Sweet Laurel Falls by RaeAnne Thayne

Author:RaeAnne Thayne
Language: eng
Format: mobi, pdf, epub
Tags: Romance, Contemporary, Fiction
ISBN: 9780373776702
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2012-09-24T21:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER ELEVEN

MAURA FOUND IT FASCINATING to watch Jack work. Watching Sage take in everything Jack did with big eyes and an eager expression was even more so. Sage followed him like Puck followed her at home, writing down measurements and snapping pictures where he directed her.

Her mother used to talk about how, when her older twin sisters were learning to talk, they shared a language between them that only they seemed to understand. By the time Maura came along a few years later, her sisters had mostly outgrown it, but she could still remember they called juice juba for a long time and couldn’t eat a pancake for years without calling it cakee.

As she watched Jack and Sage discuss the site, she imagined this was how her mother had felt watching her toddler daughters play—a little on the outside of their private communication and not quite sure how she fit in.

“Where is the north boundary?” Sage asked.

“Just there at the ridgeline, but beyond that it’s abutted by Forest Service land,” he answered. “With proper covenants and usage permits, we could possibly utilize that for a network of trails.”

They were so alike, it was almost painful to watch them together, especially knowing she had kept them apart all these years.

“How big is the original property?” Sage asked.

“Three hundred acres, give or take an acre or two. It runs from the streambed on the west to that fence line on the east, then from the road to the ridgeline.”

Maura looked at the dimension of the lot, set perfectly in the trees and with a stirring view of the ski resort, farther up the canyon. “And Harry’s just giving it to the town?”

“As far as I understand. But don’t believe for a moment he’s doing this out of the goodness of his heart. He doesn’t have one, remember? I’m sure he’s looking for some kind of tax break.”

“Still. This is a prime building lot, don’t you think? Whatever tax break he might receive, he could probably make twenty times that by building condominiums here.”

“No doubt he has a hundred tangled ulterior motives. If memory serves, he always did. Harry’s reasons don’t really matter to me, frankly. My job, if I win the contract, is to design a recreation center that meets the myriad needs of the community.”

From what little she had seen, especially that look of naked longing she had spied in the old man’s eyes just before Harry fell in the bookstore, she couldn’t help wondering if most of Harry Lange’s motivations had to do with the man standing in front of her.

“Now that you’ve had a good look at the site, you’re welcome to wait in the warm car. No need to freeze your feet off out here in the mud while we finish surveying.” Jack must have clued in that she was feeling a little excluded by all the lingo he and Sage were throwing back and forth.

The idea of a heater was not without merit, but she could see a freshly groomed snowmobile trail that snaked off through the trees.

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