Charmed by His Love (2 page)

Peg pulled Jacob out of his seat to look him in the eye. “Be brave, my big man,” she whispered. “I won’t let anyone hurt you. But you have to help me by not going near the science equipment, okay? You can see everything the scientists are doing from the gazebo. And if you behave for Charlotte, I’ll buy you a book about ocean creatures.”

“Of my very own?” Jacob asked. “I won’t have to share it with Pete?”

Peg gave him a quick hug and swung him out of the van. “It’ll be all yours. Together we’ll write your name on the inside, and if Peter wants to look at it he’ll have to ask your permission. Now go on,” she said, giving him a nudge to follow his siblings. “And you all stay clean!” she called after them.

“Mom, where’s Miss Olivia going with that toilet plunger?” Charlotte asked. “Shouldn’t she be getting ready for her wedding?”

Peg looked at where her eldest daughter was pointing. “Oh, good Lord,” she muttered, gesturing for Charlotte to go after her brothers and sister. “Keep an eye on everyone for me, okay, while I go see what Olivia’s up to.”

Peg headed off knowing
exactly
what her friend was up to. Why else would Olivia be micromanaging her little kingdom of aging cabins today of all days, if not to keep her mind off the fact that she was about to marry one of the richest, handsomest, scariest men on the planet?

“And just what do you think you’re doing?” Peg asked, cutting her off.

Olivia blinked in surprise, then held up the plunger. “The toilet in cabin three is overflowing and I have to go fix it.”

Peg snatched the plunger out of her hand. “Why isn’t one of your
employees
saving our mad scientists?”

Olivia brushed at nothing on the front of her old sweatshirt,
and Peg couldn’t help but notice her friend’s hands were trembling slightly. “Um, our cook has everyone helping him get ready for the reception.” Olivia grabbed her arm. “My God, Peg, I swear a small army of guests crawled out of the woodwork. How in hell can everyone drop whatever they’re doing to come to a wedding on only a week’s notice?” She leaned closer. “I think several of the people Mac’s father invited are royalty,” she whispered. “And I heard one of them address Titus as ‘Your Royal Highness.’” Her hand on Peg’s arm tightened. “Will you please tell me what in hell I’m
doing
?”

Peg wrapped an arm around Olivia and started toward the small cottage nestled in the woods a short distance from the main lodge. “What you’re doing is marrying Mac, who I happen to know loves you to pieces.” She gave her friend a squeeze. “This will all be over tonight, Olivia. Your small army of guests will crawl back into the woodwork, and tomorrow morning you’re going to wake up the happiest woman on the planet. All you need to remember is that you’re not marrying Mac’s father or his royal friends; you’re marrying the man of your dreams.”

Olivia stopped walking. “But you know everyone in town is going to think I’m only marrying Mac because he’s rich, especially when word gets out that he purchased most of the timberland surrounding Bottomless. And when they find out we’re building a huge resort that will turn Spellbound Falls into a world-class tourist destination, all hell’s going to break loose.”

“Which is exactly what this forgotten town needs,” Peg said, starting them walking again. “Not only is Mac a genius but his timing’s not bad, either, since that freaky earthquake turned Bottomless into an inland sea. Hell, I actually own oceanfront property now because those shifting mountains cut an honest to God
fiord
right past my house and flooded my gravel pit.”

“Ohmigod,” Olivia gasped, stopping to grab Peg’s arm again. “Why didn’t you tell me? Was your house damaged?”

“I did tell you. But you’ve been a tad preoccupied lately, what with helping your ex-in-laws pack, dealing with a bunch of mad scientists trying to figure out exactly what went on here last week, and planning a wedding that’s taking place in
three
hours
.” Peg started her moving again. “So you go take a hot bubble bath while I go fix that toilet, and I’ll be back in time to help you dress and put up your hair.”

“But—”

“No
but
s! You’re getting married today if I have to drag you down the aisle myself. And then you’re going to smile and nod your way through the reception, and tonight you’re going to begin living happily ever after in the arms of your sexy husband.” Peg started walking backward, only to stop and point the plunger at Olivia. “And you stay away from the groom! He can’t see the bride until you’re walking down the aisle looking all radiant and beautiful, so he’ll realize he’s the luckiest man on the planet.”

Olivia took a deep breath, threw back her shoulders, and broke into a radiant smile. “Thank you for reminding me that he’s the lucky one.” She canted her head. “Can you tell me how we’ve lived in the same town for nearly twelve years and only became best friends two weeks ago?”

“That’s easy; you were too busy managing Inglenook for your ex-in-laws, and I was too busy making babies.”

Olivia’s eyes turned pained. “You will find love again, Peg.” She smiled sheepishly, shrugging her shoulders. “Heck, if it can happen to me, it can happen to you, too. You’ve been a widow over three years, so please don’t make the same mistake I did by giving up on love. You just have to start believing in magic again.”

Peg laughed and started walking backward. “I’m afraid it’ll take more than magic to find a man who’d be interested in a woman with four young children.” She shook her head. “And then I’m not sure I’d be interested in anyone crazy enough to date me.” She stopped walking and pointed the plunger again. “Now quit stalling and go turn yourself into a beautiful and deliriously happy bride.”

That said, Peg pivoted and started jogging away before Olivia decided that she should be deliriously happy in love, too—which was the last thing Peg needed. She was fully resigned to the fact that she would remain a widow until the day she died, considering she’d learned the hard way that her family’s curse was more than just some funky old legend. It was bad enough living with the guilt that she was in some arcane
way responsible for Billy’s death; she wasn’t about to kill off a second husband like her mother and aunt had.

And just what was she supposed to tell Charlotte and Isabel when they each came to her and announced they’d found the man of their dreams?
Well sure, sweetie, go ahead and marry the poor schmuck, if you don’t mind that he won’t live long enough to see his children graduate from elementary school.
Because any man who married any of the women in her family never made it past his thirtieth birthday. And even when Peg’s mom and aunt had waited until they were into their forties to remarry, they’d both lost their second husbands in freak accidents.

Peg often wondered what wicked sin the first black widow had committed to have placed such a horrible curse on five generations of female descendents—even as she continued to wonder what it would take to break it.

Heck, she’d actually thought
she
had broken the curse the day she’d slid Billy’s thirtieth birthday cake in the oven just hours before the surprise party she’d planned for him. Only the kitchen had filled with smoke as she’d stood staring at Billy’s boss and another coworker, utterly insensate from their news that her husband was dead.

“Mom, wait up!”

Peg turned to see Charlotte and Peter running toward her. She immediately looked at the gazebo, and sighed in relief when she saw Isabel and Jacob sitting quietly watching the beach.

“Can Peter and I go to the barn?” Charlotte asked. “Sophie said most of the horses are leaving tomorrow because Inglenook’s not going to have any campers this summer, and Isabel promised to watch Jacob, and I won’t let Peter go in the stalls. We just want to give them each a pat good-bye.”

Peg looked toward the barn. “I don’t think Sam’s around.” She looked back at her daughter and eldest twin son. “You remember that Olivia told us Sam is her father, so he’s probably busy getting ready to walk her down the aisle.”

“And Mr. Ezra is her grandfather,” Peter added with a semitoothless grin. He suddenly frowned. “Only how come Miss Olivia didn’t know he was her grandfather? She saw him at his store in town all the time.”

Peg ruffled his hair. “It’s a confusing story. And the important thing is that Olivia and Sam and Ezra are finally together now.”

“So can we go see the horses?” Peter asked. “I promise not to let them drool on my shirt, and we’ll go right back to the gazebo after.”

“Only if you also promise not to go in their stalls.” Peg started walking toward cabin three again. “And thank you for asking.”

“Mom!” Jacob shouted from the gazebo where he was standing on a bench. “Isabel thinks she just saw a whale blow! Only I missed it ’cause I was watching the beach. It looks like they’re gonna take out the submarine. Can we sit on that rock over there to see better?” he asked, pointing toward the boulder on the shoreline. He lowered his voice as she approached. “I promise I won’t talk to any of the scientists.”

Peg eyed the large, flat rock jutting out into the new Bottomless Sea. She wasn’t worried the kid would drown since the water wasn’t deep and Jacob swam better than most fish, and she really didn’t want to squelch his enthusiasm, considering his traumatic run-in with one of the scientists yesterday. Besides, what could be more entertaining for three hours than to watch a tiny two-man sub being launched?

“Okay, but you don’t go any closer than the boulder, got that?”

“I got it!” Jacob shouted, jumping off the bench and running down the gazebo steps. “Come on, Isabel. I’ll help you climb up the rock.”

“Mommm,”
her daughter whined, giving Peg a rather impressive scowl. “I can’t climb a rock in my party dress.”

“Then sit on the log next to it,” Peg suggested, once again heading off on her mission. God, she hoped the bastard who’d scared Jacob was staying in cabin three, because if he was, she intended to use his
head
for a plunger.

Since when was some stupid submarine more precious than the tender heart of a young child? For crying out loud, Jacob was four! Well, he’d be five in a couple of months, but her younger son was way behind his boisterous twin brother in many aspects. Peter was her daredevil, where Jacob was a sensitive soul.

But thanks to the family curse, her sons didn’t have a whole bunch of males to emulate, now did they? Well, except for her father-in-law and Billy’s older brother. Only Peg figured she had more testosterone than the two of them put together.

Honest to God, Clive Thompson sent his wife to investigate anything that went bump in the night, and his idea of sports was putting on an engineer’s hat and playing with toy trains. As for her husband’s hulk of a brother, Galen … well, everyone knew Arlene wore the pants in that family. And damn if the one time Peg had called Galen to come check out a strange vehicle in her gravel pit if Arlene hadn’t shown up instead.

At least her sister-in-law had brought along a shotgun.

Peg knocked on cabin three’s door, then walked inside when nobody answered, only to nearly trip over a pile of diving … stuff. “Be careful of that gear,” a voice said from somewhere inside another pile of stuff on the couch. “It’s expensive.”

Peg picked her way through the clutter, but stopped at the couch to peer over the guy’s shoulder. “Hey, is that a map of Bottomless?”

He kept hitting keys on his laptop, although he did give a nod.

Peg leaned closer, squinting at the screen. “Are all those numbers depths? Is Bottomless really eighteen hundred feet deep now, there in the middle?” Peg was so fascinated, she couldn’t stop asking questions. “But everyone knows the deepest basin has always been four hundred feet, so does that mean the earthquake really did split open the bottom of the lake like they said on the news? And is there really an underground saltwater river running up here all the way from the Gulf of Maine?”

Again nothing, except for a grunt when she impatiently nudged his shoulder.

Peg sighed and headed toward the bathroom, only to stop and stare in dismay at the mess. Jeesh, these guys hadn’t even had the combined brainpower to turn off the valve at the base of the toilet. Heck, Peter and Jacob knew enough to shut off the water, and they weren’t even in school yet. She bent down to reach the valve, glad that she had enough brains to bring her bridesmaid dress instead of wearing it this morning.

“We’re going to need more towels,” she heard from behind her.

Wow, a whole sentence. Peg looked over her shoulder to find that the guy might be talking to her, but it was her three-pregnancy-wide backside he was looking at.

She immediately turned to face him. “You guys aren’t getting any more towels until you round up the ones you’ve been lugging onto your boats. And here,” she said, thrusting the plunger toward him. “I’ll just leave this with you, since you must know more than I do about the physics of suction.”

The guy—who appeared to be barely twenty—eyed the plunger as if he didn’t have a clue what it was.

“Oh, you’ve gotta be kidding me.” Peg pulled him over to the toilet. “Okay, watch and learn, because there’s going to be a pop quiz later.” She shot him a brilliant smile. “And if you pass, I will
give
you this fascinating tool, and then you can show all your cabinmates how it works.”

“I haven’t got time to mess around with some toilet,” he said, turning to leave. “We’re about to launch the submersible and I’m piloting it today.”

Her heart skipping a beat that she may have just found Jacob’s scary man, Peg grabbed the back of his shirt and pulled him back around. “Then they won’t launch until you get there, will they?” She slapped the plunger against his chest. “Consider this training for when you’re eighteen hundred feet underwater and your Porta-Potty clogs.” She pulled him over to the toilet. “See, I’m really doing you a favor.”

The guy actually shoved the
handle
of the plunger into the bowl of clear water—which made Peg suspect it was probably a washcloth plugging the toilet. “You’re a rather bossy broad,” he muttered, sloshing water all over the place.