“Dammit,” she softly hissed in deference to the men standing behind her as mute as fence posts, she assumed because they were trying to decide if their new boss really was as tough as he looked or certifiably insane. Heck, even Peter was speechless for once. “This is crazy. You don’t have to prove anything to Galen and the others.”
He glanced up in surprise, then took off his socks, stuffed them in one of his boots, and stood up. “Did ye know a person can see the entire length of Bottomless from the top of the mountain, and all the way to Canada in the other direction?” he asked. “If the weather’s nice I could take you and your children up to the summit this Sunday if you’d like, and we could bring a lunch.”
Peg dropped her gaze to his chest—which was quite naked, she couldn’t help but notice—and also tried to decide if he really was as tough as he looked or insane. Not because it appeared he was going swimming with or without her permission, but because she’d swear he’d just invited her on … No, he hadn’t just asked her and her kids on a picnic, because that really, really was insane.
“I … The kids would like that,” she heard herself say, deciding she was insane.
“Take the boys inside, Peg.” He lifted her chin with his finger, either because her staring at his chest unnerved him, or he wanted her to see his smile. “And try not to worry, okay? I really do swim in mountain ponds for sport.” His eyes took on a decidedly wicked sparkle. “Although I usually prefer to do it naked.”
Peg spun around and was halfway to Galen before she heard Duncan’s quiet chuckle. She snatched Jacob away, settled him on her hip to take hold of Peter’s hand and marched to her house, hoping the stupid idiot caught pneumonia!
No, wait; then he couldn’t take her and the kids up the mountain Sunday.
Yeah, well, she hoped Duncan MacKeage liked shaved venison sandwiches, because that’s was she was packing for their picnic.
Chapter Seven
“I think I’ve done a really dumb thing,” Peg said, sitting with her back against the picnic table as she stared across her newly reconstructed beach at her nearly barren hillside. She looked over at Olivia. “I agreed to let Duncan take me and the kids up the mountain this weekend to see the view and have a picnic.”
Olivia’s eyes widened in surprise, and Peg flinched when her friend suddenly threw her arms around her with a soft squeal of delight. “Oh, Peggy, that’s the smartest thing I’ve heard come out of your mouth since last Saturday.” She leaned away. “Wait; how can going on a picnic possibly be dumb?”
“Give me one good reason it can possibly be smart.”
“Well, you’ll get to see why we’re building the resort up there,” Olivia said, letting her go. “And you’ll get to spend the day with an adult male you’re not actually related to.” She leaned closer. “My first outing with Mac was an ice fishing picnic, and look where that led.”
Peg jumped to her feet. “I don’t want anything to lead anywhere! I swore on my husband’s grave three years ago that I was never, ever falling in love again.”
“Shh, the kids will hear you,” Olivia said, nodding at the beach and pulling Peg back down beside her. “I’m pretty sure Duncan only asked you to go on a picnic, not fall in love with him.” She folded her hands on her lap. “But I remember swearing never to fall in love again, myself.”
“How’s that been working for you, Mrs. Oceanus?”
Olivia gave her a sidelong glance and slow smile. “Pretty damned well, actually.” She looked at their children building sand castles—Charlotte and Isabel and Sophie building one and the twins and Henry building their own. “It’s working pretty well for Sophie, too. I hadn’t realized how much a little girl needs a man in her life.”
“She had John,” Peg reminded her.
“Grampies aren’t the same as dads. Sophie’s … Well, I don’t ever remember her going to John with a problem.” Olivia turned on the seat to face Peg. “Just the other day I saw her and Mac sitting in the gazebo, just talking. And that night when I asked her what they’d been talking about, she told me she’d asked Mac how she should deal with a boy at school who kept calling her Sexy Sophie.”
“Sexy Sophie? I hope he told her to punch the little snot in the nose.”
Olivia’s eyes crinkled with laughter. “No, my sweet, dear husband told my sweet, innocent daughter to thank the little snot for the lovely compliment and then ask him out on a date.”
“Oh, for the love of— I hope you punched Mac in the nose.”
“Actually, it worked,” Olivia said, sounding even more amazed than Peg was. “It appears Mac was eight years old once, too, and obviously remembers how boys that age think. Because despite my warning Sophie that it was probably going to backfire on her, the next day when the little snot called her Sexy Sophie and she thanked him and asked him out, the kid ran away so fast that he knocked over the food scrap bucket in the cafeteria.” She smiled smugly. “And his mother had to be called to bring him a change of clothes.”
“Mac told Sophie to call his bluff. I never would have thought of that.”
“Exactly,” Olivia said with a nod. “Now do you understand what I’m saying? Men see the world differently than we do, and kids need both perspectives. So how can your children and you spending the day with Duncan be a dumb thing?”
Peg dropped her gaze. “But what if they start liking him?” she whispered, lifting her head again. “He’ll be coming around here at least all this spring, and what if they get attached to Duncan?” She stood up, crossing her arms to hug herself as she looked at her children. “It’s one thing for me to survive getting my heart broken,” she said, looking back at Olivia. “But I don’t want my babies’ hearts to get broken again by letting them get attached to a man who will eventually leave or … die.”
“Oh, Peg,” Olivia said softly, standing up to take hold of Peg’s shoulders. “We can’t stop living because something might happen, any more than we can protect our children from life itself.”
Peg pulled away to look at the hillside where Duncan—apparently none the worse from his swim—was sitting with Robbie and Alec on the track of the excavator, watching the men cut her pine logs into workable lengths. She turned to Olivia. “That doesn’t mean I have to go looking for trouble. Because honestly?” she whispered. “I’m not sure I’d survive getting my own heart broken again.”
“It’s a picnic, Peg,” Olivia softly growled.
“But what’s the point of it, anyway? Why did Duncan even offer? What man in his right mind wants to spend all day with four kids who aren’t even his?”
“Gee, I don’t know,” Olivia drawled, a sparkle coming back into her eyes. “It couldn’t possibly be that he might actually like children, or that he simply wants to spend the day with a beautiful woman he’s not related to.”
“But I’m not—”
Olivia stepped toward her. “I swear to God, you finish that sentence and I’m shoving you in the water.”
Peg lifted her chin. “I was going to say that I’m not … that I don’t … Oh, okay; but besides my beauty, and the fact that we beat him up and I nearly ran him over with my van, why is he being so nice to—” Peg suddenly took a step back and pointed at Olivia. “Dammit, are you putting him up to this?”
“What? No!”
“I swear to God, if I find out the picnic was your idea, I’ll—”
Olivia burst out laughing and sat back down, pulling Peg down with her. “I swear I didn’t put him up to it.” Her eyes filled with laughter again. “But only because I didn’t think of it. And Mac swears that Duncan’s a good man, Peg,” she said, turning serious. “A bit old-fashioned apparently, according to a conversation I overheard at the wedding reception, but the consensus is that all the MacKeages and MacBains are noble men.” She nudged Peg with her shoulder. “But then, Simon Maher is available now that I’m off the market.”
Peg reared away in horror. “He’s old enough to be my father!” But then she smiled. “And yours, not that t
hat seemed to matter to him.”
They shuddered in unison and both burst out laughing.
“Mom?” Peter called out. “It looks like the men are bringing wood for our campfire. Can me and Repeat and Henry go help them?” he asked, pointing at Duncan and Robbie and Alec walking toward them with their arms full of wood.
Peg looked around, then nodded. “Okay, as long as you stay beside them.”
“Come on, guys,” Peter said excitedly. “Let’s go help them find more wood so we can have a really big fire to cook our hot dogs.”
Jacob stood up, looked at Peg, then at the men, then walked over and knelt down beside the girls and started working on their sand castle.
Henry started after Peter, but suddenly stopped and turned back. “Mother? Is it okay if I go, too?”
“Sure thing, Henry; go on,” Olivia said, waving him away.
“‘Mother’?” Peg said even as she sighed at Jacob’s reluctance to go with them.
“That’s who I am today,” Olivia muttered. “Yesterday I was ‘ma’am,’ and for three days before that I was ‘Mater’—which apparently is Latin for mother. Ever since the wedding Henry’s been trying to decide what to call me, because he claims ‘Miss Olivia’ is too formal.”
“No offense,” Peg said, deadpan, leaning closer. “But have you ever wanted to push Henry in a mud puddle just to see his reaction?” Olivia blinked at her in surprise, and Peg snorted. “Oh, come on, I know you’ve at least thought about it. The kid’s a little … stiff. I mean, seriously, Latin? What’s wrong with calling you plain old Olivia?”
“Too ill-mannered,” Olivia said with a sigh. “But hopefully he’ll have it figured out by the time we reach California, because I swear if he shouts ‘Mater’ or ‘ma’am’ at me in the middle of Disney World, I’m going to pretend I don’t know him.”
“Jacob,” Duncan called out just as Peg saw him accidentally drop a piece of wood on purpose. “Could you come get that for me, please?”
Peg held her breath when Jacob stood up and looked at Duncan, then at her, then at the piece of wood Duncan was stopped beside, and she didn’t start breathing again until the boy started running toward him.
“And that,” Olivia said, “is why going on a picnic is not a dumb thing.”
Duncan dumped his load of neatly cut branches on the dead grass just above the beach. “You said ye planned to cook hot dogs over a campfire tonight.”
Peg felt her shoulders slump. “I guess I did, didn’t I?”
“Oh, are we invited?” Olivia asked, her eyes lighting up again. “You know how much I like campfires.”
“Sorry, I don’t have any wine,” Peg drawled.
“That’s okay,” Olivia said, pulling her cell phone out of her pocket. “I’ll call Mac and have him bring a couple of bottles as well as everything for s’mores.”
Peg glanced at Alec and Robbie and Duncan—who also appeared as interested in the campfire as Olivia was—and smiled sheepishly. “I only have a dozen hot dogs.”
“You must have some … other meat in your freezer, don’t you?” Duncan asked, his eyes dancing. “We could have kebabs.”
“I’ll make a store run,” Robbie interjected, “when I take my crew to Inglenook to bed them down for the night.” He looked at Olivia. “We appreciate your letting us use your dormitory until Duncan gets his camp set up, since I couldn’t find any cabins to rent within fifty miles of the new Bottomless Sea.”
“Yeah, there’s actual traffic in town now,” Olivia said, looking down at what Peg recognized as a smartphone.
“Wait,” she said, touching her arm. “There’s no signal here, Olivia.”
“My phone works,” Duncan said.
“And mine,” Alec and Robbie said almost in unison.
Olivia smiled at her. “It appears we have cell phone service in Spellbound ever since the earthquake. You need to get yourself one, Peg, so I can text you a picture of me pushing Mac into the Grand Canyon.”
“Speaking of my dad, Mr. MacBain,” Henry said, stepping in front of Robbie. “He told me that you were only a few years older than me when your father married your stepmother, and I was wondering how you address her,” he asked as Robbie squatted down to be eye level. “Dad said your mama died when you were born, but I was wondering what you call your new mom.”
Peg saw Robbie’s startled gaze snap to Duncan, then slide to Olivia before it softened with his smile as he looked back to Henry. “Well, Mr. Oceanus, I had quite a time trying to decide what to call her until we both settled on ‘Mum,’ since I usually referred to my birth mother as my mama.” He tapped Henry’s chest. “And I call her mother Gram Katie, which she seems to like quite well.”
Henry beamed him a bright smile, then turned to Olivia. “What do you think of ‘Mum’? And since I have two grandfathers, I could call your father Grampy Sam, and his father Great-Grampy.”
“Works for me,” Olivia said with obvious relief, giving Robbie a nod of thanks.
“And you can call me ‘darling,’” Isabel said, rushing over to grasp Henry’s arm. “Come on, sweetheart; let’s go finish building our dream castle together.”
Peg jumped up. “Sorry, darling,” she said with a laugh, grabbing her daughter by the hood of her jacket. “We womenfolk have to go throw together a cookout. Come on, Charlotte, I need your help, too.” She turned and started walking backward to see Olivia and Sophie following. “You boys come, too. Jacob, why don’t you show Henry your new book about ocean creatures? And you menfolk can build the campfire and cut some sticks for the hot dogs and … and the kebabs,” she finished lamely, spinning away from Duncan’s quiet laughter.
Peg shooed the kids into the bathroom as soon as they got in the house, telling them to wash up and then go play in their respective bedrooms, promising to call them when it was time to start lugging stuff outside. She then waited until Olivia was done giving Mac instructions on what to bring, and pulled her friend into the kitchen as soon as Olivia slipped her cell phone in her pocket.
“I’ve changed my mind again,” she said, opening the pantry door. “I’m back to thinking the picnic is a dumb idea.”
Olivia sighed behind her. “For the love of God, why?”
“That’s why,” she said, turning to point at the kitchen table. “Jacob woke up from his nap and decided Duncan needed a hero’s badge for saving him this morning.”
Olivia went over and picked up the badge that Jacob and Peter had worked on for over an hour. “What a great idea.” She turned, holding it against her chest. “Duncan MacKeage, our hero,” she said dramatically before suddenly sobering. “Don’t you see, Peg? Instead of being scared of Duncan for pulling him off the excavator the other day, now Jacob sees him as a hero.”
Peg snorted and turned back to the pantry to hunt for the hot dog rolls. “Yes, everyone loves a hero.” She turned back to Olivia. “Aren’t we lucky to have both been married to such fine, upstanding men?”
Olivia went perfectly still. “You’re angry at Billy? Oh, Peg, I had no idea you felt that way,” she whispered, tossing the badge on the table and rushing to her. She took hold of Peg’s shoulders and smiled sadly. “But I do know what it’s like to feel guilty for being angry at someone who’s dead.”
“Keith died a war hero, but would you please tell me what’s so heroic about saving a bunch of stupid buildings in some stupid town? Billy broke his little girls’ hearts. And mine,” she said, thumping her chest. “And now I’m going to have to spend the rest of my life sleeping in an empty bed and go to every school play and graduation alone, and Billy’s brother will be the one taking the girls to father-daughter dances.”
Olivia gently pulled the crushed rolls away from Peg, led her to the sink, and grabbed a cup towel. “Wipe your eyes,” she instructed, handing it to her. “Nobody but Mac knows this, but my marriage to Keith died two years before he did.”
Peg lowered the towel in surprise. “It did?”
Olivia nodded. “But that doesn’
t negate the fact that he broke his daughter’s heart,” she said softly. “So I understand your anger. But what I don’t understand is why you’ve decided Billy’s dying means that your life is over, too.”
Peg turned and braced her hands on the sink to look out the window. “Because it is over—at least my love life is—because I’m cursed.” She looked past her shoulder at Olivia’s snort, and turned and folded her arms under her breasts. “Nobody but my mom and my aunt know this, but all the women in my family became widows before their husbands reached their thirtieth birthdays. And when my mom and aunt waited until they were in their forties to remarry, both of their second husbands died within a few years in freak accidents.”
“Are you serious?” Olivia said in surprise. She suddenly shook her head. “Those are coincidences, Peggy. There’s no such thing as curses.”
“Yeah, well, they’re damn freaky coincidences.” She glanced toward the bedroom, then glared at her friend. “And I’m not about to risk my children getting their hearts broken again just to prove you wrong. Or is it right? Hell, I don’t know anything anymore,” she muttered, burying her face in the towel again.
Olivia pulled her hands down and held them. “Are you saying you shouldn’t go on a simple picnic because you’re afraid if you … what … that if you happen to fall in love with Duncan that your family’s curse is going to kill him?”
“Five generations of women descended from Gretchen Robinson, Olivia; all widowed the first time before their thirtieth birthdays for a sum total of twelve dead men, including second husbands. If that’s not a curse, then what in hell is it?” She pulled her hands free and used the towel to point out the window as she arched a brow. “Should we see if Duncan can make it a nice baker’s dozen?”
Olivia’s mouth opened but nothing came out, and she closed it and walked to the table and sat down. She frowned at Peg, then started fingering the badge on the table.
Peg went to the fridge and took out the hot dogs and set them on the counter, then started dragging out condiments. She opened a cupboard and took down her dinner plates because she didn’t have any paper ones, then opened a drawer and gathered up fistfuls of forks and knives.
Charmed by His Love Page 9