Charmed by His Love Read Free

also promise not to go in their stalls.” Peg started walking toward cabin three again. “And thank you for asking.”
    “Mom!” Jacob shouted from the gazebo where he was standing on a bench. “Isabel thinks she just saw a whale blow! Only I missed it ’cause I was watching the beach. It looks like they’re gonna take out the submarine. Can we sit on that rock over there to see better?” he asked, pointing toward the boulder on the shoreline. He lowered his voice as she approached. “I promise I won’t talk to any of the scientists.”
    Peg eyed the large, flat rock jutting out into the new Bottomless Sea. She wasn’t worried the kid would drown since the water wasn’t deep and Jacob swam better than most fish, and she really didn’t want to squelch his enthusiasm, considering his traumatic run-in with one of the scientists yesterday. Besides, what could be more entertaining for three hours than to watch a tiny two-man sub being launched?
    “Okay, but you don’t go any closer than the boulder, got that?”
    “I got it!” Jacob shouted, jumping off the bench and running down the gazebo steps. “Come on, Isabel. I’ll help you climb up the rock.”
    “Mommm,”
her daughter whined, giving Peg a rather impressive scowl. “I can’t climb a rock in my party dress.”
    “Then sit on the log next to it,” Peg suggested, once again heading off on her mission. God, she hoped the bastard who’d scared Jacob was staying in cabin three, because if he was, she intended to use his
head
for a plunger.
    Since when was some stupid submarine more precious than the tender heart of a young child? For crying out loud, Jacob was four! Well, he’d be five in a couple of months, but her younger son was way behind his boisterous twin brother in many aspects. Peter was her daredevil, where Jacob was a sensitive soul.
    But thanks to the family curse, her sons didn’t have a whole bunch of males to emulate, now did they? Well, except for her father-in-law and Billy’s older brother. Only Peg figured she had more testosterone than the two of them put together.
    Honest to God, Clive Thompson sent his wife to investigate anything that went bump in the night, and his idea of sports was putting on an engineer’s hat and playing with toy trains. As for her husband’s hulk of a brother, Galen … well, everyone knew Arlene wore the pants in that family. And damn if the one time Peg had called Galen to come check out a strange vehicle in her gravel pit if Arlene hadn’t shown up instead.
    At least her sister-in-law had brought along a shotgun.
    Peg knocked on cabin three’s door, then walked inside when nobody answered, only to nearly trip over a pile of diving … stuff. “Be careful of that gear,” a voice said from somewhere inside another pile of stuff on the couch. “It’s expensive.”
    Peg picked her way through the clutter, but stopped at the couch to peer over the guy’s shoulder. “Hey, is that a map of Bottomless?”
    He kept hitting keys on his laptop, although he did give a nod.
    Peg leaned closer, squinting at the screen. “Are all those numbers depths? Is Bottomless really eighteen hundred feet deep now, there in the middle?” Peg was so fascinated, she couldn’t stop asking questions. “But everyone knows the deepest basin has always been four hundred feet, so does that mean the earthquake really did split open the bottom of the lake like they said on the news? And is there really an underground saltwater river running up here all the way from the Gulf of Maine?”
    Again nothing, except for a grunt when she impatiently nudged his shoulder.
    Peg sighed and headed toward the bathroom, only to stop and stare in dismay at the mess. Jeesh, these guys hadn’t even had the combined brainpower to turn off the valve at the base of the toilet. Heck, Peter and Jacob knew enough to shut off the water, and they weren’t even in school yet. She bent down to reach the valve, glad that she had enough brains to