Page 149 of My Fake Dating with the Grumpiest Highlander
I yank the papers out of his hands.
“It’s logical. She comes here a lot with patients. She’s got a good eye for this stuff. And the place needs renovating. You said yourself it looks like a mausoleum.”
Nate gives me that look.
The one that says he knows me too well and sees right through my bullshit.
“So you’re really serious about all this?”
“About what?”
“Redoing the clinic. Making it yours. Actually settling down.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because it needs it. The linoleum’s dangerous, the sink leaks, the curtains are hideous, and those orange chairs make me want to gouge my eyes out.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
He leans back in the squeaking patient chair, arms crossed over his chest.
“Yesterday you were talking about leaving. Today you want calming blue-gray paint and houseplants. So I’ll ask again: why?”
Silence settles between us.
Outside, Glenfield is slowly waking up. I can see Mrs. MacTavish opening the grocery store. Old Angus walking his dog. Duncan Fraser stumbling out of the pub.
I’m starting to wonder if the man actually lives there.
People I’m beginning to know.
People who wave at me now instead of avoiding me.
“Because I want to stay,” I say finally.
Nate says nothing.
He just waits.
“Not maybe. Not we’ll see. I actually want to stay. And for that to happen, this place needs to become mine. Not McKinnon’s.”
“Because of Mary?”
“Because of everything. Mary, yeah. But also Glenfield. The patients who are finally starting to trust me. Ragnar, who mysteriously adores me. You and Lily living fifteen minutes away. This insane McGregor family that somehow adopted me against my will.”
I stop abruptly, startled by my own speech.
“And yes,” I admit more quietly. “Mostly because of Mary.”
Nate smiles.
Not his usual teasing grin.
This one is softer. Reserved for important moments.
“Okay,” he says. “Then we’re renovating this place.”
