He opened the door and moved aside to allowher to enter first. The scent of kerosene wafted to her, the heatcoming out the door warming her frozen cheeks before she steppedinside. Mia’s eyes widened when she took in the smallstructure.
A single lantern burned beside the bed thatwould be large enough for them both to sleep in comfortably. Thebed was pushed against the right wall. The flickering flame of thelantern illuminated the room, revealing the best thing in it.Directly in front of her was a wall made of glass. Before the glassstood three telescopes, all of them pointed at the stars.
She squealed and jumped up and down beforeracing across the room to examine the telescopes. Her jaw droppedwhen she saw that one of the three was a Celestron computerizedtelescope. Not just any Celestron, but the top-of-the-line Promodel.
Aware of how much it cost, she’d neverexpected to be able to touch one. Not unless she stole it, and shehadn’t stolen anything since she’d given up her nomadic lifestyleand returned to Connecticut. Once she’d decided to get her lifeback together, she’d vowed she would earn everything on her ownfrom then on and not rely solely on her vampire abilities to getby, unless she absolutely required them to survive.
One day in the future, she probably wouldhave had enough money to buy the telescope. She would live forever,after all, and she’d already started to save and invest, but itstill would have been years before she ever could have justifiedpurchasing one.
Her fingers barely grazed the telescope whenshe ran her hand over it, afraid to get too close for fear shemight break it. She lifted her head to take in the other twotelescopes. They were both amazing too, better than she ever couldhave hoped to obtain anytime soon, but her gaze kept coming back tothe Celestron with the pretty red bow stuck on top of it.
David closed the door to the small building,shutting out the wind though the walls still rattled. The delighton Mia’s face kept him fixated on her as she turned from onetelescope to the next before going back to the first. She startedto touch it before pulling her hands back. She clasped her handsagainst her chest and bounced on her toes as she tilted her headone way and then the other.
Not since Hope was given her puppy, Dawg,had he seen anyone so thrilled, yet so uncertain of somethingbefore. Mia had always seemed to be an old soul to him, one who hadseen and endured far too much pain and sadness in her short life.Now her joy lit her from the inside out, giving back to her theaura of youth that had been so cruelly ripped away.
Something inside David began to shift andchange as he watched Mia. Something new grew within him, making himstronger and better, for her. He cared for her, admired herstrength and determination to piece herself back together aftereverything she’d been through over the years, but he realized hewas also in love with her.
His palms flattened against the door behindhim as the realization rocked him back on his heels. He couldn’ttear his eyes away from her when she bent to examine the telescopemore closely, but still didn’t touch it.
“It’s yours, you know,” he said around thelump in his throat. “You can touch it.”
Her head shot around to him, her mouthparted as she shook her head in fierce denial. “It’s too expensive.I can’t accept this.”
“Too late. It’s been paid for, and I don’tknow how to use it, so someone has to. Otherwise, it will sit hereand rot.”
Mia gawked at him as she tried to processhis words. “It’s almost a ten-thousand-dollar telescope.”
“I know.”
“You can’t let that rot.”
He laughed. “I can.Youcan’t.”
“David—”
“It’s yours, Mia. So are the other two, andif you would prefer a different one, I’ll buy that one for youtoo.”
“No!” she blurted, her fingers fell tocaress the telescope before her in a loving manner. “No. This one…this one has been a dream for a while,” she murmured as she turnedback to it.
“A dream, huh?”
“Oh yes.” She walked around the telescope,examining every inch of it, but she didn’t take her fingers awayfrom it again. “A very big dream.”
David watched as she knelt next to it beforemoving to look through the eyehole at the stars beyond. She seemedto forget he was in the room as she adjusted this gadget and thenthat one. He was fine with that as it gave him a chance to relishthe joy he’d been able to give her. Striding over to the bed, hekept his eyes on her as he sat on the edge of the mattress and bentto untie his boots. Putting his toes against the heel of each boot,he kicked them off and removed his socks.
“Everything is so clear. It’s almost like Ican touch the moon,” she breathed. When she was done fiddling withthat telescope, she shed her coat before moving onto the secondone. “Damn good taste in telescopes,” she muttered.
“And women,” he replied, but she didn’tappear to hear him.
“It’s Mercury!” she declared. “The BigDipper and Orion.”
He’d come to know the names of theconstellations more since she’d entered his life, but he stillfound himself listening in fascination as she switched to the nexttelescope.
“Cassiopeia!” she cried.
David swung his legs onto the bed and leanedagainst the wall of the small structure he’d worked to build withMike, Doug, and Jack the day before, while Mia had been with Sera.It was small enough that it only took them a couple hours toassemble and secure, but he planned to get a lot of hours ofenjoyment out of it until the spring.
Sera had given him the things to decoratethe room with, which had been more pillows than he ever would haveput on his bed and a deep gray comforter with matching sheets. Theonly other thing in the room was the kerosene heater in the cornerand blinds that could be lowered over the glass wall facing theocean.
