Ellie waved her hand. “There’s a lot of backstory to that man. Now, what can I get you?”
“Do you know what kind of lunch meat Colin likes?”
“I most certainly do,” Ellie said, smiling as she went behind the counter. By the time she’d sliced the meat and packaged it, she was grinning broadly. “So you’ve conquered Colin and old man Lang too?” Her eyes were twinkling. “Welcome to Edilean, Gemma,” she said. “But then, from the moment I saw you, I knew you belonged here.”
“Thanks,” Gemma said. Ellie had just said what Gemma had been thinking.
She drove back to Colin’s house and put the groceries away. Her mind was fully on what had happened at the grocery. If Mr. Lang had spent his life snooping, he might be able to help Gemma piece together the mystery of Julian and Winnie and Tamsen.
After she’d put everything away, she still hadn’t heard from Colin. Since in her experience he didn’t let her know when he’d be returning, she decided to leave and walk back to the Frazier estate. It was about four miles, and it was getting dark, but she needed the time to think.
When she got back to what she now thought of as home, she said aloud, “I want to find out what Tamsen wrote about you . . . I mean the Stone.” She felt ridiculous at saying such a thing out loud, but she couldn’t help it, or maybe it was that she wanted to test the whole Heartwishes thing.
Twenty minutes later, young Shamus turned over in his sleep and knocked his favorite art kit off his bedside table. He’d found the thin wooden box in the stash his mother sent back from England. He’d taken the old papers out of it and left them in the guesthouse. It was a pretty box, just the right size for his sketch pad, and Rachel had made him a cloth holder for his pencils. On the front was an intaglio carving of a tree. Lanny said it looked like the old oak tree that grew in the center of Edilean square. But their dad said the case was so old that the tree on it was long dead.
Shamus had liked the box very much and it had rarely been out of his sight since his mother said he could keep it.
In the morning he was not going to like that the fall had damaged the corner of the box. A piece of the wood had broken away, exposing the tip of some very old papers hidden inside.
20
THE NEXT MORNING, at 6:30 A.M., Gemma was outside Mike’s gym. It wasn’t yet full light and no one was about; she liked the quiet. She wondered if Colin would remember their appointment, but he opened the door to her. He was wearing a black tank top that showed his muscles and he looked very good. She felt such a spark of electricity shoot through her that she thought about grabbing his hand and heading back to her car.
He read her expression correctly. “Me too,” he whispered, then stepped back and she saw Mike.
He looked from one to the other. “You two here to work out or you want to be alone?”
“To work, Master!” Gemma said loudly.
“She’s got your number,” Colin said to Mike.
Mike didn’t smile. If there was one thing in his life he was serious about, it was his workouts.
For a few seconds, Gemma wasn’t sure what to do. Years before, she’d learned that it was a bad idea to go to the gym with a boyfriend. The first thing he wanted to do was establish that he knew more than Gemma, so he started telling her what to do and how to do it. One guy, a fellow history major she’d been on a date with the night before, handed her a couple of two-pound dumbbells and showed her how to do a bicep curl. “If that’s too heavy for you, let me know and I’ll get you something lighter.”
Without a word, Gemma picked up a couple of twenty-five-pound dumbbells and started curling them. He left the gym immediately, and later he avoided her in the classroom.
Mike solved her dilemma. “You’re used to working out with a trainer, aren’t you?” he said.
“Yes,” she answered. “We worked out in a group, and I miss the boys I used to train with.”
Colin seemed to understand, and he stepped back. That he wasn’t trying to play alpha male and take over made her like him more.
Gemma went with Mike, first for some cardio, then weights, and finally they got to the boxing. Through this, Colin had been working out by himself, but she’d been watching him.
He was phenomenally strong! He bench-pressed what it would take three average-size men to lift. He did dead lifts that would have dislocated the shoulders of most men.
When Mike saw her looking, he said quietly, “He’s lifting light today. When he gets in here with his brothers and they start competing with each other . . . I’ve seen pros that were weaker than those guys.”
“I could stand to see that,” Gemma said as she got off the weight bench.
Mike told Colin he should take over the boxing with Gemma.
“Mike,” Colin said, “you know that all I can do is pick up weight and put it down.”
“Come on, Frazier,” Mike said, “are you afraid of her?”
“Scared to death,” Colin answered, his eyes on Gemma.
Mike put the big leather hand pads on Colin, then held Gemma’s gloves while she pushed her hands in their gel wraps inside. “Now, you two have each other, so I’m going to do my own workout.”
Gemma and Colin looked at each other for a moment, then he raised the pads. “Give me what you got,” he said.
She hesitated. If it was true that he’d never trained in boxing, he wouldn’t know how to deflect her punches, and besides, she didn’t want to hurt him. He was strong, but everyone’s skin bruised. Her first hits were light but strong enough to make the sound of leather slapping against leather that all boxers so loved.
Stepping back, Colin looked at her in disgust. “That’s it? What about kicking? Did you forget how to do that?” He lowered his voice. “You’re going to be nice to a man who forgot all about you after a quickie?” He winked at her.
She knew he was trying to goad her into hitting him—and it worked. “Put the side pad on,” she said seriously.
“Too much trouble.” He smiled in a taunting way. “How could little you hurt me?”
She didn’t think about what she did, but twirled to put a spinning back kick hard into his stomach. She faked a front kick to distract him, then did a spinning backhand to his jaw, putting her whole body behind the punch. She’d never done the moves on a person before, just on a bag, but when she’d seen it done in a ring, the recipient always went down.
Colin staggered backward, bent forward, his hands on his knees, and tried to keep breathing.
Mike, who had watched the whole thing, began to laugh. “You better not ever make her angry.”
“I can see that,” Colin said as he stood up and flexed his jaw.
“I’m—” Gemma began.
“If you say you’re sorry I’ll take your pens away from you,” Colin said.
She didn’t smile. “I’ve never done that to a person before, and . . .” She took a step back as Colin was coming toward her. She’d never survive one of his punches!
When he reached her, he looked down at her in what could be called a menacing way, then he suddenly picked her up and lifted her up in an overhead press. In seconds, she was squealing in laughter as he twirled her around.
Just at that moment, Luke and Ramsey came in the front door.
When Rams saw Gemma high above Colin’s head, he turned back to the door. “I’m outta here.”
Luke grabbed his cousin’s arm. “I thought you wanted to box with Gemma.”
Colin set Gemma to the floor. “Come on, guys, let’s put you two to work.”
It was another hour before Gemma and Colin left the gym, and she felt good.
“Are you okay?” he asked when they got to her car.
“The question is whether you are.” Reaching up, she touched his jaw, which was already showing a bruise. “Think kisses would make it feel better?” she asked softly, looking up at him. If it weren’t daylight and in the middle of town, she would have pulled him into the backseat of her car and had her way with him. The loo
k in her eyes made him take a step forward, but she put her hand on his chest. “I think we should go home.”
He stepped back. “You’re right. We need to shower and change. See you at church at ten?”
“Church?” she asked.
He was smiling. “Yeah, church. You are going with me, aren’t you?”
“I thought we were going to keep us a secret.”
“No need for that. Last night I told Mom and Dad that I’d broken up with Jean. And I said you and I were now a couple.”
Gemma glanced skyward for a second. “They’re going to hate me.”
“Far from it,” Colin said. “Actually, now that I think about it, they seemed almost glad.”
“Glad that you broke up with a woman they love and ran off with someone they barely know?” When Colin didn’t say anything, just kept staring at her, she said, “What is it?”
“My mother.”
“What about her?”
Colin came out of his trance. “I was just thinking about how my mother is a force of nature. And when she wants something, she goes after it.”
“And what she wants is—” Gemma took a step back and put her hands up. “Rachel said your mother wants grandchildren.” Her eyes widened. “From me? I’m still trying to figure out what you like for lunch! I’m not ready for anything else. We need to—”
He kissed her on the mouth. “I know. Talk, get to know each other, that sort of thing. So you know where the church is? No, wait. I’ll pick you up and we can go together.”
“That’s a lot of trouble,” she began. “I’m—”
“I agree. It is a great bother,” he said quickly. “If you were living at my house, it would be much easier on both of us.” With another quick kiss, he turned away.
“It’s too early to even think of that!” she called after him.
He turned around, walking backward down the center of the street, his arms outstretched. “What more could you want, Gemma? What man have you ever met who comes with a whole town attached to him?”
“Yeah, that’s the problem,” she called back. “I’d be moving in with all of Edilean.”
“Sounds like heaven to me,” he said as he got into his Jeep.
“And maybe to me too,” Gemma said quietly as she opened her car door. She grinned all the way back to the guesthouse.
“Why didn’t you tell me that we were expected to have dinner at your parents’ house?” Gemma said to Colin. They were in his Jeep and heading toward the Frazier estate.
“I didn’t know,” he said. “But my sister and her boyfriend flew in from California last night. It was totally unexpected. I’d like to see them and for you to meet them. I think you’ll like Frank. He’s Mike’s best friend. They’re both policemen about to retire and they both love all that kicking and boxing stuff that you do. How’d you like church?”
“It was nice,” she said, thinking of what he’d just told her and what she’d seen this morning. “The people seemed . . .”
“Seemed what?” he asked.
“I’m sure I’m wrong about this, but they seemed almost relieved that I wasn’t Jean.”
Colin laughed. “People in Edilean don’t hide their feelings very well.”
“So you agree that they don’t want you to be with a tall, gorgeous lawyer?”
Colin groaned. “I’m not touching that one! I think you’re beautiful just as you are. As for Jean, she’s a difficult person to know, and she’s not one to attend the local Scottish Fair. Speaking of which, you better put in your order with Sara now for your dress. What medieval person do you want to be?”
“A tall, gorgeous one. Think Sara can do it?”
Colin pulled into the driveway, turned off the engine, and looked at her. “What’s really bothering you?”
“I’m afraid of facing your mother. Will your whole family be there?”
Colin glanced at the half a dozen cars around them. “Yes. Everyone wants to see Ariel and Frank. Even Pere is here, and you haven’t met him.” He took her hand in his. “Gemma, if you want to go somewhere else, we can. But the truth is that I’m beginning to think that everyone is glad that I broke up with Jean.”
“Maybe your friends, but I saw how friendly Jean and your family were with one another, and—”
He kissed her hands, front and back. “If anyone is the slightest bit less than welcoming to you, we’ll leave, all right? We’ll go to my new house and eat cold chicken off each other’s naked bodies, and I’ll drink champagne out of your bedroom slipper. Sound good?”
“I like that idea. How about if we do that instead of this?”
“I’m thinking that way too,” he said as he reached out his arms to pull her to him.
But a sharp tap on his window made him turn. A man with a beautiful face and the big Frazier body was outside.
Colin put the window down.
“Everyone is here and we’re hungry, but Mom won’t let us eat until you two are inside. Is this the famous Gemma I keep hearing about?”
“Gemma, meet my brother Peregrine, Pere for short.”
He reached through the window, across Colin, to shake her hand. “I saw you on YouTube and I hear you’re good at boxing. I’m a wrestler myself. If you want to learn how, I’d be happy to give you lessons. Lots of lessons.”
“Arm out before I break it,” Colin said good-naturedly.
Grinning, Pere did as he was told and opened the door. “Come on, I need to get back to Richmond, and Lanny’s got a new girl.”
“Lanny always has a new girl,” Colin said as he got out, then went around to open Gemma’s door. He held her hand as the three of them walked toward the house.
Pere paused at the front door and looked at Gemma. “I hope you’re ready for this. Nobody knows why, but Mom’s like she’s been wired to a jet engine.”
Gemma took a step back.
Colin pulled her forward. “I’ll be there. Any problems, let me know.”
Pere was grinning broadly. “So, Gemma, what’s your mother like? What’ll she think of ol’ Col here?”
“My mother worships my father’s memory and compares all men to him. She’ll think Colin is too big, that his job is too dangerous, and she’ll probably lecture him on gun control.”
“Is that right?” Colin asked, looking worried.
“Every word of it.”
“I’d like to see that meeting,” Pere said, smiling as he opened the door.
Gemma’s first impression was of cheerful chaos. Mrs. Frazier was ordering her family about, and everyone seemed to be talking, laughing, and arguing at once. It was a very loud group of people.
A tall, red-haired, beautiful young woman was standing to one corner, close to a man who was just barely as tall as she was, and it looked like his nose had been broken several times. He had to be Frank. She could tell that under his clothes his body was as toned as Mike’s. Gemma gave him a quick smile of recognition of athlete to athlete before Mrs. Frazier took her arm, pulled her forward, and began introducing her to people.
The pretty young woman was Colin’s doctor-sister Ariel, and the man was Frank Thiessen.
“Mike’s told me about you,” Frank said as he shook her hand. “Maybe we can work out together sometime.”
“I’d love that,” Gemma said. It was a high honor for athletes like Mike and Frank to ask her to join them. She wanted to stay and talk to him, but Mrs. Frazier pulled her away.
Next came Lanny’s new girlfriend, Carol, who seemed even more overwhelmed than Gemma did. Pere’s tall girlfriend was called Eloisa and looked vaguely familiar. Rachel had said that Pere’s heart was “spoken for,” but somehow, this bored-looking young woman didn’t seem to fit that bill.
“She’s a model,” Rachel said as she came by with a tray full of hors d’oeuvres.
“Need any help?” Gemma whispered. “Please?”
“Sure,” Rachel said as she went back to the kitchen, Gemma close behind her. “Welcome to Frazierland,” she said as soo
n as the door closed. “Can you get the bread out of the oven?”
Gemma took a pot holder, opened the oven, and pulled out the sheet of hot rolls. It reminded her of the time Jean had been in the kitchen. “I bet they’re regretting that Jean isn’t here to cook some fabulous dish. I mean, not that what you cook isn’t—”
“I know what you mean. Stir that red pot, will you? Has Jean given you any problems?”
“No,” Gemma said. “I’ve heard nothing from her. Have you heard anything from the family?”
“Nothing, and that’s interesting. I figured they’d have a lot to say. And I was sure Jean would have raised a big stink. She really loves drama.”
“What about in town?” Gemma asked. “What are people there saying about the breakup?”
“I haven’t heard any gossip at all. Everyone is talking about Colin buying Luke’s house and spending time with you.”
Gemma groaned. “Everything is happening too fast!” She wanted to change the subject to something other than herself. “So is the model the one who stole Pere’s heart?”
Rachel dropped a stainless bowl on the tile floor and it clattered loudly.
Gemma was staring at her because Rachel’s face had turned bright red. It looked like the person who wanted Pere’s heart was Rachel. “You—” she began.
“If you say a word, I’ll poison your dinner,” Rachel said. “I shouldn’t have said anything.”
“I don’t mean to sound like a first grader, but does Pere know you . . . like him?”
“Pere doesn’t know I exist. You saw the kind of woman he likes.”
“I can understand that,” Gemma said. “On the other hand, when I met Jean I thought she was the kind of woman Colin liked. But now . . .” She shrugged.
For a moment Rachel paused, a pot lid in her hand. “The Fraziers are from generations of money. As upper class as you can get in the U.S. They don’t fall for the hired help.”
“You could join the rest of Edilean and make a Heartwish for him,” Gemma said, trying to lighten the mood.
“You think I haven’t? I’ve been thinking of nothing else since I heard that story.”