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She knew that voice, and she knew that body. She felt the heat of Logan everywhere, from the backs of her legs all the way to the top of her head. And, oh, how she longed to lean back into his strong embrace.
Joseph heaved a dramatic sigh. “I was fine, Papa. I wasn’t going to tip the silly ladder.”
“Of course not, my boy. But I think one of the legs is off balance. The entire contraption looks rather wobbly to me.”
She and Joseph both craned sideways to look. If Logan hadn’t been holding on to it—and her—the ladder would have crashed to the floor. Still, she didn’t think it necessary for him to standquiteso close.
Sadly, her body didn’t seem to agree with her brain.
“Angus, surely you see it,” Logan said. “I shall certainly have to speak to Alec about that. I might even have to give him a thrashing.”
“Now you’re being silly, Papa,” Joseph said.
“Me, silly? Never.”
“Now that ye mention it,” Angus said, “that ladder does look a bit tippy. Ye best keep holdin’ on to Miss Donella while she helps the wee lad down to the floor.”
“I’ll be happy to do just that,” Logan murmured in her ear.
Since Donella’s instinctive response was to wriggle closer to him, she compensated by giving him an elbow to the gut, which felt as hard as a washboard.
He chuckled. “You’ll have to do better than that, lass.”
Still, he took the hint and stepped back.
“I don’t think it’s the ladder,” Joseph said as Donella guided him down. “It’s just that my arms aren’t long enough.” He let out another dramatic sigh.
Logan ruffled his son’s hair. “Och, you’re sprouting like a weed. Soon enough you’ll be taller than I am.”
“Meme always said I take after my mother, and she wasn’t very tall, was she?” Joseph asked as he handed the length of swag to his father.
“She wasn’t tall, but she was very sweet and pretty.”
His quiet, somber tone had Donella wishing she could somehow comfort him. Instead, she could only give him a sympathetic grimace.
“Ugh,” Joseph said. “I don’t want to be pretty. Only girls are supposed to be pretty and sweet.”
The lad’s comment, and his father’s answering smile, chased away her melancholy moment.
“You’ll be a braw lad, I promise,” Logan said. “And thank God you take after your mother. We Kendricks are a sorry lot, always tumbling into trouble.”
“That’s certainly true,” said Donella. “The stories about Clan Kendrick are legendary in this part of Scotland.” She winked at Joseph. “And not for the right reasons, if you take my meaning.”
He perked up. “What sort of stories?”
“You’re too young to hear most of them, laddie boy,” his father replied.
“It’s all right, Papa,” Joseph said. “Grandda has already told me some.”
Logan narrowed his gaze on the old man. “I’ll have to be talking to Grandda about that.”
“I’m just tellin’ the lad a wee bit of his family’s history, is all,” the old man protested.
“That’s what I’m afraid of.”
“I like Grandda’s stories,” Joseph said. “They’re fun.He’sfun.”
Logan winced at the clear implication that he was not, in fact, fun.
