At Home in His Heart. Glynna Kaye

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СКАЧАТЬ take this the wrong way.” He gave the room another sweeping glance, then focused dark, considering eyes on her. “But you need to get a life.”

       What?

      She huffed a laugh of disbelief. “Excuse me?”

      “I told you not to take it wrong.”

      “And how could I take a comment like that right?”

      He shrugged and moved again toward the kitchen with her hot on his heels. “Don’t you think common courtesy demands you elaborate after saying something as judgmental as that?”

      He halted in the arched doorway between the two rooms and again turned, his gaze solemn. “I think you know what I’m talking about.”

      “Now I’m a mind reader?”

      He waved a hand, indicating the museum as a whole. “Grandma says you and Gina have practically lived at this place. I know I see your car here frequently.”

      “So?”

      “So, do you think Keith would have wanted you to seal yourself up in this tomb? Digging through musty old stuff that belonged to dead people?”

      With a gasp, her gaze flew to the photograph of her husband on the wall, his medals in the frame beside it. Hands on her hips, she stepped to within inches of Bryce. “I happen to appreciate history—and love some of those dead people.”

      He didn’t so much as flinch. Just stared down into her eyes, some elusive emotion she couldn’t pinpoint flickering through his own.

      Mesmerized, her heart rate quickened. She shouldn’t have moved in so close. To where she could feel the heat emanating from him. See the rising and falling of his chest. The pulse at his throat. Smell a faint, shower-fresh masculine scent.

      With an abrupt movement, he broke eye contact and stepped back. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t referring to Keith. My apologies.”

      Then he swung around and headed to the back door.

      For a moment she almost followed him. Almost let him have a piece of her mind. But what good would that do? His poking his nose into her business had started when she’d first met Keith—and it didn’t appear to have let up. Chasing after him now would only hand him another opportunity to voice judgment on her personal life.

      A place where his observations weren’t welcome.

      Chapter Three

      “That man infuriates me, Meg. He’s just so, so—”

      “Buff?” Her high school teaching colleague laughed as she refilled their glasses with icy, homemade lemonade. Sandi had stopped by after work late Saturday afternoon to pick up Gina.

      Memory rushed against her will to the imposing, well-built man. Solid as a rock. “Very funny. I’m thinking more along the lines of mulish and interfering.”

      “Are you kidding me?” Meg’s eyes widened as she placed the pitcher on the kitchen table and sat down across from her. “Are we talking about the same man? The Bryce Harding I know is a big lovable, huggable bear of a guy.”

      “How would you feel about your Mr. Buff if he’d tried to stop your husband from marrying you? He had it in his head I was going to ruin Keith’s life. Even emailed him from overseas on our wedding day. Can you believe it? Keith showed it to me at the reception. Thought it was funny.”

      “What did it say?”

      “Last chance, bud. Bus departs at two.”

      Meg let out a gleeful yelp, then clapped her hand momentarily to her mouth. “Sorry. But Sandi, that’s no big deal. That’s how guys talk to each other. They can’t express their feelings well. Half the time they can’t even identify for themselves what they’re feeling. That was just Bryce’s way of saying ‘hey, dude, gonna miss ya.’”

      “I’m afraid there’s more to it than that.”

      “Hey, don’t you remember?” Meg’s eyes continued to dance. “At my wedding reception, right before we cut the cake, one of Joe’s old navy buddies snuck up and clamped a fake ball and chain around my hubby’s ankle. That’s just guys.”

      “I remember. But this is different. Way different.”

      “You’re blowing a joke out of proportion, Sandi. Seriously. Bryce is one of the good guys.”

      “You wouldn’t think that if you knew about him what I know about him.”

      “Maybe the man you knew has changed. Joe said Bryce quit going to church with his grandma when he was in high school. But he goes now. Doesn’t that count for anything?”

      She couldn’t tell Meg how Keith had worried about Bryce. About his wild ways. His hard drinking and hard partying. His superficial relationships with women. Keith had done his best to influence Bryce, to convince him he wasn’t really living unless he was living for God. But Bryce the Bullheaded carried on in the direction he was determined to go—and good-naturedly badgered Keith to join him on his journey.

      “As the old saying goes, Meg, sitting in a garage doesn’t make you a car.”

      “It’s a start.”

      “Maybe.” Guilt nibbled around the edges of her conscience. She’d been kind of snippy with him at the Warehouse and again at the museum last night. Not that he didn’t deserve it, but that wasn’t how Keith—or God—would want her treating him. “Because of his interference, Keith delayed proposing. We could have been married who knows how much earlier if Bryce hadn’t poked his nose in where it didn’t belong. That’s time Keith and I’ll never get back.”

      Time that maybe she could have grown up more. Done things differently.

      “But if you’d have married earlier,” Meg said, her gaze steady, “even if you got pregnant right away like you did with Gina, your baby wouldn’t have been Gina.”

      “I know.” Sandi toyed with the ribbon on a basket of spa-type goodies that Meg had given her for her birthday. “And I wouldn’t trade her for the world.”

      She glanced out the open French doors to the patio, where Meg had several flats of petunias awaiting transplant. Could smell the sweet fragrance. Hear the laughter of their precious children coming from somewhere under the long-shadowed pines.

      “But can’t you see why I’m not thrilled about Bryce’s homecoming?” She poked at an ice cube with the tip of her finger. “I hear he’s doing odd jobs. Not what I’d call earning-a-living work. Moved in with his grandma—like she needs him to deal with. And now he’s announced the historical museum rent will go up when the lease renews.”

      Meg cringed. “You’re on a tight budget, aren’t you?”

      “Even with measly city assistance we’re barely hanging on, what with the drop in seasonal visitors. And of course Bryce raises the rent right when I’ve almost saved enough money to donate a display case. Right when I’m СКАЧАТЬ