up here al 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’l 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 pul ed him over to

the toilet. “Okay, watch and learn, because there’s going to

be a pop quiz later.” She shot him a bril iant smile. “And if

you pass, I wil give you this fascinating tool, and then you can show al 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

pul ed him back around. “Then they won’t launch until you

get there, wil 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

pul ed him over to the toilet. “See, I’m real y doing you a

favor.”

The guy actual y 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 al over the

place.

Peg closed her eyes to count to ten, but only made it to

five. “You try being a single parent without being bossy.”

She grabbed the plunger, turned it around, and slapped it

back in his hand. “That’s the business end.”

He blinked at her. “But it’s too big to fit down the hole,” he

said, utterly sincere as he held it up for her to see.

Real y? Honest to God really? Peg took hold of his hand

and guided the plunger down into the bowl. “Speaking of

children,” she said, keeping her tone neutral, “I bet when

you were a kid you were fascinated by little submarines,

weren’t you? And some nice scientist must have showed

you al around one, and you got so excited that you decided

you were going to drive them when you grew up.” She

stopped plunging to give him another bril iant smile. “And

because of that nice man, now you do.”

The guy straightened, getting a faraway look in his eyes.

“I was eight when my dad took me down to the pier where

they were loading a four-man submersible onto a ship. One

of the crew snuck us onboard and even let me climb inside

it. That is, until Claude caught us.” He shrugged. “But we left

with a snorkel and mask, and the crewman told me to come

back when I got out of col ege.” He smiled, nodding toward

the window. “I’ve been interning with Claude for over a year

now.”

“So if you were to see a little kid admiring your little

submarine out there,” she said conversational y, “would you

show him around and feed his enthusiasm, or would you

scare the bejeezus out of him by threatening to use him for

shark bait?”

The guy’s smile disappeared, replaced by confusion.

“Oh, you must have met Claude,” he said with a shrug. “He

hasn’t got much use for kids. And the submersible has

some pretty expensive equipment and delicate instruments.

Why? You mentioned being a single mom; you want me to

give your kid a tour?” His gaze lowered and then lingered a

tad too long on her chest before he shot her an utterly male

grin. “If you let me take you to dinner tonight, I could give

you an in-depth tour of the equipment.”

Wow; she hadn’t seen that one coming.

“I … um … I don’t date.” Peg swiped the plunger from

him and drove it into the toilet bowl. “Mostly because I can’t

find anyone to babysit my four kids.”

He took a step back, although Peg didn’t know if it was

because she was splashing water al over the place or

because she had just scared the bejeezus out of him.

“Four?” he choked out, taking another step back.

“Yup. Al under the age of nine. There, that took care of

that little problem,” she said over the sucking sound of

the toilet unclogging. She set the plunger beside the tank

and washed her hands in the sink, but not seeing any

towels, she wiped them on her pants as she turned to face

him. “Now, if you can find out where al the towels are

hiding, I’l give you an in-depth tour of our laundry facility,”

she said on her way past him. She stopped in the doorway.

“What’s Claude look like, anyway?”

“Hey, you aren’t going to tattle on me, are you? I mean,

jeeze, I was only asking you out to dinner.”

“And I thank you for that.” She shrugged. “I just want to

keep al you guys straight, since you’re going to be here al

summer exploring Spel bound Fal s’s freaky new tourist

attraction. Is Claude the boss of your little operation?”

He nodded, looking relieved—which told Peg that

Claude was her target.

“He’s fortyish,” Mr. Romeo said, “a good three inches

tal er than me, athletic build, short dark hair.” He shook his

head. “You might want to leave your bossy-mama attitude

at home when you’re around him, though. Not only is

Claude not into kids, but on a good day he barely tolerates

women. And on a bad day I’ve actual y seen him throw them

overboard.”

“Thanks for the heads-up,” Peg said, picking her way

through the cluttered cabin.

“Wait. About Bottomless,” he said, making her stop at

the door. “Have you lived around here long?”

“Al my life.”

“So you were here when the earthquake hit last week?”

“Yup.”

“It must have been pretty scary when those mountains

split apart,” he said, pointing toward the window. He shook

his head as he looked around the cabin. “The fiord the

earthquake created is twelve miles long and over two

thousand feet deep, but after talking to the geologists

staying in cabin seven, none of us can figure out why

nothing was damaged. Hel , we arrived within two days of

the event and we didn’t even see a broken window. Al the

buildings in Spel bound Fal s and here at Inglenook seem

to be perfectly intact.”

Peg snorted. “The ground did a lot of shaking, and when

Bottomless split open and the ice covering it caved in, it

made one heck of a deafening boom. It’s a miracle none of

the structures were damaged. As for that new fiord, it cut

right along my eastern property line and flooded a large

part of my old gravel pit. So tel me, have you guys been

able to come up with an explanation for what happened?