he clenched his jaw any tighter, it would shatter.
“I’m sorry for the inconvenience…” he began.
“It’s more than inconvenient.”
The woman stood turned away from him, staring out the windows of the small living room that fronted on the lake. She was so slender that from this angle she didn’t even appear to be expecting. Irrationally, he found that made it easier to deal with her.
“I do apologize.” He tried to express a warmth he didn’t feel.
Get the woman out—that was what he had to do right now. No others were rented. Then he could shut the cottages and persuade his father to close the lodge early for the winter. Maybe by spring he’d have been able to convince his stubborn father that a man who’d narrowly survived one heart attack shouldn’t court another by refusing to retire.
Ms. Morgan turned toward him, and for a moment her figure was silhouetted against the windows, her hands pressed against her stomach.
The image hit him like a blow. He saw Linda standing in front of those same windows, head thrown back in laughter as she pressed her hands to her swelling belly.
No. He fought the grief that threatened to overwhelm him. This woman was nothing like Linda. Linda had been gentleness and warmth. This woman was all chilly, sharp edges. He wouldn’t let her remind him.
He forced himself to concentrate on her words, shutting out everything else.
“As I said, it’s not a question of inconvenience. We have an agreement.” Even her smile had an edge to it. “I don’t intend to leave.”
“An agreement?” He lifted his brows. “I don’t recall signing a lease with you, Ms. Morgan.”
She didn’t look intimidated.
“There’s no need for a formal lease in this situation. The person who was operating as your agent checked me in and gave me the keys to this cottage. In my opinion, we have a legally binding agreement.”
He suspected his eyebrows went even higher. “You’re an attorney.”
She wasn’t just a nuisance. She was an intelligent nuisance who wouldn’t let him gain the slightest advantage.
“As a matter of fact, I am.”
He glanced at the address on the registration card in his hand.
“What’s a Philadelphia lawyer doing in a place like Lakemont in October?”
Pregnant. And alone, obviously, in spite of the gold band and large matching diamond on her left hand.
“I’m sure Sloane Lodge gets its share of tourists who come to admire the autumn leaves, doesn’t it?” She put that hand up to push back a lock of auburn hair that had strayed onto her cheek.
“Leaf peepers generally come on the weekends. And if you’ll forgive my saying so, you don’t look the type.”
She certainly didn’t fit his idea of the kind of person who’d settle down in a rustic cottage on a smallish lake in the Pocono Mountains to watch the leaves change colors. Every inch of her, from the burnished auburn hair to the black outfit to the expensive and impractical shoes, shrieked urban professional.
She shrugged. “Let’s say I’m looking for quiet and let it go at that.”
Too bad he couldn’t import a few bulldozers to increase the decibel level.
“Look, Ms. Morgan, surely we can resolve this in a way that suits both of us.”
“As far as I’m concerned, this is resolved.”
He tried not to look around at the cottage that was only too familiar to him—living room and kitchen downstairs, with a deck over the lake. Two bedrooms and a bath up the narrow stairs, still decorated in the casual country charm Linda had insisted upon.
And he’d certainly better not think about the master bedroom, with its quilt-covered king-size bed situated to give a view out over the lake immediately on waking.
“This place is too isolated for a pregnant woman alone.” The words were like poison on his tongue, and a fierce anger rose in him that she’d pushed him into saying them. “You ought to have someone around.”
Her face tightened, the skin drawing bleakly against her high cheekbones. “Frankly, whether I’m alone or not is none of your business. And if you try to evict me because I’m pregnant, you’ll be borrowing more trouble than you’ll know what to do with.”
He’d gone too far, obviously. He tried to tamp down his emotions. “I’m not saying anything of the kind. I’m just asking that you be reasonable.”
“Reasonable?” Lightning seemed to spark from her eyes.
His choice of words had been a mistake. He raised his hands, palms outward. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. I’d just like to persuade you that you’d be more comfortable elsewhere.”
“I’m perfectly comfortable.” She rubbed her arms on the sleeves of the loose black sweater she wore, as if chilled, then nodded toward the still-open door. “I am, however, a little tired of this conversation. So if you don’t mind…”
Short of removing the woman bodily, he didn’t have many options. It was clearly time to beat a strategic retreat. He nodded with as much grace as he could muster and went to the door.
He paused once he reached the porch. “We’ll talk again later.”
“I won’t have changed my mind.” The door snapped shut behind him.
He took the two steps off the porch and started down the lane toward the lodge. At least he could breathe again, once he was away from the cottage.
Ms. Susannah Morgan clearly thought she’d won that round. He grimaced. Well, maybe she had.
But that didn’t mean he was giving up. For a lot of reasons, he wouldn’t be satisfied until he’d convinced Susannah Morgan that she didn’t belong here.
Several hours had passed, and Susannah still wasn’t sure why she’d reacted so vehemently to Nathan Sloane’s presence earlier. She closed the cottage door and stood on the porch for a moment, struggling to zip her jacket.
You’re getting bigger, little one. She smoothed her hand over the rounded bulge. I just wish…
What did she wish? That she’d taken Sloane’s offer and moved into the lodge, putting off an argument until another day?
There was no real reason she couldn’t move into the main building. Her reason for being here required that she stay at Sloane Lodge, but not necessarily in the cottage.
Still, when she’d walked into the cottage, tired and stressed from the trip, a sense of peace had come over her. She’d moved slowly around the small rooms, letting the feeling seep into her very bones, feeling a comfort she hadn’t felt in a long time. She didn’t want to give that up for Nathan Sloane’s arbitrary decision.
She
