enough from me the morning after. I’m sorry. I will never forget it happened, and I hope it might happen again this evening?” His voice lilted up.
The man was so adorably charming, she was lost. “If I were a Magic 8-Ball, I’d say your chances are favorable.” She stood on tiptoe to press a chaste kiss on his cheek and scooted around him.
She set the to-go boxes on the table where Holt sprawled in a chair, his head resting on the back. His eyes fluttered open, and Anna noted the dark circles underneath.
“What’s going on, Holt?” Anna set one of the plates in front of him.
“Same old, same old.” Holt heaved himself up and popped the lid off. “Smells amazing.”
Iain doled out a beer for each of them, and they dug in, the conversation meandering around festival goings-on.
“Are you ready for the Laird of the Games competitions?” Anna asked Holt.
“I haven’t had as much time to practice this year—Dad is slowing down—but working the farm keeps me in decent shape. I suppose I’ll do okay.” Holt used his biscuit to sop up the pot liquor from the greens and didn’t look up.
“Is the farm doing well?” Anna asked.
“Well enough, I suppose.”
“Then what’s wrong?” Anna pushed her plate away and crossed her arms on the table.
Holt finally looked up, but his gaze skated toward the window and the field beyond. The mowers were coming soon to clear the wildflowers and grass away. “Why would you think something is wrong?”
“You’re usually Mr. Optimistic. Lately, you’ve been downright mopey.”
Holt let out a groan. “It’s nothing. I mean, it’s crazy. It’s what I planned to do anyway. I don’t know why I’m freaking out about it.”
“Freaking out about what?” Anna asked.
“Dad is ready to retire and hand the farm over to me. He wants to take Mom on an extended RV trip this fall.”
Even in high school, everyone had known Holt was going into the family business. He’d been president of the Future Farmers of America club three years running. “And you don’t want to anymore?”
“No. I do. I think. I expected to be more settled by now. Happier.” He ran a hand through his disheveled blond hair. “I sound pathetic.”
“Of course you don’t.” What he sounded was lonely, but Anna wasn’t about to tell him that.
“Family obligations are complicated,” Iain said.
“You got ’em too?” Holt asked.
“My da is Cairndow’s groundskeeper, and I’m expected to take over for him. My family has always served the Blackmoors.”
“That sounds medieval.” Anna didn’t like the connotation of Iain serving anyone, even if they were friends.
“Is that what you’ll do after the festival? Go back to Cairndow until it’s time to take over?” Holt asked.
Iain gave a small shake of his head and did his own staring out the window. She wasn’t sure if his head shake was a yes or a no or a maybe. If only answers were as easily plucked out of the field as the flowers.
Anna cut them all a piece of pecan pie and the conversation veered to less weighty topics, including how Izzy and Alasdair were getting on with baby Annie. By the time they finished, the sun was sending streaks of orange and yellow and pink across the sky. Anna walked Holt to the door while Iain cleaned off the table.
Holt shot her a half smile as they stepped onto the front porch. “Don’t tell me you’re going to desert us for the real Highlands too?”
Her heart played her ribs like a xylophone. “What are you talking about?”
“You and Iain couldn’t keep your eyes off each other. Is he going to drag you back to Scotland like Alasdair did to Izzy?”
She grabbed Holt’s arm and pulled him around to face her. “I’m not leaving Georgia. I’ve worked hard to build my studio into something I’m proud of.”
“Doesn’t sound like Iain is ready to cut the cord with Scotland. Unless…”
“Unless what?”
Holt snorted. “And here I thought I was the class dunce. Not what; who.”
“Me?” She squeaked out the word.
“Lord have mercy.” Holt looked to the heavens. “You’ll figure it out eventually, Einstein.”
Anna watched him drive away, turning over the possibility. No, the impossibility. Iain wouldn’t stay in Highland. Not for her.
She backed inside the house and turned around. His outline filled the other end of the hall, steady and stable and sexy as hell. They still had time, and she wouldn’t squander it on questions of staying or leaving, because she already knew the answer.
She took a step and then another until