by James, Sandy
“You don’t know that,” Janos replied, not appearing any less annoyed.
“Fine. Afghanistan then. Or how about Darfur? Great vacation spots,” Lucas couldn’t help but point out.
“Or Germany, or—”
“Janos, please don’t do this,” Joy begged. “I don’t want you to do this.” Lucas could feel her squeezing his hand until he was sure she’d cut off the circulation for both of them. “There are other ways to get away from Gypsy.”
“Let’s go have a long talk, Janos,” Lucas said as he extracted himself from Joy’s grasp. “Let me tell you about military life. You’re still interested when I’m done, I’ll take you to the recruitment office myself.”
Joy’s heart skipped a couple of beats and the world seemed to spin around her the moment Lucas pulled away. She steadied herself so the men wouldn’t see her distress as she scolded herself for not eating all day. As soon as they left through the front door, Joy went to the kitchen to find something to put in her stomach, hoping that would stop the horrible dizziness.
Samantha was working over some large pots on the stove. Joy could smell the corn-on-the-cob cooking, and for the first time in a week or more, she found her appetite. She wanted corn and some of the salad sitting on the table. Definitely some of that wonderful looking chocolate cake Katie was smearing fudge icing over. Joy’s stomach rumbled in anticipation.
Sam arched an eyebrow and cracked a smile as she pulled an oven mitt over her hand. “Hungry?”
“Yeah. I didn’t eat breakfast,” Joy replied. “Or lunch.”
Pulling a cookie sheet full of fluffy yeast rolls out of the oven, Sam slid them into a large bowl on the table. Joy grabbed one before she immediately dropped it.
“Too hot?” Katie asked with a smile.
Joy nodded with her burned fingers still in her mouth.
Sam put a small plate in front of Joy, picked up the roll, and dropped it on the dish. Then she put a small tub of butter next to it.
“Thank you,” Joy said as she reached for the food.
As she nibbled on pieces of the wonderful tasting bread, Joy watched Katie and Sam finishing preparations for the meal. Having something to eat seemed to ease her fatigue and dizziness, so after she finished her roll, Joy helped the women carry the food from the kitchen to the picnic table in the backyard.
Janos and Lucas were standing near the far end of the barn. Even from the distance, she could see the frustration bathing Lucas’s face as he talked to Janos, emphasizing points with a wag of his index finger. Not an argument, she realized, but an animated discussion, judging from the ruddy hue creeping over Janos’s face. Joy was afraid to hope Lucas could talk some sense into her obstinate brother, fearing the stubborn Hungarian in Janos would never bend. Even to strong and sound arguments.
“Come and get it! Meat’s on!” Seth shouted from where he worshiped at his grill.
Lucas glanced up and locked eyes with Joy. With a small shake of his head, he turned his attention back to Janos. Trying not to take the gesture as bad news, she tried to quash her fears and put her trust in Lucas to change Janos’s mind.
“Come on, Joy. Come and eat,” Katie said, inclining her head toward Lucas and Janos. “They’re obviously too busy at the moment.”
Joy nodded and grabbed a paper plate from the picnic table. Happy to have her appetite back, she piled as much as she could manage to balance on the thin dish. Corn on the cob, potato salad, chips. She grabbed a bun and picked up a small black lump that was probably supposed to be a hamburger. She wasn’t about to tease Seth though. Just knowing he was around was intimidating enough, but she didn’t have the courage to treat him as a friend. Not yet, especially after the teenaged crush she’d had on him. She did, however, allow herself a smug smile at the thought that money and fame sure didn’t make a guy a good cook.
Dropping down next to Sam in the grass, Joy ate greedily for the first time in weeks.
Sam glanced over, seemingly taking in what Joy had chosen. “Looks like my plate,” she said with a chuckle as she held up the paper plate that began to precariously bend at the weight of the food it carried. Sam quickly put it back in her lap.
“We must have the same tastes,” Joy replied, feeling a bit better at seeing another woman with the same healthy appetite.
Brian sat down next to his wife with his own overloaded plate. “Sam will eat anything that’s not nailed down when she’s pregnant.”
Joy almost choked on her potato salad. “Pregnant?” She turned to Samantha. “You’re pregnant?”
Sam nodded. Lucas came striding up behind her and put his hand on his sister-in-law’s shoulder. “I forgot to tell you, Jozsa. I’m going to be an uncle again.”
“Congratulations.” She smiled at them. “You two must be very happy,” Joy said, feeling her words were entirely inadequate. Just watching Samantha’s broad smile and Brian’s obvious pride caused that foreign stab of envy to plague her again.
“I think catatonic was a more appropriate word,” Brian finally said with a sly smile. “We’ll have to make some major changes now. We’ll be adding some staff to the stable so Sam doesn’t have so much to do.”
“I haven’t talked to Joy about any of this yet,” Lucas said as he frowned at his brother. “I was hoping to get some time alone with her first.”
All Joy got from the conversation was confused. “Why would we need to be alone for you to tell me Sam and Brian are having a baby?”
Sam rolled her eyes at Lucas. “For the love of... Lucas, do you even talk to the poor girl?” She turned back to Joy. “I’m going to have to stop being Brian’s second.”
“Second?” Joy’s confusion wasn’t lifting. “What’s a second?”
“Second trainer,” Lucas said as he flopped down on the thick grass next to Joy. “Sam’s always been Brian’s back-up trainer. He has too many horses to do all the work by himself. Now that she’s decided to have another munchkin, he’ll need some new help.”
“And Lucas has agreed to work full-time for us,” Sam added with a funny little smile.
“Thanks a lot, Sis,” Lucas said, throwing Sam a frown. “Way to let me tell her my news.” He grabbed a couple of chips from Joy’s plate, and she gave his hand a playful slap.
Sam scoffed at him. “Gee. Silly me. I thought my pregnancy was my news.”
Katie waded into the discussion. “Play nice, children.” She glanced over at Joy. “Don’t let them bother you. Mitchells love to argue.”
“We’re not arguing,” Lucas said as he took the last chip from Joy’s plate. “We’re...discussing.”
Joy had to laugh at that comment. “This isn’t arguing.” She looked over at Janos who had sat down on the grass and was playing peek-a-boo with Reed. “Batyam?” He didn’t answer as he giggled with the red-headed boy. “Oh, brother dear?”
“What do you want now, Noverke?” Janos finally replied in one of those gruff voices she knew he didn’t really mean.
“Katie thinks that Lucas and Samantha are arguing.”
Janos snorted a laugh. “Then they better never come around our father. Papa would scare the life right out of them.”
“No one argues like Hungarians,” Joy explained. Lucas reached for her half-eaten hamburger. “You better move that hand or you’re going to lose it.”
Lucas threw up his hands in surrender and gave her an enormous smile. He was happy to see her eating again and wished for a moment there were some elephant ears on the table. “Fine. I’ll go get my own plate,” he said as he got to his feet. “Anything I can bring you?”
“Yeah. More chips to replace the ones you mooched,” she said with one of her charming grins.
God, he’d missed her. How silly was it for him to feel sad about leaving her long enough to get something to eat?
As he grabbed a plate and loaded it with food, he listened as Katie and Sam described some of the things they thought Joy needed to know about Lucas’s new job. In a way, he was grateful Samantha had
spilled the beans. He hadn’t been sure exactly how to tell Joy about the changes he was making in his life. Changes he was making for her as much as for himself. If he really wanted them to be together, really planned to make a life with her at his side, he knew he’d need to earn a better living than he could make rehabilitating racehorses and paddocking for pocket money.
When Sam and Brian came to ask him if he would consider becoming their second, Lucas thought they were joking. He knew how to train horses, but his teen years had been spent running away from that life. A life he had considered confining and boring.
But after the hell of Iraq, after chasing an adventure that he now knew wasn’t what he really wanted, Lucas finally realized he’d been running away from the best kind of life there was. A life of both stability and exciting ups and downs. A life full of horses and the summer sun and the people he loved. And hopefully, a life that would make Joy happy.
Lucas dropped down next to her and passed her a handful of chips from his plate. “Thank you,” she said as she picked up a chip, shoved it into her mouth, and smiled at him.
Leaning over, he planted a kiss on her cheek. “I’d like to find some time alone for us to...talk.”
Her mouth curved into a saucy smile as she leaned closer to whisper in his ear, “I’m sure if we’re alone, we’ll...talk.”
He had to give her credit for that one. If Lucas got her alone, talking would be the last thing on his mind. At least with everyone around, he was able to rein in his rampant libido. Barely. But he really did need to talk to her and gather her thoughts on the changes he had already made as well as the changes he was hoping to make.
Janos sat down on the other side of Joy with his own precariously flimsy plate full of food, picked up a barbequed rib, and licked the sauce. After a few moments of considering his verdict, he turned to Seth. “Lightweight.”
Directing a smirk at Janos, Seth said, “I’ll try harder next time.”
Janos licked his fingers, ignoring the napkin Joy threw at him. With an enigmatic grin, he said, “Looks like I’m going to spend some time out here to learn a little about horses.”
Joy turned and gaped at him openmouthed. Lucas nodded to Janos, and she quickly realized there was some kind of conspiracy between the two of them. Should this new alliance thrill or terrify her? “Learn about horses? What would make you suddenly decide to learn about horses?”
Lucas answered her between bites of potato chips. “It’s a compromise. He’s staying closer to home than he thought. And I thought he’d like to see my world from the inside.”
Her gaze flew back to her brother as she asked him without words if he had, at last, changed his mind about the military as a way out of Gypsy. His mouth set into a thin line before he curtly nodded. Relief rushed over. Turning back to Lucas with an enormous smile, she watched his hand absentmindedly brush his scars, and she knew why Lucas had tried to help. Oh, how she loved him for that. “Thank you, Szivem,” she whispered.
“You’re welcome,” he whispered back before he started shoveling food in his mouth again.
* * * *
After everyone except Joy and Janos had left for home, Lucas took Joy on a walk around the grounds. He showed her where he planned to build her a gazebo so she would have a place to sit and sketch whenever she wanted to be outside. He led her to the place he planned to put a small garden the next spring. And he showed her where he had put a clothesline so he could dry laundry outside and quit worrying about whether his ancient dryer would start a fire. They stopped so Lucas could bring the last horse into the corral before he walked her back to her car.
“Everything’s beautiful,” Joy said as she gave Lucas’s hand one last squeeze. “I really need to get back now.”
Lucas didn’t want her to leave. Ever. The sun had set, taking the overpowering heat along with it. A soft breeze stirred the leaves, making a rustling sound that harmonized with the emerging cricket song. A perfect night for lovers, he figured, wishing he could grab a quilt, walk her to a nice private place, and make love to her under the blanket of stars.
But he knew that winning her family’s approval was going to be a long siege, not a short battle. Just like Iraq. God, grant that I have more success in this fight. “I know, but... We never had a chance to talk.” Janos came striding up to the Saturn as Lucas and Joy reached the same destination. “Not like we’ve been alone much, I guess.”
“I’m sorry for that, but I had a wonderful time. We can talk at Seth’s party on Monday,” she reassured. “I assume you’ll be in for supper in the next few days.”
Lucas gave her a lopsided smile as a reply.
“You ready to go, brat?” Janos asked. He smiled at Lucas. “Don’t forget to tell Seth to bring his A game next time instead of that pathetic excuse for barbeque sauce he called ‘spicy.’” Janos’s gaze scanned his sister’s face. “It’ll be kind of hard to explain the sunburn when you’re supposed to be helping me look for houses.”
Lucas hadn’t even thought about how she’d managed to get away. All he had cared about was that she had. “You’re going to be in trouble with your parents, aren’t you?” A nagging feeling of selfishness tugged at him at the thought of the ordeal she might have to endure when she got back to the restaurant. He felt even worse when he realized that this little visit wouldn’t endear him to her father in the least.
“Don’t worry so much,” she said before standing on tiptoe to kiss his cheek. “Mama knows I’m here.”
Lucas didn’t even care that Janos was there as a witness. She wasn’t getting away with that sorry substitute for a kiss when he knew it would be impossible to get her alone anytime soon. He pulled her into his embrace and kissed her soundly, noticing that Janos had the decency to turn his back.
She tasted so sweet, and her eager response sent molten lava shooting through his veins. When he found the strength to take his lips from hers, he was smugly pleased with her reluctant sigh. Go away, Janos! his mind shouted.
“I’ll see you at Gypsy,” Joy finally said. “Come on, Janos. We need to get back.”
As he watched the gold Saturn moving up his long gravel drive, Lucas felt empty. He needed her every bit as much as he needed air, water, food.
Patience. You’ve got to win over her family.
But he was rapidly growing weary of being patient. He wanted to bring Joy home.
For good.
Chapter 16
“Come on. We need to go or the party is gonna start without us,” Brian grumbled as he leaned out the truck window. “You’re worse than Sam.” He snorted a laugh. “Did you forget your mascara? Or is your hair gel giving you a hard time?”
“Hold your damn horses before I smack you,” Lucas yelled back at his brother as he jogged toward the mailbox. He thought he heard Sam say something derogatory, and he grinned, thinking that Brian found himself outnumbered by family members who were chronically late. He knew his brother was glaring at his back, but he wanted to grab the mail before they hurried to Gypsy for the anniversary party Seth was throwing for Katie.
Living out the middle of nowhere was sometimes an open invitation for teenagers to come along and either steal his mail or litter it all over the yard. He’d forgotten to fetch it when he’d seen the mail truck drive by earlier that afternoon, and leaving it all evening was like fishing for vandals and identity thieves.
Pulling the small stack of letters, way too many bills, and a variety of junk mail from the box, Lucas hurried up the back porch steps into the kitchen and threw the pile on the table. He was just about to turn and leave when the return address of a letter that had slipped from the stack caught his eye.
Fight-or-flight kicked in, and Lucas blinked several times, hoping it was nothing more than one of the hallucinations the V.A. shrink had warned him about. Yet, there the letter sat, silently condemning him.
No. Not now. He didn’t need that goddamn memory now. He didn’t need this kind of message now. But there the letter sat on his kitchen table
, plain as day. Marietta, Georgia. Brad’s mother had finally written.
He’d almost forgotten. Even though he had never thought it possible, figuring the horror would haunt him the rest of this life, he’d almost forgotten. Worse, Lucas had mistakenly believed he could get his life back. He had mistakenly believed he could make a new life with Joy. And he had mistakenly begun to believe that he might finally be able to leave what had happened to Brad behind.
But how could a person ever forget that he had killed his best friend?
The truck horn drew Lucas out of the macabre memory. He grabbed the envelope, folded it, and shoved it deep into his jean pocket. Then he jerked his polo shirt over his head and grabbed a long-sleeved shirt from the pile of clean laundry he had taken down from the clothesline a few hours before. It was wrinkled, but he didn’t care. Quickly buttoning the shirt, he went out the kitchen door.
Crawling into the back seat of Brian’s truck, Lucas turned his gaze out the window, hoping to prevent the Samantha Inquisition. The woman’s perception could be uncanny and downright annoying.
“What’s wrong, Lucas?” Sam asked, turning around to hand Chelsea a toy ring with big plastic keys.
He hadn’t even noticed his niece sitting contentedly in her car seat until her chubby little fingers grabbed the toy her mother offered. He loved that little girl as if she was his own, and the fact that he had overlooked her bothered him almost as much as the letter that was burning a hole in his hip pocket. What kind of selfish prick doesn’t notice his own niece?
“See horsie?” Chelsea asked as she pointed out her window. Lucas glanced toward where she gestured and saw Monterey Jack contently grazing in the corral closest to the driveway. “See horsie?”
Lucas just turned to stare back out his own window.
