Page 13 of Moonshine and Magnolias (Just Add Peaches #1)

“Good morning, Dr. Upshaw. Breakfast should be ready inside.” Words tripped over themselves getting out of her mouth but she couldn’t calm the flow.

Her fingers gripped her hair. “Aunt Eulalee is making bacon. So you better hurry. I would let you cut through the kitchen, but there are health regulations to consider.”

He frowned and looked her over instead of leaving her in peace. “Have you eaten? You’re looking peaked, Boss.”

She pressed her lips together in a tight smile and summoned her reserves to keep her tone level. “I’m fine.”

Lines appeared in the furrow between Rob’s eyes. “I’ve seen you relaxed. I’ve seen you all business. And I’ve seen you fine. This isn’t it.”

That was too close to home. How could he know her so well in less than a week?

Better than her family, even. They hadn’t seen under her mask since she realized she’d never get anything she wanted unless she approached each situation from a logical standpoint.

Now even that walled fortress seemed to be deserting her.

“Breakfast, Dr. Upshaw.” She pointed toward the Hall. “Bacon.”

“Very useful to both sides during the Civil War, both the grease and the meat. You’re right, I don’t want to miss this rare opportunity to eat a meat readily available in any grocery store.

” He took a few steps away, then turned back, his hazel eyes warm and soft.

“If you were ever not fine, Wendy, you don’t have to hide it from me. ”

Hearing her first name from his lips left behind little tingles that went through her nervous system.

She held still until he retreated, though her body screamed at her to touch, to take.

How lovely it would be to go with her heart.

But no matter how much she had revealed to him already, he was at the Hall only for a job and would be leaving when it was over.

It wasn’t worth destroying her years of hiding to let him in even more.

She stiffened her back and smoothed her skirt before returning to the kitchen, making sure her face conveyed nothing of Rob getting under her skin.

Aunt Eulalee’s observant eyes examined her and Wendy returned a bland look. “Can you refill the chafing dish, honey?” She handed Wendy a frying pan full of eggs.

“Of course.” She took the long way out of the kitchen to spy out the pass- through window.

Only one guest, a grandmother visiting her family, sat at the table.

There was no sign of the brothers or the two men from last night.

If she was fast, she could have the pan emptied before Dr. Upshaw returned.

She had almost finished her task when the floor creaked down the hall. Wendy’s pulse bounced, and she looked to the doorway before she could stop herself. But it was Hal who rushed in, nearly knocking her over since his attention was pinpointed on the silver urn on the sideboard.

He said nothing, only poured a cup of steaming coffee.

Without waiting for it to cool, he closed his eyes and drank like a man getting a fix.

His arms loosened, his spine relaxed. When he was finished, he refilled his cup, then turned and faced her, a self-deprecating grin on his face. “Yes, I know. Good morning.”

“Wow,” said Wendy. “That was… impressive. Is the coffee maker in your suite broken?” Another thing for her to-do list.

“Not fast enough.” Hal took a plate and served himself some eggs. “Rob forgot to start it before heading out for a run.”

As if saying his name had summoned him, Dr. Upshaw dashed in, still in his gym clothes, panting like he’d vaulted down the stairs and sprinted to the dining room.

He took one look at Hal using tongs on a biscuit and raked his gaze to Wendy and the guest. “Was anyone standing between him and the coffee? Did he hurt anyone? Any property damage?”

“Calm down, big brother. I’m not a monster like you think.”

“You know, admitting it is the first step to recovery.” He patted Hal’s arm like he was a small child, then dodged the ensuing elbow his brother aimed at his face.

“Ms. Marsh.” Dr. Upshaw got his own mug, then fixed his eyes on her. They were full of promise. “Maybe we can go over the tour together later.”

The man didn’t quit, did he? Unwanted heat spread over her body. “Since Brandi is the one that hired you, she’ll go over it with you. I believe she’ll have time open after ten.” And once he had fallen under her cousin’s charm, Wendy wouldn’t have to see that naked desire aimed at her again.

Her cousin’s face appeared in the pass-through window over the sideboard. “ What am I doing?”

“Helping your new employee with the tour.”

Dr. Upshaw’s eyes sparked with heated challenge, causing a fluttering of pleasure low in her belly. “Coward,” he mouthed, where only Wendy could see.

***

Rob used his knee to slide the library door into its pocket, then stepped back with the heavy archival storage box of books and let Miss Eulalee enter the room before him.

Wendy’s reaction to his taunt had been worth the chance he took in issuing it.

Her eyes had narrowed, but naked hunger lay behind her cool facade.

It hadn’t stopped her from foisting Brandi on him, but that had been part of the self-defense he was trying to dismantle.

He had told his brother the flirting was to get her to loosen up so she wouldn’t be so guarded around him, maybe sharing secrets she wouldn’t have thought to tell him otherwise.

That was a lie, but it kept Hal off his back.

It didn’t solve Rob’s problem. He liked this woman.

If she discovered the truth before he told her, she’d never trust him enough to let him in.

Hal followed him into the room holding another box. He took up a position next to the shelves after he put it down.

“Whew.” The older woman settled gracefully onto the brown sofa and tucked her green flowered dress under her knees. She fanned herself with one hand. “I definitely don’t mind a handsome young man doing manual labor for me.”

Rob put the box on the cushion next to her. “Happy to do it, ma’am.”

“Draw down the curtains, honey, will you? It’s better for the books. Just halfway,” she told Hal. “This will be quite an undertaking. Are you sure you want to do it?”

Digging through yellowed, crumbling newspapers and reading dust-covered journals had become a burdensome rite of passage in his family, but it also appealed to the historian in him.

He just wished the pursuit was solely academic.

At least this time he and Hal were in the air-conditioned insides a centuries-old home and not in a humid swamp running from wildlife with blades for teeth.

“Yes, ma’am,” Rob answered. “When the tour outline mentioned some sites and information were based on old journals, I knew we had to study them.” Even if he’d rather take Wendy’s hand and find out what had upset her so much this morning.

She waved to the glass-protected shelves behind them. “We keep cloth gloves over there.”

Hal retrieved the box. Eulalee slipped on the gloves and pulled them tight against her fingers, taking everything slow in her, sweet, Southern manner.

The container Hal brought in contained the registries from years past. “Wendy said you wanted to look at the guest books.”

Rob leaned forward to see the row of identical white books. “Yes, thank you.”

“They’re stored chronologically, so hopefully what you’re looking for will be easy to find.” Eulalee put the cover back on and shifted it away, then patted the lid of the other box. “And these are the journals.”

“Do you know who wrote them?” Hal’s voice tinged with impatience. Rob shot him a warning look.

“Well, let’s see.” She handed Rob a pair of gloves, then removed the cover and something that resembled a pale yellow pillow with a flat surface in the middle.

Inside were many smaller boxes, designed to keep the humidity at bay, labeled with names and dates.

It made the history geek in him glow, that someone had stored the Clayton family history correctly instead of haphazardly throwing it into a dank attic.

Eulalee placed the pillow on the table in front of her, then read the side of a smaller box.

“This one belonged to Caroline Clayton, my grandfather’s sister.

Never married, and lived at Fountenoy Hall her whole life.

” The woman rubbed the front of the container with her glove-covered fingers.

“She was famous for everything pink. Pink parasols, pink hats. Pink ribbons for her hair. Oh, and the pink lipstick. Always the pink lipstick. She has the same eye colors as Brandi. In fact, Brandi looks a lot like her. ”

She lifted the lid. Inside was a diary bound in faded pale-pink leather, which she placed on the padded surface.

Rob sat down and gave a grunt of curiosity when she shifted the cushion toward him.

As a woman who knew the Hall as intimately as Caroline must have, she would have been privy to the more subtle nuances of their guests.

Maybe she had met his uncle. He opened the book cover, but his attention shifted when Eulalee opened another box to reveal a dark brown journal.

Compared to the delicate look of Caroline’s diary, that one had probably had been owned by a male, though it didn’t match his uncle’s.

Behind him, Hal leaned in for a closer look.

“This one belonged to my grandfather, Isaac Clayton.” She pointed to the large portrait over the fireplace.

“That’s him. This was his favorite room after his father renovated Fountenoy Hall from a boarding house to an inn, and he was the one who did most of the modernizations.

Did you know the ballroom used to be on the second floor instead of on the first? ”

Rob had, in fact, known that from the tour information, but he was more interested in what Ms. Eulalee held than an architectural lesson. “He must have been a smart man.”