Chapter Fifty-Eight
Emma fumbled for the key in the bottom of her purse. Why had Laynie locked the door? It wasn’t as if anyone could even find the small croft isolated on the beach. “Laynie! It’s me. Open up.” Dammit. Where the hell was she? Better yet, where the hell were those damn keys?
Freezing rain pelted against her body, ran down the back of her neck and soaked through the wool of her coat. Clenching her teeth to keep them from chattering, Emma kicked the bottom of the door. She hated this place and its god-forsaken weather. She wished she’d never come here. “Laynie! Open the damn door. I can’t find my key and I’m freezing to death out here.”
Emma drew back to jab another good kick in the center of the solid oak door just as the rain-soaked portal opened inward. “It’s about time you opened the freaking door. Why in the hell did you have it locked?”
“Your sister didna wish for us to be disturbed and she thought to spare your feelings.” Alex stood with one hand resting on the brass door latch and the other gripping an over-sized bath towel wrapped around his waist.
Alex’s nothing-on-but-a-towel body standing in the middle of her cottage wasn’t a sight she’d expected to see. Emma stared at a droplet making its way down the center of his chest into the dark nest of water-slicked hair surrounding his belly button. How ironic. Alex’s wet hair seemed to point downward toward the bulge hidden beneath the towel. Her irritation fanned into disbelief. This could not be happening. Not Laynie and Alex. “Please tell me the shower’s broken at your place and you decided to borrow mine.”
“Emma.” Laynie padded into the room, her wet hair slicked back, tucking the end of the towel wrapped around her body into the V just above her breasts. “Emma, I was going to talk to you about Alex but I wanted to wait for the right time. I didn’t want to spring it on you while you were still in such bad shape.”
Ignoring Laynie, Emma locked on Alex’s watchful gaze as she dropped her bags to the floor. “You know I’m going to kill you for touching my sister. This is pretty low. Even for you, Alex.”
“I love her, Emma. It’s no’ as wicked as ye’d like to believe. We didna want to tell ye until ye’d recovered a bit from your loss. Or at least figured out what you’re meant to do. Your sister cares for ye verra much and I intend to do my best to make her happy.” Alex crossed the room and pulled Laynie against his side, planting a kiss against the top of her wet head.
Make Laynie happy? Emma didn’t miss Alex’s unspoken finish to the sentence. He intended to make Laynie happy even if it meant putting up with Emma. “You two just met! Do you honestly think I’m that stupid? You haven’t had time to fall in love. You’ve just fallen into lust.” Emma wanted to shove her way between them but she clamped her hands to her sides instead. How could they do this? Have some kind of forbidden sex fling and right under her nose.
“Emma, please.” Laynie unwound from Alex’s embrace and padded across the room with her arms outspread. “You know damn good and well there’s no time clock on falling in love. Either it’s meant to be or it’s not. Alex and I felt it the first time we met. We clicked, Emma. Alex and I belong together.”
“I can’t believe you’d do this to me, Laynie. At least, not right now.” Tears stung the backs of her eyelids, burning just below the surface. Emma wanted to scream against the betrayal pounding through her veins. “Why, Laynie? Why would you do this? Especially now.”
“I love him, Emma. Just like you love Torin.” Laynie’s mouth tightened into a determined line. “And when you find the way back to Torin, at least I’ll have Alex and I won’t be left alone.”
A dull weight grew heavier in Emma’s chest, right where her heart should’ve been. Laynie was such a dreamer. She actually thought Emma was going to see Torin again. “I loved Torin. Past tense, Laynie. That chapter closed when I sealed the portal.” Emma dropped her gaze to the floor. A hopeless sense of weariness wrapped around her body, sapping her strength until it took everything she had just to find the energy to speak. “I’m never going to leave you, Laynie. You’re stuck with me. You know Torin’s lost.”
“Bullshit!” Laynie jabbed a finger into Emma’s shoulder. “You pinky swore that if we found him you’d never leave his side again and I’m going to hold you to it.” Yanking the towel higher around her breasts, Laynie nodded in Alex’s direction. “We’re searching the island for folks right now who know all about the legends. We’re going to find him, Emma. You just wait and see.”
“I can’t handle any more of this nonsense. I’m getting out of here.” Emma scooped up her purse and headed for the door, struggling to see through a stinging blur of tears. How could Laynie be so heartless? How could she be so blind?
“Emma.” Alex stepped in front of her, blocking her path to the door. “Ye will find Torin and rejoin him someday. I swear to ye, I’ll do everything in my power to help ye.”
“Get out of my way, Alex, or I swear I’ll set fire to that towel.” Emma hitched her purse higher on her shoulder, digging her nails into the leather handle.
“Let her go, Alex. When she gets like this you can’t reason with her.”
Emma pushed past him, slamming the door behind her so hard that the windows rattled in their casings. She didn’t know where she was headed but anywhere was better than here.