and stealing buds off their maturing plants—which had
made her laugh so hard when they’d left that tears had
streamed down her cheeks. But she sure as hel hadn’t
been laughing a week later when she’d discovered the two
idiots had set booby traps al through the woods around
their il egal crop.
Afraid the twins would get maimed—because what did
little boys know about property lines when they were
stalking squirrels with imaginary guns?—Peg had waited
until she saw the brothers go into town one morning and
had marched over and smashed their traps to smithereens.
Then she’d cut down one of their pot plants and left it wilting
on their doorstep, along with a note saying that she’d turn
them in if they didn’t start growing their crop away from her
property line.
Surprisingly, they’d both come over that evening and
apologized. They certainly hadn’t meant to endanger her
children, they’d assured her, but had only wanted to catch
whoever had been raiding their … garden. Then, after
saying they admired her spunk at how she’d gone about
getting her point across, the older brother, Evan, had asked
her out to dinner at the Drunken Moose. Only problem was,
besides missing more teeth than he had left and smel ing
like a skunk and desperately needing a haircut, Evan was
old enough to be her grandfather.
Peg had politely turned him down and waited until they’d
reached the woods before she’d shuddered al over, then
started laughing so hard that she’d cried again.
“Mom! Did you see that?” Jacob shouted, pointing at the
hil side. “They just cut down a big tree and I felt the ground
shake when it landed. Did you feel it, too?”
“I’m pretty sure I felt something,” she cal ed back,
returning his huge smile only to frown up at the woods the
moment he turned away to watch again.
What were they doing cutting trees already? Good Lord,
not ten minutes after Duncan and Alec had started digging
holes this morning, a virtual convoy of three tractor-trailer
log carriers, several different styles of tree harvesters, a
pulp loader, and who knew what else had arrived, and were
now lining the road in both directions of her house. She’d
assumed they were here to clear the timber off the road
Duncan was building up the mountain, which is why she’d
been surprised when one of the harvesters had been driven
around her old pit and up onto the hil side.
Peter and Jacob had been so excited by al the activity
and huge machinery, Peg had promised to sit outside with
them to watch, if they in turn promised to stay on the beach
and at least try to keep their sneakers dry. They’d both
nodded vigorously at the double joys of not only watching
big machinery working but also beachcombing for the
jel yfish and crabs and snails that were now cal ing their
flooded gravel pit home. For the love of God, the air actual y
smel ed salty.
Peg frowned again when she saw another large pine tree
topple to the ground, wondering if Duncan wasn’t getting
ahead of himself. After he’d introduced the owner of the
logging convoy as his cousin Robbie MacBain, also of
Pine Creek, Peg had asked Duncan why he was cutting
trees before he even knew what was under them. He’d
suddenly gotten one of those unholy gleams in his eyes and
said that if she was wil ing to drop her price to one seventy-
five a yard, he’d pay her even if al he found was sand. And,
he’d added, that gleam intensifying, he would also have his
crew finish her house.
Knowing he somehow knewthere was gravel on that
hil side, Peg had smiled sweetly despite being aware of
Mr. MacBain’s amused interest and told Duncan that if he
cut al her trees and didn’t find any gravel—at two twenty-
five a yard—then he was replanting every last one of them
andfinishing her house.
Peg looked down at the purchase agreement again and
pul ed in a shuddering breath at the realization that she was
holding the answer to her prayers. Too bad the angel who’d
brought it was an overconfident, drop-dead handsome
giant with broad shoulders al but begging a tired, lonely
widow to lean on them.
Duncan was also a study of contradictions. For al of his
gruffness—as wel as his habit of cussing under his breath
—there appeared to be a true gentleman lurking behind
those rugged good looks. Because honestly? She didn’t
know any man who wouldn’t have defended himself when
she and her children had attacked him. Then, after nearly
running him down with her van, Duncan had helped her
butcher an il egal deer. And this morning he’d loaned her
his truck to take the kids to the Drunken Moose as she’d
original y planned, and even to drive Charlotte and Isabel to
school in Turtleback Station—which was seventy miles
round trip—because they’d missed the bus.
And if that weren’t enough proof there was a good man
inside the battered, Scotch-sipping grouch, Peg had
returned home to find her van parked in her dooryard,
making her doubly glad that she’d brought back a half-
dozen cinnamon buns for him and Alec as thanks, which
both men had wolfed down without even tasting.
“Uncle Galen’s here!” Peter shouted, running up the
beach brandishing a stick ful of seaweed, Jacob in hot
pursuit.
Peg heard Galen’s old pickup rattle to a stop and
glanced over her shoulder to see no less than five more
pickups pul into the driveway behind him. She quickly
folded her agreement with Duncan and tucked it under her
sweatshirt inside her bra, then stood up just in time to be
pul ed into a bear of a hug.
“Hey, sissy sister, what are you doing with al this
machinery cluttering up your road and property?” he
murmured, squeezing Peg until she squeaked.
Galen had started cal ing her sissy sisterthe day she’d
married his baby brother, only he’d switched to porky Peg
by the end of her last pregnancy—which no one had
realized was twins until Jacob had made his appearance
two minutes after Peter. But Galen had thankful y gone back
to cal ing her sissy sisteronce she’d given birth and almostgotten her figure back.
“Hey, Pete and Repeat,” he said with a laugh, scooping
both boys up in his beefy arms to give them each a noisy
kiss on their cheeks, which both boys immediately rubbed
off on their shoulders before returning the kiss, as was their
ritual. Galen turned to face the shoreline. “You hoodlums
seen any sharks in your new swimming hole?”
They both shook their heads. “But Isabel says she seen a
whale blow when we was at Inglenook last Saturday,”
Jacob said. “Only I missed it because I was watching the
little submarine.”
“I got some snails,” Peter chimed in, reaching in his
jacket pocket and pul ing out a tiny fistful of wilted snails,
which he then held up under Galen’s nose.
“Oh, those look fat and juicy,” Galen said, fighting his
smile with a serious nod. “I think you should have your mom
cook them for you for supper tonight.”
Peg gave an involuntary shudder, not only because Peter
looked positively taken by the idea, but because she was
wondering what other creatures she was going to find when
she did the laundry. Angleworms and the occasional frog
she could handle, but creepy crawly sea critters were
another thing.
“And I hear a person can make soup out of jel yfish,”
Galen continued, setting down the boys and giving them a
nudge toward the beach. “See if you can’t find some that’s