Love Through The Ages

Six

"I don't know a perfect person. I only know flawed people who are still worth loving."

--John Green

I place the pie back in the oven to keep it warm while I finish getting ready for my double date with Michael and Lizzie that I still don't understand why Lachlan agreed to. We've barely had any time to ourselves with figuring out how to save our home and with Michael constantly wanting to ask questions about us or about the past. I push a hand through my hair as I walk back through to my bedroom to finish applying my makeup and select a dove grey, deep V-neck sweater to pull on over my black lace trimmed camisole paired nicely with the dark washed jeans I had already put on. I push the sleeves up slightly to put on my favorite bangle bracelet and put in a pair of diamond loop earrings in grabbing my glasses now seeing them as more of a nuisance than anything else. I pick up a long necklace just as I hear the buzzer to let me know someone is downstairs and walk through to the intercom between the living area and the kitchen above my entryway table.

"Lachlan?" I ask pushing the speak button and let go to listen for the answer.

"Aye, mo gaol, let me in." I hear the familiar deep, Scottish voice answer and bite my lip as it sends a shiver down my spine. I quickly press the button to let him in four stories down and go to open the apartment door a crack so he can let himself in. I walk back through to my room to select a pair of black stiletto heeled booties and grab the scarf I threw on the bed earlier its dark red pattern adding some color to my outfit. I turn out the bathroom lights and grab my jacket from the closet as I hear Lachlan coming in.

"Aquira?' He calls out and I walk out to see him closing the door behind him my heart jumping at the sight of him in jeans yet again.

"You're going to have to call me Arabella tonight, mon cher." I say as I walk toward him to kiss his cheek and smile as he slides one arm around my waist to draw me closer to him enveloping me in his unique smell of outdoors and a good aged whiskey I've loved for as long as I can remember.

"We're alone, are we not?" He asks with a brow raised and I laugh raising up to peck his lips.

"Let me get the pie out and we'll go." I say as I pull away to go over to the oven and grab a towel to save from burning my fingers on the dish to place it on the stovetop.

"I have a gift for you...well, more than one actually." I hear him say behind me as I search for some aluminum foil and I turn slightly to look at him raising a brow.

"Oh? Whatever for?"

I watch him shrug his shoulders up almost to his ears before relaxing them back down in a gesture I've seen thousands of times as if his shirt is too tight across his back. I wrap the foil over top of the pie dish remembering that that gesture was something he did when he was nervous or felt awkward and it made me even more curious. I look at him fully as I pick up the dish and his mouth opens to flood me with words at such a fast pace in Gaelic that my head spins. I quickly put the dish down by my purse on the entryway table and step toward him to place my hands on his shoulders looking up at him.

"I understand Gaelic as well as you taught me but it has been some years since I've heard it spoken at such a pace with that much passion." I say with a small smirk and squeeze his shoulders looking into his eyes. "Now, say it all over again preferably slower, please."

"Can I just show you instead?" He asks after taking a deep breath and I nod at him. He reaches into the jacket of his leather jacket he had on the day he came back to me to bring out two small boxes and takes my hand as he steps back to sit on the arm of one of my chairs. I raise a brow at the velvet ring box and he nods when I reach for it placing the other beside his thigh. I swallow the sudden lump in my throat as I open the box gasping as I see a beautiful oval shaped diamond flanked by two smaller ones on either side fanning out to tinier ones along the band and shake my head.