The Highlander's Time Read Online Free PDF

necessity, she'd suffered through all the death in her life by digesting her mourning because there was always someone who needed her to be strong. She mulled over things to an ulcer-causing degree, and then when she felt ready to shatter, she did.
    Back when her mother was sick or during her father's lengthy hospitalization after quadruple heart bypass surgery, she'd curl up in the corner of the couch covered by an old chenille lap blanket with the phone on the end table beside her. She'd flip through the cable channels until an old movie would come on. Losing herself in the story never equated in her mind. To her, the practice was more a waste of time, or when she was waiting for the inevitable call to hurry to the hospital before it was too late, she was merely killing time.
    “Come on,” she whispered on a bitter sigh. Shifting onto her right side, she squeezed her eyes tight against the frustrated tears stinging in the corners. “This isn't that hard. Close eyes. Count sheep. Go to sleep.”
    The sound of Lila snoring and Charlzie mumbling only intensified the uselessness she felt.
    Turning over again, she watched the door for a long time. In her mind's eye, she tried to picture any of the classic movies. She couldn't firmly catch any of the multitudes of snapshots from the hundreds she'd watched.
    Promising herself for the fiftieth time she was going to try the door again, she heaved a sigh. What good is that when it’s locked from the outside?
    No good .
    She rose on her elbow, ready to abandon the uncomfortable, thin mattress. Heartsick and feeling ill, she hung her head in defeat before lying down once more. The tears she'd denied all day fell. Crumpling beneath the truth she was in the past, in a land she didn't think she'd ever understand, she lost her battle to be tough. She sobbed for her mother and her father and all the dreams she'd put on the back burner.
    The sound of the door opening didn't deter her from venting. She knew what she needed—to purge her system.
    “Jenny?”
    Insulted Iaen would interrupt her funk she couldn't even smile over his mangling of her name. Hiding her face in her pillow, she clenched the grass-stuffed rectangle to her face. “Just leave me alone, milord.” She was beyond caring who saw her or heard her break down. “I just need some...time.” What don't you understand? I want to be left alone with my pain.
    “Come along, lass.” He pulled the covers back and lifted her in his arms.
    He said something else to her in Gaelic. The thick brogue, which she'd considered sexy whenever she watched Braveheart or a Sean Connery movie, slapped her low self-esteem into the dust. “I haven't learned enough yet.” She sobbed all the harder because she couldn't understand him, but she wanted to.
    Wrapping her arms around his broad shoulders, she let loose on all the emotional pain building within her in body. It poured from her in shivering, heartbreaking sobs. “I'm so sorry.” Absently, her fingers tangled in his long, dark hair. “I don't know how to fix this.”
    It was her problem in a nutshell. She'd fixed every small or major problem since she'd joined Lila's staff. The go-to girl who could calm any reporter, discourage any member of the paparazzi and cut off enemies at the pass.
    But before becoming a part of Lila's hard nosed, yet diplomatic, well-versed kiss-ass staff, it was a matter of whenever she'd stepped in with good intentions, her life fell to pieces. An internal war took control of her body. There wasn't any way out, nor was there an easy way to go forward. “I can't do this.”
    It was a revelation ripped from her soul. She felt broken down to tiny pieces. Part of her, a big part of her, wanted to run away from her problems. The man holding her gently, reverently, anchored her in a truth that terrified her.
    She was trapped in the past without a way home. In the midst of reality was also the fact that Charlzie, and—eventually—Lila, would look to her for