“I know. She wished for twins.”
Gemma sat down at the kitchen table, the baby held firmly to her. “Boy or girl?”
“Two boys. Mike said he’s already ordered martial arts gear for them.”
“How is he?”
“Excited. Bewildered. Scared out of his mind.”
“I wish—” Gemma began, then swallowed. “I mean, I hope that they come back here and live.”
“Me too, but Mike has a couple more years to go before he can retire. Now that his friend Frank is going to be living here, he really wants to be here too.” Joce looked at Gemma. “You don’t think there really is anything to this Heartwishes Stone, do you?”
“No, of course not,” Gemma said, but she didn’t sound convincing. She glanced at the wall clock. It was five-forty-five. “I have to go. I have a date with Tris at six.”
“Date? But Colin—?”
“Not that kind of date,” Gemma said. “A date to gain information.” She put the baby in her high chair and kissed her.
“Let me know what you find out,” Joce called as Gemma ran to the front door. “And I’ll never be able to thank you enough for today. I feel like a new woman.”
In his office, Tris greeted Gemma warmly, his hands on her shoulders as he kissed her cheek. He was wearing his white doctor’s coat and looked very professional.
Four women were there, all of them looking at her in speculation—and as though they were ready to fight to protect Tristan.
He led her back to his office and closed the door behind her.
“Are they your harem?”
“Pretty much,” he said as he took off his white coat. “At least they think they are. And besides, they think you’re stepping out on Colin.”
“Or are they angry that I’m going out with you?”
Tris chuckled. “Would you like to go to my house for dinner? I have a refrigerator full of food.”
“I’d love to,” she said.
As they left his office, she couldn’t help being glad when Tris told the women who worked for him that if he was needed, he’d be at home. “With Gemma,” he added.
When they were outside, she said, “This is going to be all over town.” Somehow, that didn’t bother her. “Should I follow you in my car?”
“Sure,” he said as he got out his keys.
As Gemma followed Tristan in her car, she couldn’t help but be curious about where he lived. They went down a road she’d never seen before that seemed to go into the nature preserve that surrounded Edilean. They left the paved road and turned onto gravel, but when she still didn’t see a house, she began to wonder if he lived in a tent on vacant land. There was another turn, then they came to cattle bars, and he drove over them.
To her left, through the thickly wooded area around them, she saw a sparkling blue lake with ducks swimming about. Ahead of her was the house. It wasn’t large, but it was lovely. Better yet, it was in an idyllic setting, with the lake directly in front of it.
She stopped behind Tris and got out of her car. It was wonderfully quiet, with only the sound of birds and the wind in the trees. “This is gorgeous,” she said. “Have you lived here long?”
“All my life, and my dad grew up here too. It’s called the Aldredge House and part of it is old. Not old by Edilean standards, no eighteenth century, but it was built in the 1840s.”
“For that time period, shouldn’t it be a modified Colonial?”
“I think it was, but generations of Aldredges changed it.”
She walked toward the lake to look up at the house. It was two stories, with windows all along the front, and she saw a chimney above the roofline. She could imagine sitting by a fire on snowy days. On the far left was a low-roofed room that seemed to be all glass. “Is that a conservatory?”
“Yes,” Tris said. “My ancestor who built the house was a master gardener.”