Heartwishes by Jude Deveraux Read Free Book Online Page B

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 youwant. 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
    G EMMA 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