Soulmate

37| Neil

"Neil! It'z been so lon' since ye cam' 'ere." An elderly woman came to the counter with a grin on her face.

"Sorry, Nana, hae been busy widh work." Neil gave her a lazy smile.

"Ah, nonsense! Enjoy yer life while ye er youn'. Ye can work when ye get old." They both laugh and Neil joked she was young and blah blah blah while I was internally screaming.

Fergus!

I didn't know why, but the thought of meeting Finlay's father scared the sh*t out of me.

"Nana, thiz iz Amber." I traced out of my thoughts into reality and saw the woman looking at me.

"Tha i brèagha." I blankly stared at her when she said it. "A bheil i Ameireaganach?"

That's not English.

"Tha i," Neil replied with a grin.

My brows dipped in confusion, and I glanced at Finlay, who was trying to understand what they said.

"An i do leannan?" Nana asked, wiggling her brows at Neil.

"She's asking him if you're his girlfriend," Finlay said, interpreting her words. Neil was about to open his mouth, but I beat him to it.

"No. I'm not." My lips curled into a grin as they looked at me, stunned. "I'm his sister-in-law."

"Ye can speak Gaelic?" Neil blinked his wide eyes at me.

"No," I smirked and glimpsed at Finlay. "But I can understand it... A little."

I had no idea Finlay could speak Scottish Gaelic but I'm glad I wasn't in oblivion.

"Nighean Ameireaganach a thuigeas Gàidhlig!" The woman clasped her hands with a proud grin. "Finlay iz so lowky to hae ye!"

Now that was my turn to be surprised. Neil told me he and Finlay used to come here a lot when they were kids and that's how she knew him. He told Nana to make the special, and she winked and left us.

"What was that?" I asked skeptically.

"Prepared to be amazed." Neil beamed.

• • • • •

"This is beyond delicious!" I screamed with my mouth full.

At first, I thought Neil was exaggerating, but after taking my first bite, I was floating to heaven.

"Told ye." Neil chuckled at my reaction. "It'z Cranachan. Finlay an' mah favorite. We used to eat only thiz whenever we cam' 'ere."

I licked the spoon and watched a ghost smile appear on Neil's face as he stared at his ice cream.

"You were really close," I asked, more like a statement.

"We were." He grinned. "So Gaelic? Ah was surprised ye ken it."

"Uh yeah... Not much though." I stuffed my face with ice cream, avoiding answering him. "Where did you learn from?"

"Majority of the ancient people 'ere only speak Gaelic. It'z nawt common in the new generation." He circled his spoon in the ice cream cup. "Ah wasn't interested in it either, but Finlay waz. Finlay iz a total geek, an' he iz into mythology so much that he learned Gaelic because of itz ancient history. He asked Granny to teach him an' seeing him so engrossed in it, ah learned it with him."

"You like to copy your brother?" I teased him.

"More like ah admired him." He gave a sweet smile that made my heart ping with... Guilt? The way he talked about his brother made me think again about my suspicion of him.