A Time & Place for Every Laird by Angeline Fortin (ebook reader TXT) 📕

Claire beat Hugh on the next two holes andwas surprised to find that the Scot was also an awfully good sport.He praised her efforts, but the competition did become more heated.Claire played like a twenty-first-century woman. She flung her armsup with a loud “Woo-hoo” when she did well and cursed soundly whenshe did not.

“’Tis meant to be agentlemanly game, but yer a verra vocal player,” Hughadmonished.

“My dad is a pretty mild-mannered guy but heused to say that he thought golf caused Tourette’s Syndrome becausehe would always start cursing uncontrollably whenever he played,”Claire said with a sheepish grin before explaining what the illnesswas and how the symptoms sometimes manifested. “I guess I get itfrom him.”

Hugh’s lips tilted at the corners, but itwas that sad smile that told Claire there was just another thingabout being here that upset him. “I suppose the game itself haschanged in many ways.”

“I’m sure you’ll find that most things youknew have changed in some ways,” Claire said practically. “But atleast it’s still here, right?”

“If yer going tae look at it that way, Isuppose I should be thankful that some of the human race still eatsmeat wi’ their meals and that everyone isnae a vegetarian now.”

“See? Now you’re looking on the brightside,” Claire grinned at Hugh’s chagrin as they returned to thegame.

Again the question was asked about whyClaire did not eat meat, and as they played, she launched into along explanation of why people became vegetarian; some for theirhealth, others who protested the exploitation of animals, andothers who, like Claire, were generally suspicious of the hormonesused to increase production of those products. That was why shewould eat wild-caught fish but not farm-raised, why she would eatvenison but not beef or chicken, and why she avoided eggs and milkunless they were hormone free.

Hugh accepted her explanation with a nod butstated that there was not a reason on earth that would compel himto forgo meat with his meals, and Claire was fine with that. Herbeliefs were her own and she didn’t try to push them on others.

“Besides,” she added wickedly, “your finecountrymen also came up with haggis. I’m sure once you’ve eatenthat, nothing is offensive anymore.”

“An innovation counterbalanced by thegentlemanly game of golf,” Hugh pointed out.

“Ahh, yes, the gentlemanlygame of golf,” Claire teased in a haughty, British accent.“When one drunk Scotsman knocked a ball into agopher hole and decided to call it a game?”

“That is nae how the game started!” Hughprotested. “Is that what people really think?”

Claire wondered what it was about Hugh thatmade her want to needle him so, but she couldn’t help herself. Ahumorous recollection tickled deep within her and Claire pulledHugh into Robert’s office and turned on his computer. Oh, it wasmean, she inwardly chided. She shouldn’t do it. She shouldn’t.

But she was going to anyway.

Going into YouTube, Claire pulled up RobinWilliams’s comedy routine where he poked fun at Scotsmen and theorigins of golf only to laugh more at Hugh’s outrage over thecomedian’s impersonation of a Scotsman than at his ire at the skititself.

“I dinnae talk like that!” he argued, towhich Claire could only raise a mocking brow before collapsingagainst him with laughter. Hands clasped around his arm, she saggedagainst him with her forehead against his bicep as she surrenderedto the hilarity.

But that humor faded quickly when Clairerealized what she had done. That she had forgotten so thoroughlyher own rule and the argument and insult of the morning, to relaxso completely with Hugh once more! To find comfortablecompanionship only to have it ebb into undeniable discomfort as thesexual tension that had ensnared them the previous night once morespun its web.

Claire released Hugh’s arm and glanced up athim, only to find his blue eyes dark and intense as he stared downat her. When had she softened toward him so completely? When had hegone from being a savage to a man? From a charity case to a pointof distraction? When he had made her laugh? When he had called herout? In just days, Hugh had overwhelmed her every defense, defensesthat had been in place for years. He wasn’t a project anymore, andhe wasn’t just business. He was an unanticipated friend … and anunexpectedly virile man who tempted her with each passing hour totread where she knew she shouldn’t.

Hugh made no move to touch her, but neitherdid he pull away. He wanted to kiss her just as he had the nightbefore, she could see it in his eyes, and Claire couldn’t help butrecall that brief but tender kiss on the beach.

Claire chewed the inside of her lip as shelooked away. Damn, that kiss! It might have been what had set offthe heated exchange that morning. She had enjoyed it, as light andinnocent as it had been. She had enjoyed it … and felt guilty forit. Deeply, darkly guilty.

And that had put her emotionally on edge, tothe point that one minute she was comforting him, and then she wascrying, only to burst out like some madwoman seconds later. Claireknew it would be nice to blame it all on the stress of theirsituation, but in retrospect she knew that the guilt was thehands-down culprit.

Why? Why should she feel guilty for enjoyinga kiss? For finding a man attractive? Hugh was right about morethan her being afraid of discovering that another relationshipmight not live up to the first or being afraid of loving and losingonce more. He was right in saying that Matt wouldn’t have wantedher to become a martyr to his memory. Knowing Matt, he was probablylooking down at her with a frown of disappointment.

Before he had first been sent overseas, herhusband had wanted to talk about what would happen if he didn’tcome back, but Claire wouldn’t listen then, so Matt had put it in aletter that one of his fellow officers had given to her at thefuneral.

Find happiness, he had said. Find love. Havethe family they had never found the time to make together. Everyonesaid the same thing. Even Matt’s parents.

But she hadn’t, for the very same reasonHugh had indicated.