Love Beyond Boundaries (A Scottish Time Travel Romance): Book 12 (Morna's Legacy Series) Read online

  Fall

  * * *

  “How is the new job going?”

  It had taken little time for Caleb to offer Ross the position of building manager, but Ross’ full takeover of the position had only been complete for about a month.

  “While I canna say I expected there to be quite as much work as there is, I am thankful for the learning period Caleb provided.”

  “I suspect he knew what he was doing. And how do you like the new apartment? Has anyone else moved into Laurel’s old place now that she’s finally given up her lease?”

  “I love it. ’Tis much larger. It has an office so I can keep up with the necessary paperwork, and it connects to a storeroom that is large enough to hold all of my tools and equipment. As for Laurel’s old apartment, no, ’tis still vacant. There’ve been many applicants, but Caleb has asked that I keep it open for a while. I doona know why.”

  Ross had lived in modern times far longer than her own husband, but the speed with which Ross had learned everything that should have been so foreign to him—computers, cell phones, paperwork—still astonished her.

  “How did you learn everything when you first came forward to this time? It doesn’t matter what we talk about, you seem to have knowledge of it.”

  Ross gave her a slight chuckle before answering. “I read extensively and became quick friends with the farmer’s wife who employed me. I believe she thought of me as the son she never had. While I’m sure she must’ve thought I’d been raised in a cave, she took great pride in teaching me much that I didn’t know.”

  “Sounds like you lucked out.”

  “Aye. I did.”

  Sydney smiled as she glanced over at the calendar. One year had passed since Ross had traveled back to help The Eight defeat Machara. She wondered if Ross even realized it. He’d come so far in the past year. The man she looked forward to speaking to now bore no resemblance to the man she’d conversed with one year ago.

  “Where’d ye go, lass? Ye grew quiet on me.”

  “Sorry. I’m here. I was looking at the calendar. Can you believe it’s been a year, Ross? Please don’t take this the wrong way, but when you first moved to Boston, I was half worried you would drink yourself to death within six months.”

  There was a soft, somber chuckle from the other end of the phone.

  “So was I. I doona know if I’ve told ye before, but I will never be able to repay the kindness ye have shown me, lass. I doona deserve the friendship I’ve received from ye and others. I’ve slowly begun to find myself again. For a long time, I dinna think I ever would.”

  Sydney swallowed the lump in her throat. She didn’t want him to hear her cry. The depth of her own affection for Ross frequently took her by surprise. It had taken so long for him to let her in, but now that she’d cracked Ross’ tough exterior, she could see just how utterly warm and gooey he was on the inside.

  “I’m proud of you, Ross. And there’s no need for you to thank me. I look forward to visiting with you as much as you do with me.”

  A sudden shrill yipping sound reached her, and she pulled the phone away from her ear reflexively.

  “Hush yer yappin’ now, Tink. Ye know that Ms. Jenkins is right frightened of ye. We canna have her telling Caleb that ye are here.”

  Sydney listened on in fascination, waiting until he stopped before speaking.

  “Did you get a dog, Ross?”

  “Ach, no. I canna stand the little rascal. ’Twas Beth’s doing. She adopted the wee, ornery rat as a Christmas gift for her girls, but she doesna wish for them or Caleb to see her until Christmas Day. I suspect she knows that once Caleb sees how excited his girls are, he willna be able to say no. So…she’s placed the pup under my care until then.”

  Sydney shook her head, wishing Ross could see her.

  “That’s the worst idea I’ve ever heard. Do you have any idea how difficult it is going to be for you to give her up after taking care of her for that long?”

  He quickly dismissed her. “’Twill be no trouble at all, I promise ye that. The creature is driving me mad. My only regret in having agreed to care for the wee beastie is that I underestimated what a pain in the arse she would be.”

  Sydney pinched the phone between her ear and shoulder, struggling to keep it still as she reached out for the small babe Callum extended in her direction. Nothing she said would change Ross’ mind. He would just have to learn the lesson for himself.

  “Whatever you say, Ross. My bet is that you’re at the dog shelter five minutes after you drop Tink off with Beth and Caleb on Christmas morning.”

  Ross laughed as their conversation drew to a close. “Doona hold your breath, lass.”

  Two Weeks Later

  * * *

  “Sydney, wake up, lass. Yer phone is ringing. ’Tis Ross.”

  Startled by the sound of her husband’s voice and the obnoxious ping from her cell phone, Sydney sat up in bed and reached to turn on the bedside lamp.

  “What time is it?”

  “Four in the morning. Something must be wrong. He wouldna call ye at this time of day otherwise. Ye best answer it.”

  A sick, cold, foreboding enveloped her as she reached for her cell phone and stumbled out of bed. Adrenaline fully waking her, she hurried from the room, ringing phone in hand. Once she was out in the hallway, she slid her thumb across the screen to answer his call.

  “Ross? Is everything okay? What’s…”

  He interrupted her; the sound of his voice enough to make her grip the doorway.

  “She’s dead, Sydney. Beth has died. A car hit her as she was walking across the parking lot at her office.”

  Ross broke down into a string of strangled sobs, and Sydney closed her eyes as she slowly slid to the floor. She didn’t know this woman, didn’t even have the slightest idea what she looked like, but Ross’ affection for her was enough to break her heart.

  God, what about her two little girls? Sydney couldn’t bear the thought of how her husband might be feeling. There were so many people that would be devastated by this loss, but her only priority was the man on the telephone.

  He’d come so far in the past year, and now the friend who had helped him so much was gone. She couldn’t let him backslide.

  “Ross…I’ll start looking at flights right now. Don’t worry. You don’t have to go through this alone. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

  Chapter 1

  Boston, Massachusetts

  * * *

  The motorized whirl of the blender kept me from hearing my grandfather’s footsteps as he approached me in the kitchen. When I turned away from the counter to see him two steps away, I jumped back with such force that I nearly knocked it off of the counter. Thankful that I hadn’t sloshed our daily spinach and banana smoothie all over myself and the kitchen floor, I did my best to recover from the shock of seeing him up and about before I left for work. Most mornings when I left, the sound of Gramps’ loud snoring was still echoing down the hallway. I hadn’t seen him up this early since I’d moved in with him two years ago.

  “Gramps, you’re…” I started to remark on how early it was, but then my eyes finally caught up with my brain as I took in the sight of him. It was enough to stop me short. He looked so stinking adorable I could hardly stand it.

  With his pink, button-down dress shirt tucked into his navy corduroy pants, his ensemble was finished with a pink and white polka dot bow tie. He’d combed his white hair neatly to the left and pulled out his most eccentric pair of eyeglasses—his especially large and especially round ones in tortoise-shell print.

  On anyone else, his outfit would’ve looked ridiculous, but he pulled it off perfectly.

  “Early morning date?”

  He smiled at me and nodded mischievously. “How’d you know?”

  “I can think of nothing else that would have you up this early, and you only wear your bow ties when you’re trying to impress one of your dates.”

  “Well, that’s not true. I’ve been known to wear
bow ties on a few other occasions.”

  I laughed and shook my head. “You wore them to chemo, but that was only to bait the nurses into giving you a compliment so you could flirt with them.”

  He made a small gruff noise and stepped around me to get us each a glass. For the first six months of his cancer treatment, he’d detested my morning smoothies, but as time passed, he’d grown accustomed to me shoving at least a handful of greens into him at the beginning of each day.

  He held the glasses toward me as I poured the now-blended drink.

  “I’ll only drink a little today. I want to have plenty of room to enjoy breakfast in a little bit.”

  I nodded and placed the container in the kitchen sink, filling it with water before I moved to join him at the small dining table just off the kitchen.

  “What time is your date?”

  “Ten.”

  It was just a quarter to seven.

  “Then why are you up so early?”

  “Allanah, I need to talk to you, sweetheart.”

  Allanah was my first name, the same as my late grandmother, and Gramps was the only person in the whole world who called me by it. Most people called me by my middle name, Sue. It was a name I’d always hated, but for some reason that was entirely beyond me, it had stuck at a young age. Gramps knew how much I loved that he called me Allanah, and it didn’t get by me that he used it now because he was buttering me up for whatever was about to come next.

  “Okay…” I said the word hesitantly. Everyone that knew and loved Gramps knew to be fearful of the words ‘I need to talk to you’ if they came from him. It meant something was about to change, and regardless, you better just strap in for the ride. He was a dreamer—always had been. The scariest thing that differentiated him from most people with big ideas was that he tended to actually go through with them. There was no stopping him once he put his mind to something.

  I think that’s probably why I wasn’t especially frightened when he’d received his cancer diagnosis a few years earlier. Gramps wasn’t scared, so I figured there was no reason for me to be either. While I’d insisted on moving in with him to help take care of him during his treatments, I’d never doubted that he would get through it. And so he had. For the past three months, he’d been in remission.

  “This morning will be my fifth date with Gladys.”

  My eyes lit up. I’d never known anyone to make it past three dates with him. His legendary love for the grandmother I’d never known had made him especially picky.

  “Whoa. That’s big, Gramps. So, you like her, huh?”

  He nodded. “Yes. I do. I think she might be the real deal. We’ve decided to only see one another.”

  “That’s fantastic. Am I ever going to get to meet Gladys?”

  He shrugged. “Maybe, but not for quite a long while.”

  I laughed. At least he was honest.

  “Okay. Well, it’s your life. I can respect that.”

  “Which leads me to what I really need to speak to you about. I’m healthy now, sweetheart. I want my house back, and I need you out of here by date number twelve.”

  I inwardly cringed as I thought about what might be so significant about date number twelve and did my best to skirt that topic of conversation as quickly as possible.

  “Alright. Done. You know I never intended to stay here forever. I’ve just been super busy with work. I’ll call Caleb tonight and see if there are any vacancies in his building.”

  Once it had become clear that Gramps’ treatments were going to last longer than we’d first anticipated, I’d given up my apartment and moved everything into storage.

  “Thank you.” He took one last sip of his smoothie and stood to go and rinse his glass. He paused as he passed my chair and bent to kiss the top of my head. “And Allanah, you know I’m going to miss you, don’t you?”

  I nodded. Despite the fact that living with my grandfather had caused my social life to decline significantly, I was going to miss the hell out of him too.

  I started to stand to put my own glass away but hesitated when the phone in my pocket began to buzz. I could hardly believe it when I saw the name that popped up on my phone.

  “That’s weird.”

  “Who is it?”

  “It’s Ethan.”

  The mention of Ethan was enough to send Gramps off on a tangent.

  “Ethan, huh? You want me to answer it? I’d love to speak to him.”

  Gramps had compassion for everyone except those who hurt me. So even though Ethan was certainly due some, he needn’t expect any from my grandfather.

  As I stared down at his name, it only took a second for my surprise to turn to dread. I held up a hand to stop my grandfather from talking.

  “Gramps. He wouldn’t call me unless…” Nausea swam up my center as I gripped at the edge of the table and sat back down.

  The sound of my voice was enough to send Gramps rushing over to me.

  “You’re pale, Allanah. You don’t know that anything is wrong.”

  I did know. I could feel it. And the very last thing I wanted to do in the whole world was answer that phone.

  “Answer it, sweetheart. Either way, you gotta know.”

  Nodding at him, I shakily answered the phone, “Ethan?”

  I knew it was her before he said a word.

  “Sue. Something terrible has happened! Beth is dead.”

  Chapter 2

  The drive to Caleb and Beth’s house was too short. I wasn’t ready. It had taken every ounce of effort to drag myself to my car. I’d somehow assumed that once I arrived at my late friend’s house, I would have gathered the strength I needed to face Caleb. I hadn’t. I didn’t know how to do this. My mind still couldn’t process that she was gone.

  Beth. My best friend in the entire world. My old roommate. The best mother I’d ever seen to her two beautiful young girls was gone. In a flash. Killed in an instant by a distracted driver. I could barely stand to think of it.

  It was foolish, I knew, but some part of me had always believed, or perhaps I’d just always hoped, that people could sense that their time was near before their death. They didn’t. Not at all. I’d spoken to Beth an hour before she left her office for the last time, and all she could talk about was how close she was to talking Caleb into trying for another baby. You don’t plan for more children if you have any sense that you’re not going to be there to raise them. I couldn’t place my finger on precisely why, but the thought that you could just be gone with no premonition of it chilled me through.

  Shaking, I cracked open the door to my car and vomited all over the curb. I had the weakest stomach of anyone I knew. Scared—I would vomit. Angry—vomit. Heartbroken and more grief stricken than I knew was possible—apparently that made me vomit too.

  A hand touched my shoulder, and I was pulled from the nightmarish images that kept playing inside my mind back into the car with Gramps.

  “Breathe, Allanah. That’s always what makes you ill. You forget to breathe.”

  I tried to draw in a deep breath, but it shook on the inhale and released the sob I’d been trying so hard to hold back. Collapsing against the steering wheel, I began to cry hysterically once again.

  “I can’t do this, Gramps. I can’t. I shouldn’t be here. How am I supposed to comfort Caleb when I can’t go thirty seconds without collapsing into hysterics again?”

  “You don’t have to comfort him. You just need to be there with him.”

  “I don’t want him to feel like he has to tend to me. He’s the one that just lost his wife. He’s the one that now has to raise two little girls all on his own. I’m just the old roommate. I don’t have a right to the pain I’m feeling right now.”

  Gramps reached for my chin and gently turned my head so I faced him.

  “Hogwash. You and Beth were as close as friends get. You have every right to the way you feel. Now…close your eyes, take five deep breaths, wipe your eyes, and let’s go up there. You know you need to be here. Ethan was r
ight when he said Beth would expect you to be. Sitting in this car isn’t going to make it any easier.”

  Gramps’ stern voice pulled me out of my grief for just a moment. I knew he was right. I’d put off this visit for as long as I could. I should’ve been here the day Ethan called me. Instead, I’d spent yesterday in bed, shaking, vomiting, and crying more than I knew I could.

  “You don’t have to be here, Gramps. Really, you don’t. I can drive you back home if you want me to.”

  “Allanah.” The tone of his voice told me that there was no point in arguing with whatever he was about to say. “You’re not taking me home. I need to be in that house too. Caleb needs to know that he’ll survive this. While I’m sure there are lots of people telling him that now, he might actually believe it if it comes from me.”

  As usual, he was right. My mother was the youngest of four, but her oldest sibling was only five years older than her. My gramps and grandmother had given birth to four children in five years, but she’d passed away while giving birth to my mother. On the day he gained his only daughter, my grandfather had also lost his wife and became a single father to four children under the age of six. There was no one who could relate to Caleb’s pain in the same way that my grandfather could.

  “Okay.” I reached out to squeeze his hand. “Let’s go.”

  Ethan, not Caleb, opened the door. I’d known I would see him. Still…it was strange to see my ex-boyfriend, Beth’s brother, standing in the doorway. I’d not laid eyes on him since he ended our relationship four years earlier. He looked different. Leaner. More put together. Although the lines in his face were tight with grief, I expected that under different circumstances, I would have found him to look much more peaceful than the tormented man I’d known years ago.

  “Sue…” He bent his tall frame down to hug me before stepping aside to let us in the house. “Caleb will be so glad you’re here.”