What you heard may not have given you the best impression of me and that’s probably because Linda tends to bring out the worst in me. To be honest, I can barely stand to look at her and if it wasn’t for Hallie, I wouldn’t have anything to do with her.”
“Your personal business isn’t any concern of mine.” She wrapped her fingers round her mug and drew it up to her lips.
“Still, I’d like to explain. Linda and I got married fairly young—we thought attraction was enough to build a marriage on, and I won’t lie, things were good for a while. But then we had twins and everything changed. Our son was born with cerebral palsy and she couldn’t handle it. She gave all her attention to Hallie and refused to even hold Hamish. It broke my heart but I hoped in time, she would learn to love him.”
He paused a moment, emotion swamping him.
“Hamish is the most lovable kid on the planet, but Linda never came to feel this way. Instead she drew away from me, too—she came to resent the love and attention I gave Hamish—and so she had an affair. I wanted custody of both the kids but she fought in court to keep Hallie and has never so much as acknowledged Hamish again since. So when she came barging in here the other day and said she was off to take care of some sick relative I’ve never even heard of, the anger I usually manage to contain exploded. How can she give herself to look after a near stranger when she’s never given any of herself to her son?”
“I don’t know.” Eliza twirled a few strands of her hair between her fingers. “But that’s really sad. How do you explain that to Hamish?”
Lachlan let out a heavy breath. “So far I’ve just skirted around the issue. He gets lots of love and attention from me and my family and I hope that we give him everything he lacks not having a mother. I guess because it’s always been this way, he’s never questioned it. Hamish isn’t a dumb kid but his condition has left him with a moderate intellectual disability—he amazes me. He can play things like chess almost as well as an adult, but he takes longer to catch on with things like schoolwork than most kids, and perhaps this has been an advantage when it comes to the absence of his mother.”
Eliza smiled sadly. “He sounds like a great kid. I can’t imagine how any mother could just abandon their child.”
“He is.” Lachlan nodded. “And I’ll never understand Linda either. Hallie’s always been great with Hamish, though, and it may not have sounded like it the other day, but I’m glad to have her with me, too. I’d have appreciated Linda giving me a little more notice, though, so I could organize everything better.”
“That’s understandable.” Eliza took another sip of her coffee and he found himself wondering and wanting to ask about her background. He knew from her résumé when she’d graduated college, which put her in her early thirties, about the same as him—she couldn’t have got to that age without some kind of serious relationship. Did she have a crazy ex in her past, as well? Was that why she’d chosen to leave a perfectly good job in a fancy restaurant in New York to come here? She’d told his siblings she was looking for a change of scenery and a new adventure, but people didn’t usually look for such things unless something or other had gone wrong.
These were questions he might have been able to ask at the interview, but he felt like the chance had passed him by and that if he asked them now, it might sound like he was prying. Lachlan told himself that Eliza’s personal life wasn’t any of his business anyway, that as long as she worked hard and did the job he needed her to do, then he didn’t care, but he couldn’t help being curious.
Pushing that thought aside, he also took a sip of his coffee. Man, that tasted good. Just what he needed, and hopefully with caffeine in his system, he would focus on what mattered—getting the restaurant ready for the grand opening.
He put down his mug. “I thought I could give you the grand tour of the distillery first and introduce you to everyone who works here and then we can come back and go through the list of everything we need to achieve over the next few weeks.”
“Sounds good.” She downed her last bit of coffee and stood.
Although he still had almost a full mug to drink, Lachlan decided it would be better to get the tour started. Things felt weird between them and he wanted to get back to the easy conversation they’d been having before Linda rudely interrupted the interview.
“I grew up here,” he said as they started out of the restaurant, “and, like my brothers and sisters, I’m very passionate about the whiskey and the distillery, even though until now I haven’t worked here. What I’m trying to say is all of us can tend to go on a bit about the history of the place, and so if we start boring you to tears, let us know.”
Eliza let out a sound that was almost a laugh, but not quite. “I’m sure I’ll be fascinated.”
Was she nervous? What would it take to get this woman to relax? He hoped to God he hadn’t made a bad decision in hiring her. He wanted a head hostess who was chatty and friendly, happy to flirt a little if necessary and laugh with the clientele. For a moment, he wondered if he—like Mac and Blair—had been bamboozled by her looks.
“The gardens are beautiful,” she said, jolting his thoughts.
And he grabbed hold of the topic, happy that she’d initiated something. “Thanks. My mother is the family green thumb and she does a lot of the work herself, although she does have help these days. We’ve got a full-time gardener on staff.”
“I read that your mom lives here at the distillery, and that your father died recently. I’m sorry,” she offered.
“Thank you.” It was good to see she’d done her research. “Yes, we lost Dad to a heart attack just over a year ago and a lot has changed around here since then. My older brother has taken over as head of the distillery and where Dad was all about tradition, Callum wants to take the distillery to the next level. In addition to opening the restaurant, he’s branching out in the types of whiskey we make. We’re now selling McKinnel’s touristy merchandise as well, and he’s hoping to buy some land next door and actually start growing our own grains.”
“Sounds like a lot going on.”
“There is, but you don’t need to worry about any of that. Our prime concern is the restaurant.” He gestured to the building they were approaching. “We’ll start in here. You met Blair the other day—he’s our head distiller. If you’ve got any questions about the making of whiskey, he’s the one to ask.”
Both Blair and Lachlan’s other brother Quinn were in the distillery and they stopped talking to welcome Eliza to the distillery family.
“Quinn’s in charge of our warehouse,” Lachlan explained. “And he recently got engaged.”
“Congratulations,” Eliza said.
“Thanks heaps.” Quinn smiled broadly and the goofy expression that crossed his face whenever he spoke about his fiancée, Bailey, appeared. “We’re also expecting twins.”
“Quinn and Bailey are going to get married at the distillery and we’ll do the catering in the restaurant. Bailey’s an event coordinator and we’re hoping that with her on board, we’ll get to host a lot more weddings here. The first one is actually going to be our oldest brother, Callum, and his fiancée, Chelsea, in two months’ time.”
“I hope you like weddings,” Blair said with a chuckle.
“Who doesn’t like weddings?” Eliza asked, but again she didn’t smile.
Lachlan let Blair show her round the actual distillery, which—whether she liked it or not—included a brief lesson in whiskey making and then Quinn took them into the warehouse for a quick look. From there, Lachlan took Eliza to the shop and office building. Sophie was busy with customers doing a tasting, so although she offered them a quick wave, they headed down the corridor to Callum’s office to find him and Chelsea locked in a passionate embrace.
Lachlan cleared his throat and rolled his eyes at Eliza as he rapped on the open door.