The Promise of Home (Love Inspired) (14 page)

The right place at the right time.

Jenna had heard those words before.

I guess that sometimes a person is in the right place at the right time.

No, it couldn’t be.

“Does he sell his photographs locally?
If
—” Jenna pressed down lightly on the word “—he agrees to an interview, I’d like to know something about his work before I meet him.”

“You wouldn’t recognize it even if he did. I’ve been told that he signs each one with a scripture reference instead of his name. Likes to keep a low profile. Humble. Gotta admire a man like that.”

Jenna swallowed hard. It couldn’t be a coincidence.

The photograph of the eagle in Dev’s cabin had had a scripture verse in the corner. He’d quoted it to her. And the raw beauty of the scene had remained stuck in Jenna’s mind for days.

What were the chances the photographer actually lived in the area?

Anticipation shimmied up Jenna’s spine.

Maybe the guy would let her tag along the next time he went on a shoot. She could kill two birds with one stone. Step in for Gabby at the
Register
and write about her experience with a reclusive wildlife photographer for
Twin City Trends.
Marlene would love it and hopefully, so would her readers.

“I’ll give him a call.”

“That’s the ticket.” Gabby slapped her knee. “I knew we’d make a good team. You and I are both officially ‘Off Our Rocker.’”

Unfortunately that was probably true, Jenna thought, whipping out the notebook and pen she kept in her purse.

“So, what is this reclusive wildlife photographer’s name?”

Gabby fed a piece of her cookie to the sleek Siamese cat that brushed against her ankles.

“It’s McGuire. Devlin McGuire.”

Chapter Fifteen

“W
hat’s the matter with you today?”

Dev glanced down at Violet. Ordinarily, the moment he pulled out his duffle bag, the dog planted herself in the passenger side of the vehicle, ready to embark on their next adventure. This morning she’d been constantly underfoot, tracking his every movement.

“Where’s your ball?” Dev planned to throw it as far into the woods as he could, just to escape her mournful expression.

Violet flopped down at his feet with a sigh. And then proceeded to gnaw on the edge of the braided rug.

“It’s only for a few days,” Dev said, wondering just who he was trying to reassure.

He wasn’t anticipating this trip as he had others in the past, either, which only proved how necessary it was. The conversation he’d had with Jenna continued to linger in his thoughts. So had the way she’d felt in his arms.

Dev hadn’t meant to reach out to her in that way. But it had felt…right. And for a moment, Jenna had accepted his embrace. Leaned into it.

The emotions she stirred inside of him were confusing. In fact, when Dev looked at her, he was no longer reminded of Elaina. He saw…Jenna. Beautiful. Independent. Vulnerable.

Dangerous.

“Another reason to take off for a few days,” he muttered.

Violet whined.

Dev tossed a pair of jeans into his duffle bag. “Don’t argue with me—”

She ignored him instead. Rolled to her feet and padded out of the bedroom, plumed tail swinging. A few seconds later, Dev heard a rap on the sliding glass door.

Jenna and the children stood on the deck. Violet’s nose was pressed against the glass, a tennis ball clamped between her teeth, her mood radically improved.

So had Dev’s. No doubt about it. He was in trouble. Big trouble.

He slid open the door. “Good morning.”

“I’m sorry to disturb you.” Jenna seemed strangely ill at ease. Obviously this wasn’t a social call.

Something twisted in Dev’s gut. Had she decided to leave Mirror Lake before her sister returned? Because of his knuckle-headed move?

“You’re not disturbing me.” Disrupting his sleep, yes. Distracting him from his work, no doubt about it.

“Can we play with Violet?” Logan asked with a pleading look at his aunt.

“It’s up to Dev.”

“Please. She’s been driving me crazy all morning.”

Logan grinned down at the dog. “Where’s your ball? Where is it?”

The dog, who’d been close to catatonic the past hour, practically performed a triple axel and soared off the end of the deck. Logan and Tori scrambled to catch up to her.

“Are you sure we’re not interrupting anything?”

Dev pictured the half-packed duffle bag on the end of the bed. Silently tallied the number of hours of natural light left in the part of the national forest he planned to explore that afternoon.

“Nothing important. Would you like a cup of coffee?”

Jenna nodded.

Okay, now Dev knew something was wrong. Last night, she couldn’t get away from him fast enough.

“Go ahead and grab a chair on the deck. I’ll bring it out.”

By the time he returned, Jenna had settled into one of the Adirondack chairs on the deck and was watching Logan and Tori take turns throwing the ball for Violet.

“Thank you,” Jenna murmured when Dev set a steaming mug in front of her.

Dev dropped into the chair opposite her. “What’s wrong?” he asked bluntly, unable to sit through anymore small talk.

“Wes Collins asked if I would be willing to take over Gabby Bunker’s column while she has surgery.”

“And you said yes?” The words were out before Dev could stop them.

“As a matter of fact, I didn’t. I told Wes that I wasn’t going to be in Mirror Lake very long, but I don’t think he heard me.” Jenna sighed. “And when I talked to Gabby, she didn’t seem to hear me, either.”

Dev grinned. “Maybe that’s why the
Register
hasn’t closed its doors like a lot of the other weekly newspapers.”

“You read Gabby’s column?”

“Not really.”

The irrepressible reporter had been after him for the last five years to agree to an interview. And Dev had turned her down every time. Dev wasn’t proud of the man he’d been. The only thing people knew about him was that he was a photographer. Dev didn’t want anyone poking into his past, asking questions he didn’t want to answer.

“She likes to interview people who have a special talent of some kind.”

Dev settled back in the chair. “So, who’s your first victim?”

Jenna looked him straight in the eye.

“You are.”

“No.”

Jenna wished that Dev had looked stunned. Bewildered would have been acceptable, too. Because the stubborn set of his jaw only confirmed Gabby’s claim.

Dev McGuire
was
the reclusive wildlife photographer who’d taken the photograph Jenna had seen in his living room the day he’d invited them over for supper.

That’s why he’d been able to quote the verse from Psalms. He’d
chosen
it.

He could have answered all her questions about the photograph if he’d simply told her that he’d been the one who captured the shot.

So why hadn’t he? He’d noticed how impressed she was. Why not take advantage of it and brag a little?

He’d let her think that he was unemployed.

No, she’d
assumed.
Jenna hadn’t come right out and asked Dev what he did for a living because she hadn’t wanted to put him on the spot. Or had it been easier to believe that he was like her father? A drifter. A man who came and went on a whim.

As she’d driven to Church of Pines to pick up Tori and Logan, Jenna had sifted through their previous conversations. That’s when she remembered the day Logan had caught Fred—the fish responsible for the chaos in her professional life.

She’d instructed a professional photographer—a very
successful
photographer if what Gabby had said was correct—on the finer points of taking a photograph.

Jenna was surprised Dev hadn’t burst out laughing. But no, he’d stood patiently during her tutorial.

Now she had to get him to agree to the interview. Remember that she was a professional.

And forget what it had felt like to be in his arms.

Jenna hoped Dev would think her cheeks were turning pink from the sun.

“I know Gabby has asked you before—”

“At least once a month for the last five years,” Dev interrupted. “She also tried to bribe me with chocolate chip cookies.” His eyes rolled toward the sky. “I can’t imagine who would fall for that.”

Jenna didn’t blink. “Neither can I.”

“I’m not granting an interview.”

“She asked me to call you before I call Hank the chainsaw artist.”

Dev didn’t look flattered. “I can’t.”

Jenna frowned at his choice of words. “Why not?”

“I could ask you the same thing.”

“Well, you have a career that people find interesting—” He snorted. “And you brought this on yourself, you know,” Jenna added irritably.

“What?”

“You’ve lived here for years and no one knows anything about you. You’re mysterious. People
love
mysterious. You’re the handsome recluse—” Jenna inwardly slapped herself. She hadn’t really said the word
handsome.
Had she?

His lips twitched.
“Recluse?”

“That’s what Gabby called you.” Jenna didn’t think the label fit. A true recluse would have resented their arrival. Wouldn’t have befriended Logan and intervened on his behalf about the canoe trip.

“It makes people curious about you. They start to speculate about the reason you moved to Mirror Lake. Why you don’t sell your work in local galleries. Why you don’t attend community functions.”

“This is
why
I don’t attend community functions. I don’t want people like Gabby Bunker digging around…” Dev’s jaw locked, severing the rest of the sentence.

“Unless you have some deep dark secret, I don’t see the problem.”

A shadow passed through Dev’s eyes, causing Jenna to pause.

Did he have some deep, dark secret?

“I don’t understand why you agreed to fill in for Gabby. I didn’t think you planned to be in Mirror Lake for more than a week.”

Dev had neatly turned the tables on her.

She couldn’t admit that she was getting pressure from her own editor.

“I caved when Gabby brought out the chocolate chip cookies, okay?”

A smile curved Dev’s lips. Jenna pressed her advantage.

“It’s a human interest piece,” she said. “And like it or not, you are an interesting human.”

“I’ll do an interview on two conditions,” he finally said.

The sudden glint in those amber eyes set off an internal alarm system. “What conditions?”

“Number one, I come up with the list of questions, not you.”

“That’s not the way it’s done.”

“It’s the way
this
is done.” Dev had the audacity to smile.

“Fine.” Jenna bit down on the word. “Number two?”

“You give Logan permission to go on the canoe trip.”

It was the last thing Jenna expected him to say. And it immediately brought up a memory that she had been trying so hard to suppress. Dev gently drawing her into his arms, murmuring words of encouragement in her ear, lending her his strength.

“I’ll…think about it.”

“And I’ll think about the interview.”

How had she gotten herself into this situation? Because of her inability to disappoint a persistent senior citizen and a weakness for chocolate chip cookies.

And, if she were completely honest with herself, a crazy, inexplicable desire to get to know a mysterious recluse better!

“All right,” Jenna said slowly. “But I have a condition, too.”

“You can’t put a condition on my condition.”

The lift of her chin said she could. “The canoe trip is for guys, so someone—a
guy
someone—will have to go with him. Kate mentioned that Alex is going back to Chicago to meet with his attorney about the sale of his hotels so I don’t think he’ll be available that day. You’ll have to go with him.”

“Me?”

“It was your idea.”

“Fine.” He borrowed Jenna’s favorite word.

“Really?” The surprise on her face told Dev he’d given in too easily.

And maybe he had.

First he’d agreed to be interviewed for a newspaper article—no, he’d agreed to let
Jenna
interview him for a newspaper article—and now he’d offered to take Logan on a daylong canoe trip.

“I can go on the canoe trip?” Feet thudded against the deck, startling both him and Jenna. “With Dev?”

Dev hadn’t realized Logan was within earshot when he’d made the offer to accompany him.

“Do you still want to go?” Dev hedged.

“I can’t wait to tell Cody and Jeremy!”

Well, that answered his question.

“I wanna go, too.” Tori sat down on Jenna’s lap and snuggled against her.

Dev watched Jenna wrap her arms around her niece and brush a wayward strand of hair off Tori’s face. How could she think she wasn’t good for these kids? Jenna might not have seen them for seven years but it was obvious she loved them.

“This canoe trip is just for boys,” Jenna said.

“That’s not fair!”

“Sometimes we girls plan things that don’t include the boys.”

Tori tipped her head. “Like a special tea party?”

“That certainly qualifies.”

“Can we invite Kate? And Abby? And Lady and Mulligan?”

Jenna looked a little dazed at the speed in which her idea was growing. “I suppose so…but probably not Lady and Mulligan.”

“But Violet will need a friend to play with.” Tori reached out and patted the dog’s massive head. “She can’t go in the canoe with Dev and Logan. She won’t fit.”

Jenna looked at Dev, who locked down a laugh. “That’s true.”

“So she has to stay with us.”

Dev hadn’t thought about Violet. And judging from the panicked look Jenna tossed in his direction, neither had she.

“I’m sure Violet would much rather attend the tea party.” Dev tried to keep a straight face.

“Or you could get a bigger canoe,” Jenna suggested sweetly.

Violet rested her chin on Jenna’s knee and whined. To Dev’s amazement, she patted the dog’s head.

“All right, all right.” She laughed. “You’re invited to the tea party—but you can’t sit at the table.”

Dev stared at Jenna, captivated by the music of her laughter. And the subtle changes he saw.

For a moment, their eyes met and Dev’s heart shifted into second gear.