“Al, what are you saying?” Paul turned to her. “You can’t possibly prefer this dirty backwoods savage.”
“That’s exactly what I am saying, Paul. I plan to stay here and help him keep Gramps’ Chance intact.”
“You’ve got to be kidding. Give up a job as a top executive at one of Canada’s fastest growing corporations? You’d have to be crazy.”
“Maybe I am. Crazy like Gramps. Crazy like a fox.” She smiled up at Heath. “Anyhow, I’m going to give it my best shot.”
“Argh!” Paul looked down as Jack raised his leg and peed down the sharp crease of his trousers. “Filthy creature! I don’t know how you can tolerate him, Myra.”
Shaking his leg every few steps, he headed back into the Lodge.
“You’re sure about this, Allison?” Her mother’s smooth forehead wrinkled into a frown. “It’s a big decision.”
“It’s what Gramps…and you…were hoping for, isn’t it? Furthermore, I’m quite sure I know who holds those two controlling shares.”
“Really?” Myra crossed her arms on her chest as her husband, grinning, put an arm around her shoulders. “Who?”
“Well, you have one.” Allison tried to look clever and sly all at once. “And Heath’s mother has the other.”
“When did you come to that conclusion?” Myra Armstrong held her ground.
“Oh, come on, Mom. Who else could it be? One dependable person from each of the opposing camps.”
“And just when did you figure this out?” Heath, his forehead furrowing, stared at her .
“It came to me in one giant epiphany right after Candace shot at us. Hitting the ground with you on top of me knocked away the cobwebs.”
“Hitting the ground with…” Cameron Armstrong’s arm dropped from about his wife and he faced Heath with a look Allison knew boded no good.
“Heath was pushing me out of the way of a bullet.” Allison took her father’s arm and looked up at him, grinning. “Dad, really. I’m a woman now. I can handle this guy with one hand tied behind my back.” She shot Heath a taunting look.
“Maybe.” She felt her father’s muscles relax. “But since you’re going to be staying up here with him, I’ll repeat the warning Jack told me he gave you many years ago. Any part of you that touches my daughter without her heartfelt permission will be amputated. As a surgeon, I’m perfectly capable of carrying out the threat.”
“Understood, sir.” Heath stepped forward and held out his hand.
“Good.” Dr. Armstrong accepted the offer, and the two men stood grinning at each other.
“Good Lord!” Allison linked arms with her mother. “I’m starting to feel like mere chattel. Let’s go inside. I’m hoping you’ll make tea and sandwiches while I take a shower and try to get back to being human.”
“Jack, you’d better come along with me.” Cameron Armstrong looked down at the dog. “I think a good bath is in order before you’re fit for the Lodge.”
Jack looked up at him and barked.
“Okay, okay, I know how you feel about baths, but we guys all have to do things we don’t particularly like, to please the ladies.” He turned to the younger man. “Remember that, Heath. Because, if you’re not already, I think you’re about to become involved with one very special one.”
Chapter Thirteen
“Bye, see you soon.” The following day Allison waved as her parents drove off in the Tracker they’d rented in town on their arrival. Paul had left in a huff shortly after she and Heath arrived back at the Lodge, driven into Portage by her father to catch the next commuter flight to Toronto. Jack, who’d decided to stay at the Lodge indefinitely, barked a farewell before dashing off across the lawns.
“He loves it here.” Allison smiled as she watched him go. “Even though a week ago neither of us would have believed we would choose a life in the wilderness.”
“Well.” Heath, standing beside her, stuck his fingers into the back pockets of his jeans and heaved a sigh. “We’re on our own—you, Jack, and I.”
“Yes.” She turned to squint up at him in the sunlight. “Guests due in a few days, your mother not back, and this place in need of a general sprucing up. We’ve got our work cut out for us and no mistake. Let’s get to it.”
“Hang on there, boss lady.” She started to move past him, but he caught her arm. “First things first. There’s something I have to put right.”
He took her hand to guide her into the path leading to the boathouse.
“Heath, what in the world…?”
“No words…yet.” Beside the old log building he paused and looked out over the river that was gradually returning to normal after the wildness of its spring freshet. On the far side, a doe and fawn appeared out of the green freshness of the awakening forest.
The doe stared at them for a moment, then ducked her head in a sort of bow. Then she turned and bounded back into the trees, her baby at her heels.
“Heath, do you think they could be the pair we helped?” Allison breathed. “That mother seemed to acknowledge us…crazy as it seems.”
“Never underestimate animals, Allie.” He seized her hand. “Remember how Jack managed to find us just in the nick of time? Your grandfather had great respect for their instincts.”
“And I do, too, Heath. Remember what Jack did? How he somehow knew we’d need him and ran away from the Lodge? What are you doing?” she broke off, surprised.
He was leading her to the side of the boathouse, back to the place where they’d had their first physical encounter.
“I have to make things right.” He moved her carefully back against the log wall. “You can’t live on the Chance haunted by a bad memory.” He took her into his arms and this time, gently yet so sensuously her breath hiccupped, he kissed her. Kissed her until her senses reeled, until all she wanted was the man in her arms. “I want you to remember this only as the place I first told you I loved you,” he said.
“Oh, Heath.”
“What? Don’t tell me I’ve done it wrong…again?” He drew back from her, his eyes widening.
“No, no, it’s just that I didn’t expect…”
“So that’s not what you wanted to hear?”
“It’s exactly what I wanted to hear. I didn’t expect you to be so romantic about doing it.”
“Sorry. I forgot. It’s my wilderness man persona that turns you on.” He started to take her back into his arms, but she stopped him.
“I admit you’re one sexy man.” She couldn’t resist the tease. “But before we go any further, don’t you want to hear my response?”
“If it’s the right one.”
“Then if the right one is that I love you, too…” She looked up to see a wicked twinkle in his eyes.
“Correct.” And he was kissing her again, letting her move into position against him, letting her set the pace.
“Bad memories erased?” He pulled back and gazed into her eyes.
“Nearly.” She pulled his head down to kiss him until he groaned.
“So?” His question hung in the air between them when she let him come up for air.
“So what? Are you asking me to reaffirm your ability to please lady guests?”
“Hey, cheap shot. You know what I mean. You and I. Where do we go from here?”
“Where do you want us to go?” She slanted him a sly, sideways glance.
He pulled her close to breathe the suggestion into her ear. “Into that deserted Lodge, into the nearest bedroom. But that’s your decision.”
“Oh, God, do you always have to be such a gentleman? Can’t you just for once act the way you look?”
“What does that mean?”
“Do I have to spell it out?”
“Yeah, humor me.”
“Okay, here’s one for your male ego. Handsome, feral, earthy…”
“That’ll do.” Snatching her up so suddenly she gasped, he was striding across the grounds toward the Lodge with her in his arms before she got her breath back.
&nb
sp; “We should discuss business first.” She tried to bring her swirling senses under control. “We ought…”
“Open the door.” They’d reached the Lodge and he held her in position.
“Heath…”
“Open the door, woman.” He was grinning. “This wild man has waited as long as he can.”
Allison Armstrong, former CFO of Shawville Industries, obeyed.
A word about the author…
Gail MacMillan is the award-winning author of twenty-six published books and numerous articles and short stories which have appeared in magazines throughout North America and western Europe.
A graduate of Queen's University, Gail lives in New Brunswick, Canada, with her husband and two dogs.
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