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“That’s terrific. On special occasions at the inn, we dress up,” Maisie said. “My sister and I will have to check out your website.”

“I’ll give you my business card when we drop Robert off at the manor house.”

“I would go with the two of you, but I want to check on the installation of all the appliances,” Robert said.

“I’ll drop by after I leave Maisie at her car. I want to see how they look,” Edeen said as she pulled up at Robert’s house. It was a beautiful home covered in ancient-looking stone, andright next door, a vet clinic had been built that had the same period look with large windows, a door with a sign overhead that said, “Cat Entrance,” and on the other side of the building, “Dog Entrance.” She thought that was cute, though maybe also necessary.

“It was nice meeting you, Maisie, though it would have been nicer if we’d met under better circumstances,” Robert said.

“Oh, our meeting that way was remarkable and memorable.”

He smiled at her, looking appreciative that she didn’t think being around him had been a complete disaster. Then he frowned. “Remember what I said about you having any trouble at all from the boat hitting you in the head.”

“Right. I’ll call you.” But of course Maisie didn’t have his number.

“I’ll write his number down for you on my business card so you can put it on your phone, but since he lost his phone in the ocean, you can call me if you need to see him,” Edeen said.

“He says he makes house calls,” Maisie said.

Edeen looked at her brother, and from Edeen’s expression, Maisie assumed that he was making an exception in Maisie’s case. Though she figured in cases of livestock, Robert would have to visit the farms.

Robert smiled, then said goodbye to Maisie and headed into his house.

As soon as they drove off the property, Edeen asked Maisie, “So whatreallyhappened between the two of you onthe water? I know you said you were swimming and his boat capsized, but—”

When Maisie just smiled at her, Edeen laughed. “Okay, you don’t have to tell on my brother, but I can guess: he hooked you with his fishhook. That’s why he needed the first aid kit and other tools. Then the rogue wave hit, the boat flipped, and your fate and his were sealed. You were doomed to make the trip together, swimming to the shore around the cliffs.”

“I didn’t tell you any of this.” Maisie was surprised at how his sister had guessed exactly what had happened.

“You didn’t need to. My brother won’t care if anyone knows the truth, but I’m sure he didn’t want to say anything about it in caseyouwere bothered by what had happened and didn’t want to tell the whole story. Don’t worry. I won’t be telling anyone, though I’m sure I’ll say something to my brother about it.”

Maisie laughed. “All right. Yes. That’s what happened. I just didn’t want him to feel any more guilty about it than he already did. The thing of it is, anyone, someone who has been fishing for years even, can hook themselves or someone else. I, um, caught my sister once. She wasn’t happy about it. I had to take her to the doctor because I didn’t have a clue how to proceed at the time.”

“Och, I bet she was upset.”

“Aye, but we’re still best of friends.”

They finally reached Maisie’s car, and she loaded her diving gear into it. Edeen fished out a business card from her purse and handed it to Maisie. Then they said goodbye.

Maisie got into her car and immediately put Robert’s and Edeen’s phone number in her phone and drove home to the inn.

“Hey, you’re home. That took you a while.” Anne started making some tea for her as Maisie headed to the bedroom to change her clothes.

“Yeah, you don’t know the half of it.”

Anne set the mugs on the table. “Everyone who was staying at the inn has left to explore the area. So you can sit and tell me just what happened.”

“Sitting down is a very good idea.”

Then Maisie and her sister had tea at the dining table, and Maisie proceeded to tell her sister just what had happened.

Chapter 3

Because Robert wanted his place to be in keeping with the period of Edeen and Lachlan’s manor house, he had his home constructed in a similar design on the outside—same kind of old stone, same kind of roofing materials, but he had a double front door with large iron knockers. His house didn’t have two separate living areas like Edeen’s, but its four bedrooms had en suite bathrooms, so if he ever did want to rent out the rooms, he could without jeopardizing privacy too much. He didn’t plan to rent them out though. He figured that, instead, someday he would mate with a she-wolf and fill the house with their children. He was glad Edeen was having her children first so he would have time to practice babysitting hers. Which made him think of the beautiful she-wolf in the ocean.

He kept thinking about catching Maisie with his hook. He had been trying to figure out a way to make it up to her. Once she’d removed her wet suit hood, her dark-brown hair had cascaded down to her shoulders. Beautiful hair to match her beautiful blue eyes.

He walked into his house and found all the applianceshad been installed.