Charmed by His Love (32 page)

Charlotte and Isabel jumped out of the back, dragging the blankets with them, causing the poor pup to tumble out of the truck with a yelp of surprise. Duncan walked over and set the boys down, took one of the blankets and folded it lengthwise on the ground, and then sat down on it. He leaned against the truck and patted the blanket on either side of him. “Come on, people; I need to borrow some of your body heat.”

Peg stood blinking at him as Alec walked up to her. “What he’s needing is to hold ye all, lass,” he said softly, giving her a nudge. “It was a hell of a boat ride.”

Robbie came striding up the knoll just as all four children did indeed cuddle up to Duncan, apparently needing him as well. Robbie silently shook his head at Peg to let her know her house was a complete loss, then looked at Duncan. “There’s something I think ye might want to see,” he said quietly.

“Whatever it is can wait,” Duncan said, snagging Peg’s hand. He moved Jacob and Peter onto his lap and pulled her down beside him. “Charlotte, hand me that other blanket, would ye, lass?” He then tucked Charlotte up against his side next to Isabel and covered them all with the blanket, wrapped
one arm around Peg and one around the girls, and pulled them all together with a sigh—the group hug completed when the pup landed on top of the blanket and flopped down with a doggy sigh of its own.

“Go away, you two,” Duncan said to Alec and Robbie, who were both grinning at the picture they must have made. “We’ll be right here when Jeanine and Bea have breakfast ready.” He sighed again when Peg tucked her head in the crux of his shoulder. “Just have them feed the firemen before they feed our crews.”

Oh yeah, Peg thought with a sigh of her own; a hug from a big strong man was exactly what they all needed this morning.

Since her beachfront was full of men gathered around a campfire, Peg sat on her deck steps waiting for Duncan to get through talking to his newly returned crew before she rode into town with him to attend the hastily scheduled Sunday night meeting. Folks in and around Spellbound Falls had decided it was time to openly discuss the little resort problem that seemed to be growing into a
big
problem, considering the fire marshal had declared her early Friday morning fire had been arson.

There had still been puffs of smoke wafting up from the ruins of her burned-down-to-its-foundation house when Duncan had Peg’s property turned into Fort Thompson; complete, she was afraid, with armed guards. Honestly, all that was lacking were cannons, and she wouldn’t be surprised if one of those showed up in the back of someone’s pickup next week. Three of the ten bunkhouse trailers and Duncan’s own private trailer slated for the camp up the road were now parked at her pit instead, all plumbed into her newly expanded septic system—she had no idea how he’d gotten
that
permit in only six hours—and tapped into her well.

Come to think of it, Peg couldn’t remember Duncan asking
her
permission, either, but she wasn’t complaining because
she liked feeling safe when she flopped into her tiny bed, which Duncan had finally vacated Thursday. Except now he was sleeping on the other side of her bedroom wall in his private bunkhouse—that he’d perfectly aligned so their bedroom windows faced each other.

Peg’s neighbors to the west weren’t very happy with all the activity so close to their … garden, although Evan and Carl had come over to say they certainly didn’t mind waiting until that gosh-dang arsonist was caught before they put out this year’s crop of hardy seedlings.

Her children were taking losing their new house fairly well, with no obvious signs of distress or lingering fear, likely because all the activity had created quite a distraction. Well, that and Duncan’s parents had been spoiling them rotten for the last two days.

Callum and Charlotte MacKeage had arrived Friday afternoon, only to have their son introduce them to Peg and the kids then rush back into the chaos issuing orders—after, that is, he wolfed down half a pan of maple-glazed apple crisp smothered in whipped cream. Callum had also eventually moseyed away, and Peg had watched in awe as he’d pulled a virtual town of small buildings out of the back of his truck, carried them down to the beach where Peter and Jacob were playing, and the three of them had gotten really serious about the twins’ construction project.

Charlotte had divided up what was left of the crisp among Peg, her girls, and herself, and they’d spent the afternoon ignoring the fortress being built around them as they’d all gotten to know one another. That’s why Peg didn’t have any problem letting Callum and Charlotte babysit her heathens tonight while she went to the town meeting with Duncan. The meeting that was slated to begin in two hours, she realized as she glanced down at her watch, which meant they needed to leave now if they wanted to stop by the Drunken Moose first.

She fidgeted with the strap of her purse as she watched Duncan in the last rays of the setting sun quietly talking to his men sitting around the campfire. His feet were slightly spread as he stood with his arms folded over his chest in a stance of authority, and Peg felt her insides suddenly clench.

Damn, her desire for him was starting to get out of control, and Peg was worried she was going to act on it one of these days. She sighed, resting her chin on her fists as she continued watching Duncan. He hadn’t stolen any more kisses since the morning of the fire, when he’d gotten all growly because she’d finally kissed him back. Granted, her house had been burning down to its foundation at the moment, but he’d felt so solid and strong and invincible, and she’d been so scared and needy. All she’d wanted to do was lose herself in the passion that had been building inside her for the last three nights he’d been sleeping in her bed, while she’d been out on the couch wanting to be in there with him.

Peg stood up when she saw him striding toward her and slipped her purse over her shoulder with a fortifying breath. She walked to her SUV, brushing down the front of her old spring jacket in an attempt to appear nonchalant. The last thing she needed was for him to see how scared and needy she still was, considering this was the first time since their picnic, when Duncan had declared she wouldn’t always have the twins stuck to her like glue, that they would actually be alone together.

Peg dropped the truck keys into his outstretched palm without so much as even a scowl and climbed in the passenger side of her SUV when he politely opened the door. Because honestly, not only did she know better than to argue with an old-fashioned man, she kind of wanted to pretend this was a date, even if they were only going to a town meeting. But taking her to the Drunken Moose for a piece of Vanetta’s famous blueberry pie first was sort of like a date, wasn’t it?

At least it was according to Charlotte, who’d managed to find a pair of actual dress slacks in the back of Peg’s closet, and then insisted Peg wear the top from one of her funeral outfits with them along with the small pearl earrings her short-lived stepdad had given Peg for her wedding. So she was dressed like she was going on a date, she decided as she watched Duncan walk around the front of her truck, even though he was wearing jeans, a heavy chambray shirt under his leather jacket, and work boots.

He climbed in behind the wheel with a chuckle when
he caught her glancing toward the house. “Your babies will be fine. They have the movies Mom brought that they can watch together, and if those fail, Dad’s one hell of a storyteller.”

“Actually, it’s your parents I’m worried about,” she said with a sigh. “Peter and Jacob like to pretend they’re each other just to mess with people, and sometimes Isabel can be … well, Isabel.”

“I believe they can handle your heathens,” he drawled as he turned the truck onto the main road and accelerated.

Peg folded her hands on her lap so he wouldn’t see them trembling as she once again reminded herself this was
not
a date. “They really didn’t have to stay a day longer than they’d planned. My mother-in-law said she could watch the kids tonight.”

“Mom and Dad are in no hurry to leave.” He smiled over at her. “When Dad saw my crew returning this evening, he said he wanted to stay and watch the big boys play with the big toys tomorrow.”

“I can’t believe he got down in the dirt to help the twins expand the town they’re building. You said he’s eighty-two.” Peg shook her head. “I think that’s a flat-out lie, because that would mean he was what … nearly fifty when you were born?”

“Forty-eight, actually. Dad is Mom’s second husband and I’m her second family. In fact, Alec’s mom is my half sister, which makes my mom his grandmother and me his uncle. And his dad and my dad are cousins, so Alec and I are also cousins.” He grinned at her again. “We’re all just one big happy clan. Now, about your new house; have ye decided yet to let me build it?”

“You don’t think you’d be spreading yourself too thin, what with building a road and then the resort site itself up on the mountain for Mac?”

He waved the fingers on his hand holding the steering wheel. “I can do it all. Like I said, the men will welcome the extra income. And I agree you should set the new house on the tote road overlooking the fiord. The old site was good, but that was before you had oceanfront property.”

Peg leaned back against the headrest with a sigh. “Yeah, I like the idea of building it there so we’ll be able to watch the
sunrise from our kitchen table.” She glanced over at him. “And with the insurance money, I might be able to afford to have you build a house for me. As long as you let me do the electrical wiring,” she added, smiling when she saw his jaw go slack.

But then he snorted and shook his head. “Why am I not surprised?” He held his hand toward her. “Okay then, deal? I’ll build your house.”

She also reached out, but stopped short of actually shaking on it. “It’s a deal if the bid you give me is in line with Grundy Watts’s.”

He snapped his hand away. “You’re taking
bids
?”

Peg looked down to hide her smile and brushed absolutely nothing off her jacket. “Is that a problem?”

“No, it’s not a problem at—” He stopped in midsentence and frowned into the rearview mirror. “Do ye recognize the truck pulling up behind us?”

Peg craned around in her seat to look out the rear window and also frowned when she saw the old pickup closing in on them rather quickly. “It … I’m pretty sure that’s Chris Dubois’s truck.” She spun around with a gasp when Duncan put on the brakes with a muttered curse to avoid hitting another pickup that suddenly pulled out in front of them. It straddled the center of the road, and she saw the brake lights come on as it slowed down enough to make Duncan brake again.

“Check that your seat belt is secure,” he growled as he quickly glanced in his rearview mirror before stepping on the gas again. “Christ, it’s an actual ambush. Hold on.” He pressed the accelerator to the floor and the SUV surged forward.

Peg grabbed the handle above her door with one hand and covered her mouth with the other so she wouldn’t scream when Duncan drove the SUV’s right front bumper into the left rear fender of the pickup in front of them. With the sickening sound of metal making contact overriding her scream, he then cut the wheel to the right without letting up off the gas until the pickup started to fishtail. He immediately slammed on the brakes only to step on the gas again, pulling around the pickup when it swerved toward the ditch, his eyes going to his rearview mirror with another curse.

Peg looked out her side window as they sped past the now stopped pickup to see Aaron Jenkins’s widened eyes staring
back at her. She craned around to look between the seats to see Chris Dubois speeding toward their rear bumper, Aaron pulling back onto the road behind him.

“I can’t believe they’re doing this!” she cried, turning forward and grabbing the handle over her door again as Duncan floored the SUV. “Why on earth are they attacking us? Oh God, Duncan, can we outrun them?”

“Not by the sounds of that motor in the truck behind us; it’s obviously been tricked out, and I told ye this one was bought for its economy.”

Not that her poor beautiful truck seemed to know it was supposed to be a dog, she thought hysterically as the trees zoomed past her side window. “Why is Chris doing this?” she repeated without really expecting an answer.

“What do ye know about the bastard?”

“Um, he was a year ahead of me in school, and he tried to get me to date him, but I already had my eyes on Billy.” She snorted. “Chris was a braggart and a sleaze even back then. He’s also Spellbound Falls’s most notorious criminal, although he never seems to get caught. But if there’s a way to make money, illegal or not, he’ll have his hand in it. I heard in town that he and Aaron Jenkins—he’s the guy in the other truck—are all fired up over the resort, claiming it’s going to end their logging business. I suspect it was one or both of them who spray-painted my van, because I know they were in town that day. Chris has always been pissed that his mother sold Billy and me the pit, because he thought he should get it.”

Peg realized she was on the verge of hysteria when she couldn’t seem to stop babbling. “Chris started dropping by not six months after Billy died, trying to get me to go out with him. But I knew he was more interested in getting his hands on my land than on me—although that didn’t stop him from trying.”