Invariably, the modern world protested, and Amelia’s cell phone rang.

  “Do you usually get so many phone calls on Sunday mornings?” Grigg asked.

  She dragged her fingers over his shoulders.

  “Not exactly,” she said. “Sometimes I’ll hear from my family on Sundays, but even that is not too often.” She released him and pulled her phone out of her pocket. “Unknown caller again.”

  “Maybe you should answer it then,” Grigg said. “Sometimes unknown numbers can happen when someone’s out of their normal area.”

  She accepted the call and said, “Amelia Ambrose here, can I help you?”

  Grigg couldn’t hear what the woman on the other end of the line was saying, but he had never seen Amelia go pale before, until now. Whoever the caller was, she didn’t have good news. He placed a hand on Amelia’s shoulder, hoping to give her support in whatever it was.

  When she hung up and met his gaze, the fear in her eyes made his stomach feel like it had been hollowed out.

  Amelia couldn’t catch a normal breath. The woman on the phone wasn’t making any sense. She’d identified herself as Hayden Black’s mother, but the words coming from her mouth were like a nightmare.

  “He’s in the hospital,” the woman said. “Collapsed at the funeral home. Just like that. As he was being wheeled away on a stretcher, he asked me to call his girlfriend. Imagine my surprise that Hayden had a girlfriend.”

  Amelia exhaled very carefully. “How’s Hayden, Mrs. Black? Will he be all right?”

  “Nobody knows,” Mrs. Black said, her voice cracking. “I couldn’t leave my mother’s own funeral, you know. And the doctor said they’re running tests.”

  “Okay, that’s good, right?” Amelia said.

  “Hayden wants you to come right away,” Mrs. Black said.

  Amelia wanted to say, you’re kidding, but this was a distraught mother. “How about I call first to check up on him? Would that be all right?”

  Mrs. Black huffed out a breath. “A girlfriend would care more. He said that you would want to see him and watch over him while he’s in the hospital.”

  Amelia felt sorry for Hayden, whatever had happened to him, but the worry in her gut was for another reason. A much more serious reason. “I’ll call him right now, and if you get any updates, please let me know.”

  When Amelia hung up, she felt Grigg’s gaze on her. “That was Hayden’s mom,” she said in a slow voice. “He had some sort of collapse at the funeral home. He’s undergoing testing at the hospital.”

  Finally she looked up at Grigg. The furrow between his brows was enough to tell her that he was worried about something beyond Hayden. “Call him, see how he’s doing.”

  So with Grigg pacing the deck while she wandered the backyard, she called Hayden’s cell phone. He answered on the third ring with a raspy, “Amelia, I’m glad you called.”

  “Hi.” Her throat was a lump. “Your mother got ahold of me. How are you?”

  “Truthfully, not good,” he said. “They’ve found a massive blood clot in my leg, and they’re putting a stent in this afternoon. Then I’ll be on blood thinners and need to go to regular checkups to keep an eye on the thing.”

  “Oh, wow, that sounds awful,” she said. “I’m glad you’re getting the right help.”

  “Yeah,” Hayden said. “I could have died. If everyone hadn’t acted so fast to get me medical treatment, I would’ve been a goner.”

  The information was sobering to say the least.

  “I’m so relieved.” Amelia looked over to where Grigg was examining something on the outside of the cabin. But she wasn’t fooled. She was pretty sure he could hear her entire side of the conversation.

  “How long will you be in the hospital?” she asked Hayden.

  “Probably at least two more nights,” he said. “I told my mother to let you know that I’ll need some help. You could come out here and then fly back to Denver with me. I probably shouldn’t travel alone.”

  Alone, with more than a hundred other passengers on the plane. Amelia closed her eyes. She should think more generous thoughts. But she wasn’t Hayden’s girlfriend, and now she’d never be. A single date and a few phone calls didn’t equate to her flying to be at his side like a serious girlfriend or wife.

  “I’ll talk things over with your mom,” she said, for some reason unable to tell him no directly, at least at this moment. He was about to have surgery, and she didn’t want to drop the information on him that she was in fact dating someone else now.

  Because after all that had happened with Grigg in the past twenty-four hours, they’d better be dating.

  “My mom already agrees,” Hayden said. “I’d offer to pay for your airline ticket, but I know you’re loaded.”

  Amelia cringed. Hayden knew she did well at her financial firm, but he didn’t know about her millionaire-inheritance roots.

  “I’ll be in touch,” she said. “And I’m so sorry—”

  “You’d better not be ditching me,” he said, his voice rising. “Like you did before. I almost died, Amelia, died.”

  She knew. All the compassion and pity and guilt fled immediately. She took a couple of even, steady breaths. “I hope everything goes well with your surgery, Hayden. I’ll be in touch with your mom.” She hung up before he could reply.

  She didn’t know what to say. But she did know that she wouldn’t be flying to California. She should probably call Mrs. Black and more fully explain the situation. But she’d do that later, after Hayden’s surgery.

  Grigg was waiting, and she joined him on the deck. His gaze seemed troubled.

  “Did you catch enough of it?” she asked, folding her arms.

  “I did,” he said, “and there’s something I need to tell you. All this going on with Hayden reminded me.”

  Amelia frowned. “Okay . . .”

  “Before I picked you up this morning, I stopped for coffee,” he said. “Maggie was there.”

  She had no idea where he was going with bringing up Maggie.

  “After our double date that day, Clint was in a car accident.”

  Amelia gasped. “No.”

  Grigg’s nod was somber. “He’s fine, or he will be fine. He broke something in his shoulder and ended up with a concussion. It seems that he and Maggie are officially dating now.”

  Amelia continued to stare at Grigg, her mind whirling. “That’s . . .” She closed her eyes because it was too painful to look at the man she was going to have to break up with. “That’s too much of a coincidence. Both of them injured soon after contact with me.”

  He closed the distance between them and set his hands on her shoulders.

  “I know what you’re thinking, Mills, and none of this is your fault.”

  She swallowed back the pain, but it didn’t go anywhere.

  “Besides,” he continued in a quiet voice, “Clint’s was a freak accident, but with Hayden, blood clots don’t develop overnight.”

  She couldn’t think straight. All she knew was that her pulse was racing and her stomach felt like it had been turned inside out.

  “Come inside, out of the sun,” Grigg said, steering her through the back door.

  She followed numbly. Clint had been in a car accident. The same day they’d gone to lunch. And now only a week after she’d gone on a date with Hayden . . .

  “Drink this,” Grigg said, grasping her hand and placing a water bottle in it.

  She hadn’t even comprehended that she had sat on the single piece of furniture in the cabin—an old couch—and Grigg had gotten her a drink.

  She stared at the label on the water bottle. Was the water really from a glacier? What kind of job would that be? It must take special equipment to get up a mountainside and haul glacier ice back and forth. And surely they purified it somehow. Did that compromise the pH balance?

  “Mills,” Grigg said. “Have a drink.”

  She took a sip of the water, then handed it back to Grigg. She wasn’t thinking straight, she knew that. But the evidence was before her. “It’s the curse.”

  Grigg took her hand. “No—”

  “It has to be.” She snatched her hand from his and pushed off the couch. She paced the cabin floor. “It’s too much of a sign.”

  “When you dated those men before, there were no accidents,” he said, rubbing a hand over the back of his neck. “How do you explain that? I’ll tell you. This is only a coincidence. Nothing to do with the curse. Besides, you said yourself that it’s breakable.”

  She turned to him and stared at the man that she’d began to have so much hope for, and with. “It is breakable, but it can obviously still control things. As we’ve seen with Clint and Hayden. I don’t know how to break it for myself. My sisters did it, but I haven’t. Not yet.” Her chest burned, and her eyes stung. The tears were coming, fast.

  Amelia had to leave. Had to get back home. Call Lauren or even Sofia. Figure out what was happening.

  Grigg rose from the couch, and before she could open the front door, he drew her against him. “Hey,” Grigg said in a soft voice against her hair. His arms were strong, warm, comforting, but that only scared her more.

  If anything happened to Grigg . . .

  A sob choked in her throat, and she buried her face against his chest, taking solace and comfort in him one more time. Because after today, she didn’t know what would happen.

  Grigg merely held her, moving one hand slowly along her back as she cried.

  None of this was fair, and although she’d lived with the curse her entire life, it had never hurt so bad as it did now.

  “Babe, we’ll figure this out, I promise.”

  She shook her head, and his arms only tightened about her. “Don’t you see?” she choked out. “This means I’m back to square one. We can’t date. We can’t be together at all, except for work. Maybe I’ve already jinxed that too.”

  Grigg didn’t argue, and he didn’t pull away. He simply let her ramble about all of her worries.

  “I’m sorry,” she said at last. “This isn’t fair to you.” She drew away, wiping at her eyes. “I think it’s best that we just call things off right now. Before things go farther. Before hearts get involved.”

  “It’s too late for that.” Grigg smoothed back her hair and kissed her temple. “Come on, let’s get out of here. I have a plan.”

  She tugged his hand to stop before they could leave the cabin. “What do you mean you have a plan? That’s exactly what this curse is—it will screw up any plans.”

  Grigg opened the cabin door, then looked down at her. “I think we need to go to your hometown. Talk to your grandmother in person. Find out the root of this curse and what it can do and can’t do. Then, once and for all, get rid of it.”

  Amelia released a slow breath. Grigg’s suggestion made sense, yet she couldn’t let him come with her. That would just mean more time together, which would only make it harder to let him go. “Maybe you’re right. But I need to go alone.”

  “You’re not going alone,” he said. “You can fly alone if you want, but I’ll be showing up at Ambrose too.”

  She blinked back a fresh round of tears.

  Grigg folded his arms. “I’m being serious.”

  “I know you are.” She wanted to throw her arms around his neck, but she only said, “Thank you, Grigg.”

  He nodded. Then he locked up the cabin, and they walked to the SUV together.

  As they drove down the canyon road, silence fell between them. Amelia hated the curse. She hated that she was born into the Ambrose family. If she could trade the curse for every penny of her inheritance, she would in a heartbeat, because that would mean she could have the man beside her.

  When they reached the city and stopped at a traffic light, she said, “I’m sorry for being the worst date ever and ruining the tour of your beautiful property.”

  Grigg reached for her hand and threaded his fingers through hers.

  Amelia’s heart leapt at the contact, but she tamped down the hope for a future between them before it could take solid root in her heart.

  “I’m not going anywhere, Mills, even if you never let me kiss you again.”

  She turned her head to meet his gaze. She felt like crying again, but she swallowed back the surfacing emotion. “You really don’t have to come with me,” she said in a quiet voice.

  The light turned green, and Grigg accelerated. “I want to come. I want answers as much as you do.”

  Amelia nodded and focused on the road again. Maybe, just maybe, they could get to the bottom of the curse once and for all.

  A freak rainstorm delayed their flight, so when Grigg and Amelia deplaned in the small airport near Ambrose, Texas, it had already been a long day. They’d waited a week so that they didn’t have to cancel any immediate meetings. And they hadn’t booked a return flight, but if everything went smoothly, Grigg expected the trip to take only two to three days. At least that’s what he had told Amelia to ease her stress about leaving the office for too long.

  As they walked to the baggage claim, Grigg said, “It’s pretty late. Maybe we should rent a car or take a taxi.”

  “It’s okay,” Amelia said, stifling a yawn. “Shelton will be here. I texted him right before we took off.”

  Amelia had explained that her grandmother had a personal chauffeur, William Shelton. But he was an older gentleman, and now that it was almost midnight, Grigg worried they were interrupting the man’s sleep.

  But, true to Amelia’s word, a dark sedan was waiting outside the airport for them at the curb. William Shelton climbed out. He was bald, but Grigg guessed he shaved his head, because the man couldn’t be too much older than mid-sixties. With a slight limp, Shelton met Grigg at the trunk. The two men shook hands, then Shelton embraced Amelia.

  “It’s been too long, darlin’,” Shelton told her. “What’s kept you away?”

  “I opened my own investment firm in Denver,” Amelia told him. “Didn’t Grandma tell you?”

  Shelton gave her a sheepish smile. “Perhaps. There’s a lot to keep track of with Ambrose Estate. All I know is that it’s wonderful to see you.”

  Once they were all loaded into the car, Grigg insisted that Amelia sit in the passenger seat, and the smooth car hummed along the dark roads. Grigg had never been to this part of Texas, and he’d be interested to see it in the daylight.

  “You’ve come about the curse, haven’t you?” Shelton asked Amelia.

  “How did you know?”

  “Your grandmother told me just an hour ago, and my memory’s not that bad.”

  Amelia smiled at the older gentleman. “Yes, we’ve come about the curse.”

  “He must be someone special.”

  Amelia laughed. “He is special.” Then she looked back at Grigg and winked.

  Well, then. Grigg could definitely be on board with this. When they pulled into a long drive edged by trees on either side, leading to a gorgeous three-story mansion, Grigg released a low whistle.

  “When was this place built?” he asked.

  “1890s is what I’ve been told,” Amelia said.

  “You grew up here?” he said. A massive lawn led up to the house that was positioned on top of a rising slope. To one side was a four-car garage.

  “Not full-time,” Amelia said. “By the time my mom had me, she was on her second husband, and we moved around a lot.”

  Grigg had heard about her father’s death when she was a kid.

  Shelton pulled to a stop on the circular driveway in front of the elegant double doors of the house. “Let’s get your luggage out here, then I’ll go park the car.”

  “Sounds good, thanks.” Amelia opened her door, and Grigg climbed out too.

  Outside, Grigg was able to take in the expanse of the place. The moon was nearly full and cast a glowing web across the white house and the surrounding grounds. Fifteen thousand acres, Amelia had told him. The size was staggering, but here in Texas, it seemed everything really was bigger. As Grigg picked up the two carry-ons and walked with Amelia up the front steps, he said, “This place is gorgeous.”

  “Wait until you see inside.” Amelia reached for the doorknob to open the door.

  He followed her into a spacious hall, with a crystal chandelier glowing above, lighting the curved staircase beyond. The wood floors gleamed, and the rugs were plush and elegant. The interior was stately.

  No one was there to greet them, and Grigg wasn’t surprised. He assumed Amelia’s grandmother had been in bed for hours. But then a voice spoke from somewhere above.

  “Is that you, Millie dear?”

  By the elderly tone, Grigg thought it could only be her grandmother.

  “Gran,” Amelia took the steps two at a time. “Don’t come down. We’ll come up. Where’s Mrs. B?”

  Earlier, Amelia had explained that Mrs. Beatrice O’Connor was the longtime housekeeper at the estate. The woman had worked for Mrs. Ambrose since the 1970s.

  Grigg trudged after Amelia, carrying the bags. At the second-story landing, a woman came into view. She was taller than Grigg had expected, and her wrinkles bespoke her age, but her blue eyes were full of life and vigor.

  “Beatrice is already asleep,” the woman said. “I decided to wait up.” When her gaze moved past Amelia to Grigg, Mrs. Ambrose smiled.

  Amelia grasped her grandmother’s hands just then and kissed the woman’s cheek.

  “Well, let’s have a look at the both of you,” Mrs. Ambrose said.

  Grigg set down the bags and stepped forward, intent on shaking her hand. But she kept one hand on her cane and the other clutching her navy silk robe to her throat.

  “How old are you, young man?”

  This was unexpected, but Amelia had warned him that her grandmother could be a bit odd.

  “I’m twenty-eight.” He glanced at Amelia, who looked both relieved and exhausted. Was it a good thing to be asked his age by her grandmother?

  Mrs. Ambrose looked him over from head to foot, yet Grigg didn’t mind.

 

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