Forget Me Knot

by King, Lori

  Sera pulled a brand new toothbrush and toothpaste out of the cabinet behind the mirror in the bathroom, and laid them on the counter. Next came a bar of soap, a washcloth, and a towel. “Do you need help taking a bath, Drannon?” she asked, with a look of concern on her face. He didn’t like it when she frowned like that. It made her forehead wrinkle, and she was much prettier smiling.

  “N-no ma’am. I c-c-can do it.”

  Her smile of approval nearly blinded him, “Good. I figured at eight years old you were probably well on your way to taking care of yourself, but like I told you, if you need anything at all, Drannon, just come find me. Okay?”

  They watched each other, she with rapt curiosity on her face, and he with wary reservation and admiration for the tiny woman in front of him. He wondered why she was being so nice to him. They were strangers, but she was treating him like family. When her face fell into a sad frown he realized he’d voiced his thoughts, and he immediately took a hesitant step backwards when her hands reached to embrace him.

  “You poor dear. I’m so sorry for what you’ve been through today. No one should have to go through that.” Her genuine concern stole his breath and cracked the shield he’d been holding over his emotions all day long. Tears filled his eyes, and his lungs burned as he panted for air. “It’s okay, let it out. Cry all you need to. There’s no shame in crying when the tears are for someone you love.”

  The validation meant everything to him, but he couldn’t find it in him to respond verbally so he just nodded mutely, and wept against her shoulder. All of the fear and sorrow from the day seemed to leak out of him rolling down his cheeks and soaking into her blouse. When his sobs finally subsided and he was left hiccupping and wiping his snotty nose on his hand, she finally released him.

  “There now. You’ve got that all out of your system, and now you’ll sleep better.” Tenderly pushing his shaggy hair from his eyes, she brushed her lips across his forehead. “We’ll talk when you’re ready, but tonight you need to rest. Sleep well, Drannon.”

  Silently, he watched as she headed off down the hall, turning at the top of the stairs and disappearing from sight. He stood dumbly for several minutes in the doorway of the blue room, taking in his temporary home with a hint of envy for the people who lived here permanently. He assumed by the way Danica spoke it was unlikely he’d be here long, but he was going to take advantage of the luxury while he could. After all, it wasn’t like his mother was going to come back to life and scold him for indulging in a bath with real soap.

  If he was going to be on his own for the rest of his life, he was going to take advantage of every possible good thing that came along and relish in it while he could. Who knew what kind of home permanent Danica would find for him? For this brief moment, he was safe, surrounded by warmth and people who genuinely cared about his feelings, and that was all he’d ever wanted.

  A door opened and closed downstairs, startling Drannon from his reminiscing, and he shook off the lump of emotion in his throat. Abe and Sera became his salvation as he grew into a temperamental young man with an ax to grind. They’d just as easily been his cheerleaders when he finally realized no one owed him anything and he’d have to go out and work for his future. He invested his energies in a career that turned sour on him, and eight years ago, he came home from the big city with his tail between his legs, and found his heart back home on the ranch.

  He and his three closest foster brothers, Roman, Vin, and Hawke had bought the ranch off Abe and turned the main house and most of the cabins into a guest ranch. Of course it was Marilyn who ran the guest side of things, while the boys took care of the ranch. It turned out to be a great investment, and a timely one considering Sera died a couple of years later, and the fire inside Abe fizzled.

  Now that both Crawleys were gone, the big house seemed cold and empty most days, even when it was full of guests or ranch hands. Skimming his hand up the wide oak banister, Drannon remembered sliding down it on his rump and getting scolded over and over by Sera, who always did it with a smile on her face. He remembered garland wrapped around it with twinkling lights encircling the posts, and the smell of pies and Christmas cookies. This Christmas Marilyn had put up the tree alone, and the tree skirt had remained empty since the boys decided not to bother exchanging gifts with each other. Maybe it wasn’t just Abe who lost his heart when Sera died. The whole of Crawley Creek Ranch seemed to have lost its sparkle.

  Pushing aside his sad thoughts, and longing for the old days, Drannon went back to bed already listing in his head the multitude of chores that needed to be done when the sun rose.

  Chapter 2

  There was absolutely nothing good about Valentine’s Day in Lacy’s book. It was a waste of money and time. She couldn’t understand why people would want to buy chocolates and roses for each other to represent their deepest love. In her mind that gift was like saying, I will love you for a little while and I am going to make you fat before we break up in a few weeks. It was ridiculous.

  Her hatred of the holiday might have had something to do with the fact that she had to share it with another special day, her birthday. Yep, she was a sweetheart baby. That meant everyone “ooed” and “awed” when they spotted her birthday on her driver’s license, and she had to pretend like it was some great thing. In truth, Lacy had never even had a boyfriend over the holiday, so she’d never had the chance to figure out the attraction to the silliness. For years, each Valentine’s day she had been heartbroken to realize that she was alone while everyone else she knew had someone. She’d allowed the desire to have a ‘someone’ of her own overwhelm her and drag her down.

  But this year was different. For her birthday, she was doing something for herself. Something she’d always wanted to do and her father had ridiculed. There would be no sulking because she was alone. She wouldn’t be alone. She would be surrounded by horses on a real ranch in North Dakota. She had booked the trip months ago, before she lost her job and started building her own graphic design and marketing company.

  It was ironic that she was able to travel wherever she wanted to for a vacation now that she was in the age range when most people settled down. All of her friends from high school and college were married with children. Some were even divorced once or twice. When most of them were traveling and finding themselves, she was focusing on growing her career. Her twenties were spent in a tiny shoebox apartment in Chicago learning the industry by working for a prestigious marketing firm. But layoffs and downsizing had eliminated her position at the end of the year, and she was forced to figure out a different path.

  Today, she was stepping out of her comfort zone with a trip out of the big city and into the deep northern plains. Her taxi pulled up in front of a massive ranch house, and the driver gave her a quick smile in the rearview mirror as he called out, “We’re here,” and climbed from the car.

  With her laptop bag slung over her shoulder, she accepted her suitcase from him and looked over the large ranch where she would be staying. Crawley Creek was a working ranch with more than five thousand head of cattle on it at any given time. According to the kind woman she spoke with when making her reservations, it boasted seven guest rooms in the main house and a handful of guest cabins.

  Lacy was hoping the respite from the smog and noise of the city would give her time to decide where she wanted to go with her business and life. Chicago’s higher cost of living meant she was barely able to afford to feed herself and keep her business afloat. She was rapidly coming to the conclusion that moving was necessary to her survival when an opportunity appeared in the form of a dog food company. The gig could make her a success, or drain her of her time so she couldn’t work on making any other connections in the industry because she was too busy with her one and only client. Not that she would turn the job down if they offered, but she’d been seriously considering if it was the right direction ever since she clicked the submit button on her bid.

  Brushing her long red braid over the shoulder of her heavy coat
, she forced thoughts of business out of her mind as she headed for the front door while trying to absorb every detail around her. The house looked like it was cut right out of a magazine, with white clapboard siding, and dark green shutters lining each window. A wide porch ran all the way across the front, and around one side, and there was a porch swing and several rocking chairs. Between a pair of them sat a small table with an empty chessboard on it. She could just imagine how serene it would be to play chess there during the warmer months. Snow dusted all the seats, and Lacy grimaced as she considered learning how to ride a horse in the biting cold wind. North Dakota was probably not the ideal vacation spot for most people, but for Lacy it sounded just about perfect. In a couple days, she would be celebrating her birthday as never before—alone in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by nature, silence, and snow, and completely at peace—she hoped.

  The front door opened wide as she climbed the steps, and a shorter, round woman with shoulder length platinum blonde hair stepped out to greet her. A towel was thrown over her wide shoulder, and there was a streak of white powder across her ample breasts. She smiled at Lacy as she shivered in the cold. “Miss Denvers, I presume?”

  “Yes. Lacy, please.”

  “Come on in Lacy, and make yourself comfortable. It’s far too cold to be standing on the porch at this time of year. I’m Marilyn Monroe, the housekeeper and cook for Crawley Creek.”

  Lacy felt her mouth curve up in a grin at the woman’s introduction, and Marilyn caught it. “No relation to the starlet, although I know how much we look alike.” She gave Lacy a wicked grin and the two women shared a laugh. Marilyn was only about five foot five and her face was deeply etched with laugh lines and crow’s feet. Her blue eyes were warm and friendly, and Lacy liked her immediately.

  “Well, now, I can tell the whole world that I’ve met Marilyn Monroe.”

  Marilyn waved her off as she took her coat, “You can tell them my dear, but I don’t expect it will change too much. I have yet to give out any autographs living up here. Now, I’ve put you in the lilac room here in the main house. We don’t have any other guests right now, and with another snow scheduled in just a couple of days I didn’t want you to have to trudge in and out of the cold more than was necessary. I hope that’s all right.”

  “Sure, thank you.”

  Lacy finished removing her tennis shoes and tucked them under the bench by the door before following Marilyn down the hallway into the main living room. It was two stories tall, but unusually cozy, and she couldn’t resist running her hand over the glossy black finish on a baby grand piano that sat next to a massive staircase. The way the stairs curved reminded her of Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind, and she felt important climbing them. At the top, Marilyn turned right, and led her down the hallway to a closed door.

  “Here we are, my dear. You’ll find the bathroom is through that door across the hall, and you’ll have free reign of the house while you’re here. I live downstairs in a small apartment behind the kitchen, and the only other soul in this wing of the house right now is Drannon. His room is at the other end of the hallway. The other fellas live in the back wing, or in the bunk house. Besides the owners, we have about two dozen ranch hands that you’ll see around the property during the day, but they will all be wearing a Crawley Creek coat as cold as it is, so you’ll know they work here.”

  Lacy looked where Marilyn was pointing and counted at least four doors down the other side of the upstairs hallway. It ended in a massive pair of carved wooden doors that exemplified elegant importance. Obviously, the infamous owner, Drannon, lived behind that statement piece, she thought wryly. Guessing which door was the owner’s personal bedroom was the least of her concerns right now, so instead she turned back and stepped into the Lilac room.

  It was clear how the room got its name. There was a soft lilac-colored quilt on the enormous brass bed that dominated the room. Matching curtains hung on a pair of windows that faced east, and Lacy smiled as she imagined waking up with the sunrise streaming through them in the morning. Cream-colored wallpaper covered the walls, and a pair of sage green reading chairs sat to one side with a small table between them. An enormous antique chest of drawers sat on the other side of the bed, with an antique lamp on top. The room was beautiful and tastefully done. Lacy loved it immediately.

  “I will have dinner ready about six thirty, um, we usually just serve dinner in the dining room as a group event, but if you’d rather eat alone…”

  Lacy shook her head, “No, I’ll join you guys.”

  “Wonderful! Tonight, I put a pot roast on. I hope you aren’t one of those non-meat eaters?”

  “No ma’am. I’m not a vegetarian. I like a good steak, and a pot roast sounds perfect to me. The room is lovely,” She turned back to the bed and dropped her luggage next to it, while laying her laptop bag down a little more carefully. “You said the bathroom is across the hallway?”

  “Oh yes, the door right there directly across from you. These old houses weren’t built with bathrooms for each bedroom, so periodically, we have to ask guests to share if the cabins are full up, but with no other guests, you’ll have it to yourself. If you’d prefer a cabin we can certainly get one readied for you, but…”

  Lacy immediately shook her head, “No, thank you. Like I said, this will be just perfect.”

  “Wonderful. Feel free to explore the house. There is a study downstairs with a small library of sorts; you’re welcome to set up your computer there, but mind you, the internet can be spotty way out here under the best of circumstances. When you’re ready I can have one of the guys give you the nickel tour of the barns. How does that sound?”

  Marilyn looked so bright and excited that Lacy had to return her smile. “It all sounds great. Thank you, Marilyn. I think I’ll take a walk around and look things over myself for now. I don’t want to be a bother to anyone. I’m here to learn how to sit in a saddle, rest and make decisions about the rest of my life in peace and quiet.”

  Marilyn snorted a little laugh, “Well peace and quiet we certainly have in abundance in the winter time here. In fact, some winters we’ve been snowed in for weeks at a time with only each other for entertainment. It can make a girl stir crazy real quick being surrounded by testosterone and cattle. Breakfast is at six in the dining room, or if you want to sleep late holler at me, and I can bring a tray up later. We’re happy to have you here at Crawley Creek. If there is anything at all I can do to make your stay more enjoyable, just let me know.”

  Marilyn bustled out of the bedroom and back downstairs leaving Lacy to her own devices. The smile on her face didn’t dim as she ran her hand over the bed and then across the glowing oak of the end table beside it. The room reminded her of something she might see in an old western movie, and her brain was spinning with excitement. Leaving her suitcase packed, she went across the hallway to check out the bathroom.

  She was pleased to find a modern walk-in steam shower as well as a wide soaking tub, and a separate lavatory. She was glad she wouldn’t be sharing it with anyone, and she made a mental note to sink into a hot tub of bubbles later in the evening. A good book with a glass of wine and a soak in the tub seemed like the perfect way to spend her first night on vacation.

  Making her way down her wing of the hallway, she took the liberty of peeking in the other guest rooms since there were no other guests. Each room was beautifully decorated with a blend of modern and antique furnishings, and each was clearly labelled on the door with a theme. The one next to hers was the sunflower room, and it was decorated just as cheerfully as its name suggested. Across the hallway, were the President’s room, and the Captain’s room. Both were decorated with a more masculine touch, but they were all simple and classy.

  She decided that she liked the air of mystery that surrounded the other hallway, so she didn’t bother exploring it any further and made her way back downstairs. Wandering all over the ranch house she found the same eclectic mix of heirloom-quality tables and dressers, and upda
ted modern conveniences like a closet with a stackable washer and dryer, and a large gathering room with comfy looking sofas and a flat screen TV. It wasn’t until she hit the study that she truly felt transported into another era.

  The room was paneled in dark wood, and an enormous desk filled most of the floor space on one end, and a stone fireplace dominated the other end. A heavy duty leather desk chair sat behind the desk, and an antique blotter and gas lamp were the only items on top. An elegant ladies chaise lounge sat opposite a pair of masculine leather wingback chairs, and two of the four walls were covered ceiling to floor in bookshelves that were bursting with books.

  She found everything from Dante’s Inferno and Little Women, to the more risqué Sleeping Beauty Trilogy by A. N. Roquelaure. It was as though the owners were as eclectic in their reading tastes as they were in their decorating. Browsing the selections she found herself more and more intrigued by the rancher who loved to read. It certainly shattered all of the preconceived notions she had about cowboys.

  Although she was tempted to settle into one of the chairs and lose herself in a good book, there was still a little daylight out, and she had a whole ranch to explore. She retrieved her coat from the hook by the door and bundled up with her hood tucked tightly around her head. Her red braid hung in front of her because it was too awkward to force it into the coat, and she shoved her feet back into her shoes before stepping outside.

  The wind was still blowing, and it had taken on a sharper, frostier feel, quickly biting through the denim of her jeans. If it stayed this cold, it was unlikely that Lacy would spend much time riding horses this week, but she was still determined to meet a few.

  There was a couple of inches of snowdrift across the front lawn, but when she turned the corner and faced west, brown grass poked through a dusting of snow, and the wind stole her breath from her lungs. Grey clouds filled the sky and the scent of snow was on the air. Tipping her head down, she hurried across the yard to the massive barn doors, pausing only long enough to tug one open and squeeze through it.