the prettiest. I don’t even know why I like them, though, so don’t ask,” she said with a laugh as Mark leaned forward.
“If you like them, you don’t need a reason why.” Mark nodded, though, as he peered at them more closely before tapping one. “This is a really good design for around here. I like the great room with the fireplace. It would be cozy on cold nights but open enough to have lots of family visit.”
Laurel was too curious to stay away. She moved in to look the design over. “Oh, that is pretty.” She laughed. “Want to know where I think you should build it?”
Dana glanced at her in surprise. “You’re going to offer advice on building sites?”
“Why not? If it’s all imaginary.” She smiled, attempting to make up for her earlier downhearted attitude. Not their fault that she was grumpy. “I’ll take you after lunch.”
Which is how she found herself a third wheel to her mother-in-law and Mark, guiding him up a narrow dirt road off the secondary road between Angel land and his own.
He paused the truck at a gate, and Laurel hurried to open it. “Not too much farther,” she assured him.
When they were through and she’d closed the gate behind them and rejoined them in the truck, Dana leaned over the seat to look into the back of the crew cab. “What on earth were you doing up here?”
Laurel hesitated. She and Rafe had discovered the spot two summers ago and had been using it ever since to enjoy privacy to fool around. Which meant there was no way she could answer without her cheeks going red, either from telling the truth or lying.
“Oh, look, that’s where I want to show you. Just to the left,” she ordered, ignoring the question.
Mark pulled to a stop and stared over the land in amazement. “I had forgotten there was a rise this high on the parcel.”
“Wow.” Dana was out the door, Laurel hard on her heels. Together they walked to the level place, a slight rise at their backs.
It really was an amazing spot. Laurel gestured to the west. “Can you imagine that view every morning while you’re drinking coffee?”
Dana slipped an arm around her waist. “It’s almost the same view as at home, but wow, elevation makes a huge difference.”
“The driveway would be a little bit of an adventure in the winter,” Mark said with a grin even as he joined them, shaking his head slightly. “But you’re right. This is an amazing location.”
Uncle Mark’s land spread before them all the way to the foothills. If Laurel twisted to the right, she could spot the Angel property, and just at the eastern edge, a thin trail of smoke rose from Gabe and Allison’s home. Farther to the right lay Whiskey Creek, with its rolling landscape, a herd of horses even now appearing over the top of one hill. Straight to the east was Moonshine land, mature trees visible along the meandering river, but the rest of it was pasture and crops.
“Well, this is pretty much perfect,” Mark said, sneaking a hand onto her shoulder to squeeze lightly. “Thank you.”
“It’s your land,” she said. “You would have found it eventually.”
Dana laughed, a hand extended farther to the south. “Look.”
They joined her, and Laurel suddenly realized that the entire side of the hill to the south of where they stood was covered in bushes, some of them big enough to be called trees. “Are those all wild roses?”
Her mother-in-law nodded happily. “I adore wild roses.”
Dana wandered along a deer trail, happiness written all over her face as she examined the bushes. Sunshine danced over her, the gentle wind lifting her hair and making golden highlights dance.
Laurel was close enough to Uncle Mark to hear his sudden intake of breath.
She turned to him and spoke softly. “You okay?”
He’d been staring at Dana. He turned slowly back toward Laurel, his eyes full of longing, but he twisted his lips into a smile and nodded briskly. When he spoke, it was a secret, shared just with Laurel. “I would do anything to make her happy.”
His heart in the words. Truth. Laurel felt it to the core of her being.
Dana laughed again, and this time as she turned, her eyes met Mark’s and something new was there. Laurel felt less in the way and more honoured at having witnessed something so pure and sweet and right.
But continuing to eavesdrop wasn’t on her agenda. No lingering, not now. Fortunately, the perfect