Riding the Thunder - Deborah MacGillivray [106]
“She did the right thing. You belong here with us.”
“It was a good day you came back after your mama died. I feared this special place would one day be swallowed up by developers.”
She grinned. “Won’t happen. I’m holding on to this place. And now I have Jago. He’ll be my warrior. He’ll fight for me, fight for The Windmill.”
Delbert nodded. “Then I can die in peace.”
“Like bloody hell you will.” Glancing at the pictures of Tommy and Laura, Asha wanted to see them. Just not tonight. Delbert needed to get out and ease his troubled heart, be with the rest of the Windmill family. Closing the album, she took it from his hands. “Some rainy afternoon I’d love for you to show me all the pictures and tell me about Tommy and Laura. I think I have a few things to tell you as well. But this night is magic. I shan’t leave unless you come. Tommy wouldn’t want you here alone.”
He let her take the album. “I’m old, Asha. Life passed me by.”
“No, it didn’t. You just live at The Windmill where time tends to stand still. You have a lot of years ahead of you. Stop wasting them with regret. We have so much to do here, and if I have my way, you’ll have a godson to bounce on your knee.” She shrugged. “Maybe next year?”
His grin was real. “Godson? You going to marry Jago?”
“Yeppers. Sure am. I haven’t told him yet—men like to think it’s all their idea.” She took Delbert’s arm and wrapped hers around it. “So, for now this is our little secret.”
“You are a special lady, Asha Montgomerie. He’s very lucky to have you.”
“Actually, he is. Now let’s hurry. We wouldn’t want to miss Bobby ‘Boris’ Pickett doing The Mash.”
“You think he might sing ‘Purple People Eater’?”
She laughed aloud. “I’m sure if you request it he might. If not, Colin and I will do a version for you.”
He chuckled. “Now that would be a sight to see.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
But I’m lost for words
When I hold you close
Because you take my breath . . .
Away.
The beautiful ballad “Lost for Words” by Mike Duncan was softly playing in the background, yet suddenly Jago could barely hear it. He’d just asked Colin who the artist was, and where he could buy the CD, because the song seemed to reach into him, touch his heart. Duncan’s voice was haunting, compelling. Then he had looked down the terraced hillside and saw Asha coming up the winding concrete stairs, and he was truly lost for words, too. Lost to anything, for that matter. All the festive party noises, the wild costumes and the Halloween decorations faded to a dim blur as he stared at the woman he simply loved more than life.
“‘And you take my breath. Away,’” Jago sang.
He’d loved Asha from that first breathless instant when she materialized from the brilliant sunlight and walked into the restaurant. In that moment, he had accepted Fate. Now he couldn’t breathe as he watched her trying to climb the stairs and not trip on the ‘spider leg feet’ of her costume.
His mouth quirked up as he noted the black wig she wore. It threw him. She carried off the outfit well, making a surprisingly sexy black-haired lass. But then, he had a notion she could show up baldheaded and in a burlap sack and he’d love how she looked. He leaned on the wood rail post like a sap, drinking in the vision of Morticia Addams helping Obi-Wan Kenobi up the steps.
“Hey, Asha sure is a hottie in that get-up, eh?” Colin elbowed him with a big grin and then snapped several pictures. “Oo . . . oo . . . oo . . . it. I know, I can sell you copies for a buck. Eh? Great set of knockers she’s got. Want me to get some close-ups?”
“I may kill you some day.” Jago’s threat had no teeth, though.
Colin wasn’t fazed either. “I’m growing on you. Told you, I would.”
Jago chuckled and then summoned a proper glare, looking Colin up and down. “How the bloody hell did we both end up in vampire costumes?” he asked.
“Us? What about him?” Colin asked, swinging around and lowering