The overhead light reflected in his eyes, highlighting flecks of gold. “It was just time.” He set the drink down and ran his finger over a gouge that had been in the pine table for as long as Shay could remember. “Lots of memories here. Shame for the place to sit empty. Nina’s crazy to choose Matilda over this.”

The place was beautiful, a quaint house smack in the middle of rolling hills, surrounded by woods. At one time this had been the carriage house. When the MacBains bought the estate, they sold Nina the smaller home.

“You know Nina. She’s like some kind of fairy godmother, always trying to fix everyone’s life. Even a crazy cousin who dreams of traveling the world before she croaks.”

“If Matilda croaks, it’ll be from one of the tour guides pushing her off a pyramid.” Cody popped the top on his Pepsi. “Nina’s threatening to call off the trip to Egypt in the spring and stick Matilda in a retirement home, if she doesn’t stop being such a pest.”

It irritated Shay that he knew more about the woman who had raised her than she did, but it had been her choice to stay away. “Aunt Nina said Marcas and Lachlan would be back in a couple of days.”

“Aye. Tomorrow, I expect.”

The sound of his voice made her ache inside. She’d forgotten the hint of accent she’d found so enchanting. “You’ve spent nearly all your life in America, and still you have a touch of brogue.”

He shrugged. “Guess you can take the boy out of Scotland, but you can’t take Scotland out of the boy.” Ewan and Laura MacBain had moved here when Cody and his brothers were little more than babies, but they were Scots through and through.

“Remember when we were kids, you and Marcas tried to teach me some words in Gaelic to use as our secret code?” Shay smiled.