Spellbound Falls by Janet Chapman Page B

yourself yesterday. He said his father didn’t want me to know Mark hit you because he was afraid I’d get upset, but I promised Henry I wouldn’t tell anyone. Please,
please
don’t tell him I told.”
“I won’t say anything to either of them. But you have to promise me you won’t use the word
bastard
again, okay? And if Henry uses it again, you tell him to stop saying it because it’s a very bad word.”
“I promise, I will. Why did Mark hit you?”
“Because he’s a really dumb kid. And he’s gone home to Georgia, so you don’t have to worry about him, okay?”
Her daughter went back to smiling. “That’s because Mac told him to get out of town before sunset. See, having a strong boyfriend would be handy. Maybe tomorrow on our picnic you could ask Mac if he’d like to go on a date with you. I bet he’d say yes, because Henry told me his father thinks you’re pretty.”
Olivia let out a loud yawn, lifting a hand to her mouth to cover her blush. “Dawn cracks early; you need to go to sleep now.”
Of course the girl didn’t listen to her. “If you’re too shy to ask him, I can. I asked Tristan if he wanted to be Zoey’s boyfriend, and he said yes and now they’re the hottest couple in the entire school.”
Good Lord, she had to stop this. Olivia pointed a threatening finger. “I so much as
hear
the words
boyfriend
or
girlfriend
tomorrow on our picnic, young lady, and you’ll be cleaning cabins with me from the moment you step off the bus until you go to bed for the next three weeks. Got that?”
The blankets pulled up to her chin again and her eyes huge—more likely from shock than fear—Sophie mutely nodded.
Olivia took in a calming breath. “You know we can’t get emotionally involved with our guests,” she said softly. “I realize that’s usually not a problem for you because most everyone is here only a week or two, but Henry and Mr. Oceanus are staying through the summer and then they’re
leaving
. So just like I can’t have Mr. Oceanus as a boyfriend, you need to make sure you don’t get too attached to Henry. I don’t want your heart to get broken, Sophie.”
When the girl only nodded again, Olivia smiled warmly. “I love you, baby.”
“I love you, too, Mom,” she said, dropping back onto her pillow with a miniature version of her mother’s sigh.
Olivia quietly walked down the hall to the kitchen, her heart aching with remorse for losing her temper. She wentover and locked the outside door, then pushed back the curtain and saw that the lights in the upstairs windows of the main lodge were still on in John and Eileen’s private quarters. She rested her forehead against the cool glass, suddenly so close to tears it was scary. Sophie needn’t worry about her getting married again, because the girl was right; she had to be somebody’s girlfriend before she could be a wife. And the chances of that happening in Spellbound Falls were about as promising as someone catching a giant whale in Bottomless Lake.
She might go a bit weak in the backbone on occasion, but she sure as hell had enough pride not to settle. If she couldn’t have a man who made her palms sweat and her heart race, who didn’t see her as a prize that came with a ready-made family and six hundred acres of prime wilderness lake frontage, or who thought she was perfect just the way she was, then she’d rather remain a lonely widow the rest of her life.
Because she deserved a man who would move mountains for her.
Olivia straightened and started to turn but caught sight of Mac’s jacket hanging on the peg beside her door. She really needed to return it, if only to get him out of her head once and for all. But truth be told, she hadn’t even realized how much she missed a man’s touch until Mac had swept her into his arms and placed his jacket over her trembling shoulders while promising the bastard would never hurt her again.
Oh, but she loved the feel of a man’s strength; her last memory of her father was him