Читать книгу Hunter's Bride and A Mother's Wish: Hunter's Bride / A Mother's Wish - Marta Perry - Страница 15

What did this mean? Chloe tried not to stare at the expression on Luke’s face, but she couldn’t help it. He looked as if he were seeing something for the first time.

“Chloe.” He said her name softly, holding out one hand toward her, palm up. Something seemed to stir in the shaft of sunlight from the window, as if the very air between them would speak.

Her breath caught. She took a step toward him, and the movement was as slow as wading through the surf. In an instant they would touch—

“How’s everything look?” Her father’s voice shattered the silence.

Chloe’s face flooded with heat as she turned toward the door. Luke turned, too, moving away from her quickly. Was he relieved they’d been interrupted? Or maybe she’d just imagined the whole thing.

“Let me take that for you.” Luke reached for the thermos her mother carried. “Can I bring anything else from the boat?”

“Not a thing.” Her mother set the thermos on the table. “We’re just fine.” She exchanged a knowing look with Chloe’s father. “You young people go on out and enjoy the day. We’ll take care of things here.”

“No. I mean, we’ll help you.” Chloe couldn’t be sure, but she thought Luke’s expression echoed her words.

“Nonsense.” Her mother shooed them with her hands, for all the world like Gran. “Luke hasn’t even seen Angel Isle yet. You show him around, honey. We’ll straighten up in here, then we’ll have lunch when you all get back.”

They didn’t seem to have much choice. Chloe headed for the door, hearing Luke’s footsteps behind her. He probably regretted he’d gotten out of bed that morning.

She didn’t look at him as she took the path back to the shore, but she could feel his presence as surely as if they touched. She didn’t say anything. What could she say that wouldn’t make this more awkward?

When they reached the stand of sea oats that marked the dunes, she heard him chuckle. The sound was a bit strained, but at least it meant he wasn’t angry about her parents’ machinations.

“Subtle, aren’t they?” he said.

“Sorry about that.” She tried for a lightness she didn’t feel. “I’m afraid my grandmother recruited them to do a little matchmaking.”

“I thought as much.” He strode beside her on the hard-packed sand of the beach. “Don’t worry about it, Chloe. If we can cope with a corporate near-takeover, we can cope with a little family matchmaking.”

Her tension eased at his words, reminding her of the difficult days three years ago when Dalton Resorts’s future hung in the balance. They’d all worked around the clock until the danger was over. Luke had put things back on a business basis, and that was clearly what he wanted. The moment when they’d stood looking at each other in a shaft of sunlight might never have been.

“Of course we can.” That was best, she assured herself. “We’re a team.” That was what he’d always said, and she’d taken comfort in the sense that they were on the same side.

“Always. You’re my right hand, remember?”

She nodded, matching her step to his long stride. She had to stop imagining anything was changing. She ought to be happy. That meant they’d be able to go back to normal, once this whole thing was over.

She took a deep breath, inhaling fresh salt air. She wasn’t sure she knew what “normal” was any longer, or if it was something she wanted or could even live with.

Maybe she’d better concentrate on introducing this place that she loved to Luke. If he could appreciate it the way she did, that would be enough for the day.

They rounded the heel of the tiny island, and the sea breeze lifted her hair and cooled her cheeks. “Now you see why they’re called the out-islands.” She pointed to the horizon. “There’s nothing beyond them but ocean.”

Luke shielded his eyes with one hand. “It’s so clear I feel as if I can see all the way to Europe—” He turned, glancing back at the island, and she heard his quick intake of breath.

“What on earth is that?”

“Strange, isn’t it.” Chloe walked to the nearest uprooted pine, its trunk washed free of bark, its roots a tangled mass of bleached tendrils. She rested her hand on the massive trunk that had been scoured clean by the waves. “The power of the sea.”

Luke stroked the smooth wood. “Do all these trees wash up here?” He looked down the beach, where tree after felled tree formed a bizarre landscape of twisted roots and gnarled limbs.

“Not washed up,” she corrected. “They grew here, until the tide started coming in farther and knocked them down. None of the outer islands are stable on the seaward side—that’s why the buildings face the sound. The ocean’s taking a bite out of Angel Isle.”

Luke put both palms on the trunk and hoisted himself. He reached down, smiling an invitation. She felt herself smile in response as he took her hand in a firm clasp, lifting her up to sit next to him.

She settled on the smooth surface, trying to ignore the warmth that radiated from Luke, trying not to look at how the sun glinted on his bare arms.

“It’s beautiful,” he said quietly, leaning back on his hands. “Weird, but beautiful, like another world.”

She’d better concentrate on the scenery, too. “That’s what I’ve always thought. Another world.” She tilted her head back, letting the breeze ruffle her hair. A pair of brown pelicans swooped low over the water, and she envied their view. “Or maybe a little piece of heaven.”

“I guess you could look at it that way.”

His response was noncommittal, the careful answer he’d give a business colleague if the subject of religion came up. Suddenly she wanted to push him—she wanted more.

“I’ve always felt closer to God here than anywhere else.” She didn’t bother trying to edit her words or shield her beliefs from him. “And I’ve always thought God must love it, too, or He wouldn’t have made it so beautiful.”

For a moment she thought he’d ignore her. Then he frowned.

“That sounds like something an old friend of mine would say.”

“An old friend?” Was she actually about to see into his private life?

“Reverend Tom—”

He was looking out at the pelicans, but she didn’t think he saw them.

“A good friend.”

“Was he your minister when you were a child?” He wouldn’t answer; she knew that. He never talked about his childhood.

“You could say that, I guess.” His mouth tightened to a thin, unrevealing line.

“You don’t look as if the thought makes you very happy.”

He shot her a look that gave nothing away. “It just reminded me that I haven’t been in touch with him in a long time. That’s all.”

“Maybe you should be.”

His face tensed, and she knew she’d gone too far.

“We don’t fit into each other’s lives anymore.”

He said it as if that ended the matter. The friend was another secret Luke didn’t intend to share. If they were in the office, she wouldn’t have pushed this far. But they weren’t in the office.

“Would he like this place?”

Luke shrugged. “He wouldn’t appreciate the potential.”

For a moment she could only stare at him. “What do you mean?”

His gesture took in the strange shapes of the drowned forest. “This. Hasn’t it occurred to you what a commercial draw this could be? With the right kind of promotion, people would pay to visit this.”

Disappointment was an acrid taste in Chloe’s mouth. A commercial draw—that was all he could see. Maybe she’d been wrong about the depths she thought he hid. Maybe he was nothing more than the surface persona—the success-driven businessman who didn’t care about anything but profit.

The thought shouldn’t hurt her heart as much as it did.

“Look out!”

Luke took a quick step back, holding the kitchen door for Miranda the next morning as she darted through with a steaming pot of coffee. She flashed him a smile.

“Go on back. Chloe’s in there.”

He wasn’t actually looking for Chloe, but there didn’t seem any point in trying to tell Miranda that. He’d come down this morning with the single aim of talking to Clayton Caldwell about Angel Isle.

He helped himself to coffee from the sideboard while he scanned the dining room. The large oval table where they’d sat for dinner the first night was pressed into service as a breakfast buffet. Smaller tables for guests clustered around it and overflowed into the hall and onto the porch.

Only a few guests had come down this early. Chloe’s father was usually one of the earliest people down, but the chair where he always sat was empty.

Luke frowned. After their return from Angel Isle, he’d spent the rest of the day learning everything on the public record about Angel Isle. Now he was keyed up and ready to roll, but his instincts told him to proceed cautiously.