Chapter 34

Grace sang in the shower. She felt happy, really happy, for the first time in years.

She had met a man who turned her on in every possible way, emotionally, intellectually, and sexually. One reason she liked him so much was that he was completely unaware of the effect he had on others in the short time he’d been in Middletown.

He didn’t think anyone else would have approached Marcus Carter, much less been welcomed into his home and invited to read the journals.

Nor, she thought, would anyone else have convinced the old man to take part in the play.

Maybe it was time for her to get a dog. A friend for Scout. She turned off the shower but not the song in his head.

She headed for the bedroom and her limited wardrobe.

She already felt a flutter deep in her stomach, the ache of anticipation. She opened her closet and stared at the few garments.

She selected a navy blue skirt and a light blue fitted blouse and looked at herself.

She needed something else. She looked in the small velvet pouch in which she kept her few pieces of jewelry and selected a bracelet her mother had given her.

She put it on and then applied some lipstick.

Her heart was bouncing wildly as she drove to the cabin, each mile seemed to be filling her with an eagerness to be with him again. It was obvious that she simply could not be rational where Landon was concerned. He had turned her world upside down and inside out.

Landon opened the cabin door and Grace’s heart stopped. He was wearing a pair of jeans that fit his tall, lean body as if designed just for him. A light tan suede jacket was worn over a dark brown shirt open at the neck. His hair was wet as if he had just come out of a shower, and that sent sensual images through her mind.

It didn’t help that his eyes looked at her with an intensity that sent her blood racing.

“Hi, there,” she said as she stooped down and made Scout a very happy dog by rubbing his ears, then running her hand down his back.

Scout made a spectacle of himself by twisting his body around in excitement, then plopping on the floor and raising all four feet in the air while Grace rubbed his belly.

“Now, that is just plain disgusting,” Landon said. “He doesn’t do that for me.”

She laughed.

He reached out and took her hand. It was warm and strong without being controlling. She didn’t object when he guided her inside the cabin, made her sit at the kitchen table, and put the folder with the journal pages in front of her.

“So ... What did you do today?”

“I sorted out the most important passages. The first entry is Fergus leaving Scotland to follow his younger brother here. He finds him half-dead. Then the two of them travel West. His brother wanted to look for gold, but Fergus had other ideas. I think the story flows. Would you like to take a look?”

Grace let out of shriek of excitement. “Just try stopping me!”

He placed the folder in front of her and sat at her side.

“I am going to get a dog,” she said. Then she took the first page and started reading.