His Answered Prayer

Please help me, she prayed desperately. I never thought I’d see him again. I thought You would lead me to someone else. I don’t want this!

“Blair? What are you doing? Open your eyes!” His hand on her arm helped wake her to the fact that her reality had changed. The peace she’d always found in this valley was shattered, shifted into something ominous that could turn on her if she wasn’t careful.

Blair jerked her arm out of his grasp and whirled away, anxious to put as much distance between them as possible.

“I’m fine. There’s nothing for you here, Gabriel Sloan. Nothing! This is my family’s land. I’d like you to leave.”

He stayed where he was, saying nothing. And when Blair couldn’t take his silence for one moment longer, she headed for her truck.

“Blair?”

His softly voiced request made her stop in her tracks.

“It’s my land now. At least part of it is. I did buy it. Free and clear. No encumbrances.”

She shouldn’t be surprised. It was the way he’d always preferred to live—never let anyone get too close. The words pricked a nerve in her mind. Blair whirled, her forehead wrinkled in a frown. He sounded so positive of his right to be here.

“Not possible, Gabriel. You must have the wrong place. This particular quarter section is my grandfather’s. He’s had it in his family for years. He’s willing it to me when he dies.”

Gabe seemed unabashed by her assurance. He simply shrugged, then pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket.

As he read the legal description to one of the three quarters Mac owned, Blair felt the bottom tilt out of her world.

“No.” She shook her head stubbornly. “Someone has made a mistake.”

“Perhaps you?” His mouth tilted in a questioning quirk. Blair took the document and scanned it, her eyes halting abruptly when they fell on the signature at the bottom.

“Mac?” she whispered. “Mac actually sold you this?”

“Mackenzie Rhodes.” He nodded. “He wrote to me, offered to sell me a little bit of heaven about four months ago. I had someone check it out, then decided to buy. This is the first time I’ve seen anything other than the videos and snapshots that were taken.” He stopped, one eyebrow quirked upward. “Is it a problem?”

Blair sucked in a deep breath and concentrated. Hard.

“It’s a mistake,” she mumbled at last. “It has to be. He wouldn’t do this to me. He wouldn’t. Not Mac.” It was the only solution she could some up with. “Not my own grandfather,” Blair asserted, giving a vigorous shake to her head. “He knows how much I depend on this land.”

“You do?” Gabe surveyed the area with interest. “Why does a chemist with your qualifications depend on this particular land? And for what?”

Her qualifications? If he only knew.

“I need it for my business.” She saw the jerk of his head and compressed her lips tightly, stemming the diatribe that ached for release. “I have to earn my way, you know.”

“Don’t we all.” There it was again, that sardonic twist that manipulated his attractive mouth into a mocking sneer. “Are you doing a field study or something?”

“I have hives all around this field.” At his skeptical look she lifted a hand and pointed. “There, see those white boxes? And there?”

Gabe squinted into the distance, then finally nodded.

“That’s only a small number of the hives that provide the honey I sell. I also make candles, though I doubt you’ve heard of my company.” She told him the name and shrugged when his eyes didn’t light up. “I didn’t think so. We’re pretty new on the scene.” She shifted uncomfortably. “What are you staring at?”

“You. I can’t seem to see you sticky with honey.” His smile begged her to see the joke. “You always looked so elegant, so refined. If Eunice Standish could see her model for women’s fashions now, what would she think?”

Anger snipped at Blair. How dare he malign her for making an honest living? How would somebody as rich and spoiled as Gabe ever understand how hard it was to provide just the daily bread for four other people?

“I only took that part-time job because it paid so well. And to please you, so I’d look the way you wanted.” She shrugged carelessly. “Now I don’t really care what you or Eunice or anyone else thinks. This is my life.” She straightened to her full height and frowned. “As interesting as this is, Gabe, I do have work to do. I’d appreciate it if you’d leave now.”

“What work do you have to do today?”

She jerked her head at his curious tone, but could find nothing derogatory in his eyes. Maybe she’s misjudged him. Maybe he had changed. She shrugged and grudgingly told him.

“I’m going to unwrap the last of the hives. I’ve done most of the ones on the south side, but I left a few hives in this field till today because that part of the hill takes longer to thaw out.”

“Can I watch?”

Blair sighed. Why now? Why here? Why today? Couldn’t he have gone hunting for land somewhere else? Why did he want land, anyway? The Gabriel Sloan she knew scorned any place that didn’t boast all the amenities of his deluxe L.A. condo.

“Blair? I promise I won’t interfere.”

“If you do you’ll get stung!” That made her smile. She wondered if he’d understand her hidden meaning.

“It’s happened before. A certain college student used to do it quite often, as it happens. I missed her.”

Blair got caught up in the storm of sea foam that swirled in his eyes. Her breath caught, reminding her how easily Gabe Sloan could draw her in, make her believe she was the most precious thing in his life. It wouldn’t happen again.

“I doubt you even noticed I was gone,” she returned sourly. “I’m sure you were too involved in the latest gizmo and high-tech security to keep it under wraps.” She wished it wasn’t true, but reality was hard to ignore.

“I noticed, Blair. Especially when I had to cancel that elaborate wedding.” His voice growled low, full of mocking innuendo. “Caterers, church, flowers, it took a lot of time.”

And money. Blair heard the words even if he didn’t say them. She forced her foot not to stamp. He was thinking about the money again, she just knew it. The one thing that had managed to uproot a love she was sure they’d share until eternity.

Gabe studied her, head tilted to one side in that familiar pose, and Blair smiled at the gesture so exactly a mirror of Daniel’s.

Daniel!

“I—that is, I have to get busy. You can trail along if you want. Or not. I don’t care.” She stalked through the bushes, ignoring the whoosh of mud as her boots found firm passage through the spring runoff.

She could hear Gabe following her but ignored him.

It didn’t take long to get to the last few hives and undo their insulated covers. She folded them carefully, then turned to face him.

“That’s all there is to the show for today, Gabe. I’ve got to get home and get to work. There’s a lot to do. Goodbye.”

He said nothing, simply stood there, studying her as if she were one of the oddly hewn pieces of smooth alabaster he’d collected so avidly six years ago.

“Can you find your way out of here?”

She tossed the hive wrappers into the back of the truck then turned to face him, hands clamped to her hips.

“Blair, I have legal title to this land, and I’m not backing out. This is exactly the kind of place I’ve been looking for.” His lips clamped shut, the expression on his face changed, hardened. “Perhaps the best thing to do is check it out. Now. Before things go much further.”