Heartwishes Read online

“Wow!” Gemma said, her eyes wide. “A woman went down the San Juan River in 1799 and made paintings of the flora and fauna? What an extraordinary find!”

  Colin laughed, but he was impressed with her memory and her knowledge. “You and Joce and Sara have to get to know one another.” He finished his sandwich while looking at her, and he could see that she was thinking about the paintings and how a woman may have made them. He wasn’t going to say so but he was very pleased that she’d not asked about the value of the paintings. The discovery of them had made international news and been reported by the BBC and in Paris. For a while the town had been inundated with tourists asking questions. With just a few exceptions, the only thing people had asked about was the money. How much were the paintings worth? Colin had grown so tired of the questions that he’d mumble, “Millions,” then leave and let his deputy, Roy, handle them.

  But Gemma didn’t seem in the least interested in the financial side of the find—and he liked that very much.

  She finished her sandwich. “And Sara is Ellie’s daughter? And your ‘favorite little man’ who helped her?”

  “You’re going to be great at the research!” Colin said. “Yes, Sara is Ellie’s daughter, and Mr. Lang is the caretaker of Merlin’s Farm. He’s in his mid-eighties now and we look out for him. When Mike and Sara are here, he moves into a house they remodeled for him.” Colin wasn’t going to go into telling Gemma about Mr. Lang’s endless complaints about the tourists and having to live outside the old house, which he thought of as his.

  Gemma wanted to ask what Ellie had meant about “club ladies” being after the old man, but she thought she’d asked enough questions.

  She stood up. “Mind if I wander around the rest of the house and have a look?”

  “Be my guest.” He was very pleased that she liked the place so much.

  She went down the hall and peeked into the three bedrooms and two baths. The master suite opened into the garden. She unlocked the door and stepped outside. She didn’t know much about plants, but she’d put money on it that the trees weren’t the usual ones you could purchase at the local shop. No, this place looked like a miniature botanical garden, like a place a person would pay to see.

  As Gemma thought of all she’d seen of the town, of this man, his family and now of his house, she couldn’t help a feeling of longing. Since her father had died, she hadn’t felt she was truly at home anywhere. To belong somewhere and to someone was Gemma’s deepest desire.

  What would it be like to grow up in a town where people knew your name? she wondered. More than that, knew you as a person? In the grocery those people had known Colin well enough to drop a baby into his arms. Even the children knew that if Colin was handed a broken toy he would fix it. She heard his footsteps in the hallway.

  “Are you okay?” he asked from behind her. “Nothing’s wrong, is it?”

  He had noticed the sad look in her eyes, and she quickly changed it. “No. Just the opposite. I was admiring the view. Your garden looks larger than the usual backyard.”

  “It’s a couple of acres.”

  “Your cousin Luke couldn’t have done the garden too?”

  “Yes he did. And he’s also Luke Adams.”

  Gemma’s face looked blank.

  “Luke Adams? Writes novels?” Colin asked.

  “Sorry. I never read fiction. No time.”

  He grinned. “That makes for a change. Usually when Luke’s pen name is mentioned, people nearly swoon.”

  “Swoon, do they?” she asked, smiling. “I think you’ve been reading the documents your mother bought.”

  “Actually, I did try to look at some of them. But then my phone would ring and I’d have to leave. Or sometimes I fell asleep. It’s difficult for me to imagine someone wanting a job like the one you want. On the days I have to stay in the office, I get antsy.” He pulled his buzzing cell phone out of his pocket and looked at it. “It’s a text from Mom and she says Jean is there. I think we better go.”

  “Certainly!” Gemma said. “I can’t afford to offend your mother again.”

  “I don’t think you ever have.”

  “I wish I were as sure.” When she got to the kitchen door, she turned to look at him. “I’ve had a lovely time today. I enjoyed meeting the people and especially seeing your house. Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome,” he said. “Want to drive back?”

  “About as much as I want to jump onto the top of a speeding train.”

  “Come on, then,” he said, “let’s go and see if Kirk has made off with my mother’s jewelry.”

  “Or if Isla has eloped with your brother.”

  “Shamus would never allow that.”

  Laughing, they left the house together.

  3

  GEMMA STRETCHED OUT on the bed in Colin’s childhood room and looked around her. It was still the habitat of a teenage boy, but instead of posters of football players or other athletes, he’d hung pictures of men Gemma didn’t recognize. But she had an idea they were law enforcement agents, real ones, not actors who played them on TV. Considering what she was seeing, she wondered why he hadn’t become an FBI agent or joined the CIA. But then, she’d already seen the answer. He loved the little town of Edilean and the people in it.

  After they’d left his newly purchased house, he’d driven them straight back to his family’s home. Hours earlier, when Gemma arrived, Mrs. Frazier had greeted her at the front door and immediately led her back to the guesthouse and shown her the documents. Gemma hadn’t been given time to get her suitcase out of the car, so she had no idea where she was staying in the big Frazier house.

  Colin told her that he’d asked his mother to put her in his old room. “There’s an outside staircase, so you can come and go as you please,” he said. “And it’s on the third floor, so you’ll have privacy.”

  “Your own private stairs? You sound like you were a very busy young man,” she said, teasing.

  He didn’t seem to see her words as a joke. “I was called out so often in the middle of the night that when I was in the tenth grade, my father had the stairs put up so I wouldn’t wake the family.”

  She didn’t understand what he meant. “You weren’t acting as sheriff when you were in high school, were you?”

  “No, but I tend to volunteer for things. And, besides, I’ve always been . . .” He hesitated.

  “As big as a bulldozer?”

  “More or less,” he said, grinning. “When I was fourteen, I used to go out with the firefighters and hold the hose.”

  “Isn’t that illegal for someone that young?”

  “Yeah, but after I slipped out a window six times and ran into a burning building three times, everyone gave up trying to make me stay home. I think they gave me the hose to hold just to anchor me in place.”

  “I guess that makes sense. So your family put you on the top floor and built a staircase just for you?”

  “That they did.”

  As they pulled into the driveway, he told her that Lanny had already carried her suitcase up and she could rest for a while. “Jean is cooking dinner tonight.”

  “Is she a friend of yours?”

  “Of our whole family. She’s a lawyer who works in Richmond and she likes to cook special meals.”

  “I look forward to meeting her.”

  Minutes later, he stopped at the bottom of a tall staircase that went up the entire side of the house. She could tell that he meant to escort her up, but she didn’t want him to. She liked him so much, was so very attracted to him, and she didn’t want to do anything embarrassing. Besides, it was better to keep a distance from the son of someone she hoped would employ her. “I can find my own way around,” she said.

  “I’ll just show you—”

  “No, really. I’d like some time to go over my notes.”

  “All right,” he said, but he sounded disappointed. “Come down about six. We’ll have drinks, then dinner.”

  “Sure,” she said as she started up the stai