Echoes of Scotland Street (On Dublin Street #5)(65)
Author: Samantha Young

Panic fluttered in my chest. After everything, no matter his protestations, I owed Logan. If he wanted this from me I had to figure out a way to give him it. But it was going to be difficult bringing my family around to the idea of forgiving me.

Moreover, it meant I’d have to forgive them.

I ignored the deep-seated uncertainty and gave my brother a reassuring smile. “I’ll try.”

CHAPTER 23

T he sight of your childhood home wasn’t supposed to fill your mouth with the taste of ash and your stomach with dread. Yet, staring at the prewar bungalow I’d grown up in on a quiet street in a wee town outside Glasgow, I felt just that.

What I really wanted to do was jump on a bus back to Edinburgh, but I’d made a promise to my brother. I just hoped Amanda was still living with our parents so I could kill three birds with one stone.

On the back of that thought, the door to the house opened and my pretty sister stepped outside in house shoes, ratty jeans, and an oversized T-shirt. Her dark hair was piled on top of her head and she was staring at me with the dark brown eyes she’d inherited from Dad. To my surprise I saw a flicker of relief in them that was at odds with her dry “You’re alive, then.”

“You would have known that if you’d called.”

She rolled her eyes. “Works both ways.” On that note she slipped inside, leaving the door open for me.

The familiar smell of my dad’s tobacco hit me as soon as I entered. Gran had hated Dad’s smoking, but no matter how much she nagged she couldn’t get her son to quit. Mum never nagged him about it. She said Dad was always going to do what he wanted to do and she loved him enough to leave him alone to do it in peace.

I thought that was a copout, but then, she was always like that with Dad. He won every argument because she didn’t want him to see her as anything less than the perfect, supportive wife she tried to be. Personally I thought they were living in the freaking fifties. I shuddered when I remembered how similar I’d acted with Ollie until near the end. Of course, Ollie was a violent woman beater. Dad was just a stubborn pain in the arse.

Full of trepidation, I followed Amanda into the large sitting room where my dad was watching TV while Mum sat at the dining table, typing on a laptop. They looked up at my entrance and Dad pressed the mute button on the remote.

Our eyes met and I could see that familiar stubbornness in his dark gaze fighting an emotion I couldn’t quite name.

He stood up abruptly, drawing his hand across his mouth before sagging on a loud exhale. “Thank fuck.”

I was abruptly pulled against him, his arms tight around me as he hugged me.

It took me a minute to get over my shock and hug him back.

“You should have bloody called,” he bit out, and then pushed me back from him. He gripped my biceps so hard I winced.

“Dad, you could have called me,” I said, trying to keep the hurt and annoyance out of my own voice, unsuccessfully. “You were the one that told me this was all my fault and that I should stay away from Logan. I thought you’d be happy to see the back of me.”

He let me go, that stubborn chin of his jutting out. “I didn’t say it was all your fault.”

“So why didn’t you call?”

“Why didn’t you?”

I sighed. Typical Dad. His pride would never allow him to admit he’d handled this badly. I shot a look at my mum, who’d come to stand in the middle of the room beside Amanda. Amanda was taller than her. I’d gotten my lack of height from Mum along with her hair and eyes and figure. She was young looking—so young looking we could probably pass for sisters. But that was where the similarities between us ended. I was like neither of my parents.

I was all Gran, through and through.

Thankfully.

“A lot of things were said and done,” Mum said. “But that was no excuse for what you’ve put us through.”

My hands fisted at my sides. “It hasn’t exactly been easy for me either.”

Mum sighed. “I imagine not. But it isn’t always about you, Shannon.”

“I didn’t come here to fight,” I replied through gritted teeth. “I’ve just been to see Logan. He asked me to try to work things out with you and I promised I would.”

“Fine.” Amanda crossed her arms over her chest, eyes narrowed. “You can start with where you’ve been for the last few months and why there’s a tattoo on your back that wasn’t there before.”

Damn. My shirt must have ridden up when I hugged Dad. “Okay. Let’s sit down.”

*   *   *

“I cannot believe this!” Amanda shot to her feet once I was done telling them the story of my life in Edinburgh. “This just takes the biscuit.”

“It’s not like that.” I glowered up at her. “You can’t possibly believe I’d be so stupid again. Not after everything we’ve all been through.”

“Yes, yes, I can!”

“Amanda,” Dad said gruffly. “Calm down.”

“Look.” I drew her annoyed gaze from Dad to me. “I explained about me and Cole. I was just as suspicious and wary of him as anyone who has been through what I’ve been through would be. But he’s a good guy. He’s the one that’s believed in me. He’s gotten me here. He’s gotten me to face Logan.”

The panic gripping my chest was unbearable. I wanted to run from the house—and from that feeling—but I couldn’t because I’d bloody well promised. So I had to face my family’s response and I had to convince them I wasn’t making a mistake in dating Cole.

“I want to meet him.” Amanda glared at me. “I can come to Edinburgh and I’ll decide.”

“You’ll decide what?”

“If he’s a decent guy or another one of your losers.”

“And what the hell would you know about a decent guy, Amanda? You’re twenty-eight years old and you’ve never been in a serious relationship.”

She sucked in her breath, hurt flaring in her eyes.

“Shannon,” Mum warned. “If you want us to start over we need to know you aren’t going to bring a whole new load of trouble into your life and, subsequently, ours. We’re not going through this again. Your brother hasn’t finished dealing with the consequences of your last disastrous romance.”

“It’s not up to you to judge Cole,” I continued to argue, hating the idea of anyone believing he somehow had to prove himself. “He deserves better than that.”