even … awake when he hit the water.”
Jacob sat up, his eyes widening. “Nobody never said that
before.” He looked directly into Duncan’s eyes. “When we
swimmed in our swimming hole before it got covered up
with water, I tried holding my breath a long time like I
thought my daddy did, but it always hurt something fierce
and …” He dropped his gaze with a shudder. “And I don’t
want him to hurt like that when he drownded.” He looked up.
“You real y think he was asleep?”
Duncan pressed the boy to his shoulder. “I’m wil ing to
bet my bul dozer andmy excavator that he was, Jacob.
Your daddy didn’t hurt.”
“I’m glad,” the boy murmured, relaxing against him. “I’m
gonna tel Mama what you said, so she won’t worry about it,
neither.” He tilted his head back to look up. “And Pete and
the girls. We gotta tel al of them.”
“We can tel them together, if you’d like.”
Jacob settled back against him again. “How come you
learned I’m not Pete so fast? Everyone always mixes us
up.”
“Wel , I do believe you have your mama’s smile and that
Pete’s got her scowl,” Duncan said with a chuckle, shooting
Peg a wink across the fire when he saw that though she
was listening to what Olivia was saying, her eyes were
glued on him and Jacob. “What about your sisters?” he
asked. “Do you have any thoughts on how I can tel them
apart?”
Jacob sat up and turned to him in surprise. “They’re not
twins. They wasn’t borned together like me and Pete.”
“Repeat,” Pete cal ed out, running over to them. “Mama
said we can only have one more s’more and then we gotta
go in and have baths.” He looked at Duncan. “You coming
back tomorrow? Mr. Alec said you got a giant bul dozer.”
“We’l be here when you wake up, and so wil the
bul dozer.”
“Come on, Repeat,” Pete said, grabbing his brother’s
arm and dragging him off Duncan’s lap. “You gotta help me
sneak the snails in our bath.”
Jacob broke free and, after giving Pete a push to
keep going, he turned around. “Mr. Ma—Mr. Duncan?”
“Yes, Jacob?”
“You don’t forget to take the worry stone out of your
pocket to rub it, okay?”
“I won’t forget.”
He started off again, but as was his mother’s habit, he
suddenly stopped and turned and walked back to Duncan.
“And thank you for tel ing me about my daddy being asleep
when he drownded.” He shrugged his tiny shoulders. “I think
it’s gonna make my bel y not hurt so bad when I’m trying to
remember him.”
Duncan ran a finger over his cheek. “I’m glad, Jacob.
And if ye want, we can tel your brother and sisters about it
when we go up the mountain on Sunday for our picnic.”
His eyes widened. “We’re going on a picnic?” he yelped,
looking over his shoulder at Peg, then back at him. “On the
mountain? Sunday?”
Duncan snapped his head up at Peg’s gasp, and then
dropped it into his hands with a silent curse. Dammit to hel ;
he’d thought she’d told them.
“We’re going on a picnic?” Peter shouted. “Mom? Are
we?”
“I guess so,” Duncan heard her say, a decided edge in
her voice.
“That’s keeping an eye on her, Boss,” Alec said, sitting
down beside him.
“Is it going to be a company picnic or a private … affair?”
Robbie asked, shoving a bottle of ale under Duncan’s
nose, then sitting down once he took it.
“I do admire a man who backs his word with action,” Mac
said as he dropped down next to Robbie, his soft grunt of
discomfort making Duncan smile into his bottle as he
downed half the kick-in-the-ass in one gulp.
Oh yeah; day one on the job and he felt like he’d worked
an entire season—and the day stil wasn’t over.
Chapter Nine
Peg stared out her bedroom window at the moon-bathed
hil side and hugged herself on a shiver. If she lived to be a
hundred and two, she would never forget turning around to
see Jacob in Duncan’s arms, then watching him sitting on
Duncan’s lap having an honest to God, everyday
conversation with a virtual stranger who also happened to
be a big, strong hero.
She could have kil ed Mac and Olivia for pushing her to
pin that badge on him, but had quickly decided it was her
chance to pay Duncan back for worrying her to death by
diving into the frigid water of the pit. That is, until she saw
him silently signal Robbie to pick up Peter so that Jacob
would al ow Alec to pick him up. Her heart had risen into
her throat then stayed there for Jacob’s entire conversation
with Duncan afterward, and hadn’t fal en back into place
until Duncan had mentioned their Sunday picnic.
Peg released a heavy sigh at the realization that Olivia
was right; little girls did need a man’s perspective of things,
and so did little boys. Why hadn’t she ever thought to
assure her children that their daddy’s death hadn’t been
painful? But worse, why hadn’t she known it had been
worrying Jacob? And even worse again, why had her
youngest son discussed that worry with Duncan instead of
her?
When she’d casual y asked Jacob while giving the twins
their baths what he and Duncan had talked about, the boy
had shot his brother a glance and said he’d tel her later. A
bit alarmed that he was keeping secrets from her with a
virtual stranger, Peg had made later come sooner by drying
Peter off and sending him to go put on his pajamas.
That’s when Jacob had told her he’d given Duncan one
of his worry stones and then asked if he thought he could
have saved himself or his brother. Peg’s heart rose right
back into her throat again when he’d gone on to say that
he’d also asked how come his big strong daddy hadn’t
been able to save himself. Jacob had then told her that on
their picnic, Mr. Duncan was going to help him explain to
everyone that his dad had bumped his head when his
excavator had fal en in the river, and it hadn’t hurt him to
drown because he’d been asleep.
Jacob had been nineteen months old when Bil y had
died, but apparently being too young to remember his
father hadn’t stopped him from worrying about him hurting.
Why hadn’t she known that?
Nearly every day that first summer after Bil y’s death, Peg
had taken her children down to the spring-fed, two-acre
pond in their pit to teach them to swim, being careful—or
maybe foolish, she now realized—not to reveal that their
daddy had swam about as wel as a rock. By the end of the
summer she’d been cal ing the four of them her little trout,
and by the next spring they’d been dragging her down to
the swimming hole every day to test the water temperature
with their toes, declaring by early June that is was warm
enough to resume their daily outdoor baths. Peg had
watched from shore until at least the Fourth of July, claiming
she was a warm-water bass, not a trout.
Oh yeah, she owed Duncan MacKeage big-time for
assuring Jacob that his daddy hadn’t hurt. And for saving
her from prostitution by giving her a fair price for her gravel.
And for helping butcher her deer, making her beach safe,
rescuing her son, loaning her his truck, and … and for being
a good man.
Except she didn’t want Duncan to be good, or big and
strong and quick, or sexy, dammit, because she real y
didn’t want to start liking him. But mostly she didn’t want to
ever fal in love with him because she didn’t want to kil him.
Peg started to turn away from the window with another
sigh, only to catch a flash out of the corner of her eye. She