He’d told her about Elizabeth and how the two of them were getting married in July, and Elizabeth had sent them an invitation.
She’d told him she and David couldn’t afford the trip. The farm, it seemed, survived at least partly on EU subsidies, and those were uncertain now.
“Tell her we’ll buy their tickets, and she and her husband can be the wedding gift we buy for ourselves,” Elizabeth had said.
She always knew what to do. Quinn loved her more now than he had in November—if that was even possible.
“Here we are.” Quinn opened the door to the pub, held it for Elizabeth, then followed her inside.
“Oh, I see her!”
“Aye.” Quinn found himself grinning like an idiot, his butterflies gone.
Paige wore a pair of overalls, her red hair in braids. She waved, jumped up, and hurried over to him, throwing her arms around him. “Quinn! I recognized you the moment you stepped inside. Och, you’re so tall!”
Still grinning, Quinn looked into her face, saw the little girl he remembered. “I recognize you, too.”
“And you’re Elizabeth.” Paige hugged her.
Elizabeth smiled. “I’m so happy to meet you at last.”
“My husband, David, is sittin’ at the table.”
They were blocking the front entrance and needed to move.
“Let’s no’ keep him waitin’.” Quinn followed Paige, shook hands with his brother-in-law, some part of him unable to believe this was real.
He’d gotten his sister back—thanks to Lilibet.
Quinn had a family.
* * *
“What doyou remember from the night your ma took you away?” David asked Paige, taking her hand. A slender man with dark hair and a handsome face, he seemed to Elizabeth to cherish his wife.
The fact that Paige bubbled with life and energy clearly didn’t hurt.
“I remember Ma covered in bruises, cryin’ and packin’ our things. I remember looking back and seeing Quinn standin’ there. You looked so sad. I held out my hand for you, but she pulled me through the door.”
“Aye, I remember. She didnae want me. She was afraid of me—afraid I was just like Da. The bastard took his belt to me when he got home. He didnae believe me when I said I had no idea where you’d gone.”
“Oh, Quinn. I’m so sorry.” Tears shimmered in Paige’s blue eyes, so much like her brother’s. “I thought of you often. I kept you in my prayers at night. We moved first to Aberdeen and then here to Inverness. Ma changed our names so Da couldnae find us. How did you find me?”
Elizabeth smiled. “I used to work for the CIA.”
Paige and David’s eyes went wide.
“I thought of you, too.” Then Quinn told Paige about the night he’d left and joined the army. “I beat Da bloody, so I did.”
“He was a beast when he drank. He deserved it for all the pain he put us through. I’m glad you got away.”
Quinn took a sip of his beer. He’d stopped drinking whisky. “He threw me out, so I joined the army just to have a meal and a place to sleep.”
Paige and David had so many questions. How was SAS selection? Where had he gone? Had he ever been injured in combat? What was it like to work in private security? Did he like Colorado? Had he learned to ski?
Elizabeth listened, relieved that this was going so well, her fingers threaded through Quinn’s. It had been such a long journey for him to this moment. Since the terrible days of last November, she’d watched Quinn learn to trust himself more as a man, not just a fighter. He was so much more at peace with himself, and she hoped that this reunion would help to fill that tender, broken place inside him—the one created by his father’s fists and his mother’s rejection.
As for Paige, she was a delight, a living ray of sunshine.