Harvest Moon (Brook Haven Romance Book 1) (7 page)

“Uncle Mac, this is
Sophie Michelson. She’s the one that I’m working for over at the inn.”

The older man offered
his hand, and Sophie shook it. “I’m pleased to meet you, Sophie.”

“It’s nice to meet you
too. Are these the kits I’ve heard about?” Mac looked like a proud papa. He
introduced them to Sophie as “Todd and Copper.”

“They’re adorable,”
Sophie said.

Mac held one up and
said, “Here. You can hold him.”

Sophie glanced at Drake
and he nodded. There was something sad in his eyes, and she wondered what that
was about. She took the kit and held him to her chest. He cuddled into her just
like a kitten. “Oh my gosh, they’re so sweet. I want one!”

“They’re wild animals,”
Drake said. “Even my uncle seems to have forgotten.” His uncle gave him a
narrow-eyed look and then turned his attention back to Sophie.

“Sophie, have a seat.
Would you like something to drink? I have tea or I can make some coffee…”

“No, thank you. I can’t
stay long. I was just admiring your woodwork when I was up at Drake’s place. He
actually brought me over here so I could ask if you might be interested in
doing some for me for the inn.”

“Oh. Yes, I could
probably do that. What were you thinking?”

“Anything you’d like to
make, really. I love all of the ones in Drake’s house.”

Mac looked back up at
his nephew, who was standing with his back to the little island between the
living room and kitchen. “How many does my nephew have?”

“Just a few,” Drake
said.

Sophie suddenly
realized maybe she’d said something she shouldn’t have. “Yes, only a few. I
really love the one with the wolves.” Mac chuckled and Drake’s face turned red.
“I’m sorry … did I say something wrong?” she asked.

“Not at all,” Mac said.
“It just seems like my nephew didn’t have the heart to tell me some of my
things didn’t sell, so he bought them.”

“Oh …” She looked at
Drake. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know …”

He shook his head and
smiled at her. “It’s okay,” he said, looking back at Mac. “They would have sold,
but I didn’t give them a chance. I bought the ones I liked before I even took
them into town.”

Mac laughed then. It
was like a deep rumble in his chest and so contagious that Sophie almost
laughed too. “You’re so full of it,” he said. “But you have a good heart, kid.”
He looked back at Sophie and said, “You bring me a list of what you’d like and
I’ll see what I can do.”

“Thank you so much.
Drake, have you told him about my mother’s invitation?”

“Not yet.”

“My mother is making
dinner tonight, and she’d really like it if you and Drake could join us.”

“Oh … I don’t think … I
mean I really shouldn’t leave the kits …”

“It would only be for a
couple of hours, or even less if you needed it to be. We’d really like it if
you could come.”

She felt bad because he
looked so uncomfortable with the idea. He glanced up at Drake, but his nephew
wasn’t going to help him out of it. “Okay … I guess that would be all right. It
will just be you and your mother?”

“Yes, and Drake.”

“Okay, thank you,
Sophie.” Drake looked both shocked and amused that Sophie had accomplished what
he likely couldn’t have.

“You’re welcome.” She
stood up and handed the kit back to him. “Thank you for letting me hold him. He’s
so cute.” Mac smiled again, and Sophie could see the love in his eyes as he
laid the baby gently back in his lap. “I look forward to seeing you this
evening.”

“I’ll walk you back up
to your car,” Drake said. He looked at his uncle and said, “I’ll be back.
There’s something I need to talk to you about.”

“Lots of surprises
today, huh?”

Drake smiled sadly.
“Yeah … I’ll be right back.”

On the walk back to
Sophie’s car, she could tell that something was bothering him. She was suddenly
afraid it was what she’d let slip about Drake having so many of the carvings in
his home. “I’m sorry about letting him know you had the carvings. I didn’t know
…”

He smiled. “It’s okay.
He was bound to find out sometime. I just hate telling him they didn’t sell.
Besides, they look good in my house, don’t you think?”

“They do,” she said. “I
also think he’s lucky to have you.”

“It can get pretty
lonely up here. We’re lucky to have each other.”

“Is something bothering
you?” she asked him just as they got back to her car.

He kind of laughed, but
it was a nervous laugh. “I have to tell him the vet is back in town and he has
to give up those kits.”

“Oh no! Why? He seems
to be taking such good care of them …”

“One thing my mother
taught me about taking in strays around here was that it was okay to take them
in if they needed a temporary home, but they’re not cats and dogs. They can’t
live in a home with people forever and truly have a good life. They need to be
free out there on this beautiful mountain with other creatures like them. It’s
funny because Mac never used to have much interest in any of the animals I
brought home to nurse back to health.”

“He seems lonely. Maybe
that has something to do with it.”

Drake nodded. “Yeah,
that’s my fault.”

“How is it your fault?”

“I should spend more
time with him, encourage him harder to get out more.”

“I don’t know either of
you that well yet, but I can honestly say I doubt this is your fault. You seem
like a great nephew. As a matter of fact, I’m beginning to wonder if there is
anything you’re not great at.”

Drake grinned. “There’s
not,” he said.

She laughed. “We’ll
see. Can I tell Mom you guys will be there around six?”

“Yeah.” He looked like
he was thinking about kissing her. Sophie made a snap decision that if that was
what was on his mind, she wasn’t going to object. She suddenly wanted him to
kiss her so badly that she knew she’d be horribly disappointed if he didn’t. He
stared into her eyes for what felt like forever and she thought about just
taking the lead.

When he finally leaned
in and she could feel his warm breath on her face, she was shaking all over.
The touch of his full lips sent goose bumps racing down both her arms and her
spine. He put one of his big rough hands on the side of her face and held her
head in place as his tongue slid out and traced the inside of her mouth … and
then he pulled back, leaving her breathless and wanting more.

He looked like he was
searching her face for a reaction, or waiting for her to say something. When
she didn’t, he said, “I’m sorry—”

She reached up then and
covered his mouth with two fingers. Once he stopped talking, she leaned in and
kissed him again.

After Sophie left,
Drake walked around in a fog for a while. He had kissed her, and she had kissed
him back. He couldn’t stop smiling until he remembered that he still had to
talk to Mac. “You do it, Hooter,” he told the yellow dog at his feet. Hooter
gave him a sympathetic look, but Drake had a feeling that was all he would get
from the old dog. With the heavy sigh of someone who was about to rip another
person’s reason for living out of his arms, he headed up the path to Mac’s
house. Mac and the kits were watching television and having lunch.

“Hey, you’re back already;
did your lady friend go home?”

Drake grinned. “Yeah,
she went home.”

“She sure is pretty.”

Drake nodded as he took
a seat opposite his uncle. “Yeah, she is.”

“So is there more there
than a client/contractor relationship?”

He still couldn’t stop
smiling. He kind of felt like an idiot. “There just might be,” he said. Brooke
was the only real girlfriend that Drake had ever had. They’d grown up in a
tourist town, and their graduating class had twelve kids in it. Nine of those
were boys. Girls were in short supply unless it was fall and winter, and then
they descended upon them—ski bunnies with lots of hair and pretty smiles and
daddies with lots of money. When Brooke broke up with him to go away to college,
Drake had partaken of as many of those pretty rich girls as he could get. But
the reality that they would return to their privileged lives and leave him
behind and broken-hearted quickly became too much for him.

He wasn’t a one-night
stand or a serial dater kind of guy. Drake had always wanted a family—a life
with a woman he loved who loved him back and as many kids as they could manage.
That was a tall order in Brook Haven … or it had been. Now that he’d met Sophie,
he had begun to wonder if there may still be hope.

“She seems like a nice
girl,” Mac said.

“She is … but there’s
something else I need to talk to you about, Mac.”

“Okay …” He put his
sandwich down and his dark eyes met his nephew’s. “You look so serious.”
Drake’s eyes fell to the balls of sleeping fur in his uncle’s lap. Mac looked
down at them and back up at Drake. “I know I can’t keep them.”

Drake was fighting back
tears as he said, “Sam’s back. He wants to take them up to the refuge center as
soon as possible.” Mac nodded. The look on his face was agony, and it made
Drake’s heart break. “I was thinking, maybe it’s time we got you your own dog
or—”

“I don’t want a dog.
It’s okay, Drake. I’m not a kid. I knew they weren’t here to stay. I’m fine.”

“I’m sorry.”

Mac smiled at him. “I’m
really fine. Now go on and do whatever you have to do. I’m not going to hole up
here with my guns and make Sam call the SWAT team to get me out. It’ll be okay.
Just let me know when he’s coming.” Drake stood up and started to say something
else, but Mac stopped him by holding up his palm. “It’s really okay, son, don’t
worry.” Drake couldn’t help it. He was sure Mac was putting on a brave front
for him, but unfortunately this was the way it had to be.

“Okay … you’re still
going to dinner with me?”

“Yeah, I’ll be ready,”
he said. Drake went back to his own house feeling like crap. He had to return
some phone calls he’d been putting off all week. Working on the B&B for
Sophie was taking up so much of his time that he’d been turning down a lot of
jobs for others that he usually did, and he was feeling guilty about that. He’d
decided that he would spend his Sundays between now and tourist season doing
what he could for his other clients who had always been faithful to him in the
past. He started making his phone calls and did his best to get his mind off of
Mac for a little while.

****

“Can I ask you a question?”
Drake said to Mac as they headed to Sophie’s for dinner.

“I’m fine. I haven’t
been crying. My eyes are puffy because I’m old and I’ve been out of my night
cream …”

Drake laughed. “Stop
it. I know you’re fine. This is about me.”

“Well in that case, ask
away.”

“I kissed Sophie
today.”

“That’s not a
question.”

“Hush! I’m getting
there. I kissed her and she kissed me back … but I’m so inexperienced at this,
which really sucks for a twenty-seven-year-old man. I’m not sure what to do
next.”

“Was it a good kiss?”

“The best one I’ve ever
had,” Drake said truthfully.

“Then kiss her again.”

Drake chuckled. “Thanks.”

“Okay, sadly, son, I am
more inexperienced than you. Do you know how long it’s been since I kissed a
woman?”

“Yeah … but that’s your
own fault because you stay out there holed up in that little house all alone.”

“I wasn’t looking to
incite a lecture. My point was going to be that inexperienced or not, you
should just go with your gut instinct. You obviously felt like kissing her
would be okay, and since she kissed you back, I’d say you were right. So the
next step would maybe be talking to her about where she wants to go from here.”

“And what if that’s as
far as she wants to go?”

“Then you either have
to walk away or bring your ‘A’ game. I guess that depends on how strongly you
feel about her.”

“Too strongly to just
walk away,” he said.

“Then don’t. Tell her
how you feel.”

Drake nodded as he
pulled onto the dirt road that led up to the B&B. “You know what … Sophie’s
mom is pretty cute—”

“Knock it off.”

Drake laughed. He
stopped the truck and got out to get Mac’s chair from the back. It had
literally been months since Mac had been off the farm. Drake was really glad he
agreed to come tonight. His uncle used his arms to lower himself out of the
truck and into the chair, then rolled over to the right side of the house where
there was a short ramp up to the porch. It had been there for years, and Drake
had restored it when he did the rest of the porch for Sophie.

“Did you do all of
this?” Mac asked him.
 

“Yeah, it was pretty
weathered. Sophie’s mom put her foot right through one of the boards a couple
of weeks ago. Brooke thinks it might be broken.”

“Damn.” He looked like
he was going to say something else, but at that moment the door was pulled open
by Brenda.

“Hi there, you must be
Mac.” She offered her hand to him and he took it. “I’m Brenda Michelson,” she
said. Drake didn’t miss the look on his uncle’s face when he looked at the
pretty woman. He wondered if he might be able to do some matchmaking of his
own.

“Yes, ma’am, that’s me.
It’s nice to meet you. Thank you for having us out for supper.”

She smiled. “You’re
welcome. Thank you for coming. It was fun to have more than two people to cook
for again. Hi Drake, you guys come on in.” She stepped back, and Drake
maneuvered Mac in through the door. He made a mental note that maybe the doors
needed to be widened slightly to better accommodate any handicapped guests that
Sophie might have. “Drake, you and Mac make yourselves comfortable in the lodge
room, okay? Dinner is almost ready and Sophie will be right down.” Drake felt
his stomach flutter just at the sound of Sophie’s name.

“Thanks, Mrs.
Michelson. It sure does smell good.”

“Call me Brenda, Drake,”
she said. “There’s coffee there if either of you would like some. I’ll be right
back.”

As she left the room, Drake
saw Mac watching her. When she was gone, he said, “Told you she was pretty.”

“Shut up.”

Drake was laughing when
Sophie came down the stairs. He stopped at the sight of her. Suddenly his mouth
was completely dry and all he could think was,
I want to kiss her again.

She was wearing jeans
and a simple beige sleeveless blouse that snapped up the front, but damn did
she wear it well. Her dark hair was shining as usual, and her blue eyes had a
warm glow that he couldn’t help but hope was left over from their kiss.

“Hi guys.”

“Hi Sophie,” Mac said.
The poor guy looked like a nervous wreck. Drake felt bad, but he had to keep
reminding himself that this was good for him. He needed to get out and
socialize.

“Hi Sophie,” he said
himself. He wondered if he should kiss her cheek. He did that with Brooke all
the time … would she be okay with that?

“Is Mom in the
kitchen?”

“Here I am.” Brenda
came out, mouthwatering smells wafting out with her. “You can all come into the
dining room now,” she said. “It’s all ready.”

Sophie went first, and Drake
helped his uncle through the doorway. He parked Mac in the spot where Brenda
had kindly cleared the chair out of the way, and then he took a seat next to
him. He wished that he didn’t feel so nervous all of a sudden. Brenda passed
the food around to her right, and once again Drake noticed Mac stealing glances
at her.

When everyone had their
plates filled, Mac said, “This place is really starting to look good.”

“Thank you,” Sophie
said. “It’s mostly thanks to your nephew.”

Drake warmed at the
compliment. “Right, because I’m the one who works sixteen hours every day
around here.”

Sophie shrugged. “What
I do is mostly behind the scenes. The inn is looking really good thanks to your
hard work.”

“So you’re thinking
you’ll have it ready by the Harvest Festival?” Mac asked. Drake hadn’t told him
anything about how stressed Sophie had been, so he had no idea of the can of
worms he was potentially opening. Brenda did, however.

“We’re sure it will be
ready,” she said with a smile. “Sophie tells me you’re quite the artist.”

Mac’s face actually
turned red. Drake was having fun watching him; he’d never seen his uncle with a
crush. “I like to make things out of wood,” he said. “I’m not so sure it
qualifies as being an artist.”

“Well, the way Sophie
was going on, I’m sure you’re just being modest,” Brenda said. “I’m looking
forward to seeing some of your work.”

Mac thanked her and
then took a long drink of his water. Drake glanced over at Sophie. Her pretty
blue eyes were trained on his face and he needed his own long, cold drink of
water—possibly followed by a long, cold shower. He smiled at her, and she
smiled back. He wondered if there was any way he could get her alone tonight … just
for one more kiss.

“Did the realtor tell
you the history of this old place?” Mac asked Sophie. Drake gave him a look,
trying to stop him, but he forged on ahead.

“Not really … does it
have a history other than being a bed and breakfast?”

“It actually has quite
a colorful history—”

“Uncle Mac, I’m not so
sure—” Drake tried.

“I want to hear it,”
Sophie said.

Mac smiled at his
nephew and then looked at Sophie and said, “This house was built in 1915, but
on the foundation of the one that was here before. That house was built in 1790
for the man who actually founded Brook Haven.”

“Wow,” Sophie said,
looking fascinated. “I wonder why she didn’t tell me that.”

“She was probably
worried you’d run off like all the other interested buyers—”

“Uncle Mac! I just
don’t think this is appropriate dinner conversation,” he said with his eyes
still on his uncle. Mac looked amused. Sophie could tell that he was having
fun. Drake said he didn’t get out often; he shouldn’t be denied a few minutes
in the spotlight.

“I want to hear it,”
Sophie said.

“Okay, but don’t say I
didn’t warn you,” Drake told her.

She ignored him and
said, “Go ahead, Mac.”

“Well, the original
house was built for a wealthy man who came over from Wales in the early 1700s.
He made his wealth in Europe by ‘questionable’ means, the legend goes. What those
‘questionable’ means were has to be up to the imagination, I suppose. When he
arrived here, he invested in shipping businesses all along the East Coast. One
of the biggest commodities shipped via the businesses he owned … were humans.”

Brenda sucked in a
breath. “Slaves?” she asked.

“Slaves, yes … but also
women. The story is that he brought women over to fill the brothels.”

“No! Was this a
brothel?” Sophie asked. Drake rolled his eyes and slowly chewed his food while
his uncle continued his tale. It was apparent Drake had heard it all before.
 

“No, it was his private
home. But he did marry one of those women. She had three children and then she
vanished mysteriously.”

“Was she ever found?”

“Not right away,” he
said.

“What happened to the
children?”

“They continued to live
here with their father and his next wife, until she disappeared … and then the
one after that …”

“Uncle Mac—”

“What?” he asked his
nephew with a laugh and a twinkle in his eyes. “It’s a true story.”