“I just think you should be careful, and don’t jump into anything too fast. We all saw what happened the last time you fell in love. Seems to me you’d be better off taking things slow, especially with a man built like that one. He could snap you in two with his bare hands.”
Mia sat up straighter, surprised to feel anger, not shame, building inside her. “Sawyer is nothing like Paul. He’s a good, honest man, an amazing person, and he’s done nothing to deserve being talked about like he’s a monster. Hire him or don’t hire him, it’s up to you, but be nice. And be fair. Sawyer deserves that much.”
Something sparked in Gram’s eyes, but instead of the fight Mia was expecting, Gram only nodded, folded the budget paperwork, and tucked it under her arm. “All right, then. That’s good enough for me.” She looked up, staring at something over Mia’s shoulder. “You’re hired, Mr. Kane. But you should know raising this kind of money is going to be a full time job for everyone in this family.”
Mia turned, her cheeks heating again when she saw Sawyer shutting the living room door behind him and stepping out onto the porch, an unreadable expression in his eyes. They’d said their share of sweet things to each other the past week, but usually while they were naked, and never in front of other people. The fact that he’d heard her singing his praises to her gram was embarrassing, but not as embarrassing as the next words that came out of Gram’s mouth.
“You’re going to have to work hard to fit in time for hanky-panky with my granddaughter, because I’m putting Mia in charge of the fundraising committee.” Gram leaned over the swing to kiss Mia’s head before she headed toward the door. “Start thinking big money, Amelia Louise. I expect another fifty grand in the restoration fund before August first.”
Mia’s eyes bulged. “Fifty grand? Gram, I—”
“Make it work,” Gram said, breezing away with a wave of her hand. “You’re the one who went to business school. I’ll raise my fifty grand through the usual sources, so think outside the box, sugar. You’ll need more than a DAR luncheon for this one.”
Gram disappeared into the house, patting Sawyer almost affectionately on the arm as she slipped through the door behind him. Mia wasn’t sure which was more jarring—being told she was in charge of raising fifty-thousand dollars in less than two months, or seeing her gram actually approving of someone Mia was dating. That hadn’t happened since—
“Ever,” Mia said aloud, shaking her head numbly as Sawyer eased onto the swing beside her.
“What’s that?” Sawyer rested a hand on her knee with an easy familiarity that banished her moment of nerves. Obviously Sawyer was pleased that she’d stood up for him, and excited to be staying in Lonesome Point if the sparkle in his hazel eyes was anything to judge by.
Mia sighed and scooted closer to Sawyer, not caring that it was too hot outside for snuggling. “I just realized—Gram’s never liked any of my boyfriends. Not that I had that many growing up, but the few I did bring home, she didn’t care for.”
Sawyer grinned. “I guess she knows quality when she sees it.”
Mia laughed. “We’ll see. If I don’t get an invite to brunch tomorrow, we’ll know you’ve won her over for real.”
He lifted a quizzical brow, and tipped his Stetson further back on his head.
“Every time she met one of my old boyfriends, she’d take me out for brunch the next day,” Mia explained. “Inevitably, the conversation came around to the Sherman Family Curse, and why it was a good idea to keep my distance from arrogant young men and, it was inferred, probably men in general.”
Sawyer’s smile slipped. “Speaking of curses, I was doing some reading after you went to bed last night. I thought I’d see if Amelia made any mention of the curse in her journals.”
“Oh?” Mia asked, throat suddenly tight.
She shouldn’t have mentioned the stupid curse, not even in a joking way. She and Sawyer had discussed a lot of personal stuff, but so far, Mia had managed to steer clear of two major topics—how things had ended with Paul, and how much stock she put in the Sherman Family Curse. The first, she simply wasn’t ready to revisit. She was having too much fun with Sawyer to ruin even a moment of their time together talking about a man she wanted to forget. The second, she didn’t want to face, or to admit to Sawyer that a tiny part of her—okay, maybe a bigger than tiny part—did believe in the curse. It believed in it so much she wasn’t sure she’d ever muster up the courage to get married. Even if there was a fraction of a chance that the legend was real, that was too much to risk the life of a man she loved enough to marry.
The thought of say, Sawyer, for example,dying on their wedding nightbecause he was crazy enough to want to marry her, made her stomach feel like it was stuffed full of the old-fashioned cannon balls piled in a pyramid near the entrance to Old Town.
“Well, did you find anything?” she asked, forcing a smile.
Sawyer frowned. “I did, but not until after Rupert died. A few entries after she found him dead in their bedroom, she started talking about the curse, and how it must have followed her family over from Ireland. I thought that was…kind of strange.”
Mia shrugged. “I don’t know, I mean, maybe she’d thought it was an old wives’ tale or something. Like Big Foot, or say…a hymen.”
Sawyer chuckled and threaded his fingers through hers, but she could tell by the look in his eye that he wasn’t ready to let the subject drop. Considering they’d only known each other two weeks, Mia was getting pretty damned good at reading his expressions.
“Maybe,” he said. “But look at how much you think about this curse, and you’re a modern woman who’s been raised not to believe in that kind of thing. I know your gram likes to mess with you, but your mom and dad obviously don’t believe in fairy curses following their family over from the old country.”
Mia shrugged again, less enthusiastically. “I don’t think about itthatmuch, but I guess I get what you’re saying.”
She wouldn’t agree that Gram was “just messing” with her, but it was true that her parents thought the legend was ridiculous and embarrassing. But then, her dad thought most things that didn’t have to do with hunting, guns, baseball, or grilling large quantities of meat were ridiculous. He had a habit of making out with his wife in public, and got choked up when he stood for the National Anthem at baseball games, but that was the limit on his tolerance for embarrassing behavior.
If her dad knew that Mia even half-believed in the legend, he’d ground her for a month, even if she was twenty-five years old and no longer living in his house. Mia enjoyed a greater degree of her father’s benevolence because she was the baby of the family, and a girl—he saved his hardcore parenting for Mia’s brother, Pike—but she knew better than to flaunt her superstitious side in front of Jim Sherman.
“So I think a girl who’d lived in Ireland until she was ten years old would have fairy curses even more on her mind, especially in the days before she was married,” Sawyer continued, his thumb smoothing idly back and forth across the back of Mia’s hand, making it difficult to keep her mind on anything but how much she wanted to be alone with him.
Dinner with her parents had been fun—Mom and Dad both liked Sawyer, and Sawyer had warmed immediately to everyone, even Gram—but there were more interesting ways to spend a Friday night than sitting on her parents’ porch swing, and Mia was past ready to take this conversation to the bedroom. Or, better yet, to forget the conversation, and go straight to the making out like the world was about to end.
“Are you ready to go?” Mia turned to Sawyer, draping her legs suggestively over his thighs. “Because I don’t know about you, but I’ve had about enough quality family time for one night.”