Page 87 of Scotch & Dreams

Lachlan grabbed her arm right before she reached the door.

“Please, dinnae go,” he pleaded.

She turned to face him. Her eyes were burning with unshed tears.

"Dinnae leave. I huv so much to tell ye." He was still wearing the same dress shirt and pants from this morning, but now, he had a five o'clock shadow on his square jaw line.

“If you wanted to talk, why are you here and not with me?" She gestured with her hand. "You said you wanted to see me tonight, Lachlan. Take me to dinner. If you wanted to go out and get drunk instead, why didn't you just say so?" All her anger was bursting out of her.

"Och, I'm sorry. I ken, I'm a numpty."

If she wasn't so furious and hurt, she might have laughed. Damn him, this big gorgeous man looked so cute drunk and grovelling.

"I should huv called ye and no' just texted. That was very inconsiderate lass. I ken it.”

"You didn't text me, Lachlan." She leaned against the wall behind her a few feet away from the front door where another group of people were piling in.

Lachlan looked at her from under an arched brow as he stepped toward her, laying his hands on the wall on either side of her head. She was certain he was using the wall for support, but she was wholly affected by the move. She could smell the whisky on his breath and his cologne, and she just wanted to breathe him in and kiss his stupid face.

He leaned forward, their faces inches apart, and he studied her in a way that made her traitorous vagina throb. He picked up a loose strand of her hair, running it between his thumb and finger. "Aye, love. I did. I texted ye.”

"Maybe you thought you did, but you didn't, Lachlan. There was no message, no phone call. No nothing. Once again, you just ghosted me." She was going to hold her ground damn it. Her vagina and heart could just shut up already. He pulled his hands from the wall, and she felt strangely bereft.

He still looked at her, though, as he pulled his phone from his pocket. She gave him all the time he needed to find the so-called text. His lips lifted in his crooked smile, and he held his phone up for her to read it.

Lachlan: Hello my gorgeous lass, I apologize, but I am not going to be able to see you tonight after all. I should have messaged earlier. It is a long story. Let me make you brunch tomorrow, and I'll explain everything. I promise to make it up to you… all day and all night if you let me xxxxxxx

"See?" he said when she looked back up, triumph in his sexy, drunken gaze.

She crossed her arms over her chest. Her pulse tapped rapidly, reading his words.

"You didn't hit send."

His brow crinkled, and he flicked his phone back, examining the screen.

"Och, right, shite," he said.

She could tell he knew he'd fucked up, and then he hit send as if it would rectify things. Her phone dinged, and his eyes landed on hers, his lips quirking into a hopeful grin, and she couldn't stop the twitch of her own lips.

"I texted you, though. I'm assuming you didn't see it." She held her ground. Barely.

He looked down at his phone and ran a hand over his stubbled jaw. Clearly, he'd seen it now as a guilty look passed over his features.

"I am sorry, love. I'm doing a right job of messing things up, aye?”

A grinning Drew appeared over Lachlan's shoulder, draping a muscular arm over him.

"Ye two all right, then?" he asked, his eyes darting between them like a ping-pong ball.

Neither answered. "Och, Saint, did ye tell her ye defended her honor with the nasty MacDonald besom?" Drew supplied as if he thought it would help Lachlan's cause.

Violet found it kind of endearing—both the way he called him Saint and that he was making an argument on his brother’s behalf. So it was true—Lachlan had told that woman off. There were still many unanswered questions, though. She still wanted to know what their relationship had been and, more importantly,when.

"Ye arnae helping, Drew," Lachlan said, though his blue eyes were still glued to Violet like she was the only person who existed in that crowded pub.

"She doesnae look happy," Drew said to Lachlan as if she wasn't standing right in front of both of them, hearing every word.

She looked at him with his flirty-looking, devil-may-care, wide grin and almost laughed. He was exactly the kind of sibling she could imagine would drive Lachlan crazy. Then she thought of Orlagh, the petite powerhouse of a woman she'd met. How did she manage growing up with these men for brothers? As if on cue, Alex strode up to them, standing on the other side of Lachlan. The three big, broad, handsome Mackenzie brothers surrounded her. And all the while, Lachlan's eyes didn't leave her.

---