by Marla Monroe
“Soon as we finish eating, Jeff and I will finish up the posts then start on the garden. Probably need to see that plan you have for it.”
“I’ll get it when I finish breakfast and have it waiting for you when you come in for lunch,” she said.
Beverly walked away from the window and began to gather items to make breakfast.
He turned back to look out the window and drink his coffee. He should have hugged her. Why hadn’t he? Turning, he started to walk over to where she was pulling things out of the fridge when Jeff walked in and immediately pulled her into his arms and kissed her. She looked flustered but pleased.
Scowling, he turned back around and glared out the window. He felt Jeff walk up next to him before he actually saw him. The other man had a contented look on his face and cup of coffee in his hand.
“You’re up mighty early,” Jeff said.
“Need to get those poles set so we can get to work on the garden.”
“I’ll start out on digging holes.”
“Fine.” Caleb saw the other man stiffen at his surly tone. He sighed and tried again. “How many more do you reckon we have left?”
“About ten or twelve. Should be finished by lunch or a little after.”
Caleb nodded and forced himself to let go of the bad mood he’d worked himself into. They hadn’t even been in the house twenty-four hours and already he was fighting the bit like a wild horse. Either he took to the reins and shouldered the responsibility or he was going to be bucking against Jeff every step of the way. They needed to work together, be a team. It would take both of them to survive and keep Beverly safe.
He glanced over to where Beverly stood working over the stove. She was a pretty thing and so giving. She wasn’t exactly what he was used to, but she was perfect for the life they would be leading. They didn’t need a simpering woman who couldn’t boil water much less run a house and work in a garden. They needed a strong woman who could handle whatever the planet threw at them.
Maybe she wasn’t his normal type, but she was his wife and one day would be the mother of his children. She deserved his best in all things. He’d learn to accept what she could give him and forget about the rest. Looking over to Jeff, he figured she was right up his alley. He appeared to be more down-to-earth and was definably more relaxed than Caleb was.
He looked down at his empty cup. He hadn’t remembered draining it. Walking back across the room, Caleb poured more coffee before taking a seat at the table. Jeff followed him over and sat across from him.
“Is something bothering you, Caleb?”
Caleb jerked his head up and stared at him. “Why would you think that?”
“You’re awful quiet this morning. You’ve never been like this since I met you.”
“Guess the enormity of the situation finally hit me. I’m just thinking over everything to be sure we don’t screw something up. It’s not just planning now. This is it. We’re here, and it’s for keeps.” He tried to keep his earlier thoughts locked inside so they wouldn’t show on his face.
Jeff nodded and sipped his coffee. “You’re right. This is the real thing. The good news is that we’re not alone. We have each other, and we have the other families here for support.”
“When are we going to meet the others?” Beverly interrupted them, setting plates of food on the table.
Caleb breathed in the wonderful aroma of bacon and eggs. He grinned when she set a platter of pancakes on the table next.
“Once we finish getting the garden in, I thought we might meet our closest neighbors. I’ll call them up on the radio tonight after dinner.” He figured by then it would do them all some good to visit after having been on their own for nearly a week.
“I can’t wait to meet the other women here. I’m sure we can learn a lot about what to really expect from them since they’ve been here longer. I heard someone back at town say that some already have children.” Beverly took her seat at the head of the table and waited as they passed around the plates of food.
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure both of the main families have children. Don’t know if they are boys or girls though. We’ll find out soon enough.” Caleb dug into his food and the conversation lagged while they all ate.
After breakfast, he and Jeff rinsed their plates and sat them on the counter by the sink before grabbing their guns and heading out the door. They heard Beverly tell them bye and to be careful as Jeff closed the door.
“She’s a good cook, that’s for sure.” Caleb walked next to Jeff as they set out for the supply shed.
“Yeah, she is. We’re damn lucky to have gotten someone who already had experience with gardens and cooking. Six months of education on a spaceship isn’t exactly a guarantee someone will be able to handle the actual experience, especially on a strange planet,” Jeff said.
“You don’t have to tell me that.” He looked over at Jeff and wondered if the other man knew that she wasn’t the type of woman he would have chosen as a wife.
Shaking that thought off, he switched the subject back to the fence and getting the garden tilled up. They talked about where to put it and how soon Beverly would get to plant while they carried their supplies and tools out to the section of land they were enclosing. Neither man spoke after that unless it was about what they were working on.
Both men kept a wary eye out for anything that didn’t belong. Neither one of them wanted a repeat experience of the day before. Caleb made sure his rifle was close at hand at all times. When they switched places and he was digging while Jeff set the posts, he wondered what their wife was doing. He glanced toward the house but didn’t see any sign of her. They were really too far away to see into the windows. He prayed she stayed inside like they had demanded.
Several hours later, Jeff finished the hole he was digging, picked up his rifle, and walked off. Caleb wasn’t sure what the other man was up to, but he finished up the post he was working on and followed him. As he walked in the general direction the other man had taken, he saw Jeff walking back toward him.
“Where did you go off to?” he asked.
“It’s lunchtime. I wanted to see how many holes we have left to dig.”
“What did you figure out?” Caleb held his rifle across his arms like a baby.
“Looks like we have four, maybe five left. I think we can finish them and still have time to break ground on the garden. May not be able to till it up and row it today, but that’s okay.”
“Think it’s going to be hard to break up the ground and till it under?”
Jeff shrugged. “I don’t really know. Where we’re digging right now seems easy enough. Maybe the area we choose for the garden will be, too.”
They heard their names called and jerked around to stare toward the house. Both men took off running as if their lives depended on reaching the house as fast as possible. When they skidded to a stop at the steps up to the porch and didn’t see Beverly, Caleb’s heart stuttered in his chest.
Chapter Seven
After calling through the window for the men to come eat, Beverly slipped into the pantry to find a jar of jam or preserves. She nearly lost her balance on the ladder when she heard the back door slam open against the wall and her name called out in a panicked voice.
“Beverly!”
She wasn’t sure which of the men shouted, but she stepped down from the ladder and hurried out of the pantry.
“What’s wrong?” She looked the two panting men up and down for injuries. “Where are you hurt?”
“What?” Caleb scowled and stomped up to stand so close to her she had to hold her breath to keep their chests from touching.
“What in the hell were you thinking to open that door and call us if nothing was wrong?”
“I didn’t open the door. I opened the window and called you for lunch.” She felt her anger begin to build.
“If we didn’t want you opening the door, why would we be okay with you opening the damn window?” Caleb demanded.
“The window h
as a screen on it. The door doesn’t.” She jerked her hands on her hips and glared at him.
Before Caleb could answer her, Jeff spoke up. “Baby, you scared the hell out of us. We thought something was wrong.”
“I’m sorry. I just called your names and said lunch was ready. Why would that scare you?”
“We couldn’t understand you really. We heard our names, and that was it.”
She frowned and shook her head before relaxing her arms and dropping her hands from her hips.
“I guess calling through the window isn’t going to work then. How about if I ring a bell for lunch and you’ll know what that means? If I call out, something is wrong and I need you.”
Caleb sighed and nodded. “That sounds like a good idea. Do you have a bell?”
“I’ll look for one. If we don’t have one around here, we can get one the next time one of us is in town.” She turned and walked over to the table to sit down. “Might as well eat. I know you’re busy out there.”
Once they had finished eating, the two men carried their plates to the sink before turning to head back outside. Not much had been said during the meal, but she knew they were close to being finished with setting the posts.
“Did you still want the plans I had made for the garden?” She picked them up off the counter where she’d set them before lunch.
Caleb turned back around and nodded. “Yeah. Let’s see what you have.”
She handed them to him and stuck her hands in her pockets to see what he would say. She’d worked hard on those while on the shuttle, wanting to make sure she had everything in the best possible location so that the different plants would complement each other and produce well. Caleb and Jeff looked over her plans and nodded.
“These look good. I think the second one will be the best fit for what we have here.” Caleb handed her the other pages and folded that one before sticking it in his back pocket. “We should be able to at least break ground later this afternoon.”
“Let me know if you need anything. If you’ll come in after you finish the posts, I’ll have something for you to snack on and a drink.” She didn’t want to sound needy, but Beverly wanted to know what was going on. She wanted to be a part of setting it up.
“We’ll see how things go,” Caleb said.
Jeff dropped a quick kiss on her head before they left her alone in the kitchen once more. She hated that she’d scared them earlier. She hadn’t meant to. Now they were on edge, or at least Caleb was. Jeff seemed to have gotten past it.
She sighed and quickly cleaned up the dishes and the kitchen before putting together the snack for later. Then she gathered what she needed for meatloaf and potatoes for dinner. Several times she stopped and looked out the window to see what they were doing. They had made it around the house now and were out of sight. She didn’t like not being able to see them and wondered again how she was going to handle them being off dealing with the cattle every day.
“I’ll be too busy to worry about them. Between the garden and keeping house, I’ll have my hands full.”
At least she hoped that would be the case. Plus, she could always talk to the other women with the radio. They had shown her how to use it, but she didn’t know anyone yet to talk to. Once they met the others, maybe she would feel comfortable talking with them some.
The afternoon passed quickly as she explored the house in detail, putting things away as she went. Finally, the men walked in around four in the afternoon for a quick break. She poured tea for them and set a plate of jam-filled cookies on the table.
“Did you finish the poles?” she asked.
“Yep. Got them all in the ground. Once they set overnight, we can start running the fence.” Jeff held up a half-eaten cookie. “These are delicious.”
“Thanks. The berries are stone berries that grow wild here. I hope we can find some bushes close by. I want to be able to make our own jelly and preserves.”
“We’ll look for some once we have things set up around here. You’re not going off on your own though to pick them.” Caleb’s gruff voice brooked no argument.
Beverly just shook her head. She wasn’t stupid. Why did he make her feel that way, like she lacked common sense? She changed the subject so he wouldn’t know that he’d hurt her feelings.
“Are you going to break the garden up this afternoon or wait until tomorrow?”
“We can’t afford to waste daylight and with having an extra hour in the day, we should have time to get it started anyway.” Caleb nodded over at Jeff. “He’s going to start with the tractor while I measure off the area.”
She smiled up at Jeff. “I can’t wait to start planting.”
“Let’s hope we can get it plowed and rowed up soon so we can help you get started.”
“Oh, don’t worry about getting it in the ground. Once you have it rowed up, I can handle planting. I’m used to doing it alone.” She cleared away the dishes as they stood up to go back outside.
Caleb seemed to want to say something by the way he kept opening his mouth and closing it, but he finally just shook his head and walked toward the door. She touched his arm with her hand. When he turned around, there was a deep furrow between his brows that gave her the impression he was unhappy about something.
“Be careful out there. Don’t stay out once it begins to get dark. Those things seem to come up about that time of day.”
“We’ll be up as soon as we get to a stopping place.” His gruff voice sounded a little stiff to her. Was he angry with her about something?
Beverly watched through the window as they stepped off the porch heading for the supply shed for the tractor and whatever other tools they needed. Somehow she’d upset Caleb again. How would she ever be able to become what he wanted if she continued to disappoint him in some way?
Fighting tears, Beverly concentrated on cooking dinner. At least in this she knew she could please him. He seemed to like her culinary skills if nothing else. If only she could please him in other ways.
* * * *
After dinner, Beverly finished cleaning the kitchen and joined the men in the living room area. They were once again relaxed in their lounge chairs talking about putting the fencing up the next day. When she walked in, they quieted and watched her much like a cat would stare at a bird through a window. She felt almost stalked when their eyes followed her to where she sat on the couch. Once she had settled with a book, they started talking once again.
She struggled to concentrate on the suspense she was trying to read, but her mind kept straying to the night before and how they’d taken her. She hesitated to say made love to, because they didn’t know each other well enough for that. And she didn’t want to relegate it to just fucking because they had been too careful and tender for that.
Nearly two hours passed with her having to reread several pages in order to know what was going on in the book. She gave up and decided to shower and head to bed. She knew the guys would be up shortly. They were winding down the conversation it sounded like. She put aside the book and stood up. Both sets of eyes zeroed in on her almost immediately.
“I’m going to shower and go on to bed. It’s been a long day.”
“We’ll be up in a few minutes,” Caleb said.
Beverly nodded and smiled as she walked to the stairs and climbed them without looking back. The silence behind her seemed heavy for some reason. As if they were watching her and couldn’t turn away. Maybe that was wishful thinking on her part though.
The shower proved to work magic as the warm water soothed away the tightness in her muscles left over from the nerves that plagued her. All she wanted was to make the men happy and be what they needed. She held no illusions that she would have been their choice of wife, but they were together and needed to make the best of it. She’d do her part. The question was, would they be able to accept her?
By the time she made it out of the shower, the men had come upstairs. She had pulled on a short, lacy nightgown with matching panties and could feel t
heir eyes on her as she crossed the room to climb into bed. They had already showered before dinner and were just waiting on her to climb in as well.
“God, you look good, baby.” Jeff stopped her before she could crawl to the middle.
His eyes darkened as he traced the lace along her neck. She couldn’t stop the smile that crept across her lips at his attention. She looked over to where Caleb stood on the other side of the bed. His face betrayed nothing of what he was feeling. He always seemed to be in control. She wanted to shake some of that control, wanted to see him lose some of the discipline that seemed to rule his actions.
Jeff kissed her, and her thoughts evaporated as his mouth coaxed hers to play. His tongue teased and tangled with hers as he took away all of her worries and doubts with just one kiss. When he finally pulled back to stare into her eyes, raw emotion peered down at her. What did it mean? She wanted to ask him what he was thinking, but Caleb had climbed onto the bed and was pulling her out of Jeff’s arms.
“I want a taste of you, honey.” Caleb nipped her lower lip before slanting his mouth over hers and slipping his tongue along hers.
Beverly marveled at the differences in their taste, in the way they kissed. Jeff sipped at her and enticed her to play along. Caleb, on the other hand, demanded she give him what he wanted and expected nothing less than everything. While Jeff left her aching and needy, Caleb left her breathless and spent. Between the two of them, she knew she had no hope of escaping with her heart intact. They would own her body and soul. That wouldn’t be a bad thing except that instead of receiving their hearts and souls she would be left with nothing to fill her once again. She harbored no dreams of ever owning a piece of them.
Even as Caleb claimed every crevice of her mouth with his tongue, she felt her fears slip away in the heat that threatened to consume her. His hands molded her breasts as he covered her with his body. Pulling away from the kiss, he lifted her nightgown over her head and tossed it off the edge of the bed.
