She wasn’t sure how she was going to do that. She was afraid of being so high up herself. How was she supposed to help him when she knew nothing about this barn or how safe this was? She thought of calling for Craig, but she hadn’t seen him recently. For all she knew, she would just scare Ginger and cause her to hurt herself coming to her rescue. She had to find a way to resolve this on her own.
Freddy held up a biscuit that he must have swiped from the table and took a big bite but made no move to come toward her.
Lana watched in horror as he stood up and ran expertly in a straight light across the barn roof and disappeared over the other side. He must’ve known where the beam was. Lana stayed there, crouched down for several minutes, before turning back to the ladder. By the time she was ready to descend, she saw just in time what was about to happen.
Freddy had grabbed ahold of the ladder and was pushing it over. “Freddy, Freddy, stop! What are you doing!”
But Freddy wasn’t listening. The ladder flopped to the ground with a thud and a cloud of dust rose around it. Freddy was running back toward the house with a little giggle and his hand over his mouth.
Lana watched him go with her stomach twisting in knots. She could try to go the same way that Freddy had, but there was no way of telling if the roof would hold her the way it had Freddy.
She had never guessed that the little boy could cause such mischief. She was supposed to be inside eating a peaceful meal right now. She made a mental note to keep an extra eye on Freddy and be cautious of everything involving him from now on. She couldn’t afford to find herself in another situation like this again soon.
She twisted around, looking for a way down, when she heard the sound of a horse riding up the trail. She peered at the lone rider for a few moments and then felt mortified as she realized who it must be.
He was tall and had a muscular build. There was a cowboy hat on his head that covered his face except for the tufts of reddish-brown hair that poked out. He had a reddish-brown mustache that seemed to have a life of its own as it curled up at the corners.
Behind him two dogs were running; one was white and grey and the other looked like a hound.
This must be Ginger’s brother, Nick. Lana searched frantically for a way down from the barn roof. She couldn’t possibly let Nick find her like this. Any impressions he’d made in his mind already about her being a city girl would only be cemented.
Despite her great desire to get down, she knew that she was too late when her eyes met his. He had to be Nick. He had the same eyes as Ginger and they looked very similar. There was no mistaking it; she had just ruined any chance she’d had of making a good impression.
“Howdy, ma’am. Would you mind telling me what you are doing on the roof?” The man was looking up at her with a mixture of amusement and disapproval on his face. His mustache twitched energetically as he tried not to laugh.
“It’s, well, kind of hard to explain,” she said, feeling slightly annoyed. Lana continued sweeping the roof with her eyes as if some way to get down would appear out of nowhere.
“It’s probably not.” the man shrugged in a way that would normally make Lana laugh, but right now, it just made her feel exasperated.
“It is. Would you just put the ladder up please?” Lana motioned to the ladder.
The man smiled a slow lazy smile that made Lana’s exasperation heighten. She watched as he moved toward the ladder with exaggerated slowness.
“So, are you going to tell me what you’re doing on my sister’s barn roof if I do?”
“Freddy came up here and I thought he needed help coming down, so I came up to help him and he jumped down somewhere back there, ran around to this side, and pushed the ladder over. I don’t know how he got down.”
The man threw his head back in laughter, “Freddy knows this barn better than I do! Haven’t met a more limber fellow than that little kid.” He continued laughing and appeared to have considerable trouble reigning in his mirth.
Lana feigned laughter as she grabbed ahold of the ladder and slowly turned around, carefully placing her feet on the rungs until she was almost to the bottom of the ladder. Nervousness fluttered in her chest with every step she took. She kept envisioning herself falling to her death right in front of Ginger’s brother on her first real day out west. What a tragedy that would be.
She smoothed her skirt and turned halfway around, trying to maintain some level of poise. “So, you must be Nick,” she said.
“That’s me, I was coming to see if my sister’s best friend, Laura, had arrived. I suppose that would be you.”
Lana ducked her head a little and laughed. “Well, it’s Lana, and yes, that would be me.”
She waited for a moment for Nick to move, but he didn’t. He was standing directly below the ladder. Lana cleared her throat and realization came over Nick’s face.
He put his hand up as if conceding and took a step to the side. His mustache was dancing again and she felt amused despite her resolve not to give him any satisfaction.
Lana could feel that her cheeks were burning red with heat. Finally, her foot came off the last rung of the ladder and she was standing on firm ground again.
She brushed off the front of her skirt and tried to rearrange her hair in an acceptable manner.
“Thank you. I’m not sure how I would have gotten down if-”
Nick shook his head, “Don’t worry about it. Now, if you’re done inspecting the barn roof, I’m going to go say hello to my sister.”
Lana opened her mouth to protest and explain once more what she had been doing on the barn roof, but Nick was already walking away, shaking his head.
Lana hurried behind him, having trouble keeping up with his pace. The two of them reached the cabin around the same time and Lana was surprised when Nick held the door open for her.
When Ginger spotted her, she nearly leaped from the chair. “There you are! Freddy told me that you were on the barn roof. I was so worried but I couldn't…” Her voice trailed off and Lana could tell she had spotted Nick.
“Nick! You’re back, and you met Lana!” This time Ginger started to stand up, but Nick rushed to her side before she could.
“Stay where you are. I can come to you.” Nick leaned over and gave his sister a tender embrace.
Lana watched as he took turns saying hello to Lydia and Freddy. He whispered something to Freddy, who giggled, and Lana had to wonder if it was about her.
“Join us for breakfast, Nick.” Ginger motioned to the heaps of food set out on the table. “There’s plenty. Lana is a great cook. She must have gone to cooking school too.”
Lana shot her friend a look of gratefulness, but she was fairly certain all the compliments in the world wouldn’t change what Nick was thinking of her right now.
Lana eyed Freddy. He had known what he was doing. What she didn’t know was why he’d done it. Was he trying to be mean to her? Or did he think that a simple joke like that was funny?
Whatever he was thinking, Lana was determined to show that it hadn’t gotten to her. She sat back down at the table after dishing Nick up a plate. He had taken a seat next to Ginger and was telling her something about cattle and how whatever he had wanted to do in the next town over had been a waste of time.
Lana could feel the occasional gaze or strange look bouncing off her back but forced herself not to care or pay attention. She couldn’t show Nick how much his criticism bothered her. Hopefully, she was still right, and he would see that she wasn’t so bad as they got to know each other.
“This isn’t the way that you make biscuits,” Nick eyed a biscuit that he had taken a bite out of, pulling Lana back to the situation at hand.
“No, that’s the way Lana made them, and personally I think they came out much better than mine anyway.”
“Don’t put yourself down, Ginger. Your biscuits are the best in the west!” Nick drawled out the last part of the sentence and threw his head back and laughed heartily. The children joined in. Lana couldn’
t tell if they were laughing because they thought it was funny or because Nick’s laugh was contagious.
“So, Lana, how long will you be staying?” Nick fixed Lana with a stare that made her squirm. She suddenly felt as if an uncomfortable amount of attention was on her and that she had to redirect it somehow, but like her predicament on the barn roof, there was no escape.
“I- um, as long as Ginger would like me to,” Lana finally managed to say around the cotton in her throat.
“Great.” But Nick didn’t sound as if he thought it was great. In fact, he sounded as if no one could possibly have told him worse news.
“I’m sure it will be a huge help knowing that there’s someone watching over me here all the time while you are at your ranch.” Ginger’s lips were thin and her words sounded forced.
Lana thought it was almost cute how she sought approval from her brother. Lana had met a lot of siblings and already she could tell that Lana and Nick were closer than most.
She watched as Nick reached across the table and tousled Freddy’s hair when the boy told him about some adventure he’d had in the creek. “You know, pretty soon, you’ll be the toughest man in these here parts,” Nick said softly, leaning over a little across the table. You can already spit further than most of the men in the saloon,” he added.
A smile teased Lana’s lips. Both Ginger and her children seemed to love Nick and it was easy to see why. For a moment, flashbacks of Henry overwhelmed her. Would they have had children like Lydia and Freddy? Would she have made a good mother?
The thoughts made her throat close up momentarily and the urge to cry tickled her eyes.
She was past Henry and she had certainly dodged a bullet. How much better to find out his true colors before they were married. Lana knew more women than she could count who were married to their husbands and then hated them because of their infidelity. At least now Henry could be someone else’s problem.
She wondered if he had already. The woman he had been with on the side certainly knew about her but she hadn’t seemed to care. Maybe now that she was gone they would get married. Lana shook her head slightly. She shouldn’t let herself think about that. She only had negative feelings for Henry and pity for whoever ended up with him.
“Lana?” Ginger’s voice brought her back to the conversation at the dinner table. She wasn’t sure what they were talking about and she glanced between Nick and Ginger as she tried to remember.
“Nick was asking how you like the west so far,” Ginger gave her a pointed look. Lana tried to send an apologetic one back.
She knew that Ginger wanted Nick to like her, but Lana could tell that it was going to be harder for that to happen than she might have thought.
Lana wondered what would happen if Nick never did like her. Would Ginger send her packing? If so, where would she go? She couldn’t exactly go back to the city. They would make fun of her until she couldn’t possibly live it down. Maybe she would find somewhere else out west and help a different family with their children. She tried to focus on answering Nick’s question.
“Oh, I like it fine I suppose. It’s very different from the city. It is so quiet and I love all the trees.” Lana took in a sharp breath as she realized she had left the wash soaking and hadn’t finished yet.
At this time of day, she was supposed to be scrubbing down the bedroom itself. It seemed that her calculations for how long things would take out here were way off.
In the city, everything was faster, easier and you could count on everything being close where you needed it. Not out west; she obviously had a lot to learn.
She plastered a smile on her lips and lifted her chin, “But even though it’s different, I am sure that I will fit right in here once I get a hang of things.”
Nick harrumphed and took a long gulp of water. Lana narrowed her eyes ever so slightly. She could tell Nick already had his doubts, but she was going to prove him wrong.
She had been trained all of her life and worked all of her life to have attributes that would help her get ahead. Her music and singing and education were to help her find a good path in life. Maybe some of those things would help her here in the west. Maybe some of those things would help her win this family over, including Nick.
Chapter 10
“When will you come back, Uncle Nick?” Lydia asked, her lower lip trembling. Ever since the accident, both the children were more attached to him than ever.
“I am going to be back tomorrow. You will barely miss me,” Nick used his index finger to gently poke Lydia’s nose, making her giggle. Nick chuckled with her. Having his niece and nephew so close had almost been like having children of his own and he enjoyed every minute with them.
Freddy was next, he looked just as sad as his sister. “Can’t we come back and live with you again?”
“I’d like that but your mother needs your company. She would miss you too much and then she would come and beat me with her broom and take you back.”
They both giggled and covered their mouths at his joke.
Lydia shook her head, “Ever since Miss Lana came things have been different. She’s mean, you know.”
“Is she now?” Nick’s curiosity was piqued. What could Lana possibly be doing to make the children think she was mean?
“She has all sorts of rules and wants us to help with everything.”
Nick shook his head, “That’s not a bad thing, but don’t take my word for it. You and Miss Lana will have to figure something out. Besides, maybe she will go back to the city before we know it.”
Nick stood and took his coat from the hook and threw it over his arm before heading out. He still had a lot of work to finish on Ginger’s ranch and on his own ranch and didn’t have any more time to lose.
He still needed to talk to Ginger about Lana before he left. At that moment, Ginger came back to bed, leaning against Lana for support. Irritation coursed through Nick. He should be helping Ginger, not some stranger.
The image of Lana up on the barn roof looking as if she had gotten into a really complicated situation made him smirk for a moment.
She had looked so lost and bewildered, for a moment Nick had thought she would turn around and head back to the city right then and there.
“Ginger, can I talk to you for a second alone?” Nick glanced over at Lana whose cheeks were turning red.
“I actually have some things to finish outside, so I’ll be going,” Lana hurried out the door before either of them could say anything.
Ginger shot Nick an irritated look. “Nick, what are you doing? Please be nice. That’s my friend out there and she left everything to come out here and help us.”
“I know that’s your friend, but we don’t need her help. Why can’t you trust me on that?”
Ginger sighed and adjusted herself with a grimace of pain. “I know that you think that you can do everything, but I am asking you to look at this realistically. What problem could you possibly have with her anyway?”
“For one, I don’t know her well. You know I don’t trust strangers.”
Ginger put her hands up as if in a pleading way, “I know her. She’s not a stranger to me so that excuse is not valid.”
“She was trapped on your barn roof. How is that helpful? If I hadn’t come along she may have been stuck up there all day.” Nick fought a chuckle. He found the situation comical. In fact, he couldn’t have thought of a better situation to meet Lana in. It had been a perfect example of how she definitely was not cut out for life on the frontier.
“It’s not funny. You know how Freddy is. He’s a handful. He’s even trapped you up there once.”
An Encounter of Courageous Hearts: A Historical Western Romance Book Page 8
