hel , she didn’t need to be the brunt of Chris Dubois’s

anger, and that pompous ass Aaron Jenkins had better not

show his face anywhere near her pit, either. Because to hel

with Duncan’s dictate; if she spotted those two chest-

beating jerks on her property—especial y after dark—she

was peppering them with birdshot.

“Wel , now,” Ezra said when he rounded a corner

and nearly bumped into her. “Who stuck a bee in your

bonnet?” Ezra—who Peg had learned just ten days ago

was actual y Olivia’s grandfather—looked around and even

behind her. “Where are the little heathens?”

“Having lunch with Alec MacKeage and Robbie MacBain

on the tailgate of Robbie’s truck.”

“Jacob is?” Ezra said in surprise.

Peg nodded and final y smiled. “Those men Mac hired

are miracle workers. Jacob didn’t even hesitate to go with

them today.” She winced. “I did instead.”

“Aw, Peg, you don’t need to cut the apron strings clean

through yet, but it can’t hurt to stretch them a little. I’ve met

al those men, and your boys couldn’t be in safer hands.” He

pul ed her down an empty aisle when several gray-

headed tourists walked in and started ohh ing and ahh ing over the assortment of just about anything a person needed

crammed into every nook and cranny in the store. “There’s

something I have to tel you. There’s talk—”

Peg held up her hand with a laugh. “Get in line, Ezra. It’s

taken me half an hour just to get from the post office here

because everyone has had to tel me about the talk in

town.” She turned serious, and just barely stopped herself

from patting his arm. “It’s okay; anybody can say anything

they want about my aiding and abetting the new resort, I

don’t care. I’m just so happy that my gravel ran north and

not west that I’m one second away from running down the

center of the road yel ing whoopee! ”

Instead of laughing with her, Ezra’s clouded blue eyes

turned pained and he shook his head. “But I’m worried it’s

not going to stop at just talk. Sam and I have moved into

Inglenook while Olivia and Mac are gone so we can keep

an eye on things. Sam’s afraid the few naysayers are going

to try to get their point across in a newsworthy way.” He

touched her sleeve. “There’s plenty of room in the main

lodge, Peg. Why don’t you and the kids come and stay with

us until they’re done hauling out of your pit?”

“Duncan said he’s going to post guards to protect

the equipment, and through the week he and his men wil

be camped just down the road. I’m fine, Ezra, and I don’t

want my children to think anything’s wrong or that we have

to run away and hide at the first talk of trouble.”

“Last I knew, sugaring a fuel tank to seize up an engine is

a tad more than just talking about doing something.” He

shook his head. “I don’t know what Mac had to promise

Olivia to get her to leave this Saturday with al the hoopla

going on here, but I have to say I’m glad she’s going.”

“It’s just because the idea of the resort is new, Ezra, and

everyone’s stil trying to reconcile that we have an inland

sea instead of a lake now. And al these scientists and

tourists are making people think this is what it’s going to be

like from now on. But once everything settles down, so wil

the naysayers. In fact, we’re going to start our own pro-

resort committee, and I think it’s better that Olivia and Mac

won’t be around for the next two months. With no actual

target, people wil get over it faster. And once we keep

pointing out that the resort is a good twenty miles away and

up on a mountain, they’l al calm down.”

He blew out a sigh and suddenly smiled. “I agree. Okay,

girl, what can I sel you today?” he asked, rubbing his hands

together.

“Just some paper plates,” she said with a laugh. “And

since you’re so busy, just put it on my tab and the first

gravel check I get I’m coming in and cleaning up my bil .

And,” she growled, “the total better match the slips I’ve

been keeping.”

He looked so affronted that Peg waggled her finger in the

air as she sauntered away, smiling secretly as she

remembered Olivia saying Ezra kept under charging al the

locals accidental y on purpose, and that it would break his

heart if he knew they knew. And Olivia had told Peg to

actual y give him grief for over charging. “And don’t forget

you agreed to double my coupons.”

“Sure thing, missy,” he cal ed after her with a harrumph.

“Right after I double the price on those paper plates.”

Peg sidled past a gathering of tourists checking out the

fishing supplies—that she noticed Ezra had already

changed to more saltwater rigging—and snatched a

package of plates off the shelf and headed right back for

the door. Because honestly, she was feeling a tad naked

without Peter and Jacob glued to her side.

Peg waved the plates at Ezra talking to customers on her

way outside and, being afraid that she’d run into someone

else just dying to tel her what was going on, she kept her

head down as she rushed toward the church. She stopped

at the end of the last building to peek around the corner,

and her heart rose into her throat when she saw Jacob

perched on Robbie’s shoulders as Robbie sat on his

tailgate eating his lunch. Her younger twin was pointing out

at Bottomless, talking a mile a minute. Peter was sitting

beside Alec, half of a man-sized sandwich in his hand,

eating and talking and gesturing with the sandwich.

God help her, she had to swipe at her eyes when

everything went blurry.

Not wanting the little miracle to end just yet, Peg slowly

turned away and headed for her van parked at the other

end of town. She’d drive back to the church and pick up the

boys—making sure they thanked Robbie and Alec for

sharing their lunch with them—and reach the Inglenook

turnoff in time to meet the bus so it didn’t have to drive

another six miles one way just to drop off her girls. And if

those rain clouds held on to their raindrops until after dark,

she was having another campfire with the kids tonight. A

private campfire this time, though, because she stil wasn’t

ready to face Duncan—because she’d swear her lips were

stil tingling from his stolen kiss.

Peg picked up her pace when she saw the tractor-trailer

rig idling into town and realized that instead of a logging

truck it was actual y a large horse carrier. She stopped to

gape as it went by—along with every other person around

—and saw the nose of a monstrous horse pressed up

against the barred window.

Wait; hadn’t Robbie said the special delivery they were

waiting for was draft horses? Good Lord, was he using

them to haul logs out of the woods alongside the harvesters

and skidders? Peg started running to her van so she could

go get the twins out of the men’s way, figuring they must be

waiting to lead the truck driver to Inglenook where there

was a huge barn that was almost empty now because most

of the horses had gone back to the coast since the camp

wasn’t running this summer.

Peg tossed her purse and the paper plates across the

driver’s seat onto the floor and jumped in, only to stop with

the key half-slid in the ignition when she smel ed fumes.

She looked in back but everything was its normal messy

self and sniffed again, deciding it smel ed chemical y. She

tripped the hood latch and got back out and walked around