Spellbound Falls (47 page)

She leaned away again, only this time to gape at him.

“It will no longer be Inglenook, Olivia, but the resort will be
yours
.”

“But—”

He gave her a gentle squeeze. “All my resources are at your disposal, wife, be they money or magic. Whatever you need to make your resort successful you will have, including my support.”

“But I don’t want a fancy resort; I want a camp for
families
.”

“Then build both. Design a resort that will cater to all lifestyles, from a spa-type retreat for couples to an intimate camp for families to wilderness camping for hikers. You have the land to create whatever you want, limited only by your imagination.”

“But I don’t know anything about building that kind of resort much less running it.”

He smiled. “Then hire someone who does. Or if you wish, I happen to know someone who’s quite skilled in building a microcommunity. And I’m sure if you ask for his help, my father would be happy to advise you.”

“Y-your father?” she squeaked.

Mac tightened his hold on her, afraid she was about to
gasp so hard she’d fall off the ledge. “Who better to ask than the man who created Atlantis?”

Only she gasped hard enough that
he
nearly fell off the ledge. “As in the lost
continent
of Atlantis?”

He nodded.

“But that’s a
myth
.”

He shrugged. “Then I guess I must also be a myth, since I was born there.”

“But—”

He pressed a finger to her lips. “A long, long time ago,” he began quietly, “when the gods were so busy trying to wrestle control of the world from each other that they were nearly destroying it, Titus Oceanus stepped forward to champion mankind.” Mac settled his once-again-gaping wife back against his chest and stared over her head at his new home. “And so he built the beautiful island of Atlantis on which to plant a very special grove of Trees. He then chose a handful of trustworthy mortals to train as drùidhs, and charged them with protecting the Trees.”

“What was so special about them?”

“The Trees of Life hold all the knowledge of the universe. Only when the gods realized what my father was doing, Titus was forced to sink Atlantis to keep it hidden. But before sinking it he scattered his small army of drùidhs—each of them carrying one of his Trees—all over the world.” He dropped his head beside hers. “As a matter of fact, there’s a Tree of Life growing right here in Maine. Matt and Winter Gregor are two powerful drùidhs who live on Bear Mountain at the southeastern end of Pine Lake, and their combined energies are responsible for an entirely new species of Tree that will ensure mankind’s survival for many millennia.”

“You realize what you’re saying is flat-out fantastical, don’t you?” she whispered. “Forget that you claim Atlantis exists; you also expect me to believe there are drùidhs living not a hundred miles from here? And that they’re protecting some magical Tree of Knowledge from
mythological
gods?”

Mac kissed her cheek. “Actually, the only thing I need is for you to love me,” he said against her flushed skin. “Everything else pales in comparison to the power of love, Olivia.” He moved his mouth next to her ear. “And the true magic that happened here today, as far as I’m concerned, is that we’ll be walking down this mountain together as husband and wife.”

Her grip on his arms tightened. “Yeah, about that. Do you think we could have an actual ceremony, preferably in a church with an actual minister, and a best man and maid of honor, and guests and a reception and everything? Because I really need for Sophie and Henry to
see
us get married. And so does everyone in town.”

“You have one week to plan your wedding,” he said even as he tightened his embrace. “And maybe this time your father will have the honor of walking you down the aisle.”

“Oh God,” she sobbed, burying her face in her hands. “What am I supposed to do about Sam?”

“I would suggest you ask yourself what lengths
you
would go to in order to protect Sophie if you found yourself in the position Sam was in twenty-eight years ago. Would you risk your daughter’s life to be with her, Olivia? Or would you give her up to the only people in the world you trusted to keep her safe?”

She dropped her hands to stare out at Bottomless again. “You expect me to just pretend I didn’t wait years for him to come for me?”

“I don’t expect anything from you, Olivia, as this particular matter is between you and your father. I’m merely suggesting that you might try to put yourself in Sam’s place long enough to hear what your heart has to say.”

She turned to bury her face in his chest. “He broke my heart twenty-eight years ago,” she sobbed.

“I know he did,” Mac whispered, smoothing down her hair. “But only because he loved you enough to walk away.”

“But it’s so unfair.”

“Life is neither fair nor unfair, Olivia; it merely
is
. In fact, it’s completely neutral. But,” he said, giving her a
gentle squeeze, “we are all free to choose how we deal with our trials and tribulations as well as our joys.” He lifted her chin to look at him, and used his thumb to brush a tear off her cheek. “Sam chose not to come back for you, but please don’t mistake that for abandonment. If you but ask him, I believe you’ll discover he knows more about you than most fathers know about their children.”

“But why couldn’t Ezra and Doris tell me who they were? Why all those years of lying to me, when I could have known them as grandparents? And now it’s too late. Doris is gone, and I never once got to call her G-Grammy.”

“And would you have loved her any more if you had known?”

“Of course not.”

Mac kissed her forehead. “And do you love Ezra any less now?”

She stilled, and her eyes widened. “No.”

Mac pulled her to him. “I didn’t think so. Which means the only question is, can you find room in your heart for your father?” He gave her a gentle squeeze. “Assuming it’s not already filled to capacity with your love for me and our two children.”

She blinked in surprise. “Ohmigod, we’re a
family
now.” She pressed her hands to his very human face and gave him a rather noisy kiss on his lips—only to suddenly scramble off his lap before he realized what she was doing.

“Be careful,” he yelped when she not only nearly unmanned him but nearly made them both fall off the cliff.

“Come on, we have to go tell Henry and Sophie,” she said, dragging him to his feet. She stopped and pivoted toward him. “Only we’re not telling anyone anything until you
tell
Henry that you love him. Got that?” she said, poking him in the chest even as she smiled smugly. “And the moment you do, you may consider yourself officially graduated from Inglenook.”

He grabbed her poking hand and started leading her down the mountain again.

“What’s so funny?” she asked when he chuckled.

“Oh, I was just wondering if you’re going to keep encouraging Henry to question authority, now that
you
will be on the receiving end of his whining and pouting.”

Olivia didn’t chuckle, she snickered. “I figure I can’t do any worse than you’re going to when Sophie starts batting her big long eyelashes at you.” She pulled him to a stop. “How about we make a deal? I’ll handle Henry’s whining and you handle Sophie’s pouting? And just when the little manipulators think they’ve got us wrapped around their little fingers, we’ll switch.”

He started walking again. “I have a better idea. How about we simply send them both off to visit Grampy Titus and Grammy Rana for a couple of weeks three or four times a year?”

She pulled him to a stop. “To
Atlantis
?”

Mac sighed, and started walking again. “You realize that if we don’t send their grandbabies to them, they’ll keep coming to visit, don’t you?” He snorted. “Hell, you might as well build them a permanent wing on your resort, seeing how I unconsciously built a fiord deep enough to hide my father’s ship.”

She stopped again, and Mac figured that at the rate they were going, Henry and Sophie would be adults before they made it back. Only when he looked at her it was to find that the woman was smiling.

“You mean they can
sail
here like normal people instead of arriving on a sonic boom or in a blizzard?”

“Well, they can now that I opened up a saltwater channel. Only it’s not a sailing ship; it’s a submarine.”

“Please don’t tell me it’s yellow,” she muttered, heading down the mountain again. She slipped her hand into his when he fell into step beside her. “Are you seriously going to build a resort here?”

“I’m serious about you building a resort.” He grinned over at her. “At least one of us has to earn an honest living.” She tried to stop again, but Mac pulled her along when he finally realized why she was stalling. “It will be okay,
Olivia. I will be at your side as you deal with all that is waiting for you back at the lodge.” Only this time he stopped them and grasped her shoulders to steady her for one last bit of news. “But I would warn you that young Riley is in desperate need of a bone marrow transplant, and that Sophie is a perfect match.”

“Ohmigod, no!” she cried. “Is that why Eileen brought him here? Mac, I can’t put Sophie through something like that.”

“So you would deny your daughter the right to save her brother’s life?” He pulled her into his arms. “Sophie is a strong, wise young woman just like her mother, Olivia, who will embrace this chance to be a hero. And you should also know,” he whispered, “the procedure will be successful, and little Riley will live a full and exciting life thanks to his very brave sister.”

“C-can’t you just make him better without involving Sophie?”

“Yes.” He touched his finger to her lips when she tried to speak. “But I would suggest you think before asking me to, Olivia. Have you not been teaching me that it’s our place to help our children embrace life rather than protect them from it?”

“But she’s only eight.”

“And weren’t you only four when your world collapsed around you? And yet you not only survived, you managed to turn into the woman I moved mountains to marry. Empower your daughter to do the same, Olivia, by giving her the chance to do this.”

Though he could tell she was very much afraid, she blew out a resigned sigh. “I hate it when you turn my words back on me.” She arched a brow. “Since when did you start sprinkling little pearls of wisdom around like rain? That’s supposed to be my claim to fame.”

He kissed the tip of her cute little nose and started walking down the mountain again. “Do you not know that every teacher is in danger of being outsmarted by their student?”
Giving her a reassuring squeeze when she silently slipped her hand back into his, Mac sighed loudly. “Am I ever going to get my jacket back?”

“This old thing?” she said, plucking at the collar sticking out of the top of her rain slicker. “Why would you want a jacket with a finicky zipper that only works when it wants to? Speaking of which,” she said, stopping again, “
you
might think it’s expedient to manipulate locks and zippers and stuff, but I have no intention of being married to a controlling husband. So you better stop using your fancy tricks on me.”

“Or else… what?” he asked with a laugh. “What are you going to do, wife? Lock me in my room? Burn my dinners? Withhold
sex
?”

One delicate brow arched into her hairline. “Oh, I rarely get mad, but I
always
get even. And just so you know, you’re not the only member of this family with a few tricks hidden up his or
her
sleeve.”

“At the risk of bursting my apparently nefarious bubble, I’m afraid your seat belt and door locks and zippers not working were more your doing than mine. Each time you found yourself trapped, it was because you were right where you wanted to be.” He shrugged. “I can’t help it if that also happened to be exactly where I wanted you.”

She reached up and pulled his face down to within an inch of hers. “Then I guess it’s a good thing you married a woman brave enough to love you,” she whispered as she started to kiss him.

Only Mac held back, needing to give her the words he knew she so desperately needed to hear. “A woman I am so deeply and passionately in love with that I will continue to move heaven and earth and any mountains in my way to be with her.”

“Ohmigod, is that a promise or a threat?”

“That, my little tigress wife, is both,” he said quietly, capturing her gasp in his mouth as he decided to finally reclaim his jacket—only to discover it was
all
she was wearing under her rain slicker.