It was still so new. Regardless, I had known he would go to the race, so whether we went together or not, he was bound to meet them anyway.
“Sure. It will last hours. It would probably be good if you had some help with the girls. Do you mind if my sister joins us?”
Love Beyond Boundaries (A Scottish Time Travel Romance): Book 12 (Morna's Legacy Series) Page 11