Loving Lauren

by Jill Sanders

  Chapter Four

  Lauren pushed her feet and got the old rocker moving. Chase had left about an hour ago after having dinner with them on the back deck. She’d been so full of nerves, she hadn’t really been able relax until now. She loved evenings like this. The stars lit up the night sky and the moonlight hit the fields, making them almost shine. She could hear the frogs and crickets chirping their hearts out. It sounded and felt like home. It had been almost a week since Chase had moved into the farthest house in the row of ranch-hand houses. Four of the small places had sat along the edge of the property since before she'd been born. After the tornado that claimed her mother's life, two of them had been remodeled.

  Jimmy, her ranch foreman, lived in the largest house, which was one of the remodeled ones. Larry, a seasoned ranch hand that had worked at the ranch since her father was alive, lived in one of the smaller places. Several seasonal men from Arizona were sharing the third place. Several additional men had trailers parked near the houses and would come and go each season. All in all, the men helped keep the ranch running smoothly.

  It had taken her almost a year after her dad had passed away to get in the swing of running the huge place herself. Alex and Haley helped out with the horses and some of the chores around the place, but neither of them knew the extent of what she'd put herself through. She didn't want them to. She had hoped that they would go to college, but neither of them had shown any interest, though Haley was taking online classes. Lauren knew that neither of them had wanted to be a financial burden. Alex had actually started giving half her paycheck from the diner to Lauren to help pay the bills. At first, Lauren had declined to keep it, but after a week of arguing, she’d finally relented. Instead of using it around the ranch, as Alex had suggested, she'd opened a savings account and had put the money in it for her sisters to use someday.

  Maybe Alex would use it for her wedding, something she’d thought about more often since Alex had been dating Travis on and off for the last few years. Lauren let out a sigh. It wasn't that she objected to Travis Nolan, Alex's on-again, off-again boyfriend…well, okay she did object to him. She had always hoped her sister would do so much better. Travis was known as the bad boy in town. Not the kind that was a cool bad boy, but the kind that got into trouble all the time. His dad was the mayor of Fairplay and, therefore, Travis could do no harm. If he was pulled over for drinking and driving, his dad would be there to bail him out. Before the next morning, Travis's driving record would be spotless.

  Lauren didn't know what Alex saw in the man, but she knew that her sister was going to do whatever she wanted. Haley had a boyfriend a while back, but after Wes had graduated from high school, he'd left town and gone on to basic training for the army. She didn't know if Haley had seen anyone since then, and to be honest, her sister wouldn't have told her if she had, since Haley was such an introvert. She hadn't always been like that. Before that fateful day when their mother was taken away, Lauren remembered Haley as being a chatterbox, someone who talked to anyone. Of course, she was so small back then, and she supposed most toddlers acted that way. Her sister was more comfortable around animals. At least that's how Lauren thought of her now.

  She looked up at the night sky and thought of everything that had changed over the last seven years. She'd had her freedom and she owed it all to Chase. Why then was she having such a hard time with him being around? There had always been a pull of attraction between them. She would be lying if she said there wasn't. But something was different this time. It was almost as if she had no choice.

  Pushing off from the old porch again, she set the old rocker in motion and decided that she was still in charge of her life. No matter who she owed or what decisions she'd made in the past, she was still Lauren West, daughter of Richard and Laura West. Her father and grandfather had built this place to be what it is, and she was even more determined than ever to keep it running and keep it in the family.

  That next day started out like the rest. She woke up shortly before sunrise. But when she walked into the bathroom and turned on the shower, nothing happened. Then, to her horror, the pipes shook and loud noises came from deep within the old house, shaking the floors and walls just as black sludge started dripping from the shower head. Immediately she turned the knob, shutting it off. The pipes groaned and then all was quiet again. Walking over to the sink, she tried it with the same results.

  Closing her eyes, she took a few calming breaths. In the last seven years, she’d had to play many roles around the large place: rancher, farmer, cook, maid, even mother to her sisters. But repairman was the worst hat she'd ever had to put on. Just two years ago, she’d had to replace some of the roof shingles after a large windstorm. She's painted, sanded, replaced light fixtures, and even once replaced a busted water pipe outside after a particularly cold winter. But she didn't even begin to understand why the water was doing what it was doing now. Wrapping her robe around her tightly, she walked to the downstairs bathroom and checked it. When the pipes groaned, she tried the kitchen.

  Slamming her fist down on her thigh, she pulled on her father's old rubber boots, which always sat by the back door. Trudging out in the light rain, she made her way to the well house. Not that it was going to do her any good; she had no clue what she was looking for.

  She knew hiring the local plumber wasn't in her budget this month. Actually, it wasn't in her budget for the next three months, not until they sold off the next lot of cattle in August. Opening the old gray well house door, she reached for the light switch and stopped cold. She'd been raised in Texas and knew the sound of a rattlesnake. Slowly she started moving backwards when she bumped into something solid. Hands came up and grabbed her shoulders to stop her from falling backwards.

  “Stop!” She tried to push away, just as Chase pulled her back two feet.

  “What the heck are you doing? Don't you know a rattler when you hear one? Are you trying to get yourself killed?” He pulled her away from the building a few more feet as the long snake stood its ground, just inside the open door.

  “What do you think you're doing?” She put her hands on her hips and glared at him. What was he doing out here this early?

  He pulled her back a few more steps away from the snake, which had decided the safety of the pump house was no longer for him. They both stopped and watch it slither off. When the snake was out of sight, she turned back to Chase and found him smiling at her.

  “What?” She realized his arm was still on hers and that they were still standing a breath away from each other.

  “I like the way you look in the morning.” His smile got bigger. “You even smell nice.”

  She tried to pull away. “I doubt that, seeing as I haven't had a shower yet, since my water isn't working.”

  “What's wrong?” He started walking towards the small building. She fell in step with him.

  “I'm sure it's nothing.” She couldn't explain her desire to have him leave, but she didn't want his help on this. It was her place, her mess.

  “I'll just take a look.” He walked into the small building, flipping on the light and making sure there were no more snakes around. Then he walked behind the large water pump as she stood in the doorway. She knew what the pump was. It sat over their well, pumping and filtering their water, sending it to the house. She knew it was old. She had to replace the filters on the thing two times a year, and since it was so old, she had to special order the filters from the local hardware store.

  “Here's your problem.” He walked back around the pump and motioned for her to follow him. She slowly walked around the large machine. Black ooze was slowly leaking from a broken pipe.

  “I'm not a plumber, but it seems like your pump is dead.”

  “No! It can't be.” She stared at the black ooze in full denial.

  “Why wasn't this thing replaced years ago?” He turned off the knob leading to the house and turned to look at her.

  “Because I didn't know it needed replacing.” She st
ood there and felt like kicking the large hunk of metal.

  “Taking one look in here, almost anyone would know it needed replacing. The thing is older than the hills.” He shook his head.

  She put her hands on her hips and glared at him. “It's not like I have a pile of money sitting around. I can't just go off and replace things that aren't broken.”

  “Well”—he stood back—“it's broken now. I'll talk to Billy when I go into town, see if he can get a new one up here later this week.” Billy was the local plumber, the only plumber within thirty miles of town.

  She felt the heat flood her face and knew the moment he spotted her temper rising. But she also knew that he probably was doing it all on purpose.

  “How dare you! Just who do you think you are? I can take care of this place. It's mine, after all. If I need a new pump, I'll arrange for a new pump.” She took a step forward and pointed her finger into his chest, pleased with herself when he took a step backwards and came up against the wall. “I don't want or need any help from you. I didn't ask you to come here.” Her entire body was heated and vibrating with anger as she continued to berate him.

  ------------