Heartwishes Read online

“How’s the injury now?”

  “Still red, but healed,” she said.

  “Think you can do some boxing?”

  “Of course,” she said. She knew that true athletes didn’t complain. If she did, invariably, someone would say, “You want some cheese with that whine?”

  “We all saw the way you stood on Colin’s shoulders and got that kid.” Mike’s eyes were laughing. “At last year’s fair I did the same thing with him, except that he held on to my ankles and danced around the ring.”

  “Like a trained bear,” Gemma said.

  “Exactly! Come on downstairs and I’ll get you something to drink. Take any supplements?”

  “Fish oil, Bio-E, Adren-All. The usual.”

  “Michael,” Sara said, “should I start getting jealous of you two?”

  Gemma stepped away from Mike. “Sorry, I—”

  “Yes, definitely,” Mike told his wife. “And the only way for you to win me back is to start going to the gym with me every morning.”

  Sara walked between them to leave the room. “In that case, I hope you two have a great time. You can visit your son on alternate weekends.” She went down the stairs.

  “She isn’t angry, is she?” Gemma asked.

  “Not at all.” Mike put his hand on Gemma’s shoulder, and she knew he was checking out her deltoid.

  “Soft,” she said.

  “Absolute mush. Maybe this afternoon . . .”

  “Gladly,” she said, and smiling, they went downstairs.

  In the kitchen, Mike gave Gemma a glass of juice. “No carbonation, no sugar.”

  “And no flavor,” Tess said.

  “Did you meet my baby sister?” Mike asked.

  She looked from one to the other. It took a moment, but she could see the resemblance.

  “Tris is looking for you,” Tess said. “Are you two an item? Have you thrown out Colin already?”

  Mike looked at his sister. “You’d better back off of her. She can take you down.”

  “I think I’ll find Tris,” Gemma said and left the room, drink in hand. When she went outside, she saw more garden, more lawn, more trees, and close by were several old buildings that she knew had once been part of a plantation. In the shade of a big tree was a huge stainless steel grill. Tris was standing by it, talking to a tall, handsome man who was holding a pair of tongs.

  “Hey!” Tris called when he saw Gemma. “Come meet Luke.”

  “He’s the author you’ve never heard of,” said a voice to her right. She didn’t need to look to know it was Colin, but she did turn. Like she had to breathe, she had to know how he felt about what had taken place between them.

  It took only a glance to see that he didn’t remember what had happened. He smiled at her as though she were his sister, fondly, even protectively, but certainly not with any adult, male-female interest.

  Of all the things she’d imagined in the last week, that Colin wouldn’t even remember what had happened had not been one of them. The red hot heat of the anger that surged through her was something new. She’d never before felt anything like it—but she was determined not to show it. She took a few breaths, then looked back at Luke. “Actually,” she said as she turned so Colin was out of her line of vision, as she couldn’t stand to look at him, “I read your first book.” She went toward Luke, her hand extended. “I loved it. Your research was excellent.”

  “A couple of guys at the college look over my manuscripts. They’re sticklers for perfection. If I get even a shoe buckle wrong, they let me know.”

  “Did you meet Mike?” Tris asked.

  “He greeted me with a fist aimed at my head.”

  Luke looked concerned, but Tris laughed. “So what did you do?”

  “Ducked, of course, then I came back at him with a left uppercut.” She demonstrated.

  Through this exchange, Colin had been left standing, as excluded as though he weren’t there.

  Gemma kept her back to him as she looked at the grill. “What’s cooking?”

  Luke was looking over Gemma’s head at Colin, whose face showed his bewilderment at having her back turned to him. “Nothing yet,” Luke said, “but Mike ordered the most organic of the organics from Ellie. Have you met her?”

  Before Gemma could answer, Colin stepped forward. “I introduced her to Ellie.”

  Gemma still couldn’t stand to look at him. “Tris and I had breakfast together at her store. I had some divine chocolate concoction.”

  Gemma’s refusal to include Colin in the conversation was now so pronounced that Luke quit looking puzzled and showed his amusement. “So Gemma,” Luke said, “Tris was telling me about some magic Frazier thing. What is it?”

  “The Heartwishes Stone,” Colin said as he again moved forward, but this time he stepped between Tris and Gemma. Given that Colin was so large, this meant that Luke had to take a step back.

  Chuckling, Luke said he thought he was needed in the house.

  The last thing Gemma wanted was to cause more gossip. “I think I’ll go with you,” she said, but she stopped when Tris said to Colin, “Have you found out anything more about this Stone everyone’s been talking about?” That sparked her curiosity.

  Luke went into the house, but Gemma stayed by the grill. She still had her back to Colin.

  “Tris,” he said, “would you mind if Gemma and I—” He broke off when Tris’s cell rang.

  “Sorry, but my profession says I have to answer this.” He pushed a button and listened. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.” He looked at Colin. “Mr. Gibson had a heart attack. I have to go to the hospital.”

  “I’ll drive you,” Colin said.

  “No thanks!” Tris said quickly. “He’s under care now, so I can travel at less than warp speed.” He looked at Gemma. “I’m really sorry, but I have to leave.”

  “I understand. Don’t worry about me.” When he seemed to want to say more, she put her hand on his arm. “Go! And thanks for all your help.”

  “You’re very welcome.” He bent forward to kiss her cheek, but then glanced at Colin, and on impulse he gave her a quick, sweet kiss on the mouth. “I swear I can still taste the chocolate,” he said, then started running toward the front of the house and his car.

  For a moment Gemma stood where she was. She was very aware of Colin standing close to her, but she didn’t look at him. She thought of several things to say, but none of them came out. Instead, she just turned on her heel and started toward the house.

  Colin placed all two hundred-plus pounds of himself in front of her, but she didn’t look up at his face. “Gemma, I apologize for whatever I did to make you angry at me.”

  “I’m not angry. I think I should help in the kitchen.” She tried to step around him, but he blocked her path.

  “This is because I fell asleep in your bed, isn’t it? Rachel sent Lanny to get me up. I was so dead asleep he said he thought he was going to have to fire a canon to wake me up.”

  Gemma listened with her head down. “Fine. I understand. You were tired.”

  “And you fed me that wonderful breakfast. It was great to eat a home-cooked meal.”

  She didn’t reply, just stepped around him. “I really do need to go inside now.”

  “Sure,” he said. “I didn’t mean to keep you.”

  When Gemma got inside the house, she saw that Tess and Sara had been watching out the window.

  Tess was smiling in an I-told-you-so way, but Sara went to Gemma and took her arm. “Whatever you’re doing to Colin, I love it!” she said softly. “He needs to have his whole life shaken up.”

  Gemma didn’t want to discuss her personal problems with someone she’d just met. In spite of what Tris had said, she still worried that if Mrs. Frazier found out what had happened, she’d lose her job.

  “Sorry, but I have no intention of doing anything with any of the Frazier sons. Is Joce around?”

  “Sure,” Sara said as she let go of Gemma’s arm. “She’s upstairs with the babies.”

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