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To Matt’s credit, he didn’t seem worried, but his polite smile did disappear the moment Grace stepped to the side. His eyes locked on Winter with such intense male appreciation, Grace went weak in the knees again.
“Where are ye going tonight?” Grey asked, moving between Winter and Matt.
“To the resort restaurant,” Matt said somewhat absently, completely focused on their daughter.
He took a step around the mountain of fatherly concern and held out his hand. “You look lovely, Winter.
I take back what I said last night. I think I do prefer you in a dress.”
Winter placed her hand in his, gave Grace a “will you please control Papa” look, and moved to stand beside Matt, linking her arm through his. “In the interest of not turning into a pumpkin, I’ll be home by midnight,” she said. She looked at her father and smiled smugly. “You needn’t wait up,” she finished as she quickly led Matt out of the living room.
But her escort brought her to a halt in the doorway, turned back to the room, and inclined his head. “I’ll have her home by eleven,” Matt said. He looked directly at Grey. “Let me know where and when you want to meet for coffee, and I’ll answer any questions you have about me.”
Grey said nothing, merely nodded.
Matt nodded in return, lifted Winter’s gaping jaw closed with his finger, and finally led her out the front door.
The moment the door shut, Megan burst into laughter. “Oh, Papa, I wish you could see your expression right now,” she said, walking up and rising on her tiptoes to give him a kiss on the cheek. “I can’t remember the last time anyone, male or female—other than Mama,” she whispered, “caught you off guard.” She turned to Grace. “And you. You should be ashamed of yourself for getting all flustered by Matt’s good looks.”
“I’m old, not dead,” Grace said with a laugh.
“Go to yer room,” Grey told Megan. “Ye’re no better than either yer mama or yer sister.”
Not the least bit bothered to be treated like she was only sixteen, Megan turned on her heels and all but bounced across the foyer to the stairs. She stopped on the bottom step. “I like Matt,” she said. “And so does Winter.”
“Ye don’t even know him,” Grey snapped.
“I know Gesader didn’t eat him when Matt kissed Winter up on the mountain last night,”
Megan returned, again laughing at her father’s stu
It took both of Grace’s hands over her mouth to stifle her laughter.
The first rumbles of a growl started deep in her husband’s chest, only to finally erupt in a full-blown curse when he turned to Grace. “Ye’re laughing while our i
Grace reached up and traced a finger down the side of his scowling face. “I most certainly did,”
she said, patting his cheek. “And I remember seeing that same look in your eyes thirty-three years ago, husband.” She rose on her toes while pulling down on his shirt collar to gently kiss his taut cheek. “And I can’t tell you how much that pleases me.”
“Pleases ye?” he repeated, stepping back to better glare at her. “What about a predator dating our daughter pleases ye?”
Grace mimicked his stance by folding her own arms under her breasts. “I’m pleased because I’
ve just realized something you and Robbie and Father Daar never considered, which changes the entire equation of Winter’s destiny,” she said. “None of you factored in the possibility of someone like Matt Gregor coming along. The man I just met has no intention of letting something as insignificant as our daughter’s destiny stand in his way. Yes, I could see that he wants her, and I say let him go for it.”
Grace unfolded her husband’s arms and held both his hands. “I love you, Greylen MacKeage.
You’ve been my rock and my wings and my fiercest protector. Let Winter have what we’ve had. Let Matt Gregor be her superman.”
“So ye’ve decided he’s superman after meeting him for all of two minutes?” Grey asked softly.
“How can ye know that?”
Grace looked down at her fingers twined in her husband’s strong hands. “I just know.” She smiled up at him. “You might call it magic, but I prefer to call it motherly intuition.”
He studied her for several heartbeats, then suddenly turned away. “I have to go to the office,”
he said, grabbing his jacket from the row of pegs on the foyer wall.
“Oh, no you don’t,” Grace muttered, grabbing the jacket away from him and hanging it back on the peg. “You are not going anywhere near that resort tonight.”
“I have paperwork to do. Morgan and Callum and I are meeting with our accountant in the morning.”
Grace captured his hand reaching for the jacket again and pulled it around her waist. She took hold of his other hand, settled it around her, then wrapped her own hands around his neck. “Our meeting tonight is more important,” she whispered, leaning into him.
Her husband always had been a quick study. His hands around her waist tightened at the realization of exactly what their meeting tonight was about. His cheeks darkened, his eyes focused completely on her, and his mouth swooped down and captured her pleased smile.
Thirty-three years, and the magic still managed to catch her by surprise. Grace parted her lips to her superman, which instantly caused flashes of brilliant, sizzling white light to charge the air around them. Just that quickly, and just that intensely, she was caught in passion’s spell as Grey lifted her off her toes and deepened the kiss.
“Take me to bed,” she whispered into his mouth. “Make love to me, husband.”
She didn’t have to ask twice. Grey bent to capture her knees and swept her up in his arms. “I know what ye’re doing, woman,” he growled as he carried her up the stairs, his fiercely intense eyes locked on hers. He suddenly smiled, rather ferally. “Remind me to give ye hell in the morning.”
Grace rested her head on his shoulder so he wouldn’t see her own smug smile. With any luck, they’d both be too tired in the morning to do anything more than sleep in.
Chapter Thirteen
W inter finished brushing Snowball and started saddling him up as she thought about how she had known Matt Gregor for over two weeks now, and how the entire time she’d been in a state of giddy happiness. She had spent the last two weeks exploring Bear Mountain with Matt by day and going out to di
And although they had found several suitable building sites, Matt always seemed to come back to the high meadow as his first choice. But after two weeks and four sketch pads full of ideas, Winter suspected Matt’s unwillingness to simply declare the meadow his favorite site had more to do with wanting to spend time with her than an inability to make a decision.
Five days ago Matt had bought camping equipment from Dolan’s Outfitter Store, and even though he had kept his hotel suite, he was now living on Bear Mountain and only coming back to the resort to shower before picking her up for di
Matt had set his campsite at the top of the high meadow in a cave hallowed into an outcropping of rock that overlooked both the meadow and Pine Lake. He’d made a cozy little camp that was still within earshot of Bear Brook and seemed surprisingly comfortable roughing it despite October’s increasingly cold weather. The second night sleeping out, Matt had awakened to a two-inch blanket of snow, though it had completely melted by noon. But instead of scaring him off, the snow only seemed to further endear Matt to his mountain.