Read Second Chance With the Rebel: Her Royal Wedding Wish for Free Online

her,
and this time his grin was so genuine it could have lit up the whole lake. Mama
reached up and touched his cheek.
    Then he picked up the rather large bulk of Mama Freda as if she
were featherlight, and swung her around until she was squealing like a young
girl.
    “You’re getting me all wet,” she protested loudly, smacking the
broadness of his shoulders with delight. “ Ach . Put
me down, galoot-head.”
    Finally he did, and she patted her hair into place, regarding
him with such affection that Lucy felt something burn behind her eyes.
    “Why are you all wet? You’ll catch your death!”
    “Your dock broke when I tried to tie to it.”
    “You should have told me you were coming,” Mama said
reproachfully.
    “I wanted to surprise you.”
    “Surprise, schmize.”
    Lucy smiled, despite herself. One of Mama’s goals in life
seemed to be to create a rhyme, beginning with sch, for every word in the English language.
    “You see what happens? You end up in the lake. If you’d just
told me, I would have warned you to tie up to Lucy’s dock.”
    “I don’t think Lucy wants me tying up at her dock.”
    Only Lucy would pick up his dry double meaning on that. She
could actually feel a bit of a blush moving heat into her frozen cheeks.
    “Don’t be silly. Lucy wouldn’t mind.”
    He could have thrown her under the bus, because Mama would not
have approved of anyone being pushed into the water at this time of year, no
matter how pressing the circumstances.
    But he didn’t. Her gratitude that he hadn’t thrown her under
the bus was short-lived as Mac left the topic of Lucy Lindstrom behind with
annoying ease.
    “Mama, I’m freezing. I hope you have apfelstrudel fresh from the oven.”
    “You have to tell me you’re coming to get strudel fresh from
the oven. That’s not what you need, anyway. Mama knows what you need.”
    Lucy could hear the smile in his voice, and was aware again of
Mama working her magic, both of them smiling just moments after all that
fury.
    “What do I need, Mama?”
    “You need elixir.”
    He pretended terror, then dashed back to the dock and picked up
his soaked clothing and the bag, tossed it over his naked shoulder. He returned
and wrapped his arm around Mama’s waist and let her lead him to the house.
    Lucy turned back to her own house, her eyes still smarting from
what had passed between those two. The love and devotion shimmered around them
as bright as the strengthening morning sun.
    That was why she had gone to such
lengths to get Macintyre Hudson to come back here. And if another motive had
lain hidden beneath that one, it had been exposed to her in those moments when
his arms had wrapped around her and his heat had seeped into her.
    Now that it was exposed, she could put it in a place where she
could guard against it as if her life depended on it.
    Which, Lucy told herself through the chattering of her teeth,
it did.
    * * *
    Out of thecorner of his eye, Mac saw Lucy pause and watch his reunion with
Mama.
    “Is that Lucy?” Mama said, catching the direction of his
gaze.
    “Yeah, as annoying as ever.”
    “She’s a good girl,” Mama said stubbornly.
    “Everything she ever aspired to be, then.”
    Only, she wasn’t a girl anymore, but a woman. The good part he had no doubt about. That was what was
expected of the doctor’s daughter, after all.
    Even given the circumstances he had noted the changes. Her hair
was still blond, but it no longer fell, unrestrained by hair clips or elastic
bands, to the slight swell of her breast.
    Plastered to her head, it hadn’t looked like much, but he was
willing to bet that when it was dry it was ultrasophisticated, and would show
off the hugeness of those dazzling green eyes, the pixie-perfection of her
dainty features. Still, Mac was aware of fighting the part of him that missed
how it used to be.
    She had lost the faintly scrawny build of a long-distance
runner, and filled out, a fact he could not help but notice when she had